The very first Christian controversy revolved around who could be received into to the Church and how. The first Christians did not see themselves as belonging to a new religion. They were deeply religious Jews, who recognized Christ as the fulfillment of the Jewish tradition, both the Mosaic Law and the prophets. The first question was whether Gentiles, that is to say non-Jews, could be received into the fold.

We see in the reading from The Acts of the Apostles for this Sunday that Peter recognizes the power of the Holy Spirit working among Gentile believers as well, so he orders that they too be allowed to receive baptism, which is the first step of being initiated into the body of Christ. But as the New Testament narrative unfolds, we see that the question arising from this decision is not quite so easily solved. That question is whether and to what extent the Gentiles have to observe the Mosaic Law.

Read more...

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.

Read info...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

Holy Saturday: The Divine Plan to Re-Create the World

I think of the Easter Vigil Mass celebrated on Holy Saturday as the liturgical equivalent of a Thanksgiving meal. At Thanksgiving, we do not count calories. We indulge. At the Easter Vigil, we do not worry about time. We feast liturgically.

A part of that liturgical feasting is the proclamation of seven readings from the Old Testament and two from the New, plus eight responsorial psalm sections. The readings start with the account of creation and then highlight key moments of our salvation history. The culmination of the sequence is the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ in the Gospel reading.

As we see from the passage from Genesis, God created a good world. All that he made was good. Evil entered the world through human sin, which brought about the marring of God's creation. After this marring, the Fall, God undertakes the redemption of humanity. Over the course of centuries, he prepares the way for the Incarnation, his coming among us as one of us to take upon himself our own sins and thereby restore us to our original blessed state.

Read more...

Good Friday Reflection - Yearning for Paradise

Passage:

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 25:39-43)

Reflection:

When I was about 12, I saw a raunchy Italian comedy, called Il Ladorne, depicting a fictional account of the life of the Good Thief. I remember very little of the story now, but I do recall the last scene. After various adventures and misadventures, the Thief gets sentenced to death by the Romans. At the end of the movie, he is hanging on a cross next to Jesus, who turns to him and says: "Today you will be with me in Paradise." The Thief responds, somewhat nonchalantly: "That’s okay. I can wait."

The Thief’s reply is, admittedly, a bit sacrilegious, and you might be wondering why I am quoting it now. But is this not very often our own response to Christ? When Christ tells us "Today you will be with me in Paradise," do we not say, "That’s okay. I can wait."

Isn’t death the greatest fear in our culture? Do we not almost worship youth, resisting, resenting the process of aging?

Read more...