29-Mar-2018 Dear Friend, One of the qualities that help us to go on living in spite of troubles, failures, suffering and death itself is the ability to hope. We hope that our troubles will end, but is it just wishful thinking, hoping against hope? Christian hope is based on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which is a guarantee that we too can look to the future with confidence. The same God who raised Jesus will help us arise from whatever is keeping us down. Because Jesus rose again we too will rise! Alleluia! Have a hope-filled happy Easter! -Fr. Jude Sun. Refl. Easter: “Rejoice! He has arisen as he said! Alleluia! Let’s celebrate His victory!” 01-Apr-2018Acts 10: 34, 37-43; Colossians 3: 1-4; John 20: 1-9; In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we listen to Peter as he witnesses to the Risen Lord. The great proof of the resurrection was not the empty tomb but people like Peter transformed into fearless witnesses of Jesus Christ. In today’s passage we hear Peter fearlessly proclaim that the same Jesus who suffered and died had risen from the dead. This was the mission of Peter and the disciples, to proclaim that Jesus was alive and this is our mission, to witness that Jesus is alive and that we have experienced Him in our lives and his power at work in our world today.
What we have seen and heard and felt…I have often heard of the Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon or the Eiffel Tower. What I had was factual or academic knowledge. When I visited these places and saw them for myself, I now had experiential knowledge. The only way I could share such knowledge with you is to bring you to share the experience. Bill Wilson was the founder of Alcoholic Anonymous, together with a man called Bob Smith. One day Bill was in the horrors when he fell on his knees and cried out “God, if you are there, please help me”! Suddenly the room was filled with a bright light and Bill just sat there filled with awe. Eventually, as it were, the light entered his heart and soul and he came out of that room feeling totally changed, exclaiming, “Now I know the God of the preachers.”Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel truth’ The Gospel tells us of the events of that first Easter morning. It was still dark so they cannot see that the tomb no longer contains the risen Lord. Mary goes to the tomb because she believes that it is all over. It is the same with many believers whose faith is sometimes shattered by the heavy burdens we carry. ‘It is all over’ we think, but God has not finished with us yet! Mary sees that the tomb is empty and she runs to Peter complaining, “they have taken away the body.” Peter and John rush and see the empty tomb and Peter enters the tomb and sees beyond, his faith tells him the master has risen. Then the other disciple entered, he saw and he believed. Every disciple of the Lord has to enter into the tomb, enter into the mystery of suffering and death and only then will the eyes of faith be opened to see and believe. At Easter we are celebrating not only the victory of Jesus over death but the hope that we too will be victorious, we too will conquer not because of our strength but in the power of the risen Lord. The challenge of Easter today is to understand human suffering in the light of Jesus’ resurrection. As it was the Father that raised Jesus to life, so we as Christians are called to play our part, to play God’s part in protesting against violence and injustices that are readily accepted as inevitable. As Christians we have to make our protest against death in the midst of life. Ultimately the resurrection reminds us that though we cannot rise our God can and will help us to rise again and become witnesses of the resurrection when we stand for life for others in the midst of death. Why did Jesus fold the napkin?Why did Jesus fold the burial cloth after His resurrection? The Gospel of John tells us that the napkin which was placed over the face of Jesus was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded and placed at the head of the stony sepulcher. Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple and told them, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and I don’t know where they have put him.” Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple outran Peter and got there first. He stopped and looked in and saw the lined clothes lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Peter arrived and went inside. He noticed the lined wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying to the side. Was that important? Absolutely! Is that really significant? Yes! In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about the Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and the servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master had finished. Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard and would wad that napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m finished…” But if the master got up from the table and folded his napkin and laid it besides his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table because the folded napkin meant, “I’m coming back!” Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!James Valladares in ‘Your Words, O Lord, Are Spirit, and they are Life’ Abide with meIn the King James Version of the Bible, the invitation of the two travelers reads, “Abide with us; for it is towards evening and the day is far spent, “words which were the inspiration for that beloved hymn, “Abide with me, Fast falls the eventide.” The hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte, for 25 years the vicar of the parish at Devonshire, England. He was 54 years old, broken in health and saddened by dissensions in his congregation. On Sunday, September 4, 1847, he preached his farewell sermon and went home to rest. After tea in the afternoon, he retired to his study. In an hour or two, he rejoined his family, holding in his hand the manuscript of his immortal hymn. Despite what most think, Lyte’s “eventide” has nothing to do with the end of the natural day but rather the end of life. “Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day, Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.” The words are about the faith that faces life and death fearlessly and triumphantly in the light of the cross and the empty tomb… Thus Lyte could conclude, “Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee, in life, in death. O Lord, abide with me.” Vicar Lyte died three months later.David Leininger in ‘East of Easter’ “Now I can go on living again!”There was a young woman living in Washington, D.C. during the Second World War. Her husband was killed a year earlier during a training exercise – they had been married just four months. During that whole year, this young widow felt more dead than alive. Easter Sunday came along and a friend asked the young widow to go to church with her. It happened that they went to hear the legendary Peter Marshall, who preached in an historic Presbyterian church. That morning, Peter Marshall spoke of Mary coming to the tomb and how her tears turned to joy. He described the sound of a wind rustling through the tomb as if the breath of God were blowing by. He described the sight of Jesus rising up from that cold stone slab, swaying a bit on wounded feet and then walking out into the garden. He described the smell, the whiff of strange scents which must have drifted back to the Man from that tomb, [the smell] of linen and bandages, spices and myrrh, closed air and blood. By the time Peter Marshall finished that sermon, the people in that church felt as if they had been there in the garden to witness the first Easter themselves! When the service was over, the young widow practically walked on air as she left the church and her friend couldn’t believe the change which had come over her. “What happened to you in there”? She asked. “The weight has finally been lifted,” the young woman replied; “Now I can go on living again.”Erskine White in ‘Together in Christ’ Through the Valley of DeathErnest Gordon wrote a book called ‘Through the Valley of the Kwai’ It documents the true story of what happened in a Japanese prison camp along the Kwai River during World War II. There 12,000 prisoners died of disease and brutality while building a railroad. Men were forced to work in the heat that reached 120 degrees. But their worst enemy was not the Japanese; it was themselves. Gordon says that the fear of the Japanese made them paranoid. They stole from one another, they distrusted one another and they informed on one another. Then something incredible happened. Two prisoners organized the others into Bible study groups. Through their study of the Gospel, the prisoners gradually discovered that Jesus was in their midst as a living person. More than that, they came to discover that Jesus understood their situation. Everything about Jesus- what he was, what he said, what he did-began to make sense and come alive. The prisoners stopped thinking of themselves as victims of some cruel tragedy. Nowhere did their change of heart manifest itself more clearly than in their prayers. They began to pray not so much for themselves, but for one another. Slowly the camp went through a transformation that amazed not only the Japanese but also the prisoners themselves. One night Gordon was hobbling back to his shack after a meeting with his study group. As he walked along in the darkness he heard the sound of men singing. Someone was keeping time with a stick on a piece of tin. The sound of the stick hitting the tin, and the sound of men singing, made the darkness come alive. The difference between that joyful sound and the deadly silence of the past months was the difference between life and death – the difference between death and resurrection. The transformation in that Japanese prison camp is what Easter is all about!Mark Link Did you see Jesus?A preacher was baptizing a man in a lake. He dunked the man’s head under the water for about fifteen seconds and pulled his head up. The preacher said: “Did you see Jesus?” “No. I didn’t see Jesus,” the man replied. The preacher dunked his head under the water for another thirty seconds and pulled him back up. “Did you see Jesus?” the preacher asked. Again the man said, “No, I didn’t see Jesus.” So the preacher dunked the man’s head back under the water for a third time, this time keeping him there for another forty-five seconds. This time as the minister pulled the man back for the third time he was gasping for a breath of air. The minister said, “Did you see Jesus?” The man blinked and thought for a moment and asked: “Are you sure this is where he fell?” -At the Easter vigil, the elect will be baptized, and all others who are already baptized will be renewing their baptismal promises. Today’s gospel does not present us with the risen Jesus. Instead it presents us with an empty tomb! Unfortunately, we humans are still looking for the living among the dead. We look for life among things that have no life in them. May the Risen Lord bring fullness into our empty lives! Fr. Jude Botelho [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. | | | | Net For Life | | |
