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Pentecost Sunday (Year A)

Pentecost… What an odd name. And, it isn’t originally a Christian feast. It’s actually an Israelite celebration of when the Mosaic Law (also called the “Torah”) was given to Israel by God through the figure of Moses at Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:22). Another name for Pentecost is the “Feast of Weeks.”

You see, Israel was released from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt. 50 days later, God formed a covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai in the desert, and the Law given is the Law of the Covenant – the stipulations of the covenant. The term Pentecost basically means Fiftieth, referring to this 50th day after Passover.

Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. His words and deeds bring fulfillment to the Law and the prophets, to the old feast days and ceremonial observances. The Four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – are careful to show how this is so. They’re concerned with how Jesus is really and truly the reality to which the Old Testament points to and prepares for.

When it was time for the Jewish celebration of Passover, Jesus (at the Last Supper) indicated that it is he who is the paschal victim: the unblemished lamb that is to be sacrificed so that Israel might be freed from slavery to sin. So, Jesus fulfills Passover by becoming the definitive paschal lamb.

For 40 days after the Resurrection, Jesus spent this time with his Apostles, explaining to them the Kingdom of God, and then on Ascension Thursday, he ascended into heaven to reign as King over his Catholic Church. For 9 days, his disciples prayed a novena in the Upper Room for the sending of the Spirit, and on the 50th day – that is, during the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost – God gave his Law once again, as of old, but this time, the New Law of the New Covenant was given: the Holy Spirit !

In Christianity, we do not have a written law. Christianity is not moralism. Let me repeat that once again. Christianity is not a life lived upon the principal of doing this and avoiding that. Unfortunately, all too often Christianity is misrepresented as such, as if the 10 Commandments are how we “be Christian”. Far from it, or to be more precise, far above it!

In the New Covenant, the Law – the terms by which the covenant is kept – is not written on tablets but on human hearts, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This new principle by which man lives – the very Life of God present in the human soul – enables man to live a life far more profound and deep than mere “commandment keeping.” Rather, this life is relational. God has truly become our Father and his Holy Life, merely prefigured by the Law, is now ours.

The Solemnity of the Ascension (Year A)

St. Luke records in his Acts of the Apostles what we hear today in the first reading. He tells us of an event that is part of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus the Christ. This event is the Ascension: “he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).

On Good Friday, Jesus died upon the Cross. His divinity remained united to his human body upon the cross and within the tomb. His divinity also remained united to his human soul, which descended into the abode of the dead to preach to “the souls in prison” (See 1 Peter 3:18-22) who were awaiting the Messiah. On Easter Sunday, Jesus’ body and soul were reunited in the Resurrection and gloriously transformed!

For 40 days, Jesus appeared to the apostles he had chosen, “speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). That is, after Jesus resurrected from the dead, he spent a good 5 ½ weeks on earth with his apostles. On Ascension Thursday, Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father (See Ephesians 1:20, which is part of the second reading). This is an idiom that means: “to be enthroned as king.” This is why today we sing the psalm response: “God mounts his throne to shouts of joy!” (Psalm 47:6).

On Pentecost Sunday (which we will celebrate next Sunday), Jesus answered the disciples’ novena (nine days of prayer) with the gift of the Holy Spirit who was given to the newborn Church, the Kingdom of God on earth, so that it might grow, spread, and flourish to unite all of humanity with God through Jesus Christ.

Finally, in today’s Gospel, we discover the magnificent authority Jesus has given to his Church. Right at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel (28:16-20), just before Jesus’ Ascension, Jesus gave all authority to the eleven remaining Apostles. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me … I am with you always.” This Great Commission, given to the Apostles, is just how Jesus extends his reign: though the bishops who are successors to the Apostles! This reign is further extended through those priests who receive authority by the bishops.

This authority is so powerful that an early bishop, martyr, and disciple of St. John the Apostle wrote:

Indeed, when you submit to the bishop as you would to Jesus Christ, it is clear to me that you are living not in the manner of men but as Jesus Christ, who died for us, that through faith in his death you might escape dying. It is necessary, therefore—and such is your practice that you do nothing without the bishop, and that you be subject also to the presbytery, as to the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, in whom we shall be found, if we live in him. (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Trallians, Chapter 2).

The Church is a holy kingdom with true authority.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

In today’s first reading (Acts 8:5-8, 14-17), we witness the conferral of two sacraments. Last week, we read of the appointment and ordination of the first 7 deacons. This week, one of those deacons by the name of Philip “went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed Christ to them.” He then baptized those who believed (See Acts 8:12). However, this wasn’t enough. The apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to Samaria so that they could administer the second sacrament of initiation: Confirmation. “Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”

So what happens in Confirmation? Some have made the mistake of equating this sacrament with graduation from religious education. Others have made the mistake of thinking this sacrament is one’s choice to become Catholic, one’s choice to remain a Catholic, or one’s public declaration that they are now Catholic.

In baptism, one becomes a Catholic Christian. That is, one becomes a Christian who practices his Christian faith in communion with the same Church that Jesus established and continues to build day by day. After being baptized, the Christian resolves daily to live out this baptismal calling as a disciple of Jesus. Whenever we make the Sign of the Cross, we renew our baptism.

So what is Confirmation? It is what the minister says when administering the sacrament: “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit” (See Ephesians 1:13 & 4:30). The Catechism says: “the effect of the Sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost” (no. 1302). The Catechism goes on further to explain that Confirmation “gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross” (no. 1303). This is precisely what we witness the Christians doing in the Acts of the Apostles after the event at Pentecost!

Confirmation enables us to carry out St. Peter’s words in the second reading (1 Peter 3:15-18): “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” Christ knew that the task of evangelization would be a difficult one, and he didn’t leave us helpless. His gift of this powerful sacrament enables us to accomplish what we could not otherwise accomplish by our own meager efforts.

In today’s Gospel (John 14:115-21), Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth” who “will be in you.” The Spirit first enables us to become holy, to be sanctified in Christ Jesus. Secondly, he enables us to defend and spread the truth that saves, and that truth is not an abstract body of concepts, but a person: Jesus Christ.

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The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Jesus is the Lord of his Church and the teacher of all: after his ascension into heaven, he teaches, sanctifies, and governs Christians through the ministry of the apostles initially, and after the apostles’ deaths, through the ministry of their successors, the bishops.

In the second reading taken from 1 Peter 2:4-9, St. Peter emphasizes the common priesthood of the laity. In baptism, every Christian is made a priest through an intimate union with Jesus Christ. Yet, this requires us to ask the question, “What exactly is a priest?” Well, priests are priests insofar as they offer sacrifice, which is the unique activity of priests that distinguishes them.

All Christians are to offer everything their lives entail back to God the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit as a spiritual sacrifice. Every little work, every little suffering, every little problem in life may be offered to the Father in union with Jesus for the salvation of ourselves and others – for an increase in personal holiness. This continual priestly offering of our lives to God the Father culminates in the Mass when we unite ourselves with the sacrifice of Jesus. In fact, during the offertory when the bread and wine are carried to the sanctuary, we are to be silently offering ourselves spiritually in union with those gifts.

Our lay priestly role both needs and is supported by those ministerial priests who are ordained by the laying on of the hands. These men offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the person of Christ the Head and are assisted by the deacons. The first reading (Acts 6:1-7) tells of the appointment and ordination of the first seven deacons. “They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.”

Today’s Gospel comes from John 14:1-12, wherein Jesus is shown to be the fullness of God’s revelation. Jesus proclaims: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” and “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” As our High Priest, Jesus offers himself as the perfect sacrifice acceptable to God the Father. It is only by way of Jesus that any human being will ever enter heaven and experience the eternal, divine life of God.

God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth: that is, of Christ Jesus. Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #74)

In the Old Testament, Israel had Aaron and his sons as its high priests, the Levites as ministerial priests, and yet all of Israel was called to be a royal priesthood. This threefold configuration prefigured the New Israel: the Catholic Church, which consists of (1) our High Priest, (2) the ministerial priesthood and (3) the common priesthood.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, and we continue our reading of the Book of Acts of the Apostles, which we have been reading from since Easter Sunday. This book, placed in the Bible right after the Four Gospels (after John’s Gospel, specifically), is actually the second half of one book. Originally, the Gospel of Luke was attached to Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel of Luke came first and then Acts of the Apostles is the rest of the story from St. Luke’s point of view. So, when you’re at home reading your Bible (I know all of you are doing this, right?), read St. Luke’s Gospel then immediately read Acts of the Apostles. In our Bibles, John’s Gospel is placed between the two (in order to put the Gospels together), which artificially separates what was originally together: Luke & Acts.

What’s so interesting about Acts of the Apostles is that in it, Luke uses the same phrases and words for the Church that he used in his Gospel for Jesus. He does this intentionally, in order to show us that the Church is an extension of the Incarnation. That is, in the Catholic Church (which is the same Church as the Church in Acts of the Apostles – only our Church is that old with the pope succeeding St. Peter), the life of Jesus is continued. The Church is truly the Mystical Body of Christ. It is in the Church that Jesus continues to preach, teach, govern, heal, and sanctify.

Jesus established the Church in order to bring all men and women to eternal life: into communion with God the Father through Jesus, the Eternal Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II put it this way: “God has entered human history so that through his Son, we might be drawn into his own divine life!” Did you catch that? The purpose of the Church is to bring the world to eternal life: the life of the Trinity!

Every year, the Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Easter is taken from the 10th Chapter of the Gospel of John, which is where Jesus refers to himself as “the good shepherd” (10:11), so this Sunday is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Today, we listen to Jesus say: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (10:10). Jesus also tells us that the shepherd “walks ahead of [the sheep] and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice” (10:4). Jesus has walked ahead of us through suffering, through death, and into the new life of the resurrection!

The Church pairs John 10:1-10 with 1 Peter 2:20-25 because Peter speaks of how we are to “follow in his footsteps” by suffering for the good without complaint and living for righteousness. Finally, Peter calls Jesus “the shepherd and guardian of your souls” (v. 25). Our shepherd speaks to us daily in the divine Scriptures. Do we value that voice and adhere to it with our lives?

The Third Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Today’s Gospel was written for Christians who attend Sunday Mass, and while Saint Luke recorded his Gospel, he kept this in mind and planted various hints and clues in what he wrote that we can pick up on.

The account of the Appearance on the Road to Emmaus is structured upon the Mass. First of all, Luke records that this appearance took place on “the first day of the week” (24:1, 13), which is Sunday, the day that Christians gathered to celebrate the Eucharist because that is the day when Jesus rose from the dead in the Resurrection.

Secondly, Jesus “interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (v. 27), which is exactly what happens in the first half of the Mass: the Liturgy of the Word. First, we read from both the Old and the New Testaments, and the readings are correlated so that we see how the New fulfills the Old. Then, the priest gives a homily in order to show how this is the case, how the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ expressed in the Gospel and the New Testament readings is the fulfillment of the history of Israel and the rest of mankind, which is recounted in the Old Testament. For example, today we listen to St. Peter use Psalm 16 in reference to the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:22-28).

Then, Luke recounts how this experience of the traveling disciples of the risen Christ culminates in their sharing a meal with him. Just as at the Last Supper and as in Mass, Jesus “took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them” (v. 30). Luke describes this experience as “the breaking of the bread” (v. 35), which is an early Christian name for the Mass. Jesus is made known to the disciples in the breaking of the bread, so says Luke. This is the second half of the Mass: the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

With this in mind, do the words of the disciples ring true for you when they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” Do you listen carefully to the readings proclaimed at the ambo by the readers, and if so, are you able to understand how the readings fit together in harmony? Are the Scriptures opened up to us in the homilies our pastors preach? Do our hearts burn within us at Mass, wherein we get excited about God’s inspired Word – so much so that we desire to own and read a Bible in the privacy of our homes?

More importantly, do we recognize Jesus in “the breaking of the bread,” which is the Eucharist? Each time that you and I approach the sacred host in the communion line and say “Amen” to “The Body of Christ,” we acknowledge that we are consuming the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus! Let us make our “Amen” in truth and sincerity.

The Second Sunday of Easter (Year A)

On April 30, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized St. Faustina Kowalska (b. 1905; d. 1938): a Polish nun, mystic, and visionary who wrote a diary recounting her mystical experiences. This diary focuses upon the crucial theme of the abundant mercy of God in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In it, St. Faustina tells us of something Jesus communicated to her concerning the Second Sunday of Easter:

On that day, the very depths of my tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of my mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day, all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. (#699)

When Pope John Paul II canonized St. Faustina, he designated the 2nd Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday in the General Roman Calendar. In fact, he died during the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.

It should be of no surprise to us that the liturgical readings we are fed by Mother Church on this Sunday follow the theme of the Divine Mercy. The first reading from Acts 2:42-47 tells of the communal life of the first Christian community in Jerusalem following Pentecost. They devoted themselves to doctrine, charity, liturgy, and fervent prayer (Not coincidentally, the Four Pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church): “to the teaching of the apostles, to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread, and to the prayers.” This fervent charismatic community grew in number daily: “And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” We respond to this first reading with Psalm 118, wherein we acclaim, “His mercy endures forever!” three times.

The second reading (1 Peter 1:3-9) and the Gospel (John 20:19-31) both combine the theme of the great mercy of God through the forgiveness of sins with the theme of believing although we have not personally seen the glory of the Lord as the first apostles did.

As God “breathed into [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life and Adam became a living being” (Gen 2:7), so in the Upper Room, Jesus “breathed on [the apostles] and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained‘” (John 20:22-23). While Adam forsook the supernatural life of grace he was given by God, Jesus the New Adam abundantly bestows mercy and the divine life of the Spirit upon those reborn in him.

Today in the here and now, the Lord “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). “Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor 6:2)

Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday (Year A)

A little less than 20 centuries ago, a man walked the roads of a small Roman outpost with great miraculous power and he claimed to be God. As C.S. Lewis has remarked in his famous book, Mere Christianity, either Jesus was an absolute madman or he is who he claims to be: the very Lord of the universe, the king who demands our total allegiance. There is no third option available when one looks at the evidence.

In the suffering of Jesus, in the bodily resurrection of Jesus – wherein his body was completely transformed into a new, resurrected, and glorified body – in Jesus’ ascension into heaven and enthronement as King of Heaven and of Earth, you and I are presented with two options in all of our freedom. We are asked to make a definitive choice in the face of Jesus’ claim.

Either (1) our purpose for gathering on Easter Sunday does not exist and we might as well have been mowing the lawn or sleeping in, or (2) Jesus is who he said he is and the tomb is empty; Jesus has risen, and he now reigns. If the second option is indeed true, then everything changes. In fact, the way we view reality, the way we live our lives, the meaning of “Church” and everything that religion entails becomes the central most important and defining point of our lives.

I believe that all the evidence points us to the second option, an option that remains a choice, a choice for you, a choice for me. So, make a choice and boldly make it. For either Jesus is a failed claimant to the throne or he is the Lord of everything!

The Easter Vigil is celebrated after sundown on Saturday night, and throughout the world, the Church receives into her bosom those who have chosen to respond positively to the reality of Jesus. For this reason, the Scriptural readings for both the Vigil and Sunday proper are filled with baptismal imagery.

In the Vigil, we hear of the Spirit hovering above the waters of creation (Genesis 1:2); the cry of the prophet Isaiah: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!” (Isaiah 55:1); the promise of God through the prophet Ezekiel: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities”; and the sacramental effect of baptism as well as the implications that has for one’s life in the words of Saint Paul (Romans 6:3-11).

On Easter Sunday, we listen to St. Peter recall the baptism of our Lord, wherein “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power” (Acts 10:38).

Why all the fuss over baptism at Easter and not at another point in the liturgical year? Because baptism is the principal means by which the fruits of the Resurrection are given to humanity, by which we die to sin and rise to new life in Jesus (See Romans 6:4).

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion (Year A)

In today’s first reading (Isaiah 50:4-7), Isaiah foretells of the famous Suffering Servant. Speaking in the first person, Isaiah wrote: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help; I am not disgraced” (v. 6-7).

The theme given is redemptive suffering. It is through a suffering accepted out of supreme love that this Suffering Servant figure will redeem (a word meaning “to purchase back”) and restore Israel, which has been divided, punished, and exiled due to Israel’s continued idolatry in the face of a loving and constant God. Isaiah tells us that this redemption is not just for Israel, but for the rest of the nations as well, including you and me.

When the time of fulfillment comes, God will do something extraordinary and unexpected. He will take on human flesh and fulfill the vocation of Israel! God will become the suffering servant, a light to the world, our Savior and Redeemer. It is this time and this great work of God that we continue to ponder and remember in the many other readings of today’s Liturgy of the Word, which begins with the Procession with Palms.

In Philippians 2:6-11, St. Paul gives what is perhaps an early Christian hymn that we know of today as the Canticle of Kenosis. “He emptied himself … coming in human likeness … he humbled himself becoming obedient even unto death.” Kenosis is a Greek word taken from the Greek verb kenoo, which Paul uses in this passage and is rendered in the English as “emptied.” This hymn proclaims how God stooped from the lofty height of the heavens and down into our lowly human condition to save us in Jesus Christ.

If you listen closely to the responsorial psalm and the very long Gospel narrative taken from Matthew 26:14 to 27:66, you will see how St. Matthew carefully shows Psalm 22 to be fulfilled in the Passion of Jesus. So, for example, compare the following two passages:

All who see me scoff at me; they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads: “He relied on the Lord; let him deliver him, let him rescue him, if he loves him.” (Ps 22:8-9)

Likewise, the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now is he wants him.” (Mt 7:41-43)

See how the readings fit together seamlessly? Christ is at the heart of the Psalms, which served Israel as its official hymnal in the Temple liturgy. God prepared his family for Jesus through their daily prayer back then. Today, God prepares us for eternal life through the readings and prayers we experience today at Mass. Are you paying close attention with attentive ears?