Thoughts on salvation

 

Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

John 3:7b–15

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that he must be lifted up to bring eternal life to believers. Why would God’s salvation of the human race have to include something as horrifying as crucifixion? We live in a time when the human predicament is regularly denied, explained away, or ignored. Despite the massive counter-evidence from the moral disasters of the last century, we are still beguiled by the myth of progress: with just enough technical advancement, psychological insight, and personal liberation, we will solve our problems.  But with this sort of stupidity and superficiality the Bible has no truck. The scriptural authors understand sin not so much as a series of acts but as a condition in which we are stuck, something akin to an addiction or a contagious disease. No amount of merely human effort could possibly solve the problem.  With this biblical realism in mind, we can begin to comprehend why the Crucifixion of the Son of God was necessary. The just rapport between God and human beings could not be reestablished either through our moral effort or with simply a word of forgiveness. Something had to be done—and God alone could do it. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Divine Mercy Sunday

Today, on the Second Sunday of Easter, the Church celebrates the Feast of Divine Mercy.

 

In the early 1930s, the world was in turmoil, and its future appeared bleak. Communist ideology was gaining ground in Eastern Europe. The Great Depression was felt across the globe, and international political crises were escalating.

 

It was to a despairing and despondent world that Our Lord, on February 22, 1931, first appeared to Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska in Plock, Poland, and requested that she spread the message of His infinite mercy. In total, Jesus visited Sr. Faustina fourteen times between 1931 and 1938. The faithful nun kept an extensive diary, detailing Our Lord’s revelations that would eventually be disseminated around the globe to people who hungered – and still hunger – for hope, love, and trust in God’s mercy.

 

Our Lord informed the young nun that He desired the Second Sunday after Easter to be declared Divine Mercy Sunday. He also instructed her how to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet and directed her to recite it unceasingly, promising that whoever prayed the Chaplet would receive great mercy at the hour of their death.

 

The painting of today’s internationally recognized Divine Mercy image with the inscription “Jesus, I trust in You” was originally requested by Our Lord of Sr. Faustina to serve as a constant reminder that we are to approach Him with complete trust, for His mercy is greater than our sins.

 

Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II on April 30, 2000.

 

We encourage you to read our special page dedicated to Divine Mercy Sunday, where we answer questions such as:

• What is the meaning of Divine Mercy Sunday?
• What are the promises of the Divine Mercy Chaplet?
• How did Jesus appear to St. Faustina?
• What is the relationship with the Divine Mercy and the Second Coming of Jesus?
  
  

On the page, we also offer a free eBook, Divine Mercy Novena, which will help prepare you for the Feast of Divine Mercy.

 

We hope this eBook and page will encourage you to rest in the assurance of Our Lord’s Divine Mercy. May God bless you.

 

In Christ,

Your EWTN Family

  

 

 

Thoughts on miracles

 

How is it that a person becomes a “person of faith?” How is it that a family or community or culture or nation is “faith-filled” and others are not? Why is it that even within the same family some individuals, raised as children in seemingly the same manner and with the same values, in their adulthood “live the faith” and others do not?

One of the most difficult things for people today to embrace is the reality of the miraculous. We are prone to operate, more than we sometimes acknowledge, under the assumption that God cannot have an active role in a world where growing human knowledge – and expanding technology – seem to promise ultimate human control.

The first Christians who experienced and professed Jesus’ Resurrection, and who were observers and even performers of miracles, understood these events as signs of God’s salvation. God chose to act through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; in that process, the “normal” limits of human life were broken on behalf of humanity.

In today’s Gospel, Thomas wants empirical proof if he is to believe the testimony of the other disciples that Jesus has risen. And yet, I suggest that it was not Thomas’ commitment to scientific thinking that keeps him from believing that Jesus has been raised from the dead. It is a more basic problem. It is his unwillingness, perhaps his inability, to believe that God would act in such a way to bring about salvation. Jesus appeared to him, passing through locked doors. In doing so, Jesus symbolically broke through the limits that Thomas had placed on God’s saving actions.

In giving us the story of “doubting Thomas,” John gives a new twist to the story of Jesus’ reality as the Resurrected One. Taking up a concern of the later Christian community, John asks: How can a person believe in the Risen One without having received an appearance? The answer he gives is clear: Seeing Jesus is no guarantee of believing. Even disciples had to come to faith when they saw him; so those who have not seen him can still have the blessedness of faith through believing the testimony of the first wit- nesses.

I have no simple explanations for why some people are people of faith and others are not. I do believe, however, that it is important to pray for a “holy imagination,” not in the sense of imagining something to be true which is not – that would be self-deception – but rather, to have the spiritual freedom to be able to imagine the truth, which is that God’s loving ways of operating are not always our own.  As we pray for the gift of a “holy imagination,” let us not fail to pray in gratitude for those people in our lives who have helped us to be the people of faith we are today… and let us always pray for those for whom faith is difficult.

Fr. Frank Reale, SJ

More thoughts on the Risen Jesus

 

Thursday within the Octave of Easter

Luke 24:35–48

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus appeared 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 Risen Jesus

 

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

More thoughts on the death of Pope Francis

 

Pope Francis passed away on the morning of Easter Monday after several months of health struggles that for some time required hospitalization.

“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis. At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father," stated Cardinal Kevin Farrell from the Holy Father's residence in the Casa Santa Marta. "His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of His Church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized. With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God."

The Holy Father was 88 years old.

He was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest child of an Italian immigrant who fled the fascist government of Benito Mussolini. As a young man, Bergoglio worked humble jobs, including a stint as a janitor. At the age of 21, he had part of one lung removed after a life-threatening bout of pneumonia. 

He joined the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order) in 1960 after several years of seminary studies. He was ordained a priest in 1969.

He served terms as the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina and as Archbishop of Buenos Aires before Pope St. John Paul II appointed him a cardinal in 2001 – making him eligible for his eventual election as pontiff.

Pope Francis was elected pope in 2013, and March 13 would have marked the completion of the 12th year of his papacy.

CatholicVote Vice President Joshua Mercer stated following the death of the pope: "CatholicVote joins the world in marking the death of Pope Francis, the 266th successor of St. Peter. Pope Francis was the first Jesuit pope, the first from Latin America, and the first to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi."

"Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis asked Catholics to reflect on the mercy of Christ, called all people to encounter the love of God, especially the poor and marginalized, and urged the Church to embrace its missionary identity," Mercer continued. "We give thanks to God for the gift of the pope, his brother bishops, and our Holy Mother Church. The days following a pope’s death also call for intense prayer and fasting for the future of the Church as the cardinals gather to elect his successor."

Thoughts on the passing of Pope Francis

 

It's with great sadness this Easter Monday that we, as Catholics, mourn the loss of our Holy Father Pope Francis. 

I think the good Pope Francis will be remembered as the Pope of Mercy. And what a magnificent example he gave to all of us by showing up for Easter yesterday in St. Peter’s Plaza to bless the people, wishing them all a Happy Easter, and then bestowing his “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to the whole world. He was weak and ill, but was not going to feel sorry for himself. He rose to the occasion, using his last strength to minister to the people with a smile on his face, and kindness, warmth and tenderness in his touch. May he rest in Peace, and may Our Blessed Mother, and Salus Populi Romani, his favorite Icon, intercede for his soul and for all of us.

As we enter the official period of mourning, followed by a Solemn Funeral Mass and burial, we will be preparing for the Conclave to elect the next Pope. Relevant Radio will be here to bring you coverage of the entire process. But in the meantime, please stay tuned to Relevant Radio in these days and join us each evening on the Family Rosary Across America at 7 PM Central Time as we pray for the repose of his soul and for the next Roman Pontiff. 

You can tune in to Relevant Radio on your local radio station, online, or on the #1 FREE Catholic app.