Easter Reflections -- 50 Days of the Easter Season

“Let everyone fast for the 40 days of Lent,” the early Church writers urge, “but let no one fast during the 50 days of Easter.”

The Easter Season is the Church’s most ancient and beautiful season. For the next 50 days until Pentecost, in the Sunday Gospels, we’ll find the Risen Christ by a lakeshore…on a mountain top…coming through closed doors. The Paschal Candle will burn brightly in our church as we, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, feel our hearts burning within us and experience the fire of his love.

Now, a new “resolution” may be in order – not a Lenten resolution, but one for the rest of the year. To keep to your pattern of “six minutes” of prayer every day.

Through these postings, you have been experiencing one of our oldest traditions of prayer called “Lectio Divina” – holy reading. You may have discovered that the Lord talks to you, personally , through the words of Scripture.

Now is the perfect time to think about making this a regular part of your day.

There are two posts for each day. The second one each day (except Sundays) is the key to the daily reflection. We’ll walk through Luke’s resurrection narrative and on into the first part of his Acts of the Apostles.

The first post is different. It’s like a buffet table with information about the Easter Season, or various traditions and customs, or the saint whose feast is celebrated on that particular day.

On Sundays there will be a reflections basked on the day’s Gospel reading.

Start with either post, as you wish. The main thing is to spend some quiet time (6 minutes) in prayer each day.

It is in us to pray. We were made for it, and we’re physically healthier and happier when we pray. It’s been said that when we begin praying regularly, “coincidences” begin happening.

But sometimes it’s hard to find a time and a place for prayer. These little posts will give you a time and a place.

On Monday, March 28, we will begin walking through Luke’s resurrection narratives.

Thursday, Third Week of Easter

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem..

Luke 24:32-33

Interesting, We have in this passage an example of the power of the Scriptures.

Scripture is unlike any other kind of literature. It is never a dead word, a relic of a past era. Rather, it is something like reading our mother’s or father’s letters long after they are fone. We feel our hearts burning within us because what we’re reading flows into our own life and is alive in us.

Scripture is even more than that. It is a graced word. God is active in the words as we read them. (Or hear them.)

The risen Jesus looked back and opened up the Scriptures for these two disciples. It is from this same perspective that the Gospels and the other New Testament books were written. Looking back after and through the resurrection to all that had taken place earlier.

The Word of God is always “live,” and we sense the Lord’s comforting presence. Gloom and doom turn into faith and hope.

When we read the Scripture, God is active, speaking to us. Spend a few moments with any of the Scripture passages on this thread, and let God speak to you.

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

April 15, 2005

Blessed Fr. Damien

Damien De Veuster, a young Belgian priest, asked to serve at the leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. He hoped to instill in the patients a sense of self-worth and dignity. His first task was to restore dignity to death. When he preached, he called the people not “my brothers and sisters” but “we lepers” – a salutation that would eventually become true.

Damien died of leprosy on April 15, 1889. He was beatified in 1995 by Pope John Pail II.

* * *

Despite his work among the lepers, Damien was not without detractors, one of whom claimed he contracted leprosy because of his relationship with women patients.

Deciding to learn the truth, author Robert Louis Stevenson (whose novels chronicled life in the South Seas) went to Molokai to investigate.

Over and over, Stevenson listened to firsthand reports of the priest’s courage and work among the lepers. When Dr. Charles Hyde, a former missionary to Molokai, wrote a letter saying the evil rumors were true, Stevenson leaped to Damien’s defense by writing Father Damien; An Open Letter to Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu.

Friday, Third Week of Easter

So the two disciples set out at once and returned to Jerusalem, where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

Luke 24:33:34

Remember that this same morning, the women had told the other disciples about the empty tomb. But the disciples thought it was “nonsense and they did not believe them.”

Now they’re all bursting with good news. Before these two disciples can get a word out, they’re told: “The Lord has truly been raised!” Quite a switch in 12 hours.

The two disciples are told that the Lord appeared to Simon. This appearance is not described in any of the Gospels. But Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians (written before any of the Gospels) says that Christ appeared to Kephas (Peter), to the Twelve, and to many others.

“The Lord has truly been raised!” That’s all we have to hear. Which appearance was first, when did this one or that one happen – it doesn’t matter. It’s true! He has appeared!

That’s why the accounts are so different in all four Gospels. The evangelists weren’t interested in tracking a sequence. They’re bursting to tell the good news in all directions: “The Lord has truly been raised!”

These are the last words of the disciples in Luke’s Gospel. Maybe I should spend these last 30 days of the Easter Season letting them echo inside me: “The Lord has truly been raised!”

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

April 16, 2005

St. Bernadette Soubirous

St. Bernadette was born in 1844 to a poor family in southern France, the oldest of six children. To help support her family, Bernadette worked as a shepherdess.

Our February 11, 1858 (Around the time of her First Communion) the 14-year-old had a vision of the Blessed Mother near a cave along the Gave River in Lourdes. The Blessed Mother appeared to her 18 more times in the next two months.

During one vision, Bernadette was led to a spring of healing waters. During another vision, Mary stated she was the Immaculate Conception, and that a church should be built on the site. Authorities tried to shut down the spring and to delay construction of the chapel. But Empress Eugenie of France, the wife of Napoleon III, interceded and construction continued.

In 1866, Bernadette entered the Sisters of Notre Dame in Nevers. After a prolonged illness, Bernadette died on this date in 1879. She was 35. When her body was exhumed 30 years later, it was perfectly preserved.

* * *

Lourdes is second only to Paris in having hotel rooms for visitors to France.

* * *

More than six million people visit Lourdes each year. More than 2,000 sick or crippled people have reported being cured, but only 66 cases have been certified as miraculous by a medical board.

Saturday, Third Week of Easter

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the braking of the bread.

Luke 24:35

The two disciples who just returned from a round trip to Emmaus finally get a chance to tell their story – what happened on the road and, most of all, at the supper table.

You can imagine what that room was like as they all try to talk at once about the turn of events. Today it would be “high fives” all around.

After all, these were no fools. Mary Magdalene was no fool. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were no fools. Peter and Andrew and James and John were no fools. The “doubting Thomas” was certainly no fool.

And Paul. He could tell his own story about meeting the Lord on the road to Damascus. He wasn’t out looking for “an experience of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He was out looking for Christians to throw in jail.

Yes, it does help to know that these people believed and staked their lives on it.

We believe because we ourselves have experienced the risen Lord, especially at Eucharist.

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

April 17, 2005

Come, Holy Ghost

The most popular hymn to the Holy Spirit in English is the familiar :

Come Holy Ghost, Creator Blest,
And in our hearts take up Thy rest…

The words for this hymn were composed in the ninth century by Rabanus Maurus, a Benedictine monk, who became the Archbishop of Mainz, Germany.

Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit

The Bible, originally written in Hebrew and Greek, began to be translated into Latin in the late second century. By the fifth century, largely through the work of St. Jerome, there was a standard Latin text known as the “Vulgate” (from a Latin word meaning “popular”). In this version the Greek for “Holy Spirit” was translated as “Spiritus Sanctus.”

When the Bible began to be translated into English in the 16th century, “Spiritus Sanctus” was translated as “Holy Ghost.” The word “ghost” comes from an Old English word that means “spirit.” Gradually, however, this translation of the Bible in the 20th century shifted from “Holy Ghost: to “Holy Spirit.”

Good Shepherd Sunday

Today is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” On the fourth Sunday of Easter – no matter which of the three cycles it is – the Gospel is about Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

Fourth Sunday in Easter

Today’s Gospel draws the image everyone loves – Jesus as the Good Shepherd, going out to the lost sheep and putting it on His shoulders…the shepherd who gives his life for the sheep…the sheep who know him and He knows them.

But Jesus also talks about himself as the gate to the sheep’s pen. He says, “I am the gate for the sheep….Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”

We all have closed gates in our life. Jesus says “The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice….I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Think about the closed gates in your life: Hatred (or bad blood). Jesus says, “Do you think I was never hated? I know what that’s like. I’ll show you how to open that gate – it’s called forgiveness.”

Health. Jesus says, “Do you think I don’t know what it’s like to hurt in your body? I can take you through that gate. Don’t be afraid.”

Addiction. Jesus says, “Do you think I never had to break away from something? Do you think it was easy to leave my home? I’ll take you through that gate.”

Maybe opening the closed gate means facing up to truth – for the first time admitting it to yourself or telling somebody else who ought to hear it. Jesus says, “I had to speak the truth. I know what it’s like to say a hard truth.”

Sometimes a closed gate is accepting who you are – This is me. These are my life circumstances. And Jesus says, “You know what…I love you anyway. I’ll take you through that gate and you can accept who you are. I do.”

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

April 18, 2005

The Greeting of Peace

In both Luke and John, the first words of the risen Jesus to the disciples are: “Peace be with you.”

This became a greeting among Christians and is used often in the New Testament letters. Some samples:

• Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. [The beginning of Paul’s letter to the Romans]

• The God of peace be with all of you. Amen. [The end of Paul’s letter to the Romans]

• Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:3) [This same formula appears in eight other letters of Paul.]

• May grace and peace be yours in abundance through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1:2)

• Peace be with you. (3 John 1:15)

These are the words used in the Sign of Peace at Mass. It’s a prayer, a blessing on one another, and can be exchanged sincerely even by two people who have their differences. They have a bond in Christ that goes far deeper than any differences.

Monday, Fourth Week of Easter

While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

Luke 24:36

We come to the last of the appearances of the risen Lord in Luke’s Gospel, all of which took place on Easter Sunday. This one comes directly on the heels of the celebration after the two disciples returned from Emmaus.

The fist words of Jesus in this scene are the same as in John’s Gospel when he first appeared to the disciples” “Peace be with you.”

That’s a striking touch of kindness to a group that had abandoned him when he was arrested…a group whose leader had denied him three times.

Those are his first words to us every time we come before him to confess our sins: “Peace be with you.”

Jesus did not come to the disciples “to get even.” He came to help them…and most of all, to help them believe He always, always comes to us the same way.

This is the same Jesus who ate and drank with sinners, cured the sick, raised the dead, blessed children, told his disciples at the Last Supper that he longed to share this meal with them.

This is the same Jesus who longs to share this meal with me every Sunday.

This is the same Jesus who is with me now, and says, “Peace be with you.”

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

April 19, 2005

Jesus’ Second Appearance in Luke

The Gospel writers couldn’t include everything. They had to pick and choose their material. Their focus was the particular community for whom they were writing.

This is one reason why each Gospel has different material and different emphases. Their choices were affected by the questions, problems, needs of their audience.

With that in mind, one way to read a Gospel passage is to say: “This is a response to a particular question in their community. If this is the response, what was the question?”

Applying this to Luke’s description of Jesus’ second appearance, one could ask: “Why wasn’t the Emmaus story enough? To what questions did this second story respond?

Probably by the time Luke wrote his Gospel, some Christians had begun to think of the resurrection in foggy terms. Jesus sort of lived on after death.

Luke wanted there to be no mistake on this one. Jesus is not a bodiless person in some shadowy existence. Jesus lives as a full-fledged transformed human being!

Luke wants Christians of all generations to hear Jesus say: “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. See that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”

Tuesday, Fourth Week of Easter

But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Them he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.”

Luke 24:37-39

Now this is the strangest thing. The disciples are celebrating the good news that “Jesus has truly been raised!” Yet when he appears to them in the middle of all this, they’re terrified. They think they’re seeing a ghost. What’s going on?

What’s going on is that Luke, writing some 50 years later, is patching together different traditions about the appearances of the risen Lord. It’s hard to put them into one consecutive narrative – like trying to sew together pieces of cloth that weren’t cut from the same garment. Each appearance sheds its own light on the resurrection, and we should let each speak its own message to us.

It’s striking that Jesus shows them his hands and his feet. Were the nail marks still there? (John, in his Gospel, is explicit that indeed they were.) The Jesus who rose is the Jesus who was crucified. But the wounds are no longer bodily flaws or deformities. They are now treasures, like coal becomes a diamond.

No one leaves this earth without wounds – wounds to the heart and to the body. We bring our own history with us. It is not erased, but becomes lustrous. The hurts of the past are transfigured into treasures.

Such is the grandeur of the resurrection…my wounds become gems.

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

April 20, 2005

Luke’s Chronology

In Luke’s account, the Last Supper was a Passover meal, celebrated on Thursday evening, when the Passover began.

On Friday, Jesus died and was taken down from the cross and buried before the Sabbath rest began that evening.

On Saturday, his body lay in the tomb while the disciples observed the Sabbath rest.

On Sunday, the risen Christ appeared to many of his disciples.

According to Luke, he continued to appear for 40 days and then dramatically ascended out of their sight – which would be the Thursday of the sixth week after Easter.

The sending of the Holy Spirit took place of the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, a feast celebrated 50 days after Passover.

The Church’s liturgical calendar was patterned on this chronology.

Tuesday, Fourth Week of Easter

Jesus said, “Touch me and see because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

Luke 24:39-40

Jesus showed the disciples his hands and feet – his wounds. The risen Jesus is on the other side of death, but his wounds from this side of death are still with him.

We all have wounds – caused from broken relationships, rejection, injuries, setbacks, tragedies, abuse, crime. Some may still be bleeding. Some perhaps were self-inflicted – some big mistakes. We live with these wounds. They never go away.

They stay part of us even after death. They’re healed, transformed – but they’re still part of us. They’re what we lived through, were shaped by.

In the Lord’s hands, they become marks of honor. No longer the dark side of our lives, they shine.

The transformation already begins this side of death when, especially at Eucharist, we join our wounds to the Lord’s sufferings on the cross. Like a musician who uses dissonance to produce a beautiful song, the Lord gradually crafts our wounds to create a place in our heart that was never there before.

No one leaves this earth without wounds, scars. That's one good reason to have a cross in our home, or sometimes to wear a cross. It’s the Lord’s cross, but it’s also our own. And it’s a sign of what God does with our wounds.

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

April 21, 2005

Jesus at Meals

Jesus did not lead the life of a hermit. He traveled; he participated in the Jewish feasts; he talked to large crowds. And he was often seen at dinner tables among friends and guests.

• Jesus calls the toll collector, Levi, to be one of the Twelve, and then dines in his house with a crowd of “tax collectors and sinners”.

• In Simon Peter’s house in Capernaum, Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law. She then serves a meal for him and his disciples.

• At a banquet in the home of Simon the Pharisee, a sinful woman anoints Jesus’ feet with precious ointment.

• After calling Zaccheus down from the tree, Jesus invites himself to dine in his home.

• On the night before he died, Jesus eats his Last Supper with his disciples.

These meals are so frequent that some have said in jest, “You can eat your way through the Gospels.”

This is the halfway point of the 50-day Easter Season.

Thursday, Fourth Week of Easter

While they were still incredulous for joy and they were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.

Luke 24:41-43

What will our existence be like after death? Luke answers this by showing the continuity of Jesus’ risen life with his life on earth. The late Scripture scholar, Raymond Brown, said that “Luke offers the most materially realistic view of the body of the risen Jesus found in the New Testament.”

Just as the risen Jesus ate with the two disciples at Emmaus, now he eats right “in front of” the small community in Jerusalem. In one of his speeches in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter will testify to this”

This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
During his ministry Jesus was accused of eating and drinking with sinners. After his death and resurrection he continued to do this.
He still does it with us at each celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
We are the sinners he eats with.
Talk about a “happy meal”!

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

well phrased. it is interesting that in another encounter with Jesus after His resurrection, was his cooking fish at the sea-side, and He called to them and ate with them.

this, alond with His telling Peter at the Last Supper : " Peter, I have prayed for you, and when you have turned, strengthen your brothers..", He challenges Peter to "tend His sheep, feed His lambs,...".

Peter also with superhuman strength jumps into the water, and alone brings the net full of fish ( 153, one of each kind known at that time ) to shore, whilst the other apostles could not.

the phraseology in the Resurrections naratives is great. First, Jesus tells Magadalene "not to cling to Him" ( sometimes erroneously translated as "touch" ), for He has to "go". Then, He asks Thomas to "touch" His wounds.

With the disciples going to Emmaus, He made Himself known at the breaking of the Bread, then vanishes. Why? Because, He does have to "go", but He leaves himself behind in the One Form, His Body and Blood.

We too can experience Jesus just like the disciples in Emmaus, for in This way we He lets us know that in the breaking of the Bread we too can experience Jesus, and with faith, we need no other.

well phrased. it is interesting that in another encounter with Jesus after His resurrection, was his cooking fish at the sea-side, and He called to them and ate with them.

Peter also with superhuman strength jumps into the water, and alone brings the net full of fish ( 153, one of each kind known at that time ) to shore, whilst the other apostles could not.

We too can experience Jesus just like the disciples in Emmaus, for in This way we He lets us know that in the breaking of the Bread we too can experience Jesus, and with faith, we need no other.

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