our Father’s Love
A quick note about today’s Gospel… The two disciples on the road to Emmaus with Jesus. Jesus becomes recognizable to them when he “breaks the bread,” and then he vanishes. Jesus has instituted the Eucharist in order to be with us, wherever we are, all around the world, on whatever road. He comes to us now in Holy Communion. He breaks the bread, gives it to them, and then vanishes. What is left is the Eucharist and the believers, the recipients of the Eucharist. We see Christ in the Eucharist, and we also now see Christ in one another. He has become part of us, united with us, through the Eucharist. This also helps explain why Jesus told Mary Magdalene “not to cling to him” in an earlier Easter story, when she saw the risen Lord. How peculiar it was for him to say not to cling to him because he hadn’t yet risen to his Father. After he rises to his Father, he will come to us in a new way, a Eucharistic way. After that, we can “cling to him,” and him to us, because he comes to us in the Eucharist. He allows himself to be placed on our hand, on our tongue, and to become part of us, so that we can carry him around with us, inside of us. He will now be on every road, to every city, not only on the road to Emaus, through the Eucharistic “bread.”
These are quick thoughts. Today we hear the story of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in their room. Three times Jesus says, “Peace be with you.” He offers them peace, when he had every right to be upset. This shows his mercy. Peter had rejected him three times. Only one of the disciples was at the foot of the cross. None of them would stay up and pray with him the night of his arrest. He could have been made, but he offers peace, something unexpected, something merciful, love.
Thomas asks to see the wounds of Christ in order to believe. This story provides one explanation why God allows bad things to happen to good people. It is through the wounds that Thomas believes. Despite the wounds, despite Christ’s death, here Jesus was, standing before him. Alive and loving, Jesus was offering his friendship to Thomas again. This is something that converts people; it converted Thomas from being hard of heart to believing. When we can stand again with our wounds, alive, and loving; this is proof of the power and existence of God in his believers. It is difficult to recover from the sins of others and our own sins, but as Christians, there is every hope that even with our wounds, we can return to life and to a life of forgiveness, peace, and love. Thank God for his wonderful work of mercy.
Like Peter we sometimes ask why the cross is necessary. Why did he allow his Son to experience the rejection and pain of the Cross? This was Peter’s question. He didn’t want Jesus to experience suffering. And sometimes we don’t want to experience it ourselves. Today our Lord asks us to accept the Cross; he says that new life for us will come from it. We also know that the Cross is God’s highest expression of his love for us. We can begin to understand this through an image of mother or father with their 1 year old.
The Scripture Readings
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Some weeks ago, I gave a homily about how Pope Francis wants our parish to be a place of welcome for all people. He wrote, last March, a document called the Joy of Love, and in it he asked us to be accepting of people who have been divorced and remarried or who are struggling with same sex attraction. After Mass, some parishioners asked me whether this mean that the Church was abandoning the truth of our Lord, and it’s a fair question, but the answer is no.
In that document the Pope wrote, “In order to avoid all misunderstanding, I would point out that in no way must the Church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, God’s plan in all its grandeur.”
The Scripture Readings (more…)
Do we remember as kids not wanting to brush our teeth? It was an obligation. We only did it after being asked multiple times or after being warned of punishment. And what changed when we grew older… was it not that we started to “like someone?” All of a sudden we were brushing our teeth multiple times per day, chewing gum any time between. Winterfresh, Tic-Tacs, Binacha, Mentos! We go well beyond obligation when we like someone, when we want to grow in relationship. So what about God, do we like him? (see scripture readings) (more…)
Mary said yes and entered through the narrow gate.
When we think of salvation, are we even interested in it? Especially in our youth or early adulthood, when it seems that we have none of life’s hardships; it may feel that we have no need of salvation. But when we are more mature; when we have gone through some of life’s struggles, don’t we become interested in being saved? (see scripture readings) (more…)
It is natural that we want to experience heaven already. Heaven will be wonderful. Work will no longer be pain. There will be no more illness and no more loneliness. But more so than this, there will be no more division. What does Jesus mean when he says, “I did not come to bring peace on earth but rather division?” How come he doesn’t bring that peace and unity of heaven to us right now? (more…)
As we grow through life, different things call our attention. When we were children, we loved to play. We loved toys, ice cream; we loved for adults to watch us do things. As we became teenagers, we became fixated on friends, sports, and instead of wanting adults to watch, we wanted secrecy. As we became adults ourselves, we were overjoyed with our freedom but them came to realize that what we really wanted was security. These are all worldly desires, and Jesus tells us to watch out for them; they are vanity. (see scripture readings) (more…)
A lot of us think that freedom means being able to do whatever we want. As children, we want to only eat candies, as teenagers we want to stay out late, as adults we ignore the teachings of Christ and the Church and do whatever our body’s desire. Is this the freedom Christ died on the cross to give us?
St. Paul tells us, that we were not set free to sin, we were set free from sin; we were set free to be able to love. Sin enslaves us and keeps us from happiness. Christ came to break the shackles of sin and death, so that we can live in true freedom. (more…)
What is Fatherhood? Fatherhood is more than the donation of one’s genes for the reproduction of human life. Fatherhood includes knowing what is good for another and making the sacrifices to lead them there.
When I was a child, I remember my father taking me to see a movie; it’s not a great movie so I’m hesitant to mention it, but it made us chuckle, Chevy Chases’ Vacation. In this movie Clark Griswald had in mind what he thought the family needed, a vacation to Wally World, and he made every sacrifice he could to get the family there. He drove long hours, he hiked through the desert when the car broke down, and when they arrived to find Wally World closed, he willingly risked going to jail to give them the experience. He was being a father, though of course a misguided and comical one for the sake of the movie. (more…)
A quick note about today’s Gospel… The two disciples on the road to Emmaus with Jesus. Jesus becomes recognizable to them when he “breaks the bread,” and then he vanishes. Jesus has instituted the Eucharist in order to be with us, wherever we are, all around the world, on whatever road. He comes to us now in Holy Communion. He breaks the bread, gives it to them, and then vanishes. What is left is the Eucharist and the believers, the recipients of the Eucharist. We see Christ in the Eucharist, and we also now see Christ in one another. He has become part of us, united with us, through the Eucharist. This also helps explain why Jesus told Mary Magdalene “not to cling to him” in an earlier Easter story, when she saw the risen Lord. How peculiar it was for him to say not to cling to him because he hadn’t yet risen to his Father. After he rises to his Father, he will come to us in a new way, a Eucharistic way. After that, we can “cling to him,” and him to us, because he comes to us in the Eucharist. He allows himself to be placed on our hand, on our tongue, and to become part of us, so that we can carry him around with us, inside of us. He will now be on every road, to every city, not only on the road to Emaus, through the Eucharistic “bread.”
