Fifth Sunday of Easter: Christ Is the Way to True Life

The conversion of St. Paul is a pivotal event in the history of Christianity. Paul never encountered Jesus during his earthly ministry. By the time Paul starts to persecute Christians, Jesus has already died and risen from the dead. He has ascended into Heaven and has sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Nevertheless, on the road to Damascus, Paul has a personal encounter with Christ. As a result, he abandons everything and changes his life completely. Christ becomes the organizing principle of his whole existence.

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Good Shepherd Sunday: Loving Others Means Calling Them to Christ

Christ using the image of a shepherd for himself was, in his cultural context, a profound act of humility. Shepherds were among the lowest ranking workers in the social hierarchy of the time. God humbled himself by becoming one of us through the incarnation. He further humbled himself by calling himself the shepherd of his flock.

But Jesus makes clear that he is not the usual type of shepherd, who is hired to watch over the sheep. The hired shepherds will flee when lethal danger appears, because they don't have a connection with their flock beyond their wages. But Christ, who is God, has an existential connection with us. God is our creator, our redeemer, our sanctifier.

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Third Sunday of Easter: What Is Sin?

All three readings this Sunday address the question of sin and call for repentance. But what is sin and why are we so concerned about it? Sin at its core is idolatry, worshipping something other than God. We know that many people are unbelievers, but no one is a non-worshipper. Worship is the centering of our being on someone or something, making that entity the organizing principle of our life. Everyone worships. If not God, then someone or something else.

God is love and he made the world out of love for us, to share his love with us. Deep in our essence is a fundamental yearning for his love. We can never find true fulfillment until we accept his love and give ourselves in love to him in return. As St. Augustine famously says at the beginning of his Confessions, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Centering our whole being on God gives us true joy, abiding peace, eternal fulfillment.

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Divine Mercy: Let Us Say With Thomas: My Lord and My God

All but one of the apostles abandoned Jesus as he was being tortured to death upon the cross. But now when he has risen from the dead and returns to see the disciples, he greets them with the words "Peace be with you!" If you were in a similar situation, would those be your first words to those who had abandoned you? I know I would struggle to be so gracious. But Jesus underwent his suffering out of love for all of us, offering his pain for the spiritual healing of all of humanity. He took our sins upon himself so that we can be cleansed.

The outpouring of God's Mercy is what we celebrate in a special way on Divine Mercy Sunday. Christians have often envisioned God as angry, eager to mete out punishment. But what Christ teaches us through the Gospels and what the Divine Mercy devotion highlights is that God is always ready to fill our lives with his Mercy, eager to cleanse us and heal us. Sins are the things that separate us from God's love and therefore bring sorrow and misery into our lives. If we persist in sin, we suffer the consequences of being separated from God's goodness. But if we turn to God for his Mercy, he restores us and shares with us his eternal divine life, imbuing us with his infinite love.

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