04.12.12~Cath Matters for 4/15/12

SUNDAY READINGS - Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday FIRST READING: Acts 4:32-35. The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the Apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the Apostles' feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need. EXPLANATION:The Acts of the Apostles is a book which gives a brief history of the infant Christian Church, from the Ascension of our Lord until the year 63 A.D.---period of about 30 years. Its first twelve chapters deal with the beginnings of the Church in Jerusalem and its neighborhood before the Church moved out to the Gentile lands. Today's four verses of Chapter Four describe the fervor of the first Jerusalem Christians, who were so filled with the love of God and neighbor that everyone shared with his fellow-Christians all that he had. The Christian community in Jerusalem had all things in common; it was the ideal Christian family while it lasted. who believed...soul: The newly converted lived in a truly fraternal charity atmosphere. had...common: There was a complete sharing amongst them of all earthly possessions. great...testimony: The Apostles from the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit convincingly and effectively preached the truth of Christ's resurrection. Miracles confirmed their preaching (see 3: 12; 4: 7; 6: 8 etc). great grace...all: "They were all given great respect" (by the people in general). Thus the Jerusalem Bible. That this is the meaning is clear from 2: 47; 4: 21 and 5:13. possessors...them: This was a free act done out of love of God and neighbor at a time when Christian idealism was at its height. laid...feet: Those who sold their lands or houses gave the proceeds to the Apostles to be distributed among the needy members of the community. APPLICATION: In this brief glimpse of the life of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, St. Luke (the author of Acts) emphasizes the ideal of Christian brotherhood, which animated the first Christians so much that many of them gave their possessions gladly for distribution among those of their brothers who were short of the necessities of life. As is clear from the incident of Ananias and Sapphira nobody was compelled to sell his possessions or to give all he possessed to the community (see 5: 4), but those who did so were setting a lofty and praiseworthy ideal for all time. While the vow of poverty, taken by religious, is an imitation of this early Christian ideal---the religious gives all that he or she has or may have to the community---such an act of abdication is of necessity restricted to relatively very few. The vast majority of men and women need personal possessions to support themselves and their dependents. The life of religious is governed by two other vows, obedience and chastity, which make the observance of poverty not only feasible but desirable. The life of a religious is regulated by obedience: he can be moved not only from one occupation to another but from one place to another, even from one country to another. Personal property would be a serious impediment here. The vow of chastity means that the religious will have no spouse and/or family to provide for, and so the chief need for personal possessions is removed. But, granted that our Christian religion does not demand of all of us that we should follow the example of the first Christian community in Jerusalem, we still have an important lesson to learn from today's reading. While we can, and the vast majority of us must, retain our personal possessions, we must still be always ready to share them with those in need. We are not the real owners of what we possess; we are only the administrators of the property God has given us. He is the real owner, and he expects us to use what he has given us justly and charitably. We use our possessions first and foremost to provide for our own needs and the needs of those depending on us. That charity and justice begin at home is true in this sense, but they do not end at home. While we provide for the needs of the home let us not exaggerate these needs; let us not indulge in luxuries for ourselves and our family, while there are neighbors on the brink of starvation. We need, today especially, a revival of that wonderful spirit of fraternal feeling which led many of the first Christians to sell all they possessed and distribute the proceeds to the needy. However, instead of selling our possessions, we need to use them well and wisely, so that we can give a helping hand not only to our fellow-Christians but to men and women of every nation and creed who are in need of help. Four-fifths of the world's population today are living in poverty, and some on the starvation line, through no fault of their own. One-fifth are living a life of comfort and sufficiency, many of them actually in luxury. While we may not be and most likely are not, among the latter, there are things we too could and should do without if we allow Christian charity to govern our lives. Have a good look at your home, your way of dressing, your meals, your recreations and entertainments and you may find many occasions for saving a dollar to give to relief organizations. When you put on your heavy winter overcoat think of the poor, naked children in Africa and elsewhere who have not even a little shirt to keep out the cold. When you sit down to your four-course dinner think of the unfortunates who would be glad of one bowl of rice a day. When tempted to spend a night drinking with your friends stop and think of the thousands of children dying for want of a bottle of milk. The Christian community in Jerusalem earned the respect of all for their charitable behavior. All you can do for your needy neighbor may not earn you any headlines in the daily papers, but if you do what you can you will be printing your name where alone it matters. You will be inscribing yourself in the Book of Life which is kept in heaven. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SECOND READING: 1 John 5:1-7. Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. EXPLANATION: This first Epistle of St. John is an encyclical letter written between 90 and 100 A.D. to all the churches of Asia Minor, when the gnostic heretics were trying to undermine the Christian faith. These Gnostics claimed to have a special knowledge of God and to be sinless, without keeping his commandments. They ignored the commandment of fraternal charity. It is doubtful if they admitted the divinity of Christ. St. John exhorts the Christians to continue to know and love God---this knowledge and love of God are shown by keeping his commandments. All men are sons of God. If, therefore, we love God we must love all of God's children. "Anyone who says: 'I love God' and hates his brother is a liar" (4: 20). Through Jesus Christ we know God is our Father; we know Christ is the promised Messiah and the Son of God. Let us live then as God's children in obedience and love. believes...Christ: This is the basis of the Christian faith. The Messiah was promised to Abraham and to his descendants. This promise was repeated many times in the Old Testament. The one who would bring blessings on all nations came at last in the person of Jesus who was, therefore, called the Anointed or the Christ. a child of God: Everyone who accepts Jesus as Messiah becomes an adopted son of God. We, therefore, became his brothers and God's sons. loves...child: Anyone who really loves God must love God's children, that is, all mankind, for it is God's commandment. keep his commandments: The man who keeps God's commandments proves that he loves God. not burdensome: What is done out of love is not a burden but a pleasure. born...world: Having been made sons of God "born of God," we are no longer subject to any forces hostile to God; we have been given the power to overcome them. The "world" in St. John, invariably means the sinful forces opposed to the truth and the light of God. victory...faith: Those who accept Christ as Messiah and Son of God overcome the allurements to sin. Christ conquered death, sin, and the world by his death and resurrection. This victory was won for us and not for himself. Therefore, if we live according to our Christian faith, the world will have no hold on us. by water and blood: When Christ insisted on being baptized in the water of the Jordan he was taking on himself the sins of the world (the sins of all time); he became our passover lamb. When he shed his blood on the cross he washed away all those sins and won the victory over evil for all those who would believe in him. not...water only: The Gnostics, against whose false doctrines John is warning his fellow-Christians, held that the baptism of Jesus alone was significant for giving the Holy Spirit to believers. John insists that the shedding of his blood on the cross was a necessary part of the work of our redemption. The water and blood which came from the side of Christ when pierced with a lance (Jn. 19: 34) were for John a proof of the redemptive value of Christ's death and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit. They were also symbols of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, the principal sacraments of the Christian church. spirit...witness: The same Spirit which descended on Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan remained with him all through his death. This the Agnostics denied, saying the Spirit left him before his death. Spirit...truth: Christ promised the Holy Spirit to his Church: "that Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive" (Jn. 14: 17) "but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name" (14: 26), "when the Advocate comes ... the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness" (15: 26). Now that witness, who was with Jesus all through his life, is with his Church, a testimony to the eternal truth of the Christian faith. APPLICATION: "This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith." In one short sentence, St. John, the beloved disciple of Christ, expresses the profoundest philosophy ever put before thinking man. We have had many philosophers and many searchers after the meaning and purpose of rational life on earth. We have had many attempts at explanations, but all have failed, for none of them satisfied the innate desires and total capacity of human nature. Of all the beings on our planet, man alone has the faculties for perceiving the truth and for enjoying the beautiful. While he shares with the animal kingdom the impulse to self-preservation and the perpetuation of the species, he has within him powers that surpass all animal instincts and raise him above the material world where he lives and moves. He can perceive beauty, truth, love, joy and happiness. With his will, which is motivated by the good, he can and does desire to possess these supramundane "goods," not only for a few short years but forever. How can man do this? How can he fulfill that desire for perpetual happiness, that longing for unending love, that craving for eternal beauty and joy especially if his life is to end forever in the grave and if the same dreary fate is to await him as awaits the dumb animals? This is where the goodness and infinite generosity of God steps in. It was he who gave us these spiritual faculties. Of their very nature they seek for spiritual fulfillment, and therefore he has planned for us an existence after our earthly death, in which all our rational desires will be fulfilled. This is the message of the Christian faith. St. John says that it conquers and puts in its proper place, in relation to man, our world and all its false attractions. This is the good news which Christ came on earth to establish and announce to men. God has planned a future life of perfect happiness for all who will accept it. Through sending his divine Son in our human nature, he has elevated our nature and given us a new status, the status of adopted sons. It gives us a right to the eternal kingdom of the Father. Our mortal life, if left to itself, would end naturally in the grave. But through the incarnation it is transformed into a new and everlasting life. As the preface of the Mass for the dead says : "life is not taken away (from us) rather it is changed." Death for the adopted son of God is not the end but the beginning of the true, beautiful and happy, unending life. This is surely a story of victory and the true philosophy of life. Our Christian faith alone gives the answer to all the problems which have disturbed men down through the ages. We, therefore, have the truth. We know the real facts of life and death. We have God's revelation through Christ, but we must put our knowledge into daily practice. It is not enough to be a Christian, nor enough to know where we are going, "it is not those who say to me 'Lord, Lord' who will enter into the kingdom of heaven but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Mt. 7: 2 1). We must live as Christians, and travel the road marked out for us by Christ. We must do the will of God every day of our lives. We must love God, then, and love our neighbor who is a fellow-child of God like ourselves. We must keep God's commandments. When we truly realize what reward awaits us, the keeping of the commandments will not be a burden but, as St. John says, a pleasure and a privilege. Our Christian faith is surely the victory which overcomes the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOSPEL: John 20: 19-31. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe." Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Now Jesus did many other things in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. EXPLANATION: Last Sunday's gospel, also taken from St. John, described the first hint at the resurrection which the Apostles received. Peter and John, convinced that the body had not been taken away, because the winding sheets were left behind, were beginning to believe. But the others were skeptical, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus paid no heed to the women's story, and Thomas refused to believe the testimony of the other ten, even when this present appearance of our Lord had convinced them. evening of...first day: The evening of the Sunday. the doors being shut...: He came through the closed door, which shows the spiritual qualities of the resurrected body (see 1 Cor. 15: 44-48). came and stood among them: To prove that he was the Christ who had been crucified and who was now alive once more. Peace be with you: Jews saluted one another by wishing peace, that is, health and prosperity both in the material and spiritual sense. Here Christ is not only wishing "well-being," especially the spiritual well-being, but he is giving it (see 14: 27). so I send you: He is now conferring on them the mission he had promised them before his death (see Mt. 4: 19; Jn. 17: 18 etc.), which was the continuation of the work of divine salvation inaugurated by himself. Receive the Holy Spirit: He breathed on them and said these words---the sacramental action. He had promised them the Holy Spirit when he had returned to his Father in glory (7: 39; 16: 7). This condition had been fulfilled that Easter morning. If you forgive...sins: Catholic tradition has rightly seen in this act the institution of the Sacrament of Penance. Thomas, one of the twelve...: He stubbornly refused to believe the word of the other ten Apostles and perhaps of disciples also who may have been with them. He needed personal evidence and the merciful Savior gave him that evidence. eight days later: For Thomas's sake the risen Jesus appeared again in the very same place and circumstances. He asked Thomas to prove for himself that his body bore the marks of the crucifixion. Thomas answered: Whether Thomas did touch the sacred wounds we are not told but his statement: My Lord and my God: Proves how convinced he now was. And his statement goes further in expressing the divine nature of Christ than that of any other person in the four Gospels. "Lord and God" were the words used in the Old Testament to stress the true God "Yahweh Elohim." Blessed...who have not seen: Christ is not belittling Thomas's expression of faith, but rather his slowness in accepting it on the testimony of others. Far greater, therefore, and more meritorious, Christ says, is the faith of all those, including ourselves, who have not had the privilege of seeing the risen Christ with our bodily eyes, but yet have believed in him on reliable testimony. Many other things: These last two verses were the original ending of John's gospel. Chapter 21 was added later. His reason for writing his gospel was that men might believe that the Jesus who lived and died in Palestine was the promised Messiah and the true Son of God. He who believes this and lives up to his belief will have everlasting life because of what this Jesus has done for all men. APPLICATION: It may surprise and amaze us that the Apostles were so reluctant to believe that Christ had risen from the dead, to live forever in glory with his Father in heaven. But we must remember that during their two or three years with him they saw nothing in him but a mere man, one with divine powers, but yet a man; certain prophets of the old covenant had some such powers also. Christ had "emptied himself" of his divine nature, and he had foretold his resurrection many times. But that he could be really God, as well as man, was something they could not then grasp, and if he was a mere man death had to be the end. Their slowness of faith had its value for the future Church and for all of us. If they had been expecting the resurrection, and anxiously looking forward to it, people could say that they imagined it, that they persuaded themselves it had happened. Indeed, there have been men proud of their acuteness of judgement, who have said that the story of the resurrection is a story of mass hallucination, although all the evidence proves the opposite. Their conviction that it could not happen, could not be removed from their minds except by impressive evidence that it had. Hallucination is born in a mind already expecting and hoping for the imagined fact. We can thank the Apostles and especially Thomas, the last to give in, that our faith in the resurrection and divine glorification of Christ is that much the stronger. Our Christianity which would have ended before the first Easter week had passed, if Christ had not risen in glory, spread rapidly to the then known world and is still spreading, because its author was none other than Christ "our Lord and our God." How prophetic were the words of Gamaliel at the meeting of the Sanhedrin which tried to prevent the Apostles from preaching the new Christian faith: "If this plan or work is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it" (Acts 5: 38-39).b167 Click to return to our Home page

04.12.12~Readings for Sunday, April 15th-2012

April 15, 2012 « April 14 | April 16 » Second Sunday of Easter Lectionary: 44 Reading 1 Acts 4:32-35 The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need. Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24 R. (1) Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting. or: R. Alleluia. Let the house of Israel say, "His mercy endures forever." Let the house of Aaron say, "His mercy endures forever." Let those who fear the LORD say, "His mercy endures forever." R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting. or: R. Alleluia. I was hard pressed and was falling, but the LORD helped me. My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior. The joyful shout of victory in the tents of the just: R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting. or: R. Alleluia. The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting. or: R. Alleluia. Reading 2 1 Jn 5:1-6 Beloved: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth. Gospel Jn 20:19-31 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." 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. Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

RE: 04.05.12~Easter Sunday + Cath Matters + "October Baby" Movie Review

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***REMINDER: There will be NO Bible Study Session on Friday, April6th!***
We will resume on Friday, April 13th-2012 at 9AM

USCCB » Bible » Daily Readings

APRIL 8, 2012

« April 7 | April 9 »
The Resurrection of the Lord
The Mass of Easter Sunday
Lectionary: 42, 46, 41
READING 1 ACTS 10:34A, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
"You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."

RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23.
R. (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
READING 2 COL 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
OR 1 COR 5:6B-8
Brothers and sisters:
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast,
so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened.
For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
GOSPEL JN 20:1-9
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."
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.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
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.


SUNDAY READINGS - Easter Sunday
FIRST READING: Acts 10: 34; 37-43. Peter opened his mouth and said: "You know the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest; not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
EXPLANATION: These verses are part of the story of the conversion of Cornelius, a Roman army officer. Stationed in Caesarea, Cornelius believed the God of the Jews was the true God, but though a good-living man, he had not become a Jew. Advised by a divine messenger, he sent to Joppa for St. Peter, whose antipathy to pagans had been corrected by a vision seen that same day. Peter came to Caesarea and, contrary, to his life-long custom, entered the pagan home of Cornelius, who explained to him why he had been asked to come (10: 1-33). Peter then speaks:
You know...which was proclaimed: Peter gives a synopsis of Christ's public life and mission in Palestine, of which Cornelius, a man in a position of authority, must have heard already.
anointed...with the Holy Spirit: a reference to the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus during his baptism by the Baptist in the Jordan.
and...power: proved by his many miracles and by his teaching.
God was with him: In his human nature divine power was given him. He was God the Son, but in his human nature, as man, he emptied himself of his divine glory, as St. Paul tells us (Phil. 2: 6; see last Sunday).
"hanging him on a tree": a figurative expression for crucifixion (see Dt. 21: 23). only to have God raise him third day. The resurrection of Jesus is attributed to the Father in almost all the texts that refer to it in the New Testament. The verb in Greek is passive "was raised." St. Jerome translated this with the active voice surrexit "he rose." As the Father and Son, are one God, there is no theological difference.
not to all...witnesses: He appeared to ,the Apostles, disciples and others (see 1 Cor. 15: 1-8), during forty days after his resurrection.
and drank with him: Jesus had eaten with the Apostles---not that the risen, glorified body needed food but to convince them of the reality of his risen human body.
to preach to the people: The commission given to the Apostles on Ascension Day.
judge of the living and the dead: Judge of all men. This will be the role of Christ the God-man (see 17: 31).
prophets...witnesses: No prophets are quoted, but in a true sense the whole Old Testament was a preparation, and a prophecy in fact, concerning him who was to come (see 3: 19-26).
through his name: The purpose of the Incarnation was to make men not only friends but sons of God. Where sin had intervened, its remission was necessary and available for all who believed in Christ (see 3: 19-26).
APPLICATION: This passage from Acts has been selected for Easter Sunday not only because the resurrection is mentioned in it, but especially because St. Peter in his first discourse to a Gentile makes the resurrection the basic doctrine and the crowning proof of the truth of the Christian faith. As St. Paul says: "If Christ has not risen vain is our preaching, vain too is your faith" (1 Cor. 15: 14). And like Paul, St. Peter stresses the truth of the resurrection by citing witnesses, including himself, who had not only seen the risen Jesus but had spoken to him and actually eaten with him.
There is no room for doubt but that Apostles and disciples had thought that the sad events of Good Friday had put an end forever to the mission of love and mercy of their beloved Master. In spite of his previous references to his resurrection, they had completely forgotten it and were convinced that the tomb near Calvary was the end of all their hopes. They had locked themselves into the room of the Last Supper for fear of the Jews---two of them had set off for home on the Sunday morning, down-hearted at the Master's failure; the others were waiting for an opportunity to slip out of the city quietly. But the resurrection changed all this. The unexpected, the unhoped-for happened. Even the most skeptical of them all, doubting Thomas, was eventually convinced of its reality. Had they been hoping for it, or even thinking of it, there might be some reason to suspect it was only an hallucination, the result of their "wishful thinking," but the very opposite was the case. They were hard to convince even when it happened.
All this was intended by God---the basis of our Christian faith was proved beyond doubt. Christ, who had died on the cross on Good Friday, was raised from the dead by his Father on Easier morning. He returned to heaven in the full glory of the divinity which he had hidden while on earth, together with his human body, now also glorified. There (in heaven), as God and Man, he pleads for us at the right hand of the Father until the day when he who redeemed all men will come to judge them all.
The Alleluia is repeated often during the Easter ceremonies. It is a Hebrew word, which means "praise ye the Lord." It is our attempt to give verbal expression to our joy and gratitude for all that God has done for us. We are no longer mere humans living on this planet for a few short years. We are citizens of heaven, made children of God the Father by Christ our Brother. And he has gone before us to his and our kingdom to prepare a place for us. He conquered death. Our earthly death has, therefore, now no real fears for us: it is not the end but the beginning of our true lives. It is only after our earthly death that we truly begin to live.
There is only one death now which we can fear---the spiritual death of serious sin which can keep us from our true heavenly life. But while this is a possibility for all of us, it is only a possibility. The sincere Christian who realizes what God has done for him and what is in store for him, will never be so ungrateful to God or so forgetful of his own best interests as to let some temporal and passing pleasure, pride, or profit, come between him and the eternal home which God's love has prepared and planned for him.
SECOND READING: Colossians 3:1-4. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
EXPLANATION: The method of administering Baptism in the apostolic days was by immersion. Those who heard the story of the gospel and were ready to believe in the one true God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who had cooperated in man's redemption and elevation to divine sonship, were immersed in water to be cleansed from their sins and their previous worldliness. Immersion in water symbolized being buried in the tomb with Christ. By immersion, therefore, the now Christian died with Christ to all earthly attachments and desires. He was raised again from the water (the tomb) to be with the Risen Christ.
If you have been raised...Christ: The physical act of immersion and rising again from the baptismal bath was not enough unless the convert meant what he was doing. The Christian life was a new life, a life of unity with Christ. Therefore, the new Christian must:
set your mind...things above: His thoughts must now be on the things of the spirit, the everlasting truths which he has just learned. His past evil practices must be forgotten.
where Christ is seated: He must strive to earn heaven where Christ is now in glory, having gone through death and resurrection to make heaven available to us.
not on things that are on earth: The things of earth insofar as they are sinful, or occasions of sin, are now forbidden. Insofar as they are necessary for the sustenance of earthly life they are not forbidden, but they must always be used so that they do not impede the journey to heaven.
You have died...your life...Christ: The Christian has died in baptism to all sinful earthly concerns. He is now living a new life; it is hidden because it is a spiritual life. Externally, in bodily appearance, he has not changed, but since his baptism, he is a new man. He is with God, a brother of Christ and a member of God's family.
When Christ...appears: Christ lives in the Christian. The Christian lives in Christ and through Christ. Christ is the source of our new life, and the essence of it, by faith and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
you shall appear...glory: Christ will appear in glory at the particular and the general judgements. The loyal Christian will appear, will return with Christ from the grave, in the glorified state which will be his for all eternity.
APPLICATION: Children at boarding schools draw, up calendars and mark off each day which brings them one nearer to the end of the, term. Fiances mark off the months, the weeks, the days that separate them from, the great day when they will be united forever, they say, to their beloved one. Seminarians count the years, months, weeks to the great day when, they will be ordained and say their first Masses. Parents look forward anxiously to the day when their children will be educated and safely settled in life. In fact, we are all always looking forward to a happier day which is to come some time. All this is very natural and very human, because our present life is not our permanent life; our present home, this earth, is not the real home destined for us by our loving Creator.
We were created for unending happiness in heaven, and it is only when we get there that our desire and our quest for some greater happiness will end. From then on, we will always enjoy and possess that all-satisfying happiness.
Today, Easter Sunday, St. Paul reminds us that we have this happiness within our grasp. We are moving steadily and more quickly than we realize toward it. The Holy Trinity, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, have already done, and are daily continuing, to do for us, all within their power. All that is needed is that we do the little that is asked of us.
St. Paul tells us we must "mind the things that are above not the things that are on earth." We must never let the "things of earth," the pleasures, the power, the possessions which we can or could, have in this life, block or impede us on our upward journey. Does this mean that we must all return to the deserts of Egypt, as some early Christians did? By no means. We are not forbidden to have the lawful pleasures of life. We are not forbidden possessions or power if they are used justly. All we are forbidden is the unlawful use of the things of this world.
And as regards minding the things that are above, this is not something calling for extraordinary self-sacrifice or unnatural mental activity. All we are asked to do is to try to stay in God's grace, and do our daily chores whatever they be, as well and as diligently as we can. We are expected to recognize our natural weakness and to turn to God frequently for pardon and for help.
Whilst there are saints in heaven who lived lives of extreme self-mortification and did extraordinary things for God and for their neighbor, it is an encouraging and consoling thought that there are millions of unknown saints in heaven who lived normal lives, unnoticed by the world and maybe even by themselves. They are people who kept in God's friendship all their lives, or got back quickly to it, if they sometimes forgot or offended their heavenly Father.
What millions of others have done I can do too. We are aided by God's grace as they were. God wants me in heaven. He has an Easter resurrection planned for me.
GOSPEL: John 20:1-9. On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 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." Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb, he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
EXPLANATION: The accounts of Christ's resurrection on Easter morning as given by the four Evangelists vary in details but agree on the essential points. Some women, the leader among them being Mary Magdalene, came to the tomb early on Sunday morning to anoint the dead body with spices, in order to help preserve it. This anointing had been done very hastily on the Friday because of the Sabbath which began at sundown. The tomb was found open and empty. The first thought of the women was that somebody had stolen the corpse. This shows how far resurrection was from their minds. They went in haste to the disciples. Peter and John ran to the tomb. Later that day Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene, to ten of the Apostles, to Peter separately (according to St. Paul, 1 Cor. 15: 5), to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24: 13); and, later on, he appeared often to the Apostles and disciples in Galilee, for a period of days.
First day of the week: The Sabbath was the last day of the Jewish week, so the first day corresponds to what is now called Sunday.
Mary Magdalene: John mentions only Magdalene by name but the "we don't know" in verse 2 implies there were others with her.
stone had been moved away: The tomb was raised above the ground and its entrance was closed by rolling a large stone, cut for the purpose, across the entrance (see Mk. 16: 3).
they have taken the Lord...: Magdalene's only possible explanation of the absence of the body.
Peter and the other disciple: Peter and John ran to the tomb. When they found the winding sheet and the cloth that covered the head lying there, they realized that the body had not been stolen or taken away: why should the linen coverings have been removed?
He saw and believed: That Peter had been the first to believe and then John, seems to be the meaning here, not that John believed in contrast to Peter.
as yet they did not understand: Until this moment they had not understood the Scriptures which had foretold his resurrection. In fact neither had they believed Christ's own prophecies of his resurrection---it seemed to be something which could not happen.
APPLICATION: As we said above, the accounts of the resurrection of Christ differ in many details in the different writings of the New Testament, but the fact of the resurrection stressed in all of them, was the basis of the new Christian Faith. Had it not happened, Christianity would, have been stillborn. It would have disappeared from Jerusalem and the world on that first Easter Sunday. Peter and his companions would have returned to their fishing-nets and boats on Lake Genesareth, and Christ the good and the kind man who had helped so many, would have been forgotten in half a generation.
But Christ was no mere man of kindly acts and words of wisdom. He was the Messiah, promised for centuries. He was the suffering servant foretold by Isaiah, whose perfect obedience to his Father had led him to the Cross and the grave. But above all, he was the Son of God who had emptied himself (St. Paul) of his divine glory in order to be the perfect human servant of the Father, and who was now raised by the Father with his divine glory restored, and his glorified resurrected body sharing in that glory. This was the divine plan of God for mankind, through Christ, and because of Christ's (the new Adam's) perfect obedience, all mankind would be made worthy of divine sonship, and worthy of one day rising like Christ from the grave in glorified bodies.
Is all this too good to be true? It is, if we make God to our image and likeness, as so many opponents of Christianity do. He is God and his love is infinite and incomprehensible to us. What God can see in me and my fellowman will always be mystery to me, but then I have not the mind of God. All I know and all I need to know is that I have sufficient proofs that God loves all men. The Incarnation, death and resurrection of his Divine Son for man's sake is the greatest proof of love for us that even the omnipotent God could give. He has given it. As a necessary consequence from this act of divine love, we are guaranteed our resurrection from the dead to a life of unending happiness and glory if we do not, in extreme folly, reject God's offer.
Today, let us thank God once more for Easter and for all that it means for us. Our personal Easter mornings not far away from even the youngest among us. We have a few Calvaries to climb perhaps in the meantime but what are they when we see our glorious Easter on the horizon?b161
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***I Saw the film “OCTOBER BABY,” Tuesday night, April 3rd and was quite moved by it, and I strongly recommend seeing the film and staying for the end credits as they roll by on the screen… Here is the usccb movie review:

RE: 03.15.`12~Readings for Sunday, March 18th-2012

Saint Max Bible Study Meets at the back of the church in the Mother Cabrini room 9AM-10AM on Fridays…Please join us!

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Leaven XVIII Conference coming March 24
Each year the faithful of the Diocese of Venice are given a special opportunity to participate in a conference that deals solely with issues related to peace and justice and their impacts on the local, state, national and global communities.
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THIS YEAR’S LEAVEN CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD AT NEAR-BY San Pedro Parish in North Port, FL… SAT 3/24/12
PLEASE JOIN US!!!

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Fourth Sunday of Lent
READING 1 2 CHR 36:14-16, 19-23
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD's temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
"Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled."

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,
the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia
to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,
both by word of mouth and in writing:
"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth
the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,
and he has also charged me to build him a house
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with him!"
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.
R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
For there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
"Sing for us the songs of Zion!"
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
READING 2 EPH 2:4-10
Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ -by grace you have been saved-,
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
GOSPEL JN 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

SUNDAY READINGS - 4th Sunday of Lent
FIRST READING: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16; 19-23. All the leading priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, till the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy. The Chaldeans burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbath. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.'"
EXPLANATION: The Book of Chronicles (now divided into two books) is an historical summary of the history of the Chosen People. Although it begins with Adam, and covers the same ground as that covered from Genesis to 2 Kings, its chief emphasis is on David and on the Levites. Hence, of the descendants of Abraham, the tribes of Judah (David's tribe) and Levi figure with greater prominence than all the others. Of all the kings of Judah, David and Solomon have pride of place (the northern kings being omitted), and after them the "good" kings only, Jehosaphat, Ezechiah, and Josiah, who promoted or reformed the observance of the law and the divine cult in the temple. This summary history comes down to the decree of Cyrus giving the Babylonian exiles permission to return to Jerusalem. It is Generally agreed that the books of Ezrah-Nehemiah are the continuation of the same work written by the same author around 400 B.C. Today's extract refers to the edict of Cyrus, the king of Persia, permitting the exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, which had been burned by the Chaldeans as a punishment from God for the infidelities of the Chosen People.
leading...people: The last three kings of Judah were unfaithful to God and his law. The priests were no better. Pagan practices were allowed in Jerusalem and even in the temple of the true God "the abominations of the nations polluted the house of the Lord in Jerusalem."
Lord...messengers: In his mercy God kept sending his messengers, his prophets, pleading with them to mend their ways, but they ignored and even scoffed at his interventions "till there was no remedy."
The Chaldeans: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia (also called Chaldaea) invaded Palestine, captured Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and took the king and most of the citizens off to Babylon as prisoners of war (597-587 B.C.). In this the chronicler saw the hand of God whose wrath had been aroused by the stubborn disobedience and disrespect of his Chosen People.
until...Persia: The Jews remained prisoner in Babylon for almost seventy years.
land...sabbaths: The sabbath law which prescribed rest for the people and the land (for no servile work could be done in it) had been ignored. Now this same land will have seventy years of rest for there will be no Jew to till it. Jeremiah the prophet had foretold this (see Lv. 26: 34; and Jer. 25: 11; 29: 10).
first...Cyrus: Cyrus set free all foreign prisoners of war in Babylon including the Jews. In doing this he fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah mentioned above.
the Lord...Cyrus: The God of the Jews, who was God of the Universe, was able to influence the now ruler of Babylon to set his people free, as he had influenced the previous king to punish them for their offenses against himself and his temple.
The Lord...heaven: These words do not mean that Cyrus recognized the God of the Jews as his own God and Benefactor. He respected all gods for he knew that a people obedient to their god would be obedient to himself too. Cyrus anticipated by centuries the syncretism of the Roman empire.
Let him go up: The Jewish prisoners were now free to return to their homeland and encouraged to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. Now that they had no king and no intention of having one, the temple would be the focal point round which the nation would gather; in it their faith and their hopes for a glorious future would be centered.
APPLICATION: When this world of ours shall end and we shall see the complicated and multicolored tapestry that the history of men on earth has woven, we shall clearly recognize the hand of God putting the varied and intricate strands of that history into their proper place. "The old order changeth giving place to the new and God fulfills himself in many ways," says the great poet Tennyson. Yes, even those who now think that they are running this world themselves, without any assistance or what they call interference, from God, will see who moved them---for his own long-distance purpose. The history of the Chosen People of the Old Testament is evident proof of God's big part in the regulating of their world. He worked extraordinary miracles to bring them into Canaan, the land he promised Abraham. But on the way and during their sojourn there, again and again, he used their enemies, and his, in order to make them realize their dependence on him. God's plan was that the future Messiah would come from his Chosen People in the land of Canaan, yet he allowed the northern tribes, because of their disloyalty, to lose all ownership of their part of the territory. As we saw in today's reading, Judah (Benjamin) and Levi almost suffered the same fate. "Almost only," for here God’s plan steps in. While they had to be punished for their infidelities, the punishment was to be a purification, they would be chastised. In later days, we see Cromwell of England and Bismarck of Germany unwitting doing more to spread the Catholic Church in the western continent than all the zealous Catholic missionaries who had gone there up to that time.
The history of the Christian era is no different. God's Chosen People of the New Testament have often, been disloyal to him. They have often provoked his wrath, and God allows their enemies and probably his own enemies to purify and cleanse them. There have been times too When God allowed sinful despots to torture and kill innocent Christians for their own criminal motives, but out of the sufferings of his faithful ones God built a bigger and more loyal following. Nero, Caligula and Diocletian, for instance, sent more martyr saints to heaven than even the great Apostle St. Paul---saints, perhaps, who might otherwise not have got there.
What holds true of people and nations is true also in the life of each individual. God is working in our lives in a way that we do not always realize. He has an active interest in each one of us from the cradle to the grave. The devout Christian family which was ever loyal to God is suddenly deprived of the bread-winner, the mother of a young family is called away leaving a helpless father to face the difficult future. The young boy or girl in whom the parents had set their hopes and on whom they had spent much of their limited income, and most of their love, is stricken down as he or she graduates from college. These do not look like the doings of a loving and benevolent God when seen from our side of eternity. But when we shall see the tapestry of our life on the last day, we shall then see why such "misfortunes" had to happen. In fact, we shall see that they were blessings from God in disguise---someone or other of the actors in the scene would not have reached heaven had these so-called misfortunes not occurred in the family.
God is looking after us, he can write straight with "crooked" lines, the crookedness indeed is the result of our angle of view. When the whole picture is painted we shall see how necessary it was for our salvation that we should take the rough with the smooth. Fair-weather sailors are not fit for long and difficult voyages. Our journey to heaven is a long and often stormy voyage we need to be trained in dealing with storms if we are to arrive safely in the place that God has destined for us. While very often we can attribute the storms of life to the wickedness of evil neighbors or anti-religious governments, let us not forget it, God is using these crooked lines and these worldly agents to write for us that beautiful sentence: "well done, thou good and faithful servant ... enter into the joy of the Lord." So may it be for all of us!
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SECOND READING: Ephesians 2: 4-10. God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God---not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
EXPLANATION: St. Paul preached the gospel in Ephesus during his third missionary journey. He spent over two years in that city (54-57), and had a very large group of converts there. This letter was written from prison (most probably Paul's Roman imprisonment 61-63), and is a calm, studied exposition of the Christian doctrine he had already taught them. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and the part each of the divine persons plays in our salvation is stressed. The mutual love between Christ and his Church is compared to the mutual love between husband and wife. The kingdom of Christ is already here on earth, each member shares in it through baptism, but it is only in the future age that it will be a full reality. In today's extract from this letter, St. Paul is emphasizing the gratuitousness of the gift of faith which the Ephesian converts have received. This gift which God gave them, even when they were sinners, had united them to Christ, and has given them the right to share in his glorious resurrection and inherit heaven with him and through him.
God...mercy: This infinite mercy or goodness of God is the explanation of everything we have and will have.
he loved us: What a startling idea this must have been for the Gentile converts especially. Their pagan gods never loved them---they were always a threat and had to be placated by sacrifices but the true God loves his creatures, "even when dead through trespasses."
alive...Christ: Through being united to Christ, that is, to the God-man, human beings are made to live with a new life, a higher life, a life of adopted sonship with God.
raised up with him: St. Paul sees Christians as already participating in the blessings of the resurrection of Christ. They have through baptism the qualifications necessary to obtain for them, after death on this earth, a place with Christ Jesus in heaven. They have their citizenship papers and their passport, all they need is to travel on the right road.
in...ages: At a future date all true Christians will share in "the immeasurable riches" that God has prepared for us in and through his incarnate Son.
by grace...saved: He now stresses the gratuitous character of the heavenly gifts which Christ and their Christian faith will earn, and has already earned in part, for them.
not because of works: No natural powers or works of man are able to merit the supernatural gifts---eternal life in glory with all that follows from that but God alone in his infinite goodness makes a free gift of these blessings to us.
his workmanship: As he created us in the natural order, so he has now created us in the supernatural order.
created in Church Jesus: Through the incarnation we have been made "a new creation," this truth occurs often in St. Paul (see 2 Cor. 5: 17; Gal. 6: 15; Tit. 3: 5; Col. 3: 10; Eph. 4: 24).
for good works: Our natural works cannot merit anything supernatural for us, but because we are raised by baptism to a supernatural state our good works are meritorious.
that we...them: God himself has laid down for us in our Christian religion a certain line of action, a form of life that we must follow in our living. Through our fidelity to these prescriptions, we shall reach the rewards prepared for us by God's gratuitous love.
APPLICATION: The holy season of Lent ends with the great drama of the "Triumph of Failure" on Calvary. On that first Good Friday the Son of God as man died the most shameful and painful death on the cross. He did so that we men might live forever. It is, therefore, most fitting that in our preparation during Lent for the worthy commemoration of that world-shaking event, we should be reminded of the immense and almost incredible love of God for us which caused this to happen. Think on it as we may, and meditate on it as often as possible, we could still never fathom the depths of pure, unalloyed love which made God go to such lengths for our sakes. But we can see and understand enough of that divine love to make us utter frequently a heartfelt and sincere "thank you" to our heavenly Father.
Having created us and having given us the intellectual gifts which raise us above all other created things on earth, God could have left us in that natural state. We could have a certain amount of happiness, mixed with suffering of course, and we should be grateful for this, but could we really have any true happiness, any real contentment in a life which moved irrevocably and swiftly toward its eternal end in the grave? The merciful and loving Creator saw this before he ever created us. We were never intended for a mere natural life on this earth. The special faculties that he intended giving us deserved and, one could say, almost demanded something immensely greater than a few fleeting years of joy mixed with sorrow on this little planet. Therefore, our loving Creator ordained from eternity that we should share his eternal happiness with him.
That God could have found many ways of doing this, there is no sound reason to doubt, but the way he chose---the uniting of our human nature with the divine in his incarnate Son---was surely the way that expressed his true and fatherly love in the most emphatic manner possible. This is what our heavenly Father has done for us. He did so, as St. Paul says today: " out of the great love with which he loved us." The superior intellectual faculties which he gave man in creation can now have, as their object, infinite love and happiness, infinite truth and beauty. Multiply any earthly joy and happiness you have ever experienced, by infinity (if that can be done) and you have some vague idea of what your future life in heaven will be.
To help us appreciate how privileged we are---God's friends on our way to God's home---let us think often during Lent of our unfortunate neighbors, who have no such faith, no such hope, no such consolation in their day after day struggles. This may be their own fault or that of their parents or grandparents, but it matters not who is responsible, these neighbors of ours were created for heaven, God wants them there and unless they get there, their life on earth has been a dreadful failure. We can help them in many ways and if we really appreciate all that God has done and is doing for ourselves, we will gladly do a little bit for him in return, by assisting his prodigal sons on the road back to their Father. This act of true charity toward our fellowman in need will not impede us on our journey to heaven. It will be an immense help to keep us closer to God and more faithful to our Christian calling. A very special additional joy for us in our eternal life will be to have with us in heaven those whom we helped to bring there with us.
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GOSPEL: John 3:14-21. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God."
EXPLANATION: In chapter three of his gospel, St. John tells us of a nocturnal conversation which Jesus had with a leading Jew, a man of wealth and position. This man, whose name was Nicodemus, had, been impressed by Jesus' preaching and miracles, but being afraid of his fellow-Jews, in the circle in which be moved, he came to speak to Jesus at night. Nicodemus is told that to enter into the kingdom of God, a man must believe in Christ and be baptized. He is born anew of the Spirit in baptism. Jesus also tells him that it is God's will that he himself should be lifted up on the cross and die so that those who believe in him may have, eternal life. It would seem that Nicodemus believed in Jesus to a limited degree. He tried to defend him later on when the Pharisees were condemning Christ (Jn. 7: 51), and he assisted Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of Jesus and supplied expensive aloes and myrrh for the embalming of his body (Jn. 19: 39).
serpent...wilderness: During their wanderings in the desert the Chosen People often rebelled against God. On one such occasion, described in the Book of Numbers (21: 4-9), God allowed poisonous serpents amongst them. Anyone bitten by one of these serpents died. The people then repented, and God told Moses to make a bronze image of a serpent and raise it aloft on a pole. Anyone bitten by a serpent who looked on the elevated bronze serpent was instantly healed of his poisoning.
so must...Man: The "Son of Man" (the half-hidden messianic title that Jesus used of himself) must also be raised aloft (on the cross) in order to earn eternal life for all who will believe in him. In John's gospel the phrase "to be raised up" referring to Jesus has always a double meaning, to be raised up on the cross and to be raised up in glory at the resurrection and ascension.
gave...Son: These are most probably John's interpretation and explanation of the role of Jesus in our salvation. It is entirely due to the incredible love of God for us. He did not spare his own Son but sent him as man amongst us to live and die for us.
shall not perish: Death will not be the final end of those who truly believe in Jesus.
not...world: Neither God nor his incarnate Son condemns men. Men condemn themselves by their refusal to accept God and his Son whom he sent to open heaven for them.
He who believes: Belief in Christ put into daily practice is indicated here. Saying "Lord, Lord" will save no man, "but he who does the will of my Father, he shall be saved."
condemned already: The atheist, agnostic and disbeliever who persevere in this frame of mind are already writing their own sentence of condemnation, just as the true believer who perseveres in his faith is already writing his sentence of approval.
believed in the name: That is, in the person of Jesus, who was God's divine Son.
light has come: Christ as the light of the world is an image frequent in St. John. Christ himself says: "I am the light of the world, he that follows me shall have life and will not walk in darkness" (Jn. 8: 12, see also 9: 5; 12: 35-45; 12:46). Christ has come to illuminate, to give light to the minds of men, so that they can know the true facts regarding their purpose in life.
men loved darkness: That is, the negation of light and what it means. Men preferred not to know their destiny lest they should have to go to the trouble, the self-restraint necessary to reach it.
deeds were evil: They were sinners and loved their sins.
does...light: The vast majority of evil deeds are done in secrecy and in the darkness.
he who...light: The innocent man who does what is right has no fear of being seen by everybody.
deeds...God: Good works are done by the aid and under the inspiration of God, if they are truly good and meritorious. Works good in themselves, can lose all merit and spiritual value because of the evil or wrong intention of their author.
APPLICATION: This man Nicodemus had a half-open mind as regards Jesus. He was moved by his teaching and miracles. He defended him when his companions were out to have Jesus arrested. He helped to have him properly buried when his enemies had him put to death, but that was as far as he went, apparently. There is no mention of him in the first Christian community of Jerusalem. What held him back, what kept him from giving himself fully to Jesus who spoke so kindly and told him so clearly that he himself was indeed a teacher who had come from God, that he had been offered by God as the sacrificial victim who would save the world? All Nicodemus had to do was to accept his word, "believe in him" and be baptized and he too would have eternal life.
Why did he not do this? The answer is given in the beginning of his story: "He came to Jesus by night." He was one of the leading Pharisees and evidently was afraid of what they would think of him had they seen him associating with Jesus. How much more so did he dread what their reactions would be had he become a follower of him whom they called "this impostor." Nicodemus had only half of his mind open to the truth, the other half was closed and barred by his fear of what his own class---the leaders of the Jews---would think of him. He risked his own future happiness in order not to lose the present respect of his sinful associates.
What a foolish man we would all say! Yet, are not many of us often like Nicodemus, when it comes to living up to our following of Christ? There are Catholic men who would like to, and should, go much more often to Holy Communion but are afraid of what their fellow-parishioners, who receive but rarely, would think of them. There are many, far to many, Christians who will not defend or stand up for their religion when it is insulted and attacked in their place of work or in a saloon. There are Christians who stand idly by, and give at least implied, approval, when grave injustices are being carried out by individuals or by local or national groups. These and many more like them are Christian types of Nicodemus, who through fear of losing the approval, the worthless esteem, of their sinful associates, are prepared to forfeit the esteem of God and their own eternal welfare.
Nicodemus probably thought he had made reparation for his lack of openness to Jesus when he assisted at his burial. What value, however, had that work of mercy for one of his frame of mind? There are amongst us today, humanists, most of them ex-Christians, men and women who make assisting their neighbor, while excluding Christ and God, the essence of religion. While the, assistance the neighbor receives will benefit him materially, what spiritual or religious value can it have for the humanist who excluded God and our Savior Jesus Christ? Humanism or concentrating on our neighbor to the exclusion of God, is an imitation of religion and a very false imitation at that. Helping our neighbor because he is a son of God is part of our true religion, and the second of the two great commandments of love; but helping a neighbor from whom we have effaced the image of God has not and cannot have any religious value or significance whatever. It is as meaningless as lighting a candle before the photograph of a wife one has deliberately deserted.
Thank God, we have accepted Christ with our whole heart and our whole mind. It is through him that we have been made sons of God. It is through him that we have learned to love God and learned of God's infinite love for us. Because all men are God's sons also, and our brothers in Christ, we will gladly help them whenever and wherever we can because God has commanded us to do so. This is true humanism which sees in the neighbor the workmanship of the almighty Creator, and what is more important the elevating effects of the divine Savior, as well.b139
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RE: 03.01.12~Readings for Sunday, March 4th-2012

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MARCH 4, 2012
Second Sunday of Lent
READING 1 GN 22:1-2, 9A, 10-13, 15-18
God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he replied.
Then God said:
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you."

When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.

Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
"I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing-
all this because you obeyed my command."
RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
R. (116:9) I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted."
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
READING 2 ROM 8:31B-34
Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?

Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?
Christ Jesus it is who died-or, rather, was raised-
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
GOSPEL MK 9:2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

SUNDAY READINGS - 2nd Sunday of Lent
FIRST READING: Genesis 22:1-2; 9-13; 15-18. God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice."
EXPLANATION: Abraham had promptly obeyed the true God, left his pagan kin, kin and country and come to Canaan. God told him he would be the founder of a great race, the Chosen People, from whom God's blessing---the Messiah---would eventually come (Gn. 12: 1-3). To be the founder of a race, Abraham needed to have a son. God let him wait for twenty-four years before he blessed Sarah, his wife, and himself with a son. In all of that time Abraham was faithful to God, but God had one more test for him. When his son Isaac had grown to boyhood, God asked Abraham to offer him in sacrifice at an appointed place. Abraham obeyed promptly once more, but God intervened as Abraham got ready to slay his son. He told Abraham how pleased he was with his ready obedience. He renewed to him once more the promise of a great race, through which the whole world would receive the blessing of God---divine adoption through the incarnation.
God...Abraham: God knew the answer, but he wanted Abraham's faith and trust in God to be an example for his descendants for all time.
only son...love: There were two reasons which made it so difficult for Abraham to obey. First, he loved his only son, as only a father who begot a son in his old age could love and secondly, how could he be father of a great race if his only son was put to death? However, Abraham's love of God overcame his natural love for his son, and his firm faith in the power of God told him that God could still find a way to fulfill the promise of a great race, which he had made to him in his pagan homeland thirty or so years earlier.
a burnt offering: This seems an extraordinary request on the part of God. But in the surrounding pagan lands at that time and for long after, children were offered in sacrifice on pagan altars. God by no means approved of this crime, but the fact that it was happening made it possible for Abraham to think that God really wanted him to sacrifice Isaac.
Abraham, Abraham: As Abraham was just ready to slay his son before burning him on the altar God's messenger calls on him to stop.
you fear God: It was now clear that Abraham was willing to obey God in all things even a thing so difficult and repugnant as this.
a ram...thicket: As the altar was ready, Abraham felt he should offer some sacrifice to God because he had spoken to him there, and so he offered the ram which happened to be within reach.
by myself...sworn: Because of Abraham's fidelity and trust God now renews his promise in a most solemn way---he swears by himself. There was nothing, or no person higher, by whom he could swear or guarantee fulfillment of his promise.
all...themselves: All the peoples of the world would come to know in time that it was through Abraham and his descendant, Christ, that God's privilege of sonship was made available to them (see Heb. 11:12; Rom. 4). They will see Abraham as the human intermediary in God's plan for all men.
APPLICATION: The faith and trust of Abraham in the true God whom he had got to know only late in life, and about whose power and love he did not know a fraction of what we know, should well put us to shame. Abraham left his country, his home, and his kin at a time when one's life depended on the strength of one's clan. He came to a foreign land about which he knew nothing. There he lived among strangers who had no time for invaders and "foreigners." All of this looks easy on paper but what a sacrifice it must have been for Abraham to leave his own people, to travel the long desert journey from Haran in Assyria to Canaan, and then to try to earn his daily bread in unfriendly, if not positively hostile, surroundings. All of this Abraham did because he was convinced of this true God's omnipotence and fidelity to his promises. Abraham was glad of the role that God had chosen for him---the human agent through whom the great divine blessing for all peoples would come.
Abraham's second test of obedience and trust, of which we have just read, was even a more severe trial than the first. He was asked to give up forever his only real son and thereby be unable to fulfill the role God had promised him. Here again Abraham's trust in God gave him the strength and the courage to do what he was told. Abraham's prompt, unquestioning obedience pleased God---he did not have to sacrifice his only Son. His goodwill, his desire and readiness to obey God's command, were proof enough of his justice, fidelity, sanctity.
How many of us could imitate Abraham? How many of us who have seen God the Father sacrificing his beloved Son in his human nature, offering him as sacrifice for our sins on the cross, could or would measure up to Abraham's prompt obedience when God demands some sacrifice of us? How many of us who can devoutly make the Stations of the Cross, and see and feel the insults, degradation, tortures that the innocent Lamb of God suffered for our sins, will turn around soon after and refuse to give up some sinful association, some personal and unlawful gain, some habit of gluttony, or personal animosity against a neighbor? Such unwillingness to sacrifice something much less important than an only son, for the sake of God and our own eternal welfare, is far indeed from the prompt and ready obedience of Abraham.
We all have much to learn from this saintly man who lived nearly four thousand years ago. He is our father in the faith, for it was through his descendants that the knowledge of the true God was preserved on earth, and it was from one of his descendants that our Savior---the Messiah---took his human nature. We should, therefore, remember him with gratitude and we should show that gratitude especially by our endeavors to imitate his spirit of obedience and submission to God's will. Let each one of us look into his or her own heart today. There are desires and plans and attachments there, which God is asking us to sacrifice, to burn up, to destroy during this lent. They are trifling sacrifices compared with that demanded of Abraham, but they are big enough to keep us from true loyalty to God in this life and are a very positive impediment to our entrance into heaven in the next.
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SECOND READING: Romans 8: 31-34. If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?
EXPLANATION: Unlike his other Epistles, which were letters written by Paul to churches that he, or one of his assistants, had evangelized, this letter is to a church that he had not even visited. It is, therefore, less personal and more in the form of an exposition of part (not all) of the Christian message which he had preached in Asia Minor and Greece, and was now anxious to preach to the Romans also. In the section of the letter from which this extract is taken, St. Paul is emphasizing the indwelling of the Spirit in Christians and their freedom from sin, eternal death and the Jewish law. The liberating act of Christ had made them children of God, destined for glory. The Christian is a freeman who lives in hope. His hope is founded on the infinite love of God for men. That love was made manifest in Christ Jesus.
If God...us: He has demonstrated that God is clearly on the side of man. The salvific plan of God which Paul has expounded so far is sufficient proof of this.
who...us: With God on our side, all enemies are powerless against us.
who did...Son: What greater proof of his love for us could God have given us than this, that he handed over his own Son to the death of the cross for our sakes (see 5: 5-8).
all things with him: If he gave his beloved Son to us and for us, he will give everything else that is necessary for our eternal salvation.
bring...against: Christians are God's chosen ones. God is the supreme Judge, who shall dare to bring any charge against them in God's court?
It is God who justifies: The same idea is here repeated.
Is...Jesus: Christ who has made us his brothers by his incarnation, and died on the cross for our sins will not bring a charge against us.
raised...intercedes: Christ who died has been raised from the dead and is now in his glorified humanity in the principal place in heaven. He is interceding for us, that is, he is continuing his activity as Savior. Could he then become our opponent? The answer, of course, is "no."
APPLICATION: These four short verses of St. Paul's letter to the Romans are among the most encouraging and consoling scripture passages in the whole Bible. He tells us God and Christ are entirely in favor of admitting us to heaven. He admits that there are some enemies who would try to prevent us from getting there, but he logically concludes: what can any enemy or number of enemies do if God and Christ are our defending Counsels and Judges? In brief "if God is for us who is against us?" Paul's whole letter is full of proofs that God is for us, the greatest proof of all being the fact of the incarnation and crucifixion of his Son, for us sinners. If God went to those lengths in order to bring us to heaven it is more than logical that he will give us the lesser gifts and the assistance that each one of us needs in order to get there.
The Christian who keeps vivid this consoling knowledge of God's love for him and God's interest in his eternal welfare should never have a sad moment in his life. The things that cause us worry and trouble in life are trifles, when compared with the assurance and certainty we have of final triumph. That assurance comes from God's infinite love, so definitely proved to us by the incarnation. St. Paul goes on in the very next verse after the text which is read today (8: 35): "who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword". . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. . . no created thing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord."
This is the assurance that St. Paul gives the newly converted Christians of Rome and it was not based on any speculation or wishful thinking, but on the solid proofs of God's love for us which the incarnation so definitely demonstrated. Let no one say: this might be all very true as regards the early Christians, they were full of zeal and full of the love of God; they were not likely to feel all the weaknesses of the flesh and all the attractions of the world which we feel today; life was easier then, they could give more time to the things of God than we can today, the struggle for existence was not so hard for them. St. Paul who knew human nature very well and who had dealt with thousands of converts would deny such statements absolutely. He knew the Roman converts were subject to the same human weaknesses as are all men of all ages. He knew they could, and very likely did, sin occasionally but he also knew that they had been instructed on how to repent of their sins and had enough interest in their eternal welfare to do so.
They had the same weakness that we have, they had the same enemies opposing their salvation. We have the same remedies and protections as they had; they used these remedies and were saved. Shall we not be as active in our own best interests as they were? God is as much for us as he was for the Romans, he wants us in heaven and he has done all that was necessary (and much more) to get us there. If we fail in our final examination one of our greatest causes of grief will be that the fault is completely and entirely our own. We can blame no person or thing in heaven or on earth for our dreadful failure except ourselves. Pray God today, that you shall avoid such grief. You will, if you try always to keep before your mind what God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has done and continues to do daily for you. "If God is with us who is against us?" God is ever with us if we do not deliberately and seriously separate ourselves from him.
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GOSPEL:Mark 9: 2-10. Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud. "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.
EXPLANATION: A few days previous to the event narrated here by St. Mark, Jesus had told his disciples of the sufferings and death that awaited him in Jerusalem. "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests. . .and be killed and after three days rise again (Mk. 8: 31). This statement greatly depressed the Apostles. They still had the wrong idea of their Messiah. They still hoped he would establish an earthly kingdom, that he would use his great powers to subdue all his earthly enemies and that he would set up a triumphant kingdom in Israel. It was while they were in this mood of deep depression that he took Peter, James and John---the same three who were to witness his Agony in the Garden a few months later---to the top of a high mountain. Here he gave them a glimpse of the divine glory which was his, but of which he had "emptied himself," as St. Paul puts it, "taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men, though he was in the form of God" (Phil. 2: 6-7) so that he could, through his life and sufferings as man, redeem and elevate all men.
was...before them: The appearance of Jesus was completely changed; He had become someone entirely different, someone glorious. Even his garments shone with a brilliance and whiteness not of this world: "no fuller on earth could bleach them thus." Jesus allowed his three Apostles a momentary prevision of what his glorified body united to his divinity will be like in heaven.
Elijah, Moses: These were the two outstanding representatives of the Law and the prophets, that is, of the Old Testament. Their presence was an indication that Christ was the promised Messiah.
talking to Jesus: Mark does not mention the subject of this talk but Luke (9: 29) tells us they were speaking of "his departure", his passion and death in Jerusalem.
Peter said: Always the leader and always ready to speak, Peter, beside himself because of the glorious vision, suggests that this should continue forever. Hence the idea of erecting three booths (or tents) in which Jesus, Moses and Elijah could remain. There may have been the thought in his mind that in the eschatological age God would pitch his tent among men (see Ez. 37: 27; Zech. 2: 10-11).
did not...say: This is an indication of the folly of Peter's suggestion.
exceedingly afraid: They knew that they were in the presence of something supernatural and were therefore afraid.
a cloud...them: In the Old Testament a cloud was always the symbol of the presence of the divine majesty. God spoke to the Israelites in the desert from a cloud (Ex. 16:10). He gave the ten commandments to Moses from a cloud (Ex. 19: 16). He manifested his presence in the newly-built temple of Solomon in a cloud "which filled the house of the Lord" (3 Kgs. 8: IO).
a voice came: From out of the cloud God proclaimed that Christ was his beloved Son whom the Apostles must hear and obey: "listen to him."
no longer...Jesus only: St. Matthew tells us the Apostles fell on their faces when they heard the voice of God from the cloud---they were terrified and wanted to hide themselves. Matthew also adds that Jesus then came to them and told them to rise up and not to be afraid. The only one they saw when they stood up and opened their eyes was Jesus in his ordinary human appearance.
he charged them: On their way down from the mountain Jesus commanded the three Apostles to tell nobody what they had witnessed until:
the Son...dead: After the resurrection they would understand that Jesus was more than man and more than a human Messiah. This vision would then have a clear meaning for them and for those to whom they would tell it.
rising...meant: They kept this secret from all others but they discussed it among themselves, and they were especially puzzled by Jesus' mention of his resurrection from the dead. This puzzlement was not about the possibility of the resurrection of all men---for like the vast majority of their contemporary Jews, they had no doubts about an eventual resurrection from the dead---but how could Jesus rise from the dead when they were convinced that he could not die. He had power over all things, he had raised others from the dead, and this vision they had just seen proved how close to God he was, so how could he die? Nothing else but the actual death of Jesus on the cross was able to convince his Apostles that he would or could die.
APPLICATION: This vision of Christ glorified, given to these Apostles on Mount Thabor (the traditional site of Transfiguration) was surely a very special privilege, and it was one they did not forget. "We saw his glory," St. John says in his gospel, written over sixty years later. In his epistles John also refers to this privilege (1 Jn. 1: 1-4). St. Peter, writing from Rome to the churches in Asia Minor about thirty years later, mentions this outstanding experience: "For we were not following fictitious tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when from out the majestic glory a voice came down to him saying: 'this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' And this voice we ourselves heard borne from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain" (2 Pt. 1:16-18).
Yes, the three Apostles were privileged and we too are sharers in their privilege. The Transfiguration of Christ is but one among many of the incontrovertible proofs of the divine Sonship of Christ which we have in the gospel narratives and in the twenty centuries-long history of the Church which he founded. Were he not divine, that Church would long since have crumbled and fallen under the many vicious assaults from outside which it has undergone, as well as from the many human weaknesses which have beset it from within. But Christ is God and the Church has his divine protection and assistance. Therefore, it will go on to the end of time to continue his work of elevating and redeeming mankind.
This enlightening glimpse of Christ's future glory---a glory in which they would share---was given to these Apostles to strengthen and encourage them in the terrible test of their faith which the passion and death of Jesus would be for them very soon. It is for a similar reason that the Church orders this story of the Transfiguration to be read to us during this season of Lent. We are or should be mortifying ourselves during this season. This mortification can earn for us a glorious and unending future life. To encourage us to continue it, we are reminded that the One we are following, the One whose voice we listen to, is none other than the Son of God. There are the voices of many false prophets shouting around us, telling us to enjoy ourselves in this life, to "eat, sleep, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die," but there is the rub---tomorrow we shall die, but where shall we go then?
Let us thank our divine Lord today, for giving this consoling and encouraging vision of his glory to his Apostles and through them to us. It was for them, and it is for us, a guarantee and a foretaste of the joys and the glory that will be ours for eternity, if we but persevere in our struggles against the world, the flesh and the devil. This struggle is not easy for our weak nature, but our loving Savior is ever beside us to "raise us up and tell us not to fear" if we but rely on him. When we are tempted to give way to our human weaknesses, or to give way under the weight of the crosses that sometimes are about to crush us, let us think of Mount Thabor, and the glorified Jesus, who a few weeks later faced his own real passion and cross cheerfully for our sakes. This thought will help us to carry our crosses as the thought of the future glory which will be ours should make us thank God that we have been created and thank his beloved Son for setting us on the road to that future glory.b122
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