April 25, 2022: Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist

By His Paschal Mystery, Christ has brought us to newness of Life, and has given us the mission to proclaim the message of salvation, the wondrous deeds God has done to save us bring us to newness of Life.

The man in white gave this message to the women who came to the tomb that first Resurrection Sunday.

Christ gave the same message to the apostles, and when they went forth to preach, He continued to be at work in them, as He is at work in us who, this day, are also called to proclaim the Gospel message.

April 24, 2022: Second Sunday of Easter/Divine Mercy Sunday

There is great power that comes forth from the Empty Tomb and the Risen Christ.

He breaks through our human weaknesses and wounds with His peaceful presence, and in this, like the disciples, we rejoice greatly.  He enters the room where the apostle are through a locked door and speaks peace to them.  Later, in Acts, we see the apostles working great wonders, even curing people.

The Risen Christ calls us to go beyond the signs of His Resurrection to truly believe in Him.

Truly, He heals us, and continues to do great wonders in our world, as the Church continues to make Him known.

Indeed, He was once dead, and now He is alive forever and ever, ruling and reigning over all, so that our hearts may be transformed by believing in Him, and living the Abundant Life He brings.

Today, I give thanks for the ministry of two priests who were ordained at the end of April in different years: Father Augustus Tolton, the first African-American ordained in the USA, and Father Edwin Pacocha, who baptized me.  I also think about how Benedict XVI was installed as Pope on this day in 2005.  These three answered the call to serve, and the life of the Risen Jesus Christ flowed through them powerfully to bless the world by leading others to transformative encounters with the Living Christ.

April 17, 2022: Easter/Pascha/Resurrection Sunday

Jesus Christ, God's Anointed One, rose triumphantly from death as we celebrate so gladly this day.

The Resurrection is not just about what happened to Jesus, but what happens to His disciples, and us.

He appeared to certain people He chose to be witnesses to testify that He is alive.

Indeed, as His Chosen People Who confess faith in our Risen Lord, our lives are different when we encounter the Risen Christ.

Our sights are set above, and we live in newness of Life.  We live to testify that Christ is Risen by our attitudes and actions because the Resurrection is real, and we feel it joyfully and deeply within us.  We are bound for glory, and open ourselves to experiencing it now, showing the world not just an Empty Tomb as evidence, but our transformed lives.

April 16, 2022: Holy Saturday Easter Vigil

God has done a marvelous work throughout history.

He wondrously created the world and the universe.

Then, when the people He created in His image strayed from Him, He sought after us, establishing various covenants with His people.  And it all culminated in His glorious redemption through Christ.

Because He rose from the dead triumphantly, we who profess faith in Him are now called to live in newness of Life, which we experience when we join Him in dying and rising.

April 15, 2022: Cross Friday of the Lord's Passion

Jesus suffered greatly in His passion in obedient submission to the Father's plan for the salvation of the world.

Indeed, He stood for the Truth, even when the forces of evil arrayed to oppose Him.

Yet, in the spirit of the suffering servant in Isaiah, God exalted Him for what He did.

And so now we acknowledge Him as our Savior because He died to save us from sin.

We can truly count on Him.

And as He entrusted Himself to the Father in completing His work, so we entrust ourselves to Him, joining our sufferings to His Cross in the hope of the victory it brings over all evil.

April 14, 2022: Maundy Thursday

The night before He died on the Cross, Jesus Christ made it clear that His death was a sacrifice offered in obedience to God, revealing the full measure of God's love.

And He showed that love at the Last Supper.  He took the ancient tradition of the Passover, a celebration of God's deliverance, and instituted a New Covenant in His Body and Blood, offering Himself as the world's salvation.

He also offered Himself as a model to follow, that as He loved, so all of us who profess faith in Him should love as we live out the New Covenant.

April 10, 2022: Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

We see the great extremities of our human experience in the readings.

The crowds get excited as they acclaim Jesus upon His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, presenting Himself as Savior.  Then the crowds turn against Him later in the week, calling for His crucifixion.  Even the apostles stumble and abandon Jesus.

Yet Jesus still resolutely follows the path ordained for Him by the Father.  He enters into the mess of our world, offering Himself, knowing that God will work through the mess to demonstrate His power of redemption.  By obediently submitting Himself to the worst of humanity, He presents Himself as our Savior, Who redeems us so that we can be our best for God.

And so, as the early Christian hymn in St. Paul's epistle to the Philippians declares, Jesus will be exalted, as we open our hearts to transformation by faith and praise Him, Who suffered for us, and is our Savior, revealing to us, upon the Cross, the love of God.

April 3, 2022: Fifth Sunday of Lent

God is doing something new and amazing: As the prophet Isaiah foretold, He brings water and freshness to the desert, even the deserts within us.

Rather than stand condemned in sin without hope, God has provided a way for us to be free from sin.

He sent His Son to be our redeemer.  And as He spoke to the condemned woman brought before Him, so He speaks to us words that set us free from being weighed down by sin so that we can be free to live righteously.  He goes past the concerns of civil and religious law to bring her what she needs most, the mercy of God, just as He does for us.

So we continue our pursuit to grow in that righteousness, knowing what matters most, above anything else that might have value in the eyes of the world, is knowing the God Who saved us that we may have Eternal Life, and experience it even now as we live anew.