2-Apr-2015 Dear Friend, Easter is truly the Lord’s Day; His day of victory over suffering and death, but is it also our day as well. Every Easter we are reminded that God desires to restore humanity and all of creation to our original blessing. As we celebrate the mystery of his death and resurrection we discover once more that our God is a God of peace, our God is a God of forgiveness, a God of hope and Life. Have a joyous Easter celebration! -Fr. Jude Sunday Ref. Easter “He has risen as he said! We rejoice and are glad! Alleluia! Alleluia!” 5-Apr-2015 Acts 10: 34, 37-43; Col. 3: 1-4; John 20: 1-9;
The first reading from the Acts, is part of an early sermon of St. Peter on the feast of Pentecost, his very first after the resurrection. He tells us how he is a witness of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Without the resurrection Jesus’ life and ours would be a total failure, with the resurrection every moment of His ministry has new meaning and every moment of our own can take on new significance. Peter in this sermon reminds his listeners that Jesus is Lord of all and that his message is a message of hope and peace. He emphasizes that every believer is called to be a witness of the Lord’s life, death and resurrection. We are called to be witnesses of the resurrection, but the glory of the resurrection is realized in us only when we have accepted the many crosses that come our way leading us to new life. Unfinished Till BrokenA story is told of an Eastern village that, through the centuries, was known for its exquisite pottery. Especially striking were its urns; high as tables, wide as chairs, they were admired around the globe for their strong form and delicate beauty. Legend has it that when each urn was apparently finished, there was one final step. The artist broke it – and then put it back together with gold filigree. An ordinary urn was then transformed into a priceless work of art. What seemed finished wasn't, until it was broken.Steve Goodier The Gospel begins with Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. She knows the stone has to be rolled away, and she also knows that she cannot do it by herself. Maybe she believes that the Lord will provide and he will take care of it all - and he does! “She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.” Maybe Mary’s attitude should be a great encouragement for us all. We can’t remove the boulder that blocks us and prevents us from bursting forth into new life. But the Lord is there and He will do it for us! She saw but she did not believe. The Apostles would not accept the conclusion, so obvious to us, that Jesus must have risen from the dead. Peter and John did not believe but ran to the tomb to check out for themselves and remained baffled in their unbelief. Finally they both went into the tomb, they began to understand the scriptures, they saw and they believed. The Gospel tells us that Mary stood outside the tomb, weeping and looking into the tomb to see, not the risen Jesus but where they had laid his body. She was looking for Jesus in the wrong place, looking for the risen among the dead! She sees Jesus but still does not recognize him. This narrative of the resurrection reminds us that left on our own we look for the Lord in the wrong places, among the dead rather than among the living. But the good news is that the Lord does not give up on us. He will reveal himself to us and call us by name so that like Mary we can say: “I have seen the Lord!” and once we have seen him and experienced the power of the resurrection nothing will ever be the same again. Witness to the ResurrectionIn the darkest days of Stalinist Russia a special League of the Godless was established to stamp out the last vestiges of religion from peoples’ lives. One Easter morning the Commissar of this League addressed a huge rally in Moscow’s Red Square. He ranted along his usual lines that religion was the instrument of the bourgeoisie and the opium of the proletariat. At the end of his harangue he generously offered the mike to anyone who wished to debate with him. Nobody wanted a one-way ticket to Siberia until one old man made his way forward. He surveyed his huge audience, cleared his throat and began to sing: “The Lord has risen.” It was the traditional Orthodox Easter greeting. Moved by the old man’s courage, voices from the square swelled up in reply: “He has truly risen.” Religion in Russia was not dead as long as belief in the resurrection of Christ was not dead in people.Sylvester O’Flynn in ‘The Good News of Mark’s Gospel’ Empty TombEaster celebrations lead us to an empty tomb! The coffin of President Abraham Lincoln has been opened twice since his death. The first time it was opened in 1887, twenty years after his death. Why was it opened? Because of the rumour that the coffin did not contain Lincoln’s body. It was opened and the body in it was proven to be Lincoln’s. Fourteen years later, the same rumours circulated again. Again the coffin was opened and again the body was proved to be Abraham Lincoln’s. Similar rumours circulated about the body of Jesus after his death. The only difference was that Jesus’ body was not in the tomb. Now the rumours concerned about what happened to Jesus’ body. Today’s gospel does not present us with the risen Christ. Instead it presents us with the empty tomb! The angel asks: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” Unfortunately, we humans are still looking for the living among the dead.John Pichappilly in ‘The Table of the Word’ Lord of LifeDr. Jayant Patel, an Indo-American was dubbed ‘doctor of death’ because he faced charges of manslaughter in over 800 cases in the USA and Australia. Dr. Patel allegedly lied about his medical qualifications and performed operations causing innumerable deaths. Similarly, Dr. Amit Kumar performed illegal kidney operations on about 500 poor unsuspecting victims and sold their kidneys to rich recipients from the West. History abounds with such ‘doctors of death’ besides leaders like Hitler and the so-called ‘butcher of the Balkans’ Slobodan Milosevic. Besides these killers, we too consciously or unconsciously – promote death rather than life. Conversely, Easter exhorts everyone to celebrate the Lord of Life and defy death.Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds’ Do Not Be AmazedThe Fourth Wise Man is a movie made for television and based on Henry Van Dyke’s 1895 classic. It begins like a Christmas story but ends as an Easter story. Martin Sheen stars as the fourth wise man, Artaban, who was late for the journey the three wise men made it to Bethlehem because he stopped along the way to help someone in trouble. For the next 33 years, he tries to find the promised Messiah, only to miss him at every turn because he is constantly getting sidetracked to help people. In his last efforts to find Jesus, Artaban arrives late one more time at the crucifixion. Jesus has just died on the cross. At that moment the earthquake occurs and Artaban is struck by a falling tile. As he lies there dying he is broken-hearted because his quest to find the Messiah was never realized. Suddenly, the Risen Lord appears to him. Jesus tells him that for the past 33 years he had, in fact, been found by the fourth wise man in the person of all the people this wise man had helped. Whatever Artaban had done to the least of the Lord’s people, that he had done to Jesus himself. This Easter story is retold in another form in today’s gospel. Instead of three wise men seeking the Lord, with the fourth wise man coming along late, we have three women coming to the tomb, seeking the Lord who has been crucified.Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ All That God Does He Does WellRabbi Moshe took a trip to a strange land. He took a donkey, a rooster, and a lamp. Since he was a Jew, he was refused hospitality in the village inns, so he decided to sleep in the woods. He lit his lamp to study the holy books before going to sleep, but a fierce wind came up, knocking over the lamp and breaking it. The rabbi decided to turn in, saying, “All that God does, he does well.” During the night some wild animals came along and drove away the rooster and thieves stole the donkey. Moshe woke up, saw the loss, but still proclaimed easily, “All that God does, he does well.” The rabbi then went back to the village where he was refused lodging, only to learn that enemy soldiers had invaded it during the night and killed all the inhabitants. He also learned that these soldiers had traveled through the same part of the woods where he lay asleep. Had his lamp not been broken he would have been discovered. Had not the rooster been chased, it would have crowed, giving him away. Had not the donkey been stolen, it would have brayed. So once more Rabbi Moshe declared, “All that God does, He does well!”Anonymous Light in the DarknessPeople themselves can be the most effective of all sermon illustrations. All of us can point to people who are and have been lights in the surrounding darkness. One such person was Dr. Brackett. He practiced in a small town in America. He was known as the poor man’s friend because of the hours he spent sitting by the bedsides of the less privileged members of the community and the fact that he never took a fee from them. He lived in two rooms over a shop in the middle of town. At the ground entrance was a brass plate which read: DOC. BRACKETT – OFFICE UPSTAIRS. At one time in his life he was to have married but the day of the wedding he was called to a poor Mexican family to assist with a difficult childbirth. He stayed with the mother until her child was delivered safe and well. He returned to find that his fiancée had called off the wedding and would have nothing more to do with him. The remainder of his life was one of selfless dedication to the sick, the poor, the old, and the lonely. When he died his funeral was the biggest ever seen. Then the townspeople came together to discuss ways and means of perpetuating his memory in town. Various proposals and suggestions were made but as often happens in situations like this nothing was done by anyone except the Mexican couple whose child he delivered on what should have been his wedding day. On the way home from the meeting they removed the sign from his door and the following day it reappeared over his grave surrounded by flowers. It read: DOC. BRACKETT – OFFICE UPSTAIRS. May we celebrate life defying death because He is alive in us! Fr. Jude [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
