3rd Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the 3rd Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 5: 27-32, 40b-41
2. Psalms 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
3. Revelation 5: 11-14
4. John 21: 1-19

• Civil disobedience is never easy
• I'm sure that the early Apostles asked themselves "what would Jesus do" pretty often.  Following in The Master's footsteps can be pretty lonely.  Particularly when you are dedicated to inclusivity.
• Can you imagine a circumstance when you would feel obliged to take a stand, and you might suffer for it?
• Suffering comes in all sorts of guises.  It might be a missed opportunity for promotion at your job, marginalization by your peers, even your children not fully understanding your motives and questioning your thought process.
• Is rejection necessary for the path to true holiness?

• I told you so!
• One school of thought has it that Jesus is operating incognito at present, but that when He comes again, there will be no mistaking Him.  All doubts will be cast aside, and the subtext to that is that the true believers will finally be vindicated and everyone will know just how insightful those crazy Christians really were.
• But in the meantime, what can we expect of Jesus?  Will He defend us from those who want to silence/marginalize/disdain us?
• What would that defense look like?  How far do things have to go before Jesus might step in to save us?
• What in your life gives you confidence in that salvation?

• Are you sure that we're not in the other place?
• We always wonder who we'll meet in heaven.  Partly because we want to know that we'll be spending eternity with loved ones, but partly because we have this fixation of defining ourselves by who/what we are not.  Once we get a bead on who's not in heaven, we feel as though we know better who/what we stand for.
• I believe that we are going to run into all sorts of folks in Heaven who surprise us.  If Hell turned out to be empty, would you be angry?
• If God managed to find a way to save all of us, what would that tell you about God?

• Play to your strengths
• I love this passage because it speaks so warmly to the sense of being "at loose ends" that the disciples must have felt after Jesus' resurrection.
• One could say that the resurrected Jesus, being all-seeing, knew where the disciples were, but I choose to believe that He knew them as a friend, knew that they would find comfort in the familiar now that He was not with them in the same way, and He embraced that and come to them right where they were at the time.
• Think of a time when you felt lost, alone, unable to plan for the future because of some event in your life.
• How did you make it through that phase?
• How was God present to you during that period?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to be misunderstood in order to follow Jesus?
2. How can I grow in my trust for God?
3. Where can I grow in mercy and compassion?
4. Where is God reaching out to me today?

Left in the boat

Well, there goes Peter.  At least he's swimming this time rather than trying to walk to Jesus.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are stuck here in a borrowed boat trying to haul in a weeks' wages.
Sure, that's Jesus on the shore, but I don't think He is going to help clean this boat up.
After all, we borrowed it from a friend on a moment's notice.  We might need it again someday.

I could jump in after Peter, make my clumsy way to the shore as an "also ran".
But the moment's come and gone, the spontaneity that Peter's so famous for
Catapulted him ashore like a flying fish.  No thought for the rest of us, not a care in the world.
Frankly, I always liked Martha more than Mary.  Good, responsible, steady.

Jesus is waving to us, to me.  The rest of the guys are busy with the nets.
He's laughing that deep belly laugh of His, and suddenly I know what He's thinking.
He loves me for being responsible, plodding, careful.
Just as much as He loves Peter for being impetuous.

But that seems so odd.
We cannot both be right.
Peter and I are so different.
But Jesus seems to have room for both of us.

Maybe that's what makes Jesus Jesus.
He sees the good in each of us, no matter who we are.
Maybe I can learn something from Peter.
Maybe I'll hike over the Bethany and see if Martha has dinner plans tonight.

Shalom!

Easter Sunday

Our readings for Easter Sunday are:

1. Acts 10: 34a, 37-43
2. Psalms Psalms 118: 1-2, 16-17, 22-23
3. Colossians 3: 1-4
4. John 20: 1-9

• I think I lost my comfort zone
• The reading from Acts comes from Peter's address to Cornelius and his family.  Cornelius was a Gentile, and at this early point in the Church's trajectory, including the Gentiles in God's plan of salvation was a novel concept.
• Fr. Al Scott used to seek out ex convicts, befriend them, and work with them to reintroduce them to being human.  He did this by taking them to plays, concerts, Church, and helping them realize that they still had a place on the "outside".  You could always tell one of them when they showed up at Church, there were definitely things about them that were different from the typical St. Cyprian attendee.
• Who are we excluding from our midst today?
• Would Jesus be seen with such a person?
• Would He have taken a meal with them?
• Why is it that we feel so threatened by someone who is different from us?

• I'm still here!
• I'm beginning to realize that after a certain age, it comes as a mild surprise to wake up in the morning and realize that you're still alive.  It seems to me that that stage in life offers some opportunities for a different perspective, one that we could benefit from throughout life.
• Do you think that you are in some way entitled to things as a child of God?  That might be "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", or simply something as basic as living in a culture that conducts itself in a lawful manner, or free education for your children ...
• Do you think that being a Christian somehow makes you privileged?
• Do you ever take the time to give God thanks for the basics in life, like breathing?
• What might change about your perspective if you started?

• It's over my head
• What do you think will be the single biggest difference between our life here on Earth, and our life in heaven?
• Does that aspect of heaven really have to wait until you die?
• Why?

• I see
• It's easy to look back on those early disciples and feel a little smug.  We think that we have arrived in our understanding of the Resurrection.
• What are some things that have died in your life?  That might be a relationship, a job, maybe your youngest child has grown up & moved out and suddenly you wonder what your purpose is in life.
• How has that loss transformed you?
• Would you term that loss and transformation a resurrection?
• Remember, Jesus still bore the wounds of the cross in His resurrected body.

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where is God calling me forward beyond my comfort zone?
2. What do I have to be grateful for that maybe I'm missing?
3. Where can I make heaven on Earth?
4. What in my life needs to die?

The Shrine of the Broken Urn

Let me take you to a little-known place that hardly any tourists bother with these days.
You see, Mary of Magdala had precious spices to anoint her friend Jesus for His burial.
She even thought to put them into a special urn for this solemn occasion.
One last act of love and affection that she could give Him.  One last touch between them.

Maybe a futile gesture, maybe not.

But when she saw that His tomb had been violated, His resting place overthrown,
The grief was so consuming, the urn slipped from her numb fingers to the ground.
She scarce heard the sound of it shattering.  Her whole world crumbling around her.
The details of this one final act had consumed her until now.  And now He was gone.

Where to go, who to tell?

Stumbling through the town through torrents of tears, back toward His friends,
She marveled at the casual indifference of everyone else along the way.
Did His life mean so little that no one shared her grief?
Would her agony always cut her off from the rest of humanity?

Would she ever feel whole again?

Friends of Mary later came and picked up the shards of that urn.
Glued them back together and built a little ramshackle hut to cover it.
As a reminder to all of us that expressions of love come in many forms.
That often the greatest transformations overtake us when we least expect it.

Exchanges of real love hardly ever go according to plan.

I'll leave you alone here to pray.
Don't worry about the time, hardly anyone knows to come here anymore.
But you look like the sort of person who might appreciate this memory,
Someone who has loved, and lost, and found again.

Shalom!

Palm Sunday

Our readings for Palm Sunday are:

1. Isaiah 50: 4-7
2. Psalms 22: 8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
3. Philippians 2: 6-11
4. Luke 19: 28-40

• Getting close to the suffering
• The Via Dolorosa or the way of sorrows points the way for us to companion Jesus.  Veronica and her veil, Joseph of Arimathea both got close to Jesus, each in their own way.
• Think of someone in your life who is or has gone through suffering.  How did you support them?
• Did you want to somehow do more, but could not find a practical answer?
• What did you do with that frustration?
• Do you believe that "it's the thought that counts" in such situations?

• Is anyone home?
• God never never left Jesus, even in His darkest hour.  If you read Psalm 22 from start to finish, it ends on a high note.  Is it possible that that high note is possible not in spite of, but because of the way that it starts out?
• Do you think that God's faithfulness is a guarantee that we will never feel abandoned?
• Do you think that, at least on occasion, a spiritual dryness/desolation might be good for us?
• Why do you think that is?

• Surrender in order to receive
• An old Jesuit priest once said "as my physical mobility steadily declines, I find that I am freer to approach God."
• Is that quote just a humble man making the best of a bad situation, are these the words of someone giving up on vitality because they know there is no alternative, or is something deeper going on here?
• What are some things that you have lost over the years?  That might be a job, money in the stock market, a friend, ...
• How did that loss change you?  Did you open up more, or become fearful, wary, protective of what was left in your grasp?
• Did you grow from the experience?

• Being there
• As faithful Catholics, it's easy to look at the good thief (tradition calls him St. Dismas for those of you interested) and wonder why we bother with being faithful all of our lives if the end result all boils down to the state that we're in at death.
• If you knew the day that you were going to die, how would you live in the meantime?
• Why work hard to follow Jesus in this life if you knew that you could make amends at the last minute?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How can I companion Jesus today?
2. What advantage am I getting from the sorrows in my life?
3. What is God calling me to leave behind as I draw closer to Him?
4. Is there anyone in my life who needs defending?

I Remember You

I often wonder about those throngs on the road to Jerusalem

That first Palm Sunday so long ago.

When Jesus' death was made a raging spectacle mere days later,

Did they fear for their lives, even just a little?

Did they try to distance themselves from that joyous outpouring of love,

Or did that procession mark the start of something new in their lives?

Jacob, good to see you, it's been forever.  Wait, I have seen you lately!

Weren't you there when that Jesus fellow rode in on a donkey?

Uh, yeah, well, I guess that I was.  Frankly, I yelled my fool head off

Just like everyone else.  Now look at him.

What do you make of that?  Personally, I thought He was going to make a difference,

Show us all the way to real freedom.

From the Cursed Romans, or the equally cursed religious authorities?

Frankly, I don't know which tyranny is worse.

Maybe something even deeper my friend.  I heard this Jesus didn't put up a fight,

Never called on his followers to rescue him.

Maybe that's just because they all made themselves scarce, ran like rabbits

Once they realized this "movement" was just a puff of smoke.

Maybe.  But just maybe, Jesus' acceptance of that injustice gave him freedom.

Trusting God to be there for him no matter what.

Well, if that sort of an end is what the Presence of God gets you, 

I'm not sure that I'm interested.

I'm not sure either.  But I want to stay close to his followers, see what they do.

Maybe their actions will show me what it all means.

Let me know what you find out.  For my part, I'm just glad this blew over

Before I got too involved to back out.

Shalom!