1. --
Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. --
Carol & Dennis Keller
3. --
Brian Gleeson CP
4. --
5. --(Your
reflection can be here!)
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1.
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2nd Sun. of Easter
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus says: " Blessed are
those who have not seen and have believed." Technically,
that means us, each of us. But haven't each of us seen Jesus
working in us and through us and in others around us?
I know I have! I am greatly blessed once again when I
take the time to recall exactly why I believe that miracles
still do happen. Jesus is still alive in this world and
working very hard (sometimes overtime I usually say when the
going is really tough).
At the soon-to-be age of 77, I am the chief caregiver of
my 13 year old granddaughter, a true delight, but a true
teenage handful many a time. I KNOW Jesus is alive when,
although I am the one who deliberately taught her to speak
her mind, she does so... and I remain silent, yes silent,
until I can utter the words of understanding and caring that
Jesus would. Sometimes, when I do speak, it is more Jesus's
words of encouragement rather than the ones along the line
of "what did you say?" or "you did what??" that I might feel
like yelling. Then there are some people around our family
who, in spite of whatever craziness is buffeting them in
their own space, take the time to check in with us and
remind us that Jesus is alive and why we commit to mutual
prayers.
Yes, there is evil in the world, but so much more is
good! Each of us can be part of the authentic and greatly
transformed community of Jesus that continues to do exactly
what Jesus did... see the good in people, care for their
needs, and encourage them. There is much need for "signs and
wonders" in our time. Those opportunities exist within our
very homes and neighborhoods, churches, schools, and work
places. May Jesus, in His Divine Mercy, extend that mercy to
us and guide us where to share it with others.
Blessings,
Dr. Lanie
LeBlanc OP
Southern
Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one
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2.
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Second Sunday of Easter April 24 2022
A.K.A. Divine Mercy Sunday
Acts of the Apostles 5:12-16; Responsorial Psalm
118: Revelation 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19; Gospel Acclamation
John 20:29; John 20:19-31
When a person of affection, of love, and of experienced
intimacy dies, whether suddenly or after protracted illness
or failed mending after an accident, the experience for the
spouse is like no other. Even the death of a parent pales in
comparison. The memory of the one loved so intensely and so
completely clings to consciousness and one-way communication
continues, sometimes with intensity of longing, sometimes
with a flood of gentle love so complete as to lift the heart
to an understanding of union beyond common life. So it must
have been with the disciples, especially the women from
Galilee who followed and ministered to Jesus before his
execution. The empty tomb of Easter is an experience well
beyond that wrenching separation that was the death of
Jesus. What a terrific flood of confusion: what a cacophony
of disbelief contested by actual sight and hearing! Then
when the Risen One is absence, doubts may have arisen about
the input from their senses. Were they hallucinating? Were
they experiencing mass hysteria? How could this be? The
horrors of an illegal trial by religious authorities, the
complicity of a politician/governor terrified of superiors
back in Rome, the fickleness of crowd easily manipulated
into mobs using highly charged conspiracy rumors – these
still roused fear and trembling in these simple and not so
simple fishermen, tradesmen, shepherds, scribes,
capitalists, and tax collectors. Anyone who experiences
death of their intimate experiences all these emotions
running rampant. Yet, yet, yet! There is this other aspect
that awakens – not so much in the mind, that reasoning part
of us – awakens in our heart a hope springing to faith. It
is the heart that is the seat of love that defies
understanding. Hope aroused for continued union, for
expanded embracing, for complete surrender to other awakens
another virtue, another strength of the human heart. That
strength is faith itself – revealed. The disciples – not
merely the apostles – the disciples gathered in that room
once the place of the Passover meal that signaled a new
Exodus, not from Egypt this time, but from the inclinations
to denials of the wonder of other. Sin itself, sin that
results from hardness of heart, from stiffness of neck, from
inability to see and accept every other as a wonder of God’s
fingers – that is what sin is. Noted theologians insist that
sin is an offense to God not because God is hurt but because
it is a denial of the wonder, dignity, and worth of other
and of creation.
Until Thomas meets the risen one, his heart is unable to
come to hope. What is the greeting of the Christ – that
greeting not only to Thomas but to all? "Peace be with you!"
This is not the absence of war or violence. The greeting is
a blessing. It is a hoped-for outcome of this meeting. This
blessing is a permanent change of a person. No matter what
evil strikes at a person possessing peace, they will be
unshaken. No matter when there is death that sneaks in and
steals the love of our life from us – there can still be
this peace given and created in even the most sorrowing
heart, the most stressed person.
The first reading gives us a clue to looking deeper into
the Scriptures for this Sunday. Those first Christians were
accustomed to gather in the colonnade of Solomon – one of
two colonnades in the Temple. The first reading speaks of
the Church as a place of healing, a place of renewed and
transformed life. Those who were ill, those possessed by
evil spirits, were made whole. They were transformed if only
struck by the shadow of the passing Peter. Our Church is not
an assembly of healing in our time. Whoa! Wait a minute! The
healing of our time has more to do with the Spirit. We come
to our assembly in order to be changed, to be transformed,
to be made whole in our spirits. In the hearing of the Word
and its explanation, we are provided with insight and
inspiration to grow and transform ourselves into the peace
that Jesus blessed the disciples. What is there that claws
and tears at our Spirits, that disturbs us, that distracts
us from reaching out to God, the only God whose love formed
us, calls to us, transforms us. Even death, even death
cannot rob us of our wholeness, our holiness. As difficult
as death of a spouse or a child is, there is an underlying
hope for a newness of life for the one lost to us. When we
too reach the end of our journeys, we too will be
transformed and rejoin that person, those persons, who
taught us how to love, how to surrender, how to rise up from
ashes like the phoenix, into newness of life promised and
guaranteed by the Son of God/Son of Man’s own experience.
In this Sunday’s gospel we hear of the experience of
Thomas, an apostle not present that resurrection first day
of the week. I like to think he was out looking for a job,
or some opportunity to build a different life. It seemed to
him – and often to us as well – that this was a lost dream.
Time to move on, get back into the ways of the world and
judge one’s life on the world’s measures of success.
Thomas was there the second first day of the week. He saw
the wounds – even though invited to put his finger into the
nail marks in Jesus hands and his hand into the mark of the
wound in his side, we do not know if Thomas felt compelled
to do that. We do not get the chance to touch the Lord…. Or
do we? Do we know suffering – personally or as sharers in
the suffering of others. Leading them to newness of life,
whether through a return to physical wholeness or escorted
by a chorus of angels and welcomed by a cloud of martyrs,
witnesses to God’s presence in our time and place – welcomed
into the heavenly Jerusalem, a place where there is no more
weeping, no more suffering. For the old has passed away,
transformed by God’s loving, compassionate mercy to the
darlings of his heart. The old passes away, but the
resurrected person – whether continuing in good health,
freed from addiction, freed from evil and the doers of evil
– enters a new creation, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. This is when we must recall
that the contract God has with his creation demands of God
at God’s own volition, that God deal with us with loving
kindness, with compassion, and with the mercy of the
Prodigal son’s Dad. Let this sink into our hearts this
Sunday. Let this lift us up in newness of life. For as we
receive the Lord in the Eucharist, we become one in his
suffering, death, AND RESURRECTION. Let us truly stand upon
receiving the Lord until all our brothers and sisters have
joined us in the One Body the one Blood.
Dennis
Keller
dkeller002@nc.rr.com
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3.
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BELIEVING IN JESUS IS PERSONAL: 2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER
C
Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9: John 20:19-31
When we come together for Mass every Sunday, we come to
remember Jesus. Our presence and participation in the
Eucharist are an act of faith - an act of personal faith and
an act of shared faith. In praying together, we also help
one another to believe, hope, and love more strongly. So, we
become a stronger Christian community. It might be said of
us what was said in our First Reading today about the infant
Church in Jerusalem: "... the numbers of men and women who
came to believe in the Lord increased steadily."
Our shared faith is above all faith in Jesus Christ. We
believe that he has risen from the dead, that he is alive in
himself and alive in us, and that he is our Teacher, King,
and Leader. But nobody can do our believing for us. This is
powerfully illustrated in our gospel story today.
It’s Easter Sunday and the disciples are huddled together
in a locked room. After what happened to Jesus just two days
before, they dare not venture out for fear for their lives.
But Jesus himself does not hide from them. Suddenly he comes
among them. His greeting is peace. Their response is joy.
For the storyteller John, Easter Sunday is Pentecost, and
the gift of the Spirit is the breath of the Risen Christ.
The disciples breathe in the Spirit and the Spirit becomes
part of their lives. Soon they will leave the Upper Room
changed persons - fearless, energetic, and zealous people.
In short, they will leave as persons animated, fired, and
propelled outwards by the Holy Spirit.
But one of their group is missing. His name is Thomas. He
is one of the apostles, part of the group. But he is also a
distinct, independent self, a real individual. He cannot be
both loyal to the group and disloyal to his inner self. That
would make his loyalty deceitful and worthless. For Thomas,
honesty and sincerity are, in fact, more important than
loyalty and belonging. So, when the others say, ‘We have
seen the Lord,’ he declares strongly and emphatically that
before he is willing to believe that Jesus has risen and is
alive, he must see and test the evidence for himself. He
won’t accept that claim just on their say-so. It’s his
honesty, then, that makes him doubt and leads to him being
called ever afterward ‘Doubting Thomas.’
We learn from the gospel story that Thomas comes to
believe in the Risen Jesus in the same way as the other
disciples, i.e., when he sees the Lord for himself. But in
the way that John tells the story, Thomas stands for all
those who have not yet seen the Lord in the flesh but who
are called to believe in him just the same. That’s where we
come into the story. We are among those many generations of
believers ever afterward of whom it may be said: ‘Happy are
those who have not seen and yet believe.’
One reason that Thomas was so slow to believe. is that he
was such a rugged individual, a real self-starter. The other
is because he was not present when Jesus breathed the Holy
Spirit into his fellow disciples.
But Jesus has given the Spirit to you and me, first at
Baptism, then at Confirmation, and subsequently, at every
Eucharist we celebrate. The Spirit which Jesus gives is the
Spirit of truth. It’s the same Spirit that empowers us to
say to Jesus with Thomas: ‘My Lord and my God!’
Our faith is one of the main gifts the Spirit has given
us. But it is not a one-off gift that we lock away in a safe
like some precious jewel. As a form of life, we must let our
faith grow and mature. On the other hand, like other forms
of life, our faith can wither and die from neglect and lack
of exercise. We need to pray about our faith, think about
our faith, and express it in works of love.
This does not mean that we will never have any doubts.
After all, even the great Mother Teresa had to struggle with
doubts her whole life long. But if like Thomas we care about
what we believe, surely sooner or later our faith, revived
by the Holy Spirit, will bring us into the presence of God
in the person of Jesus, whom our Second Reading today calls
‘the Living One,’ alive in himself, and alive in us, through
the Holy Spirit, his second self.
Let’s make sure, then, that our faith in Jesus, risen and
alive, is truly our own, and not simply borrowed!
"Brian
Gleeson CP" <bgleesoncp@gmail.com>
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4.
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5.
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Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections,
and insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the
preaching you hear. Send them to
preacherexchange@att.net. Deadline is
Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.
-- Fr. John Boll, OP
