Catholic Caucus: Sunday Mass Readings, 03-31-13, The Resurrection of the Lord (Easter)

USCCB.org/RNAB ^ | 03-31-13 | Revised New American Bible

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The Work of God

Year C

 -  Easter Sunday

John saw, and he believed.

John 20:1-9

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.
2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb.
4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there,
7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. (NRSV)

Inspiration of the Holy Spirit - From the Sacred Heart of Jesus

My Apostles were totally overwhelmed by my death; they were desolated, discouraged and very confused. Their faith was weakened.

Mary Magdalene was the sinful woman who repented and sinned no more, She accompanied my mother and John my dearest disciple all the way to Calvary. She was the first disciple rewarded with the knowledge about my Resurrection.
When Peter and John entered the tomb, John was the first one to remember my words and to believe that I would rise from the dead.

There are great spiritual rewards prepared for all those who repent and sin no more. When they accompany me to Calvary through their meditations; they accompany my mother and me in those painful moments when I surrendered my life to the Father for the Salvation of all mankind. They look at the one they have pierced for the forgiveness of sins. They join me in my sacrifice and take part in my work of redemption, therefore becoming co-redeemers, praying with me to the Father: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

The Holy Mass is the summit of all Christian devotions, the most powerful prayer, because it is the re-enactment of my Passion and death. I truly become flesh and blood in the sacramental altar. Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, there is not life in you. If you believe in me, if you give credit to my words, I will raise you up on the last day.

My resurrection is my great victory over Satan, Sin and Death. The day when Light overcame darkness, Grace overcame sin and Life overcame death. Divine Mercy opened its gates to the world to facilitate the Salvation of all those who believe in me; the Son of the Living God, the Saviour of the world.

On the day of the Resurrection I undid the curse given in Paradise, “You are dust, and to dust you will return”.

I am the resurrection and the Life. If you believe in me, even though you will die, you will live forever.

Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary

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Archdiocese of Washington

From Fear to Faith in Four Steps: A Meditation on the Johanine Easter Gospel

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

One option for the Gospel for Easter Sunday morning is from John 20:1-8. And like most of the resurrection Gospels it paints a portrait of a journey some of the early disciples have to make out of fear and into faith. It shows the need to experience the resurrection and then come to understand it more deeply.

I have blogged before on the Matthean gospel option for Easter Sunday morning (HERE). This year I present John’s. Let us focus especially on the journey that St. John makes from fear to faith. While the Gospel begins with Mary Magdalene, the focus quickly shifts to St. John. Lets study his journey.

I. REACTION MODE - The text begins by describing every one is a mere reaction mode, quite literally running about in a panic! – The text says, On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”

Notice that the text describes the opening moments as “still dark.” And it is likely that John is doing more than giving us the time of day. The deeper point is that there is still a darkness that envelopes everyone’s mind.  The darkness makes it difficult for us to see and our fears and our sorrows can blind us.

Therefore also notice that she looks right at the evidence of the Resurrection but she presumes and concludes the worst: grave robbers have surely come and snatched the body of the Lord! It doesn’t even occur to her to remember that Jesus had said that he would rise on the third day and that this was that very third day. No she goes immediately into reaction mode, instead of reflection mode. Her mind jumps to the negative and worst conclusion and she, by reacting and failing to reflect looks right at the blessing and sees a curse.

And often we do this too. We look at our life and see only the burdens instead of the blessings. And thus:

1. I clutch my blanket and growl when the alarm rings, instead of thinking, “Thank you, Lord, that I can hear. There are many who are deaf. Thank that I have the strength to rise, there are many who do not.”
2. Even though the first hour of a day may be hectic, when socks are lost, toast is burned and tempers are short, the children are so loud! Instead of thinking, “Thank you Lord, for my family. There are many who are lonely.
3. Yes, we can even be thankful for the taxes we pay, because it means we’re employed;  the clothes that fit a little too snugly, because it means we have enough to eat; our heating bill, because it means we are warm; and weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day, because it means we have been productive.

Yes, every day ten million things go right and a half a dozen things go wrong. What will you focus on? Will we look right at the signs of our blessings and call them burdens, or will we bless the Lord? Do we live lives that are merely reactive and negative, or do we live reflectively, remembering what the Lord says, that even our burdens are gifts in strange packages. Romans 8 says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (8:28)

Do we know this, or are we like the disciples on that early morning, when it is still dark, looking right at the blessings but drawing only negative conclusions, reacting and failing to reflect?

II. RECOVERY MODE - The Text goes on to describe a certain move from reaction to reflection in a subtle way. The text says,  So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

We start in reaction mode. Notice how Mary Magdalene’s anxiety is contagious? She comes running to the apostles, all out of breath, and says that “they” (whoever they are) have taken the Lord (she speak of him still as a corpse) and “we” (she and the other women who had gone out) don’t know where they put him (again she speaks of him as an inanimate corpse). And Mary’s panic and reactive mode, triggers that same reaction in the Apostles. They’re all running now!The mad dash to the tomb has begun.

But notice they are running to verify grave-robbery, not the resurrection. Had they but taken time to reflect, perhaps they would have thought to remember that the Lord had said he would rise on the third day, and this was the third day. Never mind all that, panic and running have spread and they rush forth to confirm their worst fears.

But note a subtlety.  John begins to pick up speed as he runs. And his speed, I would argue, signals reflection and hope. Some scholars say it indicates merely that he was the younger man. Unlikely. The Holy Spirit speaking through John is not likely interested in passing things like youth. Some of the Father’s of the Church see a greater truth at work in the love and mystical tradition that John the Apostle symbolizes. He was the Disciple whom Jesus loved, the disciple who knew and experienced that love of God. And love often sees what knowledge and authority can only appreciate and affirm later. Love gets there first.

There is also a Bible verse that I would argue decodes John’s  increasing strength as he runs:

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Is 40:31).

Perhaps as John ran faster as he began to move from reaction to reflection and remembrance. When you run fast, even with others,  you can’t talk a lot. So you get alone with your thoughts. There is something about love that enlightens and recalls what the beloved has said. Perhaps John begins to think, to reflect and recall:

1. Didn’t Jesus say he’d rise three days later?!
2. Isn’t this that day?
3. Perhaps he considered too:
4. Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel?
5. Didn’t he deliver Noah from the flood?
6. Joseph from the hands of his brothers, and from the deep dungeon
7. Didn’t he deliver Moses and the people from Egypt
8. David from Goliath and Saul
9. Jonah from the whale
10. Queen Esther and the people from wicked men
11. Susanna from her false accusers
12. Judith from Holofernes
13. And didn’t Jesus raise the dead?!
14. And Didn’t he promise to rise.
15. Didn’t God promise to deliver the just from all their trial?
16. Ah! As for me I know that my redeemer liveth!

And something started to happen in John. And I have it on the best of authority that he began to sing in his heart as he ran:

I don’t feel no ways tired. Come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy but I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me.

Yes, John is in recovery now. He’s moved from reaction to reflection and he is starting to regain his faith.

The text says he looked in and saw the grave clothes, but awaited Peter. Mystics and lovers may get there first, but the Church has a Magisterium that must be respected too. John waits, but as we shall see he has made his transition from reaction to reflection, from fear to faith.

III. REASSESSMENT MODE - In life, our initial reactions must often be reassessed as further evidence comes in. And now, Peter and John must take a fresh look at the evidence from their own perspective. The text says, When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths [lying] there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

Mary Magdalene’s assessment had been, in effect, grave robbers. But the evidence for that seems odd. Usually grave robbers were after the fine linens that the dead were buried in. But here are the linens and gone is the body! Strange.

And there is something even stranger about the linens. If it had been grave robbers they wouldn’t have taken time to unwrap the body of valuable grave linens. The Greek text uses the word describes the clothes as κείμενα (keimena) – lying stretched out in place, lying in order. It is almost as if the clothes simply “deflated” in place when the body they covered disappeared!

Not only that, but the most valuable cloth of all, the σουδάριον (soudarion) is carefully folded. Grave robbers would not leave the most valuable things behind. And surely, even if for some strange reason they wanted the body, they would not have bothered to carefully unwrap and fold things, and leaven them all stretched out in an orderly way. Robbers work quickly, they grab and snatch and leave disorder behind them.

And life is like this. You can’t simply accept the first interpretation of things. Every reporter knows that “in the fog of war, the first reports are always wrong.” And thus we too have to be careful not to jump to all sorts of negative conclusions just because someone else is worried. Sometimes we need to take a fresh look at the evidence and interpret it as men and women of hope and faith, as men and women who know that God will not utterly forsake us, even if he tests us.

John is now looking at the same evidence as did Mary Magdalene, but his faith and hope give him a different vision. His capacity to move beyond fearful reaction to faithful reflection is changing the picture.

We know little of the reaction of Peter or Mary Magdalene at this point. The focus is on John. And the focus is on you. What do you see in life? Do you see grave robbers? Or are you willing to reconsider and move from knee-jerk fear to reflective faith?

Does your resurrection faith make you ready to reassess even the bad news you receive and look for a blessing even in crosses?

IV. RESURRECTION MODE - And now, though somewhat cryptically we focus on the reaction and mindset of St. John. The text says, Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

At one level the text says, plainly that St. John saw and believed. Does the text mean only that he believed Mary Magdalene’s story that the body was gone? Well, as is almost always the case with John’s Gospel, there is both a plain meaning and a deeper meaning. The context here seems clearly to be that John has moved to a deeper level. The text says he ἐπίστευσεν (episteusen) “believed.” The verb here is in the aorist tense, a verb form  that generally portrays a situation as simple or undivided, that is, as having perfective (or completed) aspect. In other words, something has come to fruition in him.

And yet, what the text gives, it also seems to qualify, saying, they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead. It is as if to say, “John came to believe that Jesus had risen, though he had not yet come to fully understand all the scriptural connections and how this had to be. He only knew in his heart by love and through this evidence that Jesus was risen. Deeper understanding would have to come later.

But for our purposes, let us observe that St. John has gone from fear to faith. He has not yet seen Jesus alive, but he believes based on the evidence, and what his own heart and mind tell him.

And now, at this moment John is like us. He has not seen, but believes. Neither have we seen, but we believe. John would seem him alive soon enough and so will we!

We may not have an advanced degree in Scripture but through love we too can know he lives. Why and how? Because of the same evidence:

1. The grave clothes of my old life are strewn before me.
2. I am rising to new life.
3. I am experiencing greater victory over sin.
4. Old sins and my old Adam are being put to death
5. And the life of the new Adam, Christ is coming alive.
6. I’m being set free and have hope and confidence, new life and new gifts.
7. I have increasing gratitude, courage and a deep peace that says: Everything is alright.
8. Yes, the grave clothes of my old way of life lie stretched out before me and I now wear a new robe of righteousness.
9. I’m not what I want to be but I’m no what I used to be.

So we like John, see. We see not the risen Lord, not yet anyway. But we see the evidence and we believe.

St. John leaves this scene a believer. His faith may not be the fully perfected faith it will become, but he does believe. John has gone from fear to faith, from reaction to reflection, from panic to peace. This is his journey, and prayerfully, our too.

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Sunday Gospel Reflections

Easter Sunday
Reading I: Acts 10:37-43 II: 1Cor 5:6-8

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Gospel
John 20:1-10

¹ Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag'dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
² So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
³ Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.
⁴ They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first;
⁵ and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying,
⁷ and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.
⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
⁹ for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
¹⁰ Then the disciples went back to their homes.

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Interesting Details

• This passage opens the last part of John's Gospel (ch.20): the resurrection and appearance of Jesus. This chapter contains the resurrection with the empty tomb story (vv.1-10) and Jesus' appearances to Mary Magdalene (vv.11-18), to the disciples without Thomas (vv.19-23), and to the disciples with Thomas (vv.24-29).
• In the preceding passage, Jesus' body was laid in a new tomb in the garden (19:41). This tomb was probably a horizontal cave with a small ground-level entrance, usually less than a yard high. This explains why the disciple must bend down to look inside (v.5).
• Jesus' body was not put into a coffin but probably laid in an "arcosolia", a semi-circle niche, a sort of side-way flat bed formed by cutting two or three feet deep into the side of the cave.
• His body was wrapped in cloth and aromatic oils, and the face was covered with a small piece of cloth. The presence of the cloths in vv.6-7 shows that the body was probably not stolen because thieves would not unwrap and fold the cloths so neatly.
• There are some difficulties within this story, for example, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb alone but in v.2 the pronoun "we" is used. Furthermore, some details are different from the synoptic resurrection accounts.
• "He saw and believed" (v. 8) seems to contradict with "they still did not understand the scripture" (v.9). The most natural explanation is that the beloved disciple believed that Jesus had risen from the dead based on his own observation of the empty tomb rather than on the scripture (See Newman p.606).

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One Main Point

The resurrection is Jesus' ultimate glory. It is the sign of the victory over death, the hope for us, and the basis for our Christian faith.

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Reflections

1. Imagine that you are standing in front of the empty tomb and looking in, what does the tomb look like? Is it foul? What do you see?
2. Put yourself in Peter's place: guilt-ridden by his betrayal of Jesus, dispirited by Jesus' death, and now the body was gone! Have you ever experienced moments when God is absent from your life?
3. The beloved disciples saw the folded linen cloths and believed. Can you recall one specific sign that led you to believe in the Risen Lord?

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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Easter Sunday (Solemnity)

First Reading: Psalm: Second Reading: Gospel:

Acts 10:34, 37-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23 Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 John 20:1-9 The saints judge nations, and rule over people: and the Lord their God shall reign for ever. Rejoice in the Lord, ye just: praise becometh the upright. -- Widom 3: 8; Ps 32:1

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The Angelus 

The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary: 
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit. 

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. 

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word. 

Hail Mary . . . 

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us. 

Hail Mary . . . 

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. 

Let us pray: 

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen. 

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Easter Day and Easter Season

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Easter Day and Easter Season

 

EASTER DAY

Ideas for Family celebration of Easter - Regina Cæli Lætare, Alleluia - Readings

 

"Christ is Risen, Alleluia"
"He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia, Alleluia"

 

With these joyous words Christians have greeted one another on Easter Day for nearly two thousand years. And every Easter the words proclaim anew the faith and hope of every Christian in the Good News of God's profound love of mankind, a love that conquers death. This Easter greeting is still used today. In the Eastern Orthodox Churches this proclamation is made during the Easter service as each person kisses the Gospel book.

Whenever Christians greet one another with these exultant phrases, we affirm the unity of believers throughout all times and ages until He comes again in glory. Every Christian family can establish the custom of exchanging this historic greeting, which is also a profession of faith, on Easter morning. It would set an appropriate tone of rejoicing for the entire day (and a reminder, also, for young children who may be so excited about their Easter baskets that they tend to forget why we are celebrating.)

Mass on Easter Day is the most splendid and exuberant celebration of the Church. For this is the Sunday of Sundays, the day of Resurrection of Christ, the center and foundation of our faith. As Saint Paul said, "If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain" [I Cor. 15:14, 17]. Thus Easter is the pinnacle of all feasts of the Church year, which began with Advent, or the expectation of the coming of the Messiah, sent by God to provide the means for our Salvation. The culmination of the entire liturgy is the Easter feast. Families who attend Mass on Easter Day join millions of Christians all over the world -- past and present -- in joyous affirmation of our redemption through the love of Christ, our hope of salvation, and our faith in the resurrection from the dead and the life of the world to come. Although the Easter Vigil and Mass fulfills the obligation for Easter Mass, the Easter Day celebration is a highlight that many will not want to miss, and it is permissible to attend both.

Alleluia
Every element of the festive celebration of Mass on Easter Day resounds with the great Alleluia the triumphant word of praise for God of men and angels.

Alleluia (or hallelujah) is a Hebrew word adopted by the Christian Church. (Another familiar Hebrew word is amen, "so be it.") Hallel is the greatest expression of praise in Hebrew. Combined with Jah, the shortened form of the name of God, JHVH (meaning "I AM"), it becomes Hallelujah. Alleluia is a Latinized spelling.

From the time of the apostles the proclaiming of the Alleluia was a revered custom in ordinary life as well as in connection with the liturgy of the Church. Farmers and tradesmen sang it as they worked, and mothers taught their children to pronounce it before any other word. According to Father Francis Weiser, "in the Roman Empire the Alleluia became the favorite prayerful song of oarsmen and navigators. The Roman poet-Bishop Sidonius Apollinaris (480) described how the river banks and shores of Gaul resounded with the Alleluia song of the rowing boatmen." [Weiser, pp. 28-29] ("Alleluia" fits the familiar tune of the Song of the Volga Boatman. Try it!)

In Christian homes on Easter morning children and parents might greet each other with "Alleluia", then light a specially decorated Easter candle. This word of praise on Easter morning inspired Handel to write his famous Hallelujah Chorus. Playing a recording of this magnificent Chorus from Messiah on Easter morning is a memorable way of awaking the household to the joy of the day and the promise of the coming Easter Mass and celebration.

The Lord's Day
Every Sunday is a celebration of the Day of the Lord's Resurrection. Every celebration of Mass commemorates all the Easter Mysteries, the Lord's Supper at which Christ instituted the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and His Resurrection, the historic events on which Christianity is based. And each Sunday celebrates the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (fifty days after Easter) which established the Church.

Every Sunday, then, is a "little Easter." Every Sunday is Christ's feast day. This is why the Sundays during Lent are excluded from the forty days of penance; and why saints' feast days are not ordinarily celebrated on Sunday. All Catholics are seriously obliged to participate in the Church's celebration of Mass on Sundays.

From the earliest days of the Church the celebration of the Eucharist was made on the first day of the Jewish week . We know this because specific reference is made to the Lord's day in Acts 20:7: "And on the first day of the week, when we were assembled together to break bread Paul discoursed with them"; and I Corinthians 16:2: "On the first of each week, let everyone of you personally put aside something and save it up as he has prospered"

The word Sunday, dies solis, or "day of the sun" is a pre-Christian word retained by the Church (in English speaking countries) because it emphasizes the belief that Christ is the "Sun of Righteousness." Saint John, in Revelation 1:10, refers to the dies dominica, "the Lord's day.

Ideas for Family Easter Celebrations

• Everything we have done as a family during the forty days of Lent has led us to this day. It is time for rejoicing! It is appropriate to bring out the best of everything for the feast of Easter Day. Flowers, china — the works. If you can, though, have food that doesn't take a lot of last-minute preparation, so that instead of fretting too much in the kitchen, like Martha, you have time to rejoice with Jesus, like Mary.
  
• Easter baskets and Easter egg hunts and lawn rolls are surely a universal occupation of American children on Easter morning along with chocolate eggs and bunnies and marshmallow peeps and jelly beans and green Easter grass all over the carpet and keeping the dog and the baby out of the chocolate! Nearly every family has its own special customs and traditional foods for Easter.
  
• "Alleluia Egg -- an egg painted gold, or perhaps with Alleluia written on it. The child who finds the Alleluia egg is accorded a special honor such as getting to light the Christ Candle and say a prayer at mealtime, or being allowed to cut and serve the Easter cake; or choosing the next family activity.
  
• In addition to the requisite excess of candy eggs, we hope you've included in the basket something a little more lasting, like the inexpensive little books of Bible stories for the younger children; perhaps a medal or picture or a biography of a child's patron saint; even a recording of religious music would be welcomed by some older children.
  
• Decorations for the Easter table do not have to be lilies, but could be any spring flowers arranged in a pretty bowl or basket. Daffodils would be nice for their sunshiny color. Candles really ought to be part of the table decorations, not only because they are so festive, but because of the allusion to the Light of Christ.
  
• Write the name of each family member or guest on an Easter egg to use as a place card.
  
• Make an Easter lamb cake. You can buy a lamb-shaped cake mold to bake it in. Decorate it with white frosting sprinkled liberally with flaked coconut to represent wool, and give it eyes of raisins or chocolate chips. Little children just love these lamb cakes and bigger ones can help with the decorating.
  
• Another cake idea (simpler but pretty) is to make cupcakes, decorate them with green colored frosting sprinkled with green shredded coconut "grass" (just add a few drops of green food coloring to a tablespoon or so of water, then stir in the coconut until it is nicely dyed.) With few jelly beans (or, even better, one or two coated chocolate "bird eggs") on the top, each little cake will become a colorful Easter egg nest.
  
• Make colored deviled eggs. Peel hard-cooked eggs and dye them in a cup of water to which you add a few drops of food coloring and about a tablespoon of vinegar. Either leave the eggs whole to decorate the meat platter, or make deviled eggs. Either way they are pretty — especially on a bed of bright green parsley.
  
  You can get dozens of holiday ideas from household magazines and the food section of newspapers. The main difference in the celebration and festivities in a Christian household is that we know what we're celebrating and why!

Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia

Family Activities for Easter Week

Easter, the most important feast of the Church year, has an "octave", that is, it is celebrated for eight days — through the following Sunday or ""Low Sunday", the Octave of Easter Day.

• Catholic schools have a holiday on Easter Monday. If the weather permits, this would be a good day to go to the park or zoo if you live near one, or to go on a walk looking closely for signs of spring, promise, rebirth, reawakening.
  
• An alternative is to go to an art museum to look at Christian art; or to the library in search of some of the beautifully printed reproductions of medieval Books of Hours (the Très Riches Heures painted by the Limbourg brothers for the Duc de Berry is one of the finest.). These wonderful books are filled with fascinating pictures depicting virtually every event in the life of Christ, and most children would enjoy looking at and talking about these pictures with you. (This could take place of the bedtime story this week.)
  
• Making a table-top tableau of a scene from the Bible can occupy children for hours. These can often be highly entertaining interpretations of the original Bible stories. To get the children started, cut the top and one side off a small cardboard box (a shoe box is fine) to use for the "stage". Figures and other props can be made of modeling clay or play-dough. Other bits and scraps you have around the house — cloth, yarn, string, scraps of cloth or colored paper, pipe cleaners, etc. — can be used, too. (Another idea is to use scraps to make collages on cut-open brown paper grocery bags.)
  
• Families may pray the Divine Mercy novena, beginning Good Friday and ending on the Octave of Easter, which Pope John Paul II named Divine Mercy Sunday.
  

The Regina Cæli and Salve Regina

Throughout the Easter Season — until Pentecost — the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) is said as the mealtime Angelus prayer. The "Hail Holy Queen" (Salve Regina) forms part of this prayer.

See separate Regina Caeli page for these traditionl prayers in Latin, English and Spanish versions.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice! Alleluia!
For the Son you were privileged to bear, Alleluia!
Is risen as He said. Alleluia!
Pray for us to God. Alleluia!

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, Alleluia!
For the Lord is truly risen. Alleluia.

Let us pray:
O God, who gave joy to the world
through the resurrection of your Son our Lord Jesus
Christ, grant, we beseech you, that through the
intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may
obtain the joys of everlasting life: Through the same
Christ our Lord. Amen.+

Hail, Holy Queen

Hail, Holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope.

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.

To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us,

and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy mother of God:

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God, by the cooperation of the Holy Spirit thou hast prepared the body and soul of Mary, glorious Virgin and Mother, to become the worthy habitation of Thy Son; Grant that by her gracious intercession, in whose commemoration we rejoice, we may be delivered from present evils and from everlasting death. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

V. May divine assistance remain with us always.

R. Amen.

 

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Readings:

Year A

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8
Jn 20:1-9 or Mt 28:1-10
or, at an afternoon or evening Mass, Lk 24:13-35

Year B

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8
Jn 20:1-9 or Mk 16:1-7
or, at an afternoon or evening Mass, Lk 24:13-35

Year C

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5:6b-8
Jn 20:1-9 or Lk 24:1-12
or, at an afternoon or evening Mass, Lk 24:13-35

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Passiontide and Holy Week | Holy Thursday | Passover Seder | Stations of the Cross | Good Friday | Holy Saturday and Easter Vigil | Easter Day and Easter Week | Liturgical Calendar

[Salvation]

Information: St. Benjamin

Feast Day:	March 31
Died:	424 in Persia

[Salvation]

Interactive Saints for Kids

Blessed Joan of Toulouse

Feast Day: March 31
Died: 1286

In 1240, a few Carmelite brothers from Palestine started a monastery in Toulouse, France. The great Carmelite priest, St. Simon Stock, visited Toulouse twenty-five years later. A good and devout woman asked to see him. She introduced herself simply as Joan.

She earnestly asked the priest if she could join the Carmelite order as an associate. St. Simon Stock who was the head of the order agreed and granted Joan’s request. Joan became the first lay associate. She received the habit of the Carmelite order and in the presence of St. Simon Stock, Joan made a promise to always be chaste and pure.

Joan continued her quiet, simple life in her own home. She tried to be as faithful as possible to the rules of the Carmelites for the rest of her life. Joan went to daily Mass and devotions at the Carmelite church.

She spent the rest of the day visiting the poor, the sick and the lonely. She trained the altar boys. She helped the elderly and those who were weak and frail by performing useful tasks and running errands for them. Joan prayed with them and brightened many lives with her cheerful conversations.

Blessed Joan carried a picture of the crucified Jesus in her pocket. That was her "book." Every now and then, she would pull out the picture and gaze at it. Her eyes would light up. People said that Joan read some new and wonderful lesson every time she studied the picture.

Reflection: Do what you can to cheer someone today. You too in your own small way can help brighten lives.

[Salvation]

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for: March 31, 2013
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

• Agnello al Forno (Roast Suckling Lamb)
• Asparagi alla Milanese (Milan Asparagus)
• Babka I (Polish Easter Bread)
• Babka II (Polish Easter Bread)
• Babka Osterbrot (Easter Bread)
• Korolevskaja Paska (King's Easter Pudding)
• Koulitchy (Russian Sweet Easter Bread)
• Kulich (Russian Sweet Easter Bread)
• Lambropsomo (Greek Easter Bread)
• Paasbrod (Dutch Easter Bread)
• Pani di Pasqua all' Uovo (Italian Easter Egg Braid)
• Paska Serna Pechena (Ukrainian Baked Easter Cheese)
• Paska Serna Svizha (Ukrainian Fresh Easter Cheese)
• Paskha (Ukrainian Easter Bread)
• Salata de Cartofi (Greek Potato and Olive Salad)
• Sucharki Papieskie (Polish Papal Wafers)
• Torta di Ricotta (Italian Easter Cheese Cake)
• Zupa Wielkanocna (Polish Easter Soup)
• Artichokes Italian Style
• Beranek
• Carciofi Arrostiti
• Cider-Baked Ham Slices
• Cold Glazed Baked Ham
• Dolmas
• Easter Cake
• Easter Dinner Menus
• Easter Soup with Leftover Lamb
• Easter Sunday Brunch Menu
• Eggs Benedict
• Fruit Tapioca Parfait
• Greek Easter Lamb
• Hard-Cooked Egg Cookies
• Hollandaise Sauce
• Italian Easter Baskets
• Pink and White Meringue Torte
• Potatoes and Peas in Cream
• Raisin Bread
• Roast Leg of Spring Lamb
• Rose Leaf Jam
• Shish Kebabs
• Simnel Cake IV
• Tansy Pudding
• Veal Stew in Milk
• Arnaki Gemisto (Stuffed Easter Lamb)
• Babka (Polish Easter Bread)
• Babovka (Czechoslovakian Easter Bread)
• Brodetto Pasquale (Italian Easter Broth)
• Cassata alla Siciliana (Easter Chocolate Cake)
• Colomba Pasquale (Italian Easter Dove)
• Funghi alla Parmigiana (Mushrooms Parmesan)
• Kaesekuchen (Cheese Cake)
• Kolace (Bohemian Filled Buns)
• Koulich (Quick Russian Coffee Cake)
• Koulich (Russian Sweet Easter Bread)
• Saldusis Suris (Lithuanian Easter Cheese)
• Easter Baba (Polish Easter Coffee Cake)
• Easter Biscuits
• Easter Egg Nests
• Easter Glazed Ham with Fruit
• Easter Ham
• Easter Lamb
• Easter Spice Ring
• Eternity Cakes or Easter Wreath Cookies
• German Easter Sweet Bread
• Italian Easter Bread Eggs
• Lamb Cake
• Leg of Lamb
• Paska (Ukrainian Easter Bread)
• Paskha (a Russian Easter dessert)
• Ukrainian Poppy Seed Cake
• Whole Baby Lamb

ACTIVITIES

• A Jonas (Jonah) Project
• Baptismal Candles
• Blessing of the Easter Foods
• Creating a Lumen Christi (Light of Christ)
• Cross of Victory
• Easter Customs of the Russian Germans
• Easter Egg Symbolism
• Easter Eggs Decorations
• Easter Eggs! song
• Easter Food Symbolism
• Easter Garden I
• Easter Garden II
• Easter Hymn
• Easter Lamb
• Easter Standard
• Easter Sunday Activities in the Home
• Easter Sunday in the Home
• Easter Vigil
• Easter: Solemnity of Solemnities
• Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album
• Holy Saturday and Easter in the Home
• Home Altar Hangings
• Home Easter Vigil
• Importance of Easter Customs
• Jonas and Holy Week
• Liturgy of Easter Sunday and the Octave of Easter
• Mary Garden
• Paschal Candle as a Centerpiece
• Rejoice, O Rejoice, Heavenly Queen
• Symbolism of the Easter Eggs
• Three Women at Break of Day
• Triptych
• Window Transparencies
• Wreath of Victory
• Easter Breakfast

PRAYERS

• Blessing of Sprouting Seed, Rogation Days
• Polish Easter Blessing
• Blessing of the Home with Easter Water
• Easter Week Table Blessing
• Blessing of Homes During the Christmas and Easter Seasons
• Blessing of Food for the First Meal of Easter
• Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Season (2nd Plan)
• Litany of the Saints
• Easter Water
• Easter Blessing in the Home
• Blessing of Easter Food
• Easter Prayers
• Prayer Cards for Easter Grace at Meals
• Easter Prayers (for the Octave of Easter)
• Divine Mercy Novena
• Annunciation Novena
• Roman Ritual Blessing Before and After Meals: Easter Week (1st Plan)
• Renewal of Baptismal Promises
• Novena for Easter
• Exsultet (Easter Proclamation)

Easter: March 31st

Easter Sunday

Old Calendar: Easter Sunday

Easter is the feast of feasts, the unalloyed joy and gladness of all Christians.

In the very center of the Mass, the great prayer of thanksgiving, from the first words of the Preface, expresses the unrivalled motive for this joy: if it is right to praise You, Lord, at all times, how much more so should we not glorify You on this day when Christ our Passover was sacrificed, for He is the true Lamb who took away the sins of the world, who by His Death destroyed our death and by His Resurrection restored our life. Easter means, then, Redemption obtained — sin destroyed, death overcome, divine life brought back to us, the resurrection of our body which is promised immortality. With such a certitude, we should banish all trace of sadness.

Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: "This is the day which the Lord has made." Throughout the octave we shall sing of the unequalled joy which throws open eternity to us. Every Sunday will furnish a reminder of it, and from Sunday to Sunday, from year to year, the Easters of this earth will lead us to that blessed day on which Christ has promised that He will come again with glory to take us with Him into the kingdom of His Father.

Click here for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Stational Church

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Meditation - He is Risen!
"I rose up and am still with Thee." After His labors and His humiliations, Christ finds rest with His Father. "I am still with Thee." This is perfect beatitude. Through His cross He entered into the possession of eternal glory. Christ has gained the crown of victory; through Christ men also win their crowns of victory. Humanity was under a curse and subject to the wrath of God. Now that they have risen with Christ, their guilt has been destroyed. "I rose up and am still with Thee." The liturgy places these words in the mouth of the Church that she may pray them with Christ.

"The earth trembled and was still when God arose in judgment." The resurrection of Christ is the judgment and condemnation of those who have turned away from God. This judgment was prefigured by the angel who passed through the land of Egypt destroying the first-born of the Egyptians. The Israelites marked the doors of their houses with the blood of the paschal lamb. We are the new Israel, and "Christ our Pasch is sacrificed." We mark ourselves with His blood, which we enjoy in the Holy Eucharist. We have been pardoned, we are saved, we shall live.

"He is risen." The resurrection of Christ is a pledge of our own resurrection. It is the foundation upon which our faith rests. It is the guarantee of our redemption and God's assurance that our sins are forgiven and that we are called to eternal life. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein. Give praise to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Alleluia." "Christ our Pasch is sacrificed. . . . The Lamb redeems the sheep. Christ, the innocent One, hath reconciled sinners to the Father." — Excerpted from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

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The Station is at St. Mary Major, the principal church of all those that are dedicated to the Mother of God in the holy city. This is to associate with the Paschal solemnity the memory of her, who, more than all other creatures, had merited its joys, not only because of the exceptional share she had had in all the sufferings of Jesus, but also because of the unshaken faith wherewith, during those long and cruel hours of his lying in the tomb, she had awaited his Resurrection.

[Salvation]

The Word Among Us

Meditation: John 20:1-9

Easter Sunday

He saw and believed. (John 20:8)

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Father, we exult in your glory! We rejoice, turning our thoughts to the One who lives, who is seated at your right hand above every power and authority and dominion.

He’s alive! Mary’s thoughts spun at the empty tomb: Jesus is missing! What happened? Who took his body? But we fix our eyes on the living Christ. Our thoughts don’t have to spin fruitlessly, hopelessly grasping at “reasonable” explanations. Because Jesus lives, we have hope. We are a new creation. We can look at life through new eyes, think with life-giving thoughts, and speak words of wisdom and understanding. Because he lives, we have peace. The unknown doesn’t have to shake us. God is for us, and nothing can separate us from his love.

He’s alive! Peter’s thoughts, perhaps, churned in regret: “I failed him. I said I would die for him, but I ran away. Now he’s gone.” But there is now no condemnation. Jesus has reconciled us to himself. We are seated with him at God’s right hand. Because he is alive, we are free from the law of sin and death. We are forgiven. Period. Jesus’ blood has cleansed us, and because he lives eternally, this cleansing is powerful. Though our lives are hidden in Christ now, one day we will appear with him in glory.

He’s alive! John saw the same empty tomb—and believed. He might not have understood fully, but still he believed. He recalled Jesus’ promises, and seeing the evidence of the empty tomb, he trusted them more than his own thoughts.

He’s alive! What about you? Jesus’ promise of life that never ends, a life full of grace and glory, freedom and endless joy. Though for a time (like Lent) we endure want and difficulties, we still fix our eyes on what is above, knowing what the empty tomb really points to. Christ is risen, and in him we now share in the promise of eternal life!

“Jesus, you’re alive! In you I live and move and have my being! Alleluia!”

Acts 10:34, 37-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Colossians 3:1-4

Questions for Reflection or Group Discussion

1. In the first reading, Peter presents a clear presentation of the basic Gospel message to the gentile, Cornelius, and his relatives and friends. The result is that they are all converted and filled with the Holy Spirit—a powerful demonstration of the power of the Gospel when it is spoken clearly. What part of Peter’s talk stood out most to you? If the opportunity arose for you to present the basic Gospel message to someone or to a group, what would you say? If this would be a struggle for you, what steps can you take to prepare yourself for these opportunities?

2. The Responsorial Psalm 118 is a beautiful psalm that points prophetically to the mission and work of Jesus? Verses 22-23 of this psalm are “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord, has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.” Why do you think this verse in the Psalm is then followed by the word? “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”

3. How well are you able to apply the words from the Second Reading from the Epistle to the Colossians to your life? What steps can you take turn to the Lord more often during the day and “Seek what is above.” and “Think of what is above, not what is on earth” (Colossians 3:1-2)?

4. What do you think the following words from the Second Reading mean? “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

5. In the Gospel reading, how would you characterize Peter and John’s initial reaction to the empty tomb? The “empty tomb” would eventually have a profound impact on both Peter and John’s lives. How has the truth of the empty tomb affected your life?

6. The mediation ends with these words: “Christ is risen, and in him we now share in the promise of eternal life!” What do these words mean to you? What impact does Christ’s resurrection and the “promise of eternal life” have on how you live as a Catholic Christian?

7. Take some time now to pray for the grace to grow more and more in your relationship with the Risen Lord and in your trust in him. Use the prayer at the end of the meditation as a starting point.

[Salvation]

A Christian Pilgrim

EASTER SUNDAY: A DAY OF HOPE 

Gospel Reading: John 20:1-18 

ON this Easter Sunday, people of Christian faith throughout the world gather together because of the resurrection. On this day, in a sense, we follow Mary Magdalene in her search for the body of Jesus. She went to the tomb early in the morning. Hers had been a night of weeping for the loss of Him who had reached out to her in mercy and hope. She would have followed Him to the end of the world, but now she feared that for her the world itself was at the end.

She has responded to His loving forgiveness by a complete change of heart. Because of Him, she had begun a new life. Perhaps on that Sunday morning, however, in the confusion of her sorrow she was wondering whether life itself was still worth living. Though she was looking for a dead body, not a very bright prospect, God was leading her to the light of a great truth. At first Mar4y thought she had found not even a dead body but only an empty tomb. She ran off in tears to tell Peter and John that the Lord had been taken away. Later, still not understanding she returned to the tomb. Then it happened. She saw Jesus standing there. Through her tears she did not recognize Him. He asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who is it you are looking for?” She took Him to be the gardener, and said, “Sir, if You are the one who carried Him off, tell me where You have laid Him and I will take Him away.” Jesus said one word, “Mary,” With that, God’s grace flooded her mind and she knew that Jesus had risen as the Lord of Life.

On this Easter Sunday, we are like Mary Magdalene in that we too are moving toward a tomb, our own! From the moment we began life in the darkness within our mother’s body, we were on our way toward the darkness of the grave within mother earth. Death is inevitable. Since for many that is not a very bright prospect, our society is reluctant to admit the fact of death. We attempt to cover it over with euphemisms and pretense no one ever dies; he “passes away.” A corpse in the mortuary must be made to look, not dead, but only asleep. Still we cannot escape the reality of death. Face death we must, but we should do so in the light of Easter Sunday.

On this Easter Sunday, the empty tomb of Jesus tells us something about our own grave. There was a tomb for Jesus because He had really died. But that tomb was found empty on Easter morning because He had truly risen. What happened on Good Friday and Easter Sunday has great implication for us, because dying Jesus destroyed our death, and rising He restored our life. Death is not the end of the world for us. Jesus has gone before us in death to lead us to eternal life. We are going to die some day, but when Jesus comes again in glory our grave will be found empty, not because our body will have undergone the corruption of death, but because we will have risen with Christ to the glory of everlasting life.

When Christ our life appears, then we shall appear with Him in glory. Easter asks us to make an act of faith in Christ rising from the tomb as the Lord of Life. It urges us to hope that we too shall some day rise with Him. It promises us the complete fulfillment of our lives in eternal union with God.

Short Prayer: Lord Jesus, what words of praise can I offer You? Death has been swallowed up in Your victory. Your divine life is now alive within me. Jesus Christ, I will love and praise You forever and ever. Amen. 

[Salvation]

 

Marriage = One Man and One Woman

Til' Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for March 31, 2013:

The resurrection of Jesus that we celebrate on Easter was a hard story for the women and apostles to believe. Today, we believe on the testimony of others and two thousand years of retelling the story. Unconditional love is so hard to believe. Believe your spouse’s love anyway.

[Salvation]

An Easter Miracle

Pastor’s Column

Easter Sunday, 2013

 

          Easter is a reminder that the world is not always what it appears to be on the surface. Jesus, having promised to be with us until the end of time, truly is here, but he wants to be discovered by faith. Sometimes, too, he helps us to realize he has been with us all along!

          One day in a previous parish I was called out to pray with a dying man around Eastertime. The place I came to was a very run down, forbidding-looking dilapidated mobile home and as I approached I could hear shouting and not a little cursing going on inside this house. When I knocked on the door, the woman who had called me let me in (by this time I was sure I had the wrong address!) – and on the bed was a very angry looking gentleman who upon seeing me – a priest – began emitting all kinds of profanity and swear words and cussing and this kind of thing. No, he didn’t believe in the Lord and would I please leave?

            Naturally, I was somewhat reluctant to come in! But the wife pleaded with me to stay. She was worried about her husband and where he was going to go after he died (an imminent event) – and with the kind of attitude that he was exhibiting – I wondered myself what was going to happen to him after death.  I also was somewhat unsure of just what I could do since it didn't appear that either God or I were particularly welcome. But the Lord was present and had a plan!

            This man finally relented and said something along the lines of, "Well you might as well pray so I can get rid of you." And this invitation was acceptable to God, if you can believe it. So we all formed a circle and prayed.  I don't remember all of the words of the prayer that I said but when we opened our eyes there was a surprise waiting for us.  Inside the circle of prayer there looking up at me were a big dog and a cat.

            And then the most amazing thing happened. Now this was no miracle to me, but that’s not how this man saw it! He saw these two animals sitting there in the middle of our prayer circle together looking at us and said, "In all the years that I've been here these two animals have done nothing but fight and never come near each other. I've never seen them together like this, let alone at peace."  And he and his wife realized then that only the Lord’s presence could have made this possible, and that he truly had been present in this circle of prayer. This man died believing the Lord had been present there and he died reconciled to God.

            Easter is not a fairy tale. Jesus really is alive and present here in our midst, just as he said he would be, but hidden. So many people go through life without the slightest realization that they are truly loved by God. Jesus is truly raised from the dead! Remember what he said: “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in your midst (Matthew 18:20).”   Don’t let your dog or cat realize it before you do! Happy Easter……

                                                                                          Father Gary

[Salvation]

They Saw and Believed: Scott Hahn Reflects on Easter Sunday

Posted by Dr. Scott Hahn on 03.29.13 |

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

Jesus is nowhere visible. Yet today’s Gospel tells us that Peter and John “saw and believed.”

What did they see? Burial shrouds lying on the floor of an empty tomb. Maybe that convinced them that He hadn’t been carted off by grave robbers, who usually stole the expensive burial linens and left the corpses behind.

But notice the repetition of the word “tomb” - seven times in nine verses. They saw the empty tomb and they believed what He had promised: that God would raise Him on the third day.

Chosen to be His “witnesses,” today’s First Reading tells us, the Apostles were “commissioned…to preach…and testify” to all that they had seen - from His anointing with the Holy Spirit at the Jordan to the empty tomb.

More than their own experience, they were instructed in the mysteries of the divine economy, God’s saving plan - to know how “all the prophets bear witness” to Him (see Luke 24:27,44).

Now they could “understand the Scripture,” could teach us what He had told them - that He was “the Stone which the builders rejected,” that today’s Psalm prophesies His Resurrection and exaltation (see Luke 20:17; Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11).

We are the children of the apostolic witnesses. That is why we still gather early in the morning on the first day of every week to celebrate this feast of the empty tomb, give thanks for “Christ our life,” as today’s Epistle calls Him.

Baptized into His death and Resurrection, we live the heavenly life of the risen Christ, our lives “hidden with Christ in God.” We are now His witnesses, too. But we testify to things we cannot see but only believe; we seek in earthly things what is above.

We live in memory of the Apostles’ witness, like them eating and drinking with the risen Lord at the altar. And we wait in hope for what the Apostles told us would come - the day when we too “will appear with Him in glory.”

[Salvation]

The Empty Tomb

 

"She saw the stone removed from the tomb . . . "

 

Reading for Easter morning: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/033113.cfm

 

Many Catholics believer that a 14 ft long linen cloth ,which bears a somewhat eerie image of the face and body of a bearded man, is the actual burial cloth used to wrap the dead and crucified body of Jesus of Nazareth after being taken down from the cross 2,000 years ago. 

A new book entitled The Mystery of the Shroud by an Italian professor, Giulio Fanti, of mechanical and thermal measurement at the University of Padua, Italy co-authored with an Italian journalist presents some new and very interesting findings on the famed Shroud of Turin. Using the latest methods of infa-red light and spectroscopy, they analyzed the fibres of the shroud.  The test dated the shroud to between 300 BC and 400 AD. The cloth appears to show the imprint of a man with long hair and a beard whose body reveals wounds consistent with the torture of crucifixion. 

But the ultimate question, of course, is the obvious.  Is this a mysteriously imprinted image of Jesus of Nazareth?  And if so, we then know what he looked like and a careful artist and forensic scientists could certainly produce an image of what Jesus looked like in life.  That in itself would be an amazing discovery and we would obviously wonder how the image was imprinted because that question has been answered only through theory. One theory states that the image was caused by some sort of burst of radiation but that is only conjecture.

If there was a way to definitively prove that this indeed is Jesus we see on that cloth, then it proves one thing – that he was crucified and suffered a humiliating agonizing death; that the man shown on the shroud is indeed dead after suffering terrible torture.

So, we might say with a real conviction that Jesus died on the cross as the Gospels tell us. But – what about the rest?  For the next 50 days the truth we mark – the Resurrection of this man from the dead is a time to stand on the foundation of Christian faith.  Does the shroud prove that Jesus rose from the dead?  Not exactly – but it doesn’t disprove it either.

The core Christian belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, God himself come among us, and that the crucified body of Jesus did indeed not just come back to life but came back to life in a way that forever changed the lives of those who saw him.  Those who saw him, touched him, ate with him went from fear to courage, from despair to hope, and from sadness to joy.  These emotions were not just temporary but the encounter with the risen Christ was transforming. 

In the Gospel story from the Easter Vigil Mass Lk 24: 1-12, we do not see the risen Christ.  However, we hear of a stone rolled away from the tomb where Jesus’ body was laid and we hear of two angels who ask the women who had come to anoint his body according to Jewish burial practice: “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here but he has been raised.”

That message is carried to the Apostles, who are skeptical to say the least, except for Peter who runs to the tomb and is amazed at what he finds.  But no Jesus – only the word of others.  Only the witness of others is presented for our consideration.

In an age that presents many truths to us but resists conceding anything that is “the” truth, the resurrection of Christ challenges us to believe that he is “THE” truth. And that if he is “the” truth, then our faith in him can be transforming as the experience of the risen Christ was for those who witnessed: Peter, and the Apostles, Mary Magdalene, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and even the somewhat skeptical Apostle, Thomas. Our faith and our truth is the same as the early Christians who heard the Apostles preach to them about who they saw and came to believe in. 

Our faith is the same as that of Saul of Tarsus, a sworn enemy of the Christians, who was literally knocked down and confronted with the voice of the risen Christ who questioned why he was persecuting his followers and in so doing was persecuting him.

Our faith is the same as countless Christian martyrs who were and are so convinced that who they believe in is worth preserving more than their own lives.

In the resurrection we move from the Jesus of history to the Christ of faith.  If we live only in the world of science, technology and measured proof, the resurrection is pretty much a fairy tale or a sign of desperate hope. 

But if we move in to the world of the Apostles, the early Christians, the martyrs, and the Saints, then Jesus’ power to change our lives to become more like his own is a conviction and “the” truth worth even dying for. 

We hear these days much about a “new evangelization” of the Church.  Blessed Pope John Paul II, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI spoke of it and now certainly Pope Francis is reminding us what it may look like and what we, as a people of “the” truth should do.

What we hear is that as people of the resurrection we are called to mission.  To carry this good news out to the world around us by our example and our conviction.  If that sounds familiar it is what the Apostles did and the martyrs and saints teach us about Jesus the risen Lord who is “the” way, “the” truth and “the” life.

The new evangelization, in this year of Faith that the Church marks, is described by one of the present leading writers on the Catholic Church, George Weigel, in his recent book: Evangelical Catholicism.   

He tells us: “The Gospel centered Evangelical Catholicism of the future will send all the people of the Church into mission territory every day . . . Evangelical Catholicism unapologetically proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the truth of the world.”

We begin in our faith home – our parish and community which is mission territory for us all. Then we move to the sacraments where we encounter the living Christ in the waters of Baptism, the anointing of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, and the food of the Eucharist which is that of Christ himself.  In Reconciliation we find the merciful and forgiving Christ, in anointing the sick we find the healing Jesus, in Marriage and Holy Orders we find a Christ who calls us to service in the community of faith. 

While something like the shroud may present us with a tangible proof, only faith can transform our lives.

 

Fr. Tim

[Salvation]

Insight Scoop

The Logic of the Resurrection

The Logic of the Resurrection | Fr. James V. Schall, SJ | Catholic World Report

The truth of the resurrection of the body is bound up with the question of justice.

The resurrection of the body is not primarily a question of logic. It is a question of fact, of witness. We do not begin from a philosophical theory to deduce the resurrection of the body. Rather we start from the fact of the resurrection of Christ. We ask whether it makes sense, whether it is “reasonable” in some basic manner. In this sense, philosophy follows fact, provided we can accept the facts of what is. 

In his book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, Benedict XVI examined all the evidence that would argue that the resurrection as a fact did not happen. He concluded we have no evidence showing that the testimony and witness of the disciples present at the events were fabricated, false, or naïve. We conclude that Jesus was who He said He was. Included in this understanding of who He was is His resurrection. But the resurrection involves the fact that Christ as such was one of the Persons of the Trinity, the Word, who became man. It was not the Father or the Spirit who became man. The resurrection thus refers to Christ insofar as He was true man, yet also God.

We learn in the Old Testament that God never intended for us to die. But we also learn that death was a consequence of a prior act of man. Death followed the exercise of freedom. Man was not forced to be what he was intended to be. We might then expect that the overcoming of death would also be the consequence of freedom. The question is whether the exercise of human freedom, our self-redemption, was sufficient to accomplish this purpose. The whole account of Christ’s passion revolves about this issue.

Behind this question of freedom, however, is the fact that by nature we human beings, body and soul, are not free from death. We are the mortals. We die and we know that we die. Yet, something about us seems “immortal.” We call our souls precisely immortal, a spiritual power. But this immortality as such does not include our bodies, the whole persons that we are. 

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[Salvation]

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"The Truth of the Resurrection" by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

The Truth of the Resurrection | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger | From Introduction to Christianity

To the Christian, faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an expression of certainty that the saying that seems to be only a beautiful dream is in fact true: "Love is strong as death" (Song 8:6). In the Old Testament this sentence comes in the middle of praises of the power of eros. But this by no means signifies that we can simply push it aside as a lyrical exaggeration. The boundless demands of eros", its apparent exaggerations and extravagance, do in reality give expression to a basic problem, indeed the" basic problem of human existence, insofar as they reflect the nature and intrinsic paradox of love: love demands infinity, indestructibility; indeed, it is, so to speak, a call for infinity. But it is also a fact that this cry of love's cannot be satisfied, that it demands infinity but cannot grant it; that it claims eternity but in fact is included in the world of death, in its loneliness and its power of destruction. Only from this angle can one understand what "resurrection" means. It is" the greater strength of love in face of death.

At the same time it is proof of what only immortality can create: being in the other who still stands when I have fallen apart. Man is a being who himself does not live forever but is necessarily delivered up to death. For him, since he has no continuance in himself, survival, from a purely human point of view, can only become possible through his continuing to exist in another. The statements of Scripture about the connection between sin and death are to he understood from this angle. For it now becomes clear that man's attempt "to be like God", his striving for autonomy, through which he wishes to stand on his own feet alone, means his death, for he just cannot stand on his own. If man--and this is the real nature of sin--nevertheless refuses to recognize his own limits and tries to be completely self-sufficient, then precisely by adopting this attitude he delivers himself up to death.

Of course man does understand that his life alone does not endure and that he must therefore strive to exist in others, so as to remain through them and in them in the land of the living. Two ways in particular have been tried. First, living on in one's own children: that is why in primitive peoples failure to marry and childlessness are regarded as the most terrible curse; they mean hopeless destruction, final death. Conversely, the largest possible number of children offers at the same time the greatest possible chance of survival, hope of immortality, and thus the most genuine blessing that man can expect. Another way discloses itself when man discovers that in his children he only continues to exist in a very unreal way; he wants more of himself to remain. So he takes refuge in the idea of fame, which should make him really immortal if be lives on through all ages in the memory of others. But this second attempt of man's to obtain immortality for himself by existing in others fails just as badly as the first: what remains is not the self but only its echo, a mere shadow. So self-made immortality is really only a Hades, a sheol": more nonbeing than being. The inadequacy of both ways lies partly in the fact that the other person who holds my being after my death cannot carry this being itself but only its echo; and even more in the fact that even time other person to whom I have, so to speak, entrusted my continuance will not last--he, too, will perish.

This leads us to the next step. We have seen so far that man has no permanence in himself. And consequently can only continue to exist in another but that his existence in another is only shadowy and once again not final, because this other must perish, too. If this is so, then only one could truly give lasting stability: he who is, who does not come into existence and pass away again but abides in the midst of transience: the God of the living, who does not hold just the shadow and echo of my being, whose ideas are not just copies of reality. I myself am his thought, which establishes me more securely, so to speak, than I am in myself; his thought is not the posthumous shadow but the original source and strength of my being. In him I can stand as more than a shadow; in him I am truly closer to myself than I should be if I just tried to stay by myself.

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