Thoughts on Doubting Thomas

On the Octave of Easter, this 2^nd Sunday of Easter, we always hear the Gospel of Doubting Thomas.

Thomas would not believe the testimony of the other Apostles, as he defiantly proclaimed, until he put his "finger into the nail marks" and his "hand into [Jesus'] side." To believe that Jesus was alive, Thomas needed to see and even to touch Jesus. And he does finally believe, becoming the very first of the Apostles to proclaim the Faith of the Church:  "My Lord and my God."

           What about us who have not seen and touched the Resurrected Lord? Why do we believe, and what do we believe concerning our Lord and the assertions of our religion? Do we believe only what the Bible says?

At the end of today’s Gospel, St. John says that “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book.” In other words, Jesus said and did many things that are not recorded in the Bible.

           “Divine Revelation,” which means the truth God has revealed about Himself, is more than the Bible.

Divine Revelation is transmitted to us in two ways: through Sacred Scripture, the Bible, but also through what is called Sacred Tradition.

           It is Sacred Tradition that St. John is alluding to when he says that Jesus did many other things not specifically recorded in the Bible. After all, how could any book, or any number of volumes, contain everything? Sacred Tradition means the truths not contained in the Bible but still revealed by God through Jesus and the Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Many of these truths are from the preaching and teaching of Jesus and the Apostles that have been handed down in the oral tradition.

Some examples of Sacred Tradition include:

·        The fact that Scripture itself draws from Sacred Tradition, because – think about it – the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles pre-date the Bible. It was the Church that had to decide what would be included in the canon of Sacred Scripture. The Church came before the Bible. The Gospel of Mark dates to around A.D. 70, and the First letter to the Thessalonians was written around A.D. 52. 

Other examples of Sacred Tradition include:

·        Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

·      Assumption of BVM

·     Perpetual virginity of BVM (always a virgin, before and after Jesus’ birth; no other children)

·       Role of Pope, bishops, priests in Christian ministry

·        Infallibility of Pope teaching officially on faith and morals

·        The understanding of the sacraments and their place in Christian life

           Our Catholic Faith relies on the Bible, but not only the Bible. Much of the truth of what the Church teaches comes from Sacred Tradition, which together with Sacred Scripture, forms what is called the one “Deposit of Faith.” It is this Deposit of Faith that comprises all of Divine Revelation: the truths we must believe and the principles of conduct that we must live. The Deposit of Faith is taught, interpreted, and handed down by the teaching authority of the Church, the “Magisterium,” which is guided by the Holy Spirit and given to the bishops (successors of the Apostles) united to the Pope (successor of St. Peter).

           Thomas’s faith was formed and made firm by his seeing and touching the Resurrected Lord, which we read in today’s Gospel, from the Bible. But our Catholic Faith is formed and made firm by the entire Deposit of Faith, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, the truths not contained in the Bible but still revealed by God through Jesus and the Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

           May we always read and revere the Holy Bible. But may we also revere the teachings of the Church handed down in God’s gift to us of Sacred Tradition.    

                                       

Fr. Don Saunders, SJ

Thoughts on the risen Jesus

 

Thursday within the Octave of Easter

Luke 24:35–48

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus appears alive again to his followers. Upon seeing him, “they were startled and terrified.” They are terrified because the one they abandoned and betrayed and left for dead is back—undoubtedly for revenge! Luke’s risen Jesus does two things in the presence of his shocked followers. The first thing is that he shows them his wounds. This move is a reiteration of the judgment of the cross: Don’t forget, he tells them, what the world did when the Author of life appeared. But he does something else; he says, “Shalom”—“Peace be with you.” In this, he opens up a new spiritual world and thereby becomes our Savior. From ancient creation myths to the Rambo and Dirty Harry movies, the principle is the same: Order, destroyed through violence, is restored through a righteous exercise of greater violence. And then there is Jesus. The terrible disorder of the cross (the killing of the Son of God) is addressed not through an explosion of divine vengeance but through a radiation of divine love. When Christ confronts those who contributed to his death, he speaks words not of retribution but of reconciliation and compassion. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Resurrection

 

Tuesday within the Octave of Easter

John 20:11–18

Friends, in today’s Gospel, we find Mary Magdalene weeping by the tomb of the risen Lord. She then sees Jesus and doesn’t recognize him immediately. In a wonderful detail, she thinks he’s the gardener. In the book of Genesis, God, the gardener of Eden, walked with his creatures in easy friendship. Sin, the sundering of the loop of grace, put an end to those intimate associations. Throughout the history of salvation, God had been trying to reestablish friendship. Through the death of Jesus, through that tomb placed right in the garden, he accomplished his goal. So now, in Christ, he appears again as a gardener. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni.’” Then Jesus says: “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers.” The not clinging has to do with the call to proclaim. The idea is not to hang on to Jesus but to announce what he has accomplished. The content of the proclamation is, once again, that we have become the intimates of God: “My Father and your Father . . . my God and your God.” Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on God's will

 

Doing God's Will

From: The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom

Try to give your agenda to God. Keep saying, “Your will be done, not mine.” Give every part of your heart and your time to God and let God tell you what to do, where to go, when and how to respond. God does not want you to destroy yourself. Exhaustion, burn out, and depression are not signs that you were doing God's will. God is gentle and loving. God desires to give you a deep sense of safety and God's love. Once you have allowed yourself to experience that love fully, you will be better able to discern who you are being sent to in God's name.

Reflection Question: What would it look like today to surrender your agenda to God and trust that God's will leads not to exhaustion, but to love and peace?

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”   - Matthew 11: 28 - 30

Thoughts on Easter Sunday

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 

Those four words have been the heartbeat of the Church for two millennia, proclaimed in cathedrals and whispered in prisons, sung at dawn by monks and shouted in joy by new converts stepping out of the baptismal waters. They are the words that change everything — not only about what we believe, but about who we are and how we are to live. The resurrection of Jesus is not a coda to a tragic story. It helps us to understand the whole story, in a way that rewrites ours.

 

I find myself returning, every Easter, to the scene the Church gives us in John's Gospel this morning. Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb while it is still dark — and finds the stone rolled away. She then runs. Peter and the Beloved Disciple then run.

 

There is something gloriously undignified about the image of two grown men sprinting through the early morning streets of Jerusalem because something has happened that — despite Jesus’ multiple prophecies that he would rise on the third day — dramatically defied their expectation.

 

The Beloved Disciple reaches the tomb first, peers in, and sees the burial cloths lying there. Then Peter enters, and John tells us something quietly extraordinary — he saw and believed. He did not yet fully understand, but he believed. The empty tomb and the burial cloths were enough for love to outrun grief, and faith to outpace explanation.

 

That same invitation is extended to us this morning. We, too, are asked to enter — to step past what we think we know, past our doubts and our losses and our unanswered questions — and to believe. The tomb is empty. Jesus is not there. He is risen, and the world has not been the same since.

 

The Church exists because those first witnesses could not stay silent, and because every generation since has found, in their own encounter with the Risen Lord, the same irresistible impulse to share what they have seen.

 

You and I are part of that long, unbroken chain of witness. Together, through the work of The Pontifical Mission Societies, we are part of how the news of Easter morning reaches men and women who have not yet heard it — in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, in the river communities of the Amazon, in the ancient cities of the Middle East, in Africa, Asia and every corner of the earth.

 

Christ has not just risen, but is very much alive, and journeys with us in time. The world is not the same. Neither are we.

 

I pray that, this Easter, God will fill you with a joy that does not fade, and that the Risen Lord will make himself known to you in the Holy Eucharist, in his Church, in the faces of those you love, and in every unexpected moment of grace that awaits you in the fifty days of the Easter Season that lie ahead.

 

Happy Easter!

Monsignor Roger J. Landry

Thoughts on Holy Saturday

 

Holy Saturday Reflection: Behold Your Mother

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34)   It is Holy Saturday and Jesus lays lifeless in a garden tomb. Today is a perfect time to ponder his life - as I'm sure the disciples and apostles in Jerusalem were doing. And what better place to start than by reflecting on the woman who gave him life. Twice in the Gospel of Luke, we hear that Mary pondered what was happening in her heart. The first was when the Shepherds arrived in Bethlehem bringing news from the angels. The second was when Jesus left his parents and was found waiting for them in ‘his Father’s house,’ the temple of God.   Luke, who knew Mary and heard her stories before writing his Gospel, gives us this detail to help us understand the heart of Mary. It’s a heart that receives, a heart that reflects, a heart that ponders.   Imagine what her heart was going through Good Friday? She followed Jesus the entire way to his cross, never leaving his side. Not once did she call out, “Jesus, my Son, get off the cross!” Not once did she beg through teary eyes, “Jesus, for my sake, honor your mother! Make this stop!” No, she pondered and she walked and she suffered and she gave him her eyes. She offered him her strength. She lifted him up.   We know Jesus was perfect in everything and never sinned. So, we know he honored his mother. We see this at Cana when he responds to Mary’s concern for the wedding party. “Woman, my hour has not yet come.” And yet, despite this, he listened to Mary’s request and performed his first miracle. Imagine the pain Mary would have caused Jesus if she asked him to get off the cross? Peter didn’t understand why Jesus had to die and we remember the chastisement given to Peter. What if Mary had asked the same? Would Jesus have honored her? How would he have reconciled her request with his mission - with the Commandments? The good news is Mary didn’t. She was silent just like her son, following him to the cross.   Thank God for Mary. She gave us life twice. In her yes to his conception and in her yes to his death. "Be it done unto me according to thy word." And, because of her receptivity to the word of God, a sword pierces her soul. St. Paul tells us about this sword in Ephesians. He says it is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." It is this spirit that overshadows Mary in Nazareth and this spirit that penetrates her very soul at Calvary. In her restraint, Mary embodies the Holy Spirit and is prepared for her task - to Mother the Church.   "Woman, behold your son. Son behold your mother." Mary stands beside those who face the cross - beside the Church - as our Mother. We can be sure that on Holy Saturday, just as Mary pondered her son's conception, his life and his death, she was pondering this gift she was given on Calvary. She was bringing us into her heart too.   Let us then turn to Our Mother Mary today. Let's ask her to open her pondering heart and tell us stories of her son who is our brother Jesus. He is coming tomorrow. May God Bless You, Matt & the Catholic.store team

Thoughts on Good Friday

 

Good Friday Reflection: A New Garden

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 1:24)   It’s day three of our Holy Week reflections - Good Friday.    What a day today is. It's overwhelming.    To understand what is happening on Good Friday, we have to start with the night of Holy Thursday. Jesus enters the Garden of Gethsemane and begins to pray. “Father, let this cup pass from me. Not my will but yours be done.”    Jesus’ agony is one of the most profound and mysterious parts of the Bible. In this simple phrase Jesus speaks from his two natures. As the perfect man, Jesus is praying the Passover prayer asking for the cup of suffering to pass from him. However, as God, he is asking for the blood to pass from him. In fact, just a few lines before he says, “this cup is my blood.”    The root of his agony is the tearing of Jesus the Man and Jesus who is God between these two prayers. As Messiah he is restoring the separation between God and Man that has existed since the Garden. Ultimately, he undoes the sin of Adam and Eve and submits himself to the will of the Father, “Not my will but yours be done.” Jesus sweats blood by his own volition and lets himself be handed over. Jesus the high priest has become the lamb led to slaughter.   There is so much to unpack here. But let's start with the fact that it all happens in a Garden. It’s not unintentional. Jesus wants us to think back to the first Garden. To Eden. He wants us to reflect on sin and expulsion. What has to be corrected is a matter of the heart and Jesus is correcting it through uniting his heart with ours. Adam and Eve desired to be God. If God allowed them to stay and gave them the tree of life forever, this corruption of the heart would spread its rot throughout creation. Unfortunately, they had to die.   But the secret is, how could that death become redemptive, not just punitive. Can good come from death? Jesus shows us this simple key to the Christian life. When we willingly die to ourselves for God, when we embrace our crosses, we are given new life. And not only are we given new life, we are given access back to the tree of life - the source of eternal life.   It's no coincidence that Jesus died on a cross made of wood. This tree made of human work from dead wood by an empire of war, soaks up his blood and becomes the new tree of life. The fruit of the tree is his body and blood.   When we suffer with love, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the world becomes a new Garden ready to be planted and death becomes a doorway to the Kingdom of God.   Let us all embrace our crosses and repeat with Jesus today, “Not my will but yours be done.”  God bless you, Matt and the Catholic.Store team