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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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2 Easter
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Second
Sunday of Easter - Cycle C
John 20, 19-31
A prisoner of war, a nominal Christian, was being abused. However, one
guard was regularly kind. One day he stood next to the prisoner and
drew a Cross in the dirt. Then he smiled and whispered,"Believe." The
pow's faith took a seismic leap.
"Joy," wrote Leon Bloy, "is the most infallible sign of the presence of
God."
The results are in and they are not happy ones. "Weekly church
attendance for US Catholics is much closer to 25% than to 50%." The
researchers hail from the Sociology Department at the University of
Notre Dame. These scholarly findings do confirm what many of our
unscholarly eyes have been telling us on Sunday mornings.
No doubt many of our fellow Catholics are staying under their electric
blankets on Sunday mornings out of sheer laziness and indifference.
Still there are countless others staying there because of an absence of
faith. And, faith is what it is all about this Easter season.
One has to wonder whether I myself, say, or you are the cause of the
lack of faith in others. I was riding the New York City subways. Across
from me sat a religious in full habit. She struck me as singularly
unhappy. She seemed so stern. Even when I greeted her, she did not
reply. My stop arrived and I exited. A passenger, unknown to me,
shared the same destination. He had witnessed her deliberate snub of
me. On the platform, he said to me, "That nun was a very poor
advertisement for the good news that Jesus has risen."
I kept my silence, murmured a "God bless," and moved off. Yet, Monsieur
Bloy's observation did come to mind. Someone had the patience to count
the number of times the word joy appears in the Bible. The number is an
astonishing 542.
Am I a joyful person? Are you? Do people look at us and sense
that we firmly believe that Jesus the Lord has conquered death? Do they
sense that we subscribe to that beautiful line from the Apocalypse? "I
was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever."
Or do they feel as my fellow subway passenger that there is no Easter
joy about us and that we appear to be prophets of both doom and gloom?
It is an awesome responsibility to be a Christian. And we must act
accordingly. A dour Catholic is an oxymoron. Ours is an age where faith
is an absent quality in even many ostensibly Catholic households.
It is important to reflect that genuine joy is not "make believe." Nor
does authentic joy call it a day when it makes us feel good and causes
us to walk about with a large smile. Rather, it leads us to live lives
worthy of the risen Christ we salute this sacred season. We become
people filled with good works as well as cheer.
James Tahaney has put the point I am trying to make well. We tell God
that we do love Him, but we must prove that declaration by our actions.
"Proof, says Tahaney, "comes from performance, not promises."
We would all do well to check our Catholic and Christian lives
critically from time to time. Are we working at the faith as well as we
should? Can others looking at us tell that we are clearly the followers
of Jesus? Do we possess Easter joy? Haven't we been told often enough
that faith is something caught and not taught?
One of the best ways to both measure ourselves and then correct a bad
situation is with the Scriptures themselves. Perhaps you may want to
follow the advice offered by O.T. Gifford in the book he titled Hints
to Young Christians . And no matter what one's age is, one should by
definition be a young Christian. Isn't that what the Easter Gospels are
all about?
Writes Gifford, "If you're getting lazy, read James. If your faith is
below par, read Paul. If you're impatient, consider the book of Job. If
you're a little strong-headed, go and see Moses. If you're weak-kneed,
have a look at Elijah. If there is no song in your heart, listen to
David. If you feel spiritually chilly, get the beloved disciple John to
put his arms around you. And if you're losing sight of the future,
climb to Revelation and get a glimpse of heaven."
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
2 Easter
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2nd Easter: Doubts and Faith
On
this Second Sunday of Easter, we always hear the Gospel of Doubting
Thomas proclaimed. This Gospel always leaves me pondering two
main questions: “Why do we have doubts?” and, “Why do we have faith?”
I
know that doubting is part of being a human being, but I am still
shocked when I read that not only did the disciples doubt the Lord
during His ministry on earth and during His Passion, they even doubted
Him after the Resurrection. And it wasn’t just Thomas. Look
at Matthew 28:16-20. As the disciples gathered on the Mount of
the Ascension, Jesus appeared again to them, but, the scripture says,
“some still doubted.” Why did they doubt? Here they had the
Resurrected Lord right in front of them. That was more than Thomas had
when the other disciples told him that they had seen the Lord.
Perhaps, some of the disciples on that mountain wondered if this really
was a ghost, or a strange phenomenon. Most probably, their doubts
were simply part of being human beings. We are always going to
have doubts until we see God face to face.
What
then are the causes of these doubts? I know that when we start
growing intellectually, when our minds become capable of handling
abstract concepts, we tend to question that which was presented to us
the only way we could understand it as a child, in concrete
concepts. So here we are advancing from arithmetic to calculous
in our knowledge of math, but stuck with an anthropomorphic image of
God as an Man with a White Flowing Beard, ala Michelangelo’s ceiling in
the Sistine Chapel. The development of our knowledge of the depth of
our beliefs barely approaches our intellectual development in the less
significant areas of our lives.
I
can remember the type of doubts I had a long time ago when I was a
preppie. Yes, I went to a prep school, Seton Hall Prep. I
even had a jacket I treasured with the school emblem on the front
pocket and its motto, “Hazard Zet Forward.” I’m still not sure
what a zet was. At that time in my life I was more concerned with
zits then zets. Anyway, I remember when I was a preppie
wondering, “Does God really exist? Am I sure that this isn’t all
being made up? How could God be One in Three. How could
Jesus be fully God and fully man?” Questions like that would
really bother me until I finally said, “There are a lot of things I
don’t understand, and maybe I am not meant to understand them. But I
don’t have to understand to believe. I just have to believe.” The
existential philosopher, Soren Kirkegaard called this the leap of
faith.
I
remember back in college learning St. Thomas Aquinas’ five rational
proofs for the existence of God. There was the Unmoved
Mover. Everything is put into motion by something else. A
ball is put into motion by a baseball bat. A baseball bat by a
hitter. A hitter by his body formed from his mother and
father. And you go on and on until you have to say, somewhere
there is something that puts other things into motion but is itself not
put into motion. We call this Unmoved Mover, God. Or the
argument that everything and everybody has been placed into existence
by something or someone else. There must be something or someone
that is not caused to happen but exists in its own right. We call
that someone God. And we can go on to talk about the existence that
always was, the sum total of all possible goodness, and the intelligent
being that directs all things to their natural ends. These five
proofs were intellectually stimulating, but they didn’t cure my desire
for faith. They just provided me with arguments against
atheists. God did not create us so we can argue with those He
also created but who do not recognize Him. So, for me, and
perhaps for you, the intellectual arguments really fall flat.
I
know that many of us have to put up with people challenging our
faith. Our high school and college students have to endure
professors and others of the pseudo intelligentsia treating them like
simple children because they believe. I say pseudo
intelligentsia, because if they were truly intelligent, they would
never question another’s deep rooted faith. I know that many of
us have to put up with relatives, friends, or even the door to door
proselytizers who do their best to dissuade us from Catholicism
or Christianity. Usually those who attack us like that help us
deepen our convictions. Instead of arguing, just respond, “I am a
Catholic. This is what I believe. I respect your
belief. I don’t ask you to believe what I believe. I only
ask you to respect me for my faith.” Still, these people do place some
doubts in our minds.
A
far more troublesome source of doubts come in all our lives when we
enter into periods of crisis: Where was God when a child, Teen or
young adult you knew and loved died? Or, where was God when you prayed
for your Mom and Dad to stay together, and they still broke
up? Perhaps, the problem here is that we ask for help, and
take it for granted that if God doesn’t intervene directly, He must not
exist. Rather, I believe that God is present with us in crises.
Sometimes our prayers are answered. But even when our crises result in
death, failure or whatever, God is still present holding onto us.
Remember that the shortest verse in scripture contains the Lord
sharing our anguish. That shortest verse is found in the Gospel
of John when Jesus stands outside of his friend Lazarus’ tomb.
The verse is simply, “Jesus wept.” He
wept over the condition of a world where the people who were created in
the Image and Likeness of God would still suffer. A world that has
rejected the Lord of Life has inflicted death and suffering on all its
inhabitants.
But
even crises are not the most serious cause of doubts in our
lives. The most serious cause of doubts in our faith come when we
leap into immorality. Many go through a period of hypocrisy,
saying one thing in Church and doing something all together opposite
outside of the Church. But eventually, the hypocrisy catches up
with us all, and we have to make a choice between living a lie or
rejecting our faith. Please understand, if you are in high school or
college, if you are a young single adult or an older married adult, or
even if you are a senior citizen, if you go through life looking for
the next party to get drunk at, or the best place to find drugs, or if
you are on the prowl for the next guy or girl to have sex with, you are
not going to be able to deal with your own presence in Church.
You are not going to be able to deal with your own hypocrisy. So
the choice will be to either change your life or reject your
faith. Sadly, the second is often chosen. People in lives
of sin deal with their hypocrisy by saying they no longer believe.
All
of these and more are reasons why we have doubts. But why do we
have faith?
We
have faith not because we agree with rational arguments for faith,
although these can help. We don’t have faith because we are
stubborn when confronted by those trying to dissuade us, although it is
a very good and very right to proclaim our faith to those who challenge
us. We should be stubborn in our faith before those who question
us. Perhaps we have faith because faith is all that we can hold
on to when we are in crisis. That is a very good reason for
faith. Or perhaps
we have faith because we know what we are like, how we would live our
lives without faith. We hate the animal life we reduce ourselves
to when we eliminate God from our lives. That is also a powerful
reason for our faith.
All
these are good reasons for faith, but the most important reason for
faith is this: We have faith because we have experienced the Love of
God in our lives as individuals and as a people. We have faith
because we have felt His Love within us at various times in our lives,
usually when we least expect it. We have faith when we reflect on
how pointless life would be if Jesus had not Risen from the Dead and
given us His Life, gifted us with the Spiritual.
At
the end of today’s Gospel we heard:
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that
are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come
to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through
this belief you may have life in his name.
We have faith because Jesus has given us life. The tomb is empty,
but our lives are full. Jesus Christ is our deepest love.
His presence makes all life worthwhile. His presence is a guarantee of
eternal life. His presence is a guarantee of eternal love.
And, as Barlow Girls sing, “We need Him to love us.”
This
Sunday is also called Divine Mercy Sunday. When we consider our
human condition with all our doubts and with our need for faith, we
have a deeper understanding that we live under the mercy of God.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
2 Easter
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Believing
is Seeing
(April 11, 2010)
Bottom line: St. Thomas discovered not only that seeing is believing,
but that believing is seeing.
You have heard it said, "Seeing is believing." The Apostle Thomas -
also known as Doubting Thomas - illustrates that principle. This Sunday
I would like to look at the other side of the coin. Not only is seeing
believing, but believing is seeing. In some very important ways we have
to believe in order to see. St. Thomas illustrates that principle as
well. But before focusing on how he believed in order to see, I would
like to show how the principle applies in other areas of life.
The great modern philosopher, Emmanuel Kant, spoke about how we have to
make "leap in the dark" before we can begin to live a good life. Kant
pointed out that before we can speak about good and bad, right and
wrong, we have to accept this principle: That a person should do good
and avoid evil. If someone does not accept that principle, it is a
waste of time to speak with him about what things are right or wrong,
good or bad. Do you see what I am saying? It might sound obvious that
we should do good and avoid evil, but that basic principle does involve
a leap of faith. There is no way you can prove that someone should do
good and avoid evil. You simply have to accept that principle - and get
on with it.
It may cause surprise, but doing scientific research also involves a
leap of faith. Various philosophers of science (such as Karl Popper)
have pointed out science begins with at least an implicit acceptance of
certain principles: That the universe is knowable and rational - that
it is not at the mercy of irrational, arbitrary forces. Not every
culture believes that. One of the reasons why science developed and
flourished in the West is because of the Jewish and Christian belief
that while God is beyond our understanding he is not capricious and
irrational. Along with many other people, Dinesh D'Souza, argues that
it is not an accident that the greatest modern scientists were
believing Christians. After giving an impressive list,* D'Souza
observes:
"The deeper point to be made here, however, is not merely that leading
scientists over the centuries have been Christian, but that science
itself, in its assumption that the universe is rational and obeys laws
discoverable by the human mind, is based on Christian precepts and
cannot in fact be done without Christian presuppositions."
I know this statement surprises many people, but the fact is that
science - like everyday morality - begins with a certain leap of faith.
Science not only follows the principle that "seeing is believing," but
also acknowledges the principle that "believing is seeing." You have to
make at least an implicit act of faith before you can get started.
So, believing is seeing. As I mentioned in the beginning, while St.
Thomas the Apostle wanted to see the evidence, when he finally did
encounter the Risen Jesus, he made an of faith. He said, "My Lord and
my God!" Now, we might think: "Of course, I would believe too if Jesus
appeared to me and showed me his wounded hands and side." Yes, but
something more is involved.
Let me make a comparison. When a young man and woman marry, they say,
"I will be true to you in good time and in bad, in sickness and in
health, until death do us part." They do have evidence of the other
person's goodness and trustworthiness, but at the same time they are
making a step of faith. Without it, you cannot have the lifelong union
of marriage.
Marriage and family begin with an act of faith. So does every human
relationship and every human institution: a bank, a school, a grocery
store, a parish. We have to begin by placing some faith, some trust in
each other - or we will get nowhere. And of course we have work hard to
maintain the other person's trust. I want you to know that here at St.
Mary of the Valley and in the Archdiocese of Seattle we are working
hard for your trust.
But, you know, even if human beings sometimes let us down, there is one
who always deserves our faith. Today that person speaks beautiful
words: Peace be with you; do not be afraid. He offers evidence, but in
the end he asks for an act of faith. Regarding Jesus, the act of faith
must be absolute. There is no middle ground. As we heard today from the
Book of Revelation, Jesus presents himself as, "the first and the last,
the one who lives." He says, "Once I was dead, but now I am alive
forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld." Before
Jesus, we have to give all or walk away.
St. Thomas gave all. He said, "My Lord and my God." This act of faith
would begin a great adventure that (according to tradition) would take
him eventually to India where he would give his life for Christ. He saw
marvellous things, but the greatest was his relationship with Jesus.
St. Thomas discovered not only that seeing is believing, but that
believing is seeing.**
I invite you this morning to make an act of faith. Especially as I lift
the consecrated Host, the Holy Spirit may inspire you to say the same
words as the Apostle Thomas, "My Lord and my God."***
**********
*"Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Brahe, Descartes, Boyle, Newton,
Leibniz, Gassendi, Pascal, Mersenne, Cuvier, Harvey, Dalton, Farady,
Hershel, Joule, Lyell, Lavoisier, Priestley, Kelvin, Ohm, Ampere,
Steno, Pasteur, Maxwell, Planck, Mendel and Lemaitre. Einstein too was
a believer in God as a kind of supreme mind or spirit discernible
through the complex and beautiful laws of nature."
**The early Christian writers had a phrase: "credo ut intelligam." (I
believe so that I might understand.) They knew, of course, that our
faith has plenty of room for honest questioners. Their questions often
lead to deeper insights, but ultimately we must begin and end with
faith: "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
***For Divine Mercy Sunday, a homilist could add:
St. Thomas professed his faith in Jesus - and began to see the deep
reality of who Jesus is. After two thousand years of reflection, we
still only have a small glimpse of who Jesus is - but we can today sum
up his relationship to us with a single word: Mercy. Jesus makes
visible the Divine Merc6y.
Today in our sanctuary we have the Divine Mercy image. Our Psalm
repeated these words: "His mercy endures forever." In the Gospel Jesus
makes Divine Mercy evident by his resurrection. When he appears to the
disciples, he does not chide them or chew them out – even though they
deserved it. They had all run away. Peter denied that he even knew
Jesus. Jesus does not chastise them, but instead says, “Peace be with
you.” Then he breathed the Holy Spirit on them. The Holy Spirit is
God’s Divine Mercy. By the power the Holy Spirit, he gives them a task:
they are to be his official representatives in forgiving sins: Whose
sins you forgive, they are forgiven. What we see is great outpouring of
Divine Mercy.
Someone who had a powerful insight into Divine Mercy was Mother
Angelica. I am sure you have heard of her – the Poor Clare nun who
founded the EWTN – the Eternal Word Television Network. Once she was at
a beach in California and even though she wears leg braces, she likes
to get close to the surf. A large wave came in and the water covered
her shoes. Then she heard a voice, "Angelica, that drop represents all
your sins, all your imperfections and all your frailties. Throw it in
the ocean." She threw it back. Then she heard the Lord say, "The ocean
is My mercy. Now if you looked for that drop, would you ever find it?"
"No, Lord," she replied. Mother Angelica then told the people in her
audience that their sins are like that drop in the ocean. "Every day,
every minute of the day, throw your drop in the ocean of his His mercy.
Then, don't worry, just try harder."
Every day we should throw our sins into the ocean of Divine Mercy – and
make a fresh start.
Spanish Version
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
2 Easter
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April
11th, 2010 AD
Background:
Often this Gospel is used as an occasion to prove the Church’s
control of the forgiveness of sins and even to demand more frequent
confession.
The Church, in this perspective, has a monopoly on forgiveness
and must be stern in its use. Patently this narrowly circumscribes the
passionate forgiveness of God which Jesus came to reveal. God may be
generous with forgiveness, it is implied, but the Church cannot and
should not. Yet the story of Thomas, immediately after suggests that
such an interpretation of the words of Jesus missed the points.
To forgive is not a right to be jealously guarded, but an
obligation to be exercised generously. We do not earn our own
forgiveness by forgiving others. Rather we manifest the
generosity and implacability of God’s forgiveness of us.
Story:
Once upon a time there was a man who counted carefully all his grudges.
He remembered all the cruelties of the school yard, the taunts from his
class when he did something well, the feather-brained
irresponsibilities (as he saw them) of the young women he had
dated, the dishonesty of his business associates, the insensitivity of
his wife, the ingratitude of his children. So many people had done such
terrible things to him that he figured that there had to be a
conspiracy. Who could have organized such a massive conspiracy?
Only God.
For some reason, maybe it was his face, God did not like him.
This was unfair, but what could he do. If God had a grudge against him,
that was God’s privilege. But then he had the right to hold a grudge
against God. So he died lonely and isolated, hated (he thought) by
everyone who ought to have loved him. I have a grudge against You, he
told God on first meeting. So what, God replied. I don’t have a grudge
against you, so forget about it!
Then God showed him the people at his funeral Mass. All the
people who had injured him were sobbing in church. Do you think maybe
you missed the point, God asked.
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
2 Easter
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Gospel
Summary Return to All Homilies
Apr, 11, 2010
John 20:19-31
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
Second Sunday of Easter
Gospel Summary
It is surely an understatement to say that the disciples were filled
with joy as Jesus appeared to them, alive and well, on that first
Easter day. It will take years for them to draw out all the wonderful
implications of this dramatic moment in their lives but for now it is
sheer joy. Jesus then gives them a mandate to bring peace to the world
by translating their happiness into the difficult but rewarding gift of
forgiveness.
The story of "doubting Thomas" is presented as a warning to those of us
who have trouble trusting the spiritual side of life. Thomas is called
the "twin," possibly because he had a striking physical resemblance to
Jesus, but he discovers that this does not give him any advantage at
all. What counts now is a spiritual relationship. We often assume that
those who knew Jesus in the flesh had a great advantage over the rest
of us and we may even envy them. In fact, however, the risen Lord is
far more present to us now in the Spirit than he ever was in the flesh.
Finally, the author of the gospel reminds us that everything he has
written is intended, not primarily to give us information about Jesus,
but rather to bring us to faith in him and thereby to lead us to real
"life in his name."
Life Implications
The last verses of this gospel passage are among the most challenging
passages in the entire gospel. In the first place, we are told that the
whole gospel of John is intended to bring us to "believe that Jesus is
the Messiah, the Son of God." This does not mean simply that we accept
the fact that Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel's hopes and, much more
than that, the very Son of God, equal to the Father and the Holy
Spirit. To believe in Jesus means also that we accept the message,
found in his words and in his example, of total self-giving for the
sake of others. When we truly accept this message, we pledge ourselves
to live and love as much as possible Jesus did.
What is the consequence of such a radical way of living? It enables us
to participate in the very life of Jesus. As the gospel puts it, the
whole purpose of believing is that "you may have life in his name."
This statement is far more daring and revolutionary than we may think.
For it means that, through love of others, we begin to participate in
the love and life of God. To love unselfishly is to love as God loves,
and that means sharing in God's life, insofar as mere creatures can do
so.
In other words, we are invited to share in a life that is far superior
to the fragile, uncertain life of our mortal existence. This new life
is given in baptism but it must be nourished by our commitment to
loving service and by our participation in the Eucharist, the ultimate
sacrament of love and concern for others.
St. Paul expresses the same conviction when he writes those wonderfully
consoling words: "Therefore, we are not discouraged; although our outer
self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2
Cor 4:16). This inner renewal is nothing less than the growth of God's
life within us.
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
2 Easter
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Second
Sunday of Easter
Acts 5, 12-16; Psalm 118; Revelation 1, 9-11. 12-13. 17-19; St. John
20, 19-31
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Today we hear that the apostles, bound by the imprisonment of fear,
have locked themselves into the upper room, and that "Jesus came and
stood before them...Then he breathed on them and said: 'Receive the
Holy Spirit. If you forgive men's sins, they are forgiven them; if you
hold them bound, they are held bound.' "
In this Easter season, we celebrate the Divine gift of the third person
of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, as an outpouring of the Risen
Christ. Today the Church shares in the Resurrection and the life of
Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. What does this gift mean
to the Church? The peace of Christ, always ours with the forgiveness of
our sins.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches us what the Church
has always believed by professing in the Creed "I believe in the
forgiveness of sins": our gift for salvation in the Holy Spirit. The
Creed links "the forgiveness of sins" with profession of faith in the
Holy Spirit because the risen Christ entrusted to the apostles the
power to forgive sins when he gave them the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of the forgiveness of sins: it
unites us to Christ, who died and rose, and gives us the Holy Spirit.
By Christ's will, the Church possesses the power to forgive our sins
after baptism and exercises it through bishops and priests normally in
the sacrament of Penance.
In the forgiveness of sins, both priests and sacraments are instruments
which our Lord Jesus Christ, the only author and liberal giver of
salvation, wills to use in order to efface our sins and give us the
grace of justification. (CCC 984-987)
If you would be preserved "from all anxiety" as we pray in the Mass,
regularly practice the Sacrament of Confession. Salvation begins now as
we are released from the bonds of fear and anxiety, in the first place
by the forgiveness of our sins. Confession is an Easter sacrament.
Celebrate Easter: celebrate Confession. The Holy Spirit will give you
the peace of confidence in Christ's saving passion and Resurrection.
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy" -Father Cusick
(Publish with permission.) www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
2 Easter
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Sermon by Father Alex McAllister SDS Index
Second Sunday of Easter
The period between Easter and Pentecost must have been very strange for
Christ’s disciples. You can just imagine them stuck in the Upper Room
wondering what was going on. They were afraid and confused, and who
could blame them for that, after what had just happened.
Their inspiring leader and the one on whom they had placed all their
hope and trust had just been executed. He had foreseen his death and
even spoken about rising from the dead but they hadn’t taken him
seriously and they certainly weren’t prepared for the terrible events
of Good Friday. And now there was the disturbing news about the empty
tomb.
Peter and John seemed to believe that something extraordinary had
happened, but it is likely that many of the disciples felt that the
possibility of Christ rising from the dead was just too good to be
true. We have the story of Thomas to back up this assertion. The main
feeling was most likely the fear that what had happened to Jesus could
just as easily happen to them.
Then, of course, the most extraordinary thing happens; the Risen Christ
suddenly appears to them, right there in the Upper Room. And he does
something even more unexpected, he breathes on them and says those
unforgettable words about receiving the Holy Spirit and bestowing on
them the power of forgiveness.
When he got back from the city it is not surprising that Thomas doubted
the other disciples. He must have had a hard time making sense of what
they were telling him. But, soon enough, he himself experiences
something just as extraordinary; something which prompts him to make
one of the briefest and most profound acts of faith by uttering the
immortal words ‘My Lord and my God.’
As we go through life and experience its ups and downs, and our faith
is subjected to the many buffets inevitable on living in a secular
society, we can easily identify with those confused and fearful
disciples. We frequently wonder if all we were taught was true. We
often lose hope and trust in a God who so often feels very far away.
Faith comes to people in different ways. For some it is a fragile thing
that is easily overwhelmed by the hurly burly of life; whereas for
others it is a rock solid anchor and the one thing in life they can be
sure of.
Most of us, I suppose, regard ourselves as somewhere in between these
two poles. We cling on to our faith regarding it as something valuable
and although, at times, it feels fragile at other times we discover
that it is the one sure thing we can hold on to amid the storms of life.
One of the most pleasant duties of a priest is to accompany those who
express the wish to join the Church. Generally speaking it is a process
taking about six months with weekly meetings at which we discuss the
faith journey of the individual and examine the doctrines of the Church
in a fairly systematic way. This year we accompanied two people into
the Church during the very joyful Easter Vigil.
The important thing is to give them the space to talk about the
spiritual journey on which they have been engaged and which often has
taken them many years. They frequently feel that God has been leading
them on this journey through life and that now they have arrived at an
important stage on the road.
They realise that becoming a Catholic does not mean that they have
arrived at their destination and that there is no more to do. No, the
ultimate destination of us all is heaven and becoming a full member of
the Church is more about continuing the journey than arriving.
Probably the most reassuring words in our Gospel text today are the
words of the Lord himself, “You believe because you can see me. Happy
are those who have not seen me and yet believe.”
I don’t know about you but I feel a sense of pride whenever I hear
those words. I experience a surge of confidence and thank God for the
gift of faith. There is almost the feeling that I have a bit of an edge
over those first disciples, like Thomas, who needed proof.
Of course, there never can be absolute proof of the existence of God.
Today we are surrounded by sceptics on all sides. There is even a group
of English speaking intellectuals who call themselves The New Atheists
who are dedicated to opposing religion by means of so-called rational
arguments.
These New Atheists try to subject belief in God to scientific analysis.
They say they can only be satisfied by empirical evidence for the
existence of God and they argue that the absence of evidence is the
evidence of absence.
These New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens,
are very prominent in the media and have committed themselves to
attacking and exposing the erroneousness of belief in God and the
supernatural.
In my view they completely misunderstand faith; if the existence of God
were able to be proved it would not require faith because it would
already be certain.
The Church teaches us that faith is not something that we can take for
granted because it is primarily a gift from God. However, we do have
the duty to treasure it and nurture it. We do this through frequent
recourse to prayer, we also do it through study and most importantly
through sharing our faith with our fellow Catholics.
If we have a common faith it is vitally important that we talk about it
otherwise how can we grow as a community? Discussions are important for
they help us to strengthen our faith, to correct error and to guide us
on the road forward.
It is also very necessary to guard one’s self against falling away from
faith and, again, one good way of doing this is to explore our faith
with others of like-minded belief.
The basic unit of the Church is the family and it is absolutely vital
that such discussions about our faith and beliefs occur in the home.
The parents are the primary teachers of the faith and it is from them
that children from their very earliest years acquire their outlook on
the world and in particular their basic knowledge of God, Christ and
the Church.
The next most important unit is the parish community and it is
essential that we provide opportunities for such discussions to take
place in a parish context. Here in Thornbury we support the work of
parents by providing a school and catechetical teaching for our young
people. But we also provide opportunities for adults to discuss aspects
of faith in a non-threatening atmosphere through our Growing Faith
Programme which is constantly advertised in the Weekly Bulletin.
Please take advantage of these opportunities to nourish and strengthen
your faith. We live in a harsh and critical world and it is vital that
we do all we can to build up our own faith and therefore also the faith
of the whole Catholic community.
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
2 Easter |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author. |
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