Sunday, April 27, 2014

Gospel For Today - 2nd Sunday of Easter (A)

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER (A) - SUNDAY OF DIVINE MERCY

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."

With these words, Jesus grants the Church the authority to carry out her most urgent and fundamental mission in the world, which is to reconcile sinners to the Father.  On the evening of His Resurrection, Jesus appears to the Apostles and tells them, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."   So if we want to know why Christ sent the Apostles (and why God sent us the Church) we must know why God the Father sent His Son into the world.

The scriptures are abundantly clear on this point. From the beginning of the incarnation narrative, the angel who announced the coming of Christ to Joseph said, "and you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins" (Mt 1:21).  Jesus in His own words said, "I have come to call sinners" (Mt 9:13) and, "For the Son of Man came to save what was lost" (Mt 28:11).   In so many of Christ's parables, including the story of the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the Good Shepherd, our Lord describes His mission to call sinners to repentance and to grant forgiveness.  And on many occasions we see Christ granting that very forgiveness to individuals including Mary Magdalene, Zacchaeus, the thief crucified next to our Lord, and the Samaritan woman at the well.  

Very plainly, when Jesus heals the lame man who had been lowered through the roof, He says He did so, "so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Mt 9:2-8). This was Christ's chief mission, without a doubt.  It was the purpose of all that He suffered through on Good Friday, and here on the eve of the Resurrection we find Christ passing that divine authority on to the Apostles.

In our gospel, we read, "When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"    We must remember that it was the breath of God that gave life to Adam in the beginning (Gen 2:7).  The word spirit itself derives from the Latin word for breath.  This also anticipates the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, 50 days later (Acts 2:1-4).  In fact, Christ expressly says, "Receive the Holy Spirit," while breathing on them. 

The purpose of Christ transmitting the Holy Spirit to them at this moment was to empower them - to grant them the divine authority - to fulfill their mission.  And what was that mission?  "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."  Christ says quite plainly that the mission of the Apostles, and by extension the Apostolic Church, is to forgive sins.  He has granted them God's authority to do so.  He has instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or what we commonly call Confession.

How do we know this authority continues on in today's bishops and priests?  We know this because Christ intended that the mission of His Church would continue until the end of time.  If the Apostles did not have the ability to transfer that authority to others, then Christ's mission of forgiveness would have ended with that first generation of Christians, and extended only to those with personal contact with the Apostles themselves.  Forgiveness of sin would have come to an end with the death of St. John.  The forgiveness of sin must continue to be available to us for as long as there is sin in the world, which will be until the end of time.  And so the Church's divinely instituted mission continues on.

But why confess out loud to a priest?  Can't the Church just universally grant forgiveness without us having to go through the act of confessing?  Note that Christ grants the Apostles the authority both to forgive and to retain sins.  How are they supposed to know when to grant and when to withhold forgiveness?  They have to know what it is they are forgiving, the disposition of the sinner, his or her resolutions for the future, their willingness to make amends for any harm done by their sins, and so forth.  All of this requires that the penitent sinner actually confess those sins, and his or her repentance, to the minister of the Church.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a great mercy of God.  Through it the sinner is brought into renewed friendship with God.  Your sins are forgiven.  You receive sanctifying grace.  The everlasting punishment due because of your sins is remitted and God's grace will strengthen you to help you avoid future sin.  Plus, you get the chance to receive spiritual advice and instruction - all freely given!  

Christ will come at the end of days as the Just Judge.  But when He came to us in the Incarnation it was as the Divine Physician; it was as the Good Shepherd searching for His lost sheep.  The prescription for our ailment is repentance and forgiveness.  The Shepherd's voice is a voice of mercy.  The greatest tragedy in our lives would be to not take advantage of Christ's abundant mercy. 

The Divine Mercy devotion is based on the writings of an uneducated Polish nun, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, who kept a diary of some 600 pages in the 1930s.  In one passage of her diary, she has Jesus saying, "He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice" (Diary 1146).  

The door of Christ's mercy is the door of the Confessional.  The key to unlocking that door is our own repentance.  The only cost of entry is to trust in His mercy and love.  

​


--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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CCM bulletin week of April 21

This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave.
The power of this holy night dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.
Night truly blessed, when heaven is wedded to earth and man is reconciled with God!

Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided but undimmed, a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.
Let it mingle with the lights of heaven and continue bravely burning to dispel the darkness of this night!
May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning:
          Christ that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all humankind,
          Your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
                                                ~ from the Exultet, the prayer sung at the Easter Vigil



FAQ:  Does the Catholic Church have anything to say about the environment?

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Of course! J While the environment has not been the focus of much theological discussion until recent decades, it is considered a major area of theological and ministerial activity today. In fact, Pope Benedict was referred to as “the green pope” because of his repeated emphasis on ecological themes and actions he took to implement them, like installing solar panels at the Vatican and making Vatican City the first carbon-neutral state in Europe.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>When most of us think about the Church’s teachings about how we live (ethics), we tend to think of what it has to say about things like birth control or premarital sex—that is, personal ethics or how individuals should behave. We are less familiar with the Church’s teachings on social ethics, how society should be structured. Especially around election time you often hear people say things like “The Church has no business talking about the economy…about health care… about unionization…it should just stick to religion.” But the truth is that life is not so easily compartmentalized into ‘religion/spirituality’ and ‘everything else.’ Scripture, our Tradition, and our discipleship of Christ demand that we apply our faith to all areas of life, including the environment.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Catholic Social Teaching is the name given to this body of Church teaching. There is no definitive list of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, which include things like solidarity, the option for the poor, the common good, and the dignity of the human person. Here is a link where you can learn more: http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/socialteaching/excerpt.shtml .
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Care for creation is one of the principles, and is rooted in God’s command to Adam and Eve to tend to the world that God created and gave to them. It is important to note that the Catholic ethical approach to the environment encompasses more than the preservation of the landscape and of wildlife. There is a strong focus on the importance of a healthy natural environment for a healthy and dignified human life, and environmental degradation is linked to social and economic justice—pollution and poor environmental policies usually have a disparate impact on racial minorities and  on the poor, for example.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>This is why environmentalism cannot just be a personal choice that we make depending on our individual inclinations and whether or not it is convenient for us. Decisions made about how we treat our garbage, how we grow our food, how we get to work, etc. all have ramifications that extend far beyond our individual situations. They impact brothers and sisters in all our communities and around the world. The ethical principles of promoting the common good, making an option to help the poor, and living in solidarity with others demand that calls for conversion are directed to both individuals and their practices, but also to public policies; they are directed primarily to affluent societies but also to poor ones.
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Here is a link to the US Bishop’s statement on the environment, Renewing the Earth: An Invitation to Reflection and Action on Environment in Light of Catholic Social Teaching (1992): http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/ejp/bishopsstatement.shtml. Here’s a link to a brief summary of the US Bishops’ teachings on climate change: http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/USCCB-2010-global-climate-change.pdf .
<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>You might also be interested in the St. Francis Pledge. Developed by the Catholic Coalition on  Climate Change, you can take the pledge and find more resources here:  http://catholicclimatecovenant.org/the-st-francis-pledge/. “The St. Francis Pledge is a promise and a commitment by Catholic individuals, families, parishes, organizations and institutions to live our faith by protecting God’s Creation and advocating on behalf of people in poverty who face the harshest impacts of global climate change.”  
___________________

Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

at
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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Gospel For Today: Easter Sunday

THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD
click here for readings

Alleluia, He is risen!  Alleluia!

​The great Lent is now over; through the liturgy of the Church we have all now experienced Christ's suffering, death and burial.  And today we experience the empty tomb, and the risen Christ.  Alleluia.  

Reflecting back on this Lent, we can think of all the sacrifices we made, the little things we have given up, and wonder what was the point of it?  Did giving up desserts make me a better person?  (Or was I secretly just trying to lose five or ten pounds?)  Did giving up Facebook teach me anything?  Are we excited about Easter so that we can now drink coffee again, or otherwise indulge in whatever we chose to fast from this Lent?  Or shouldn't there be more to it?  

Why do we bother making these little sacrifices at all, which compared with the sacrifice of Christ seem so trivial and insignificant?  What is the point of this self-denial?  Is it simply to help build discipline? Or is it meant to be a penance for our sins?  Yes, at least partly, on both counts.  But there is a greater point, all too easy to miss, yet essential to the meaning of Easter.

Most years, we decide what sort of Lenten sacrifice we are willing to make.  But sometimes we find ourselves making sacrifices not of our choosing.  This year, just before Holy Week, my family learned that we had lost a loved one well before his time.  A beloved nephew of mine was killed quite unexpectedly in a freak accident while practicing baseball at his school.  It was and is a tragedy that broke the hearts of their entire community as it has broken the hearts of our family.  This is not a sacrifice any of us would have ever chosen.

For me, this year, Holy Thursday was spent at the grave side of an innocent child.  Good Friday was spent in mourning.  And to top it all off, Holy Saturday was spent flat on my back with an intense, but mercifully short, case of food poisoning.  One is reminded of the famous quote from St. Teresa of Avila, "Lord, if this is how You treat Your friends, it is no wonder You have so few!"

None of this is anything that I would have ever chosen to experience, and that is rather the point.  We live in a fallen world.  It is a wild and untamed existence and the only guarantee is death.  That death does not always come peacefully in your bed during old age.  It does not always come with a warning.  There is nothing we possess in this life that cannot be taken from us against our will at any moment.  That includes little pleasures, of the sort we typically give up for Lent.  But that also includes things like nephews and nieces, sons and daughters, parents, spouses, and friends.  It includes our own health, and indeed our own lives.  We cannot cling to any of these.  We can put our hope in none of these.  We can love them.  We can value them.  We can appreciate and enjoy the time we have with them.   But we will at some point have to let them go, often all too suddenly.

The sacrifices we make during Lent, whether great or small, are to help us learn detachment.  They are to help us remember that there is but One Thing that we can possess which cannot be taken from us against our will, and that is God.

Brothers and sisters:  If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with Him in glory (Col 3:1-4).

This is what Easter teaches us.  Christ is the One who has conquered death.  God came to earth to become one of us so that He might take upon His shoulders all the suffering and loss of the whole human race, the terrible consequences of the fall caused by the sin of man.  He bore that burden for us all the way to death.  He smashed through the barrier of death and decay and came through the other side victorious.  And we shall, too, if we but cling tightly to Him, the one Person who can never be taken from us against our will.  Christ is the only One we must cling to.

This is why God has given Him the name above all other names.  This is why to Him alone we must bend our knee.  This is why we must love our neighbors as ourselves - because both neighbor and self can be lost - but why we must love God with all our hearts and minds and souls.  Because in the end He is all that we have; but in having Him, we have everything.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end.  Christ is both the source and the summit.  He is all in all.  


Christians, to the Paschal Victim

Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems;
Christ, who only is sinless,
Reconciles sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:
The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.
Speak, Mary, declaring
What you saw, wayfaring.
"The tomb of Christ, who is living,
The glory of Jesus' resurrection;
bright angels attesting,
The shroud and napkin resting.
Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;
to Galilee he goes before you."
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.
Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!
Amen. Alleluia.

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

at

CCM: reminders about Holy Week

Happy Holy Week! If you can’t go to the different liturgies, maybe you can set aside 15 minutes each day for prayer and reflection:

Holy Thursday: Community and Service
Spend 15 min meditating on Augustine’s teaching on the Eucharist: “Be what you see, and receive what you are!” What are you? The Body of Christ. Reflect on the community of faith to which you belong, and all the communities of which you are a part. What do you see? At the Eucharist, you see the bread broken and the cup poured out, to be shared among many. Reflect on how you are called to pour out your talents and to offer yourself for the hungers of the world.
Good Friday: Suffering and Sorrow
Christianity does not take a Pollyannish view of the world; it knows that sin, evil and death are real and looks that reality in the face. Spend 15 min praying for all of those in the world who are suffering and all who are sorrowing. Take some time to meditate on your own sorrows and your brokenness  as well.
Holy Saturday: Waiting…
Spend 15 min in silent meditation, just waiting. It’s not something we tend to do very well and it’s hard. Like the disciples, we wait while Jesus lies in his tomb, not quite knowing what might happen…but unlike them, we wait in happy anticipation for Easter—and mom’s cooking.
Easter: He is Risen Indeed!
Evil and death do not have the final word. Life insists on bursting forth. Spend 15 min giving praise for new life and new beginnings, in your own life and in the world around you.

---


Karen
___________________

Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

at

CCM Bulletin week of April 14


FAQs about the Triduum

  • “Triduum” is Latin for “three days.” Lent ends at sundown on Thursday (the day ending  and beginning at sundown is a holdover from our Jewish past). The Triduum goes from Thursday evening of Holy Week through Sunday evening—at which point the Easter season begins.
  • You can think of the three days of the Triduum as really being one 3-day Day; or one celebration (of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus) that’s spread out over three days.

  • On Holy Thursday, in the evening, we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. This marks the beginning of the end of Jesus’ earthly life, the last meal he shared with his friends. We commemorate the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper; some churches observe Eucharistic Adoration after this mass.
  • Many churches practice the rite of foot washing. Holy Thursday is often called “Maundy Thursday” in the Anglican church (and others) because it was after this foot washing, as John’s gospel tells us, that Jesus gave the mandatum, the command, “As I have done for you, so you should do for others.”  Mandatum became ‘maundy’ in English.

  • Good Friday is a day of abstinence and fasting for Catholics. But this fasting is not the same as Lenten fasting (to repent and reform); rather, it’s Paschal fasting (in anticipation and preparation for Easter and the resurrection). It’s the day we observe the Passion of Jesus, so the liturgical color is red (like last Sunday, Palm/ Passion Sunday). The service is traditionally held at 3pm, the hour when Jesus died.  At this service we also observe the Veneration of the Cross.
  • Eucharist is never celebrated, but instead a communion service using bread consecrated at Holy Thursday is offered.

  • The Easter Vigil on Saturday night plunges us into the whole story of salvation history, God’s plan for the world and for us. It’s a long service—in the early church, it used to last all night, till dawn, as Christians kept vigil during those dark hours Jesus’ body lay in the tomb, as he passed from death to life. Nowadays it lasts a few hours.
  • It begins with the kindling of the new flame, the lighting of the Easter candle, and the singing of the Exultet (the Easter proclamation). Then there is a series of readings (from five to nine) from the Old and New Testaments that trace God’s saving actions in our history. Then we sing the Gloria and the Alleluia (which we haven’t done since Lent began) and we hear the gospel of the resurrection proclaimed. After this, new members might be baptized or received into the Church, and everyone renews their baptismal vows. Finally there is the liturgy of the Eucharist. And with any luck, after all of this, there are refreshments in the church basement!

  • Easter Sunday is the Easter service most folks actually experience, and it’s full of light and lilies and trumpets. Easter is the most important celebration in the Christian churches, the “Great Feast.” Just as Eucharist is meant to be the ‘source and summit,’ the foundation and goal of our Sunday worship and our daily lives, so Easter is the source and summit of all our worship throughout the year and of our whole lives as Christians.
  • The Easter season comes to an end with the Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given to the Church to continue Jesus’ mission and ministry. After that, Ordinary Time begins again.

___________________

Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

at

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Gospel For Today - Palm Sunday (A)

PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD
click here for readings

(The following is adapted from my Palm Sunday reflection of 2013.)

Today is Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday.  These two names reflect two very different aspects of today's liturgy, which is unique in that two different gospel readings are proclaimed.  In churches all over the world today people will gather outside the parish doors, or in the fellowship hall, parking lot, or otherwise out of the church proper to begin the liturgical celebration in joy and triumph.  We will read from Matthew 21:1-11, of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on an ass.  As he rides along people spread their cloaks out on the road for him, and praise God with joy singing, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord." 

After the gospel reading we are given blessed palms and asked to lend our voices to the praising crowd, as we sing, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!"

Inside the church, though, is another matter.  Turn a page or two in Matthew's gospel.  Now we hear of the Last Supper, Jesus's arrest and trial, his passion and his death.  We participate in the gospel reading this morning, reading aloud the words belonging to the gathered crowd.  With the crowd, we shout, "Let him be crucified!"  Our voices are the ones that choose Barabbas over Jesus.  Our voices, that moments ago sang his praises, now condemn him.

Isn't this exactly like the human heart?  Aren't we all too often like Peter, swearing that we would never deny our Lord, but then before the cock crows find we have done it not once, but multiple times? 

Why does the Church ask us today to be the voices that call for Christ's death?  I know some people who literally break down into tears as they shout those words at Mass; it breaks their heart.  We do this because we are the ones who crucified Christ.  We are the ones who are responsible for his suffering and his death -- you and me, and every other person who has ever sinned, which is to say everyone.  We need to be reminded of this not simply so we can express gratitude (though we should), but so that we can feel true sorrow for our part in Christ's passion.  It should break your heart.  It should hurt. 

But Jesus doesn't just suffer because of us; he suffers for us.  Christ is not only crucified for us; he asks us to join him on the cross.  "If you would be my disciples, you must take up your cross and follow me."  Being a Christian means you must suffer on the cross as well.  Jesus did not come to end all suffering; he came to transform suffering into a means of salvation. The way this is achieved is for us to join our suffering to his.

When we are baptized, we are sacramentally joined to Christ's death and resurrection.  From that moment on, each occasion of suffering in our life can draw us closer in communion with our Lord's passion.  This all sounds rather grim, I know.  But the Passion is not the end of the story.  Palm Sunday is followed by Easter.  When we join our suffering to the Lord's, we join with the one who conquered death.  The more we die with Christ, the more we will rise with him.  This is the great joy of the cross.

Hanging from the cross, beaten and bruised, thirsty, humiliated, and in excruciating pain, our Lord uses one of his last breaths to exclaim, "My God, my god, why have you abandoned me?"  Did Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, really feel abandoned by God?  No.  Our Lord was quoting from Psalm 22, which we hear at today's Mass.  The psalm is prophetic.  Composed by divine inspiration hundreds of years before the Crucifixion, the psalmist speaks of being mocked, having his hands and feet pierced, surrounded by evil doers, and having lots cast for his garments -- all things that describe the suffering of the Christ.  But then the psalmist proclaims, "But you, O Lord, be not far from me; O my help, hasten to aid me.  I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you..."

Jesus was never and could never be separated from God.  And God is never far from those who suffer with His Son.  The closer you come to the cross, the closer you draw to God.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel, and the Suffering Servant.  

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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CCM Bulletin week of April 7

If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood, and don’t assign them to tasks and work—but rather, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery



FAQ… Why have the past weeks had such long Gospel readings??

      If you’ve been attentive at mass the past three weeks, you may have noticed that we’ve had REALLY long gospel readings each week, and wondered why on earth they went on at such length. A typical gospel selection is about 10 verses long. On the first Sunday of Lent, when Jesus goes in the desert, it was eleven, and on the second Sunday, the Transfiguration, it was nine. On the Third Sunday of Lent, though, we heard the story of “the Woman at the Well” which runs for 38 verses, or nearly the whole fourth chapter of John’s gospel. The next week we heard the story of “the Man Born Blind”, 41 verses (most of chapter nine). Last week we heard about “the Raising of Lazarus,” 45 verses long (most of chapter eleven).  Why such long readings?

      In the 1970s the Catholic Church revised the Lectionary (the book containing the scripture selections we read at mass) to include more scripture by adopting a three-year cycle (with the inspired names of Year A, Year B, and Year C). At the same time, the Church was re-instituting the long-dormant process called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which is how adults join the Catholic Church.

      The decision was made to use these three long readings from the Gospel of John in Year A (the year we are in now, which uses the Gospel of Matthew most of the time) for two reasons. One reason was that those readings had been used in the early church in Rome during Lent (3rd-5th century). Scholars also think the preparation period for baptism at Easter in the Roman church was three weeks long and used these three readings. Therefore, the decision was made that anytime a local church has people being baptized at Easter, the church can (and should) use these readings from Year A, even if it’s actually Year B or C, restoring an earlier practice.
      
      As my liturgy teacher said to me in a recent email, “those three pericopes [readings] were considered to be a great example of the church's pastoral care of those preparing for initiation and for those remembering and renewing their initiation. ‘Give me water’ . . . ‘He healed me’ . . . ‘LAZARUS!’—each is a story of conversion and transformation,  personal to social to cosmic transformation.  Through those readings we call to mind our own journey of conversion, accompany those on their immediate journeys and pledge ourselves to the ongoing journey of the Christian life!”

      As we come to the end of the season of Lent, these are great questions to reflect on: What do I thirst for? In what ways am I blind and need to see? Do I believe that life is greater than death? Our reflections can then be brought with penitent and hopeful hearts to the journey through death into new life that we experience during Holy Week.

FAQ … What is Palm Sunday, and why is it also called Passion Sunday?

  • Holy Week begins with Palm / Passion Sunday. On Palm Sunday we give out blessed palms in commemoration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and we hear the gospel story read before mass begins that describes this.
  • The blessed palms are called ‘sacramentals’: they are reminders of our faith, and people often put them in their homes or cars where they’ll see them regularly.
  • Palm Sunday is also called Passion Sunday because we read the Passion narrative for the gospel—which we also do on Good Friday. Why do we have such a long reading twice in one week? Partly because Holy Week developed out of different traditions observed in different parts of the early Christian world, and they ended up all lumped together…and partly because lots of folks don’t go to church on Good Friday, and Easter makes no sense without the crucifixion which preceded it.
  • Our liturgical color is red for both Palm Sunday and Good Friday, because among other things, it signifies blood, the passion and the martyrs.


___________________

Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

at

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Gospel For Today - 5th Sunday of Lent

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (A)

In today's gospel reading we hear the story of the raising of Lazarus (Jn 11:1-45).  Lazarus is the brother of Mary and Martha, and a friend of Jesus.  Jesus gets word that Lazarus is ill, but rather than go immediately to heal him, Jesus waits two days.  Finally our Lord says, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep."

As an aside, the disciples here mistakenly take Jesus literally, thinking He means Lazarus is just resting.  But Jesus quickly corrects them.  The gospel tells us, "Then Jesus told them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead...'" (Jn 11:14).  This illustrates that Jesus does not hesitate to clarify His meaning when He is being misunderstood.  So, for example, in John 6 when Jesus tells the disciples repeatedly that they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood to gain eternal life (speaking of the Eucharist), many take Him literally and so leave.  Jesus does not correct them as He does in this instance, because they were not misunderstanding Him - though of course they could not know at that moment how His words would become true.

But returning to Lazarus, Jesus travels to his home to find him four days dead in the tomb.  In fact, Martha tells Jesus that "by this time there will be an odor."  Lazarus is dead as dead can be.  Nevertheless, Jesus commands them to open the tomb.  He cries out, "Lazarus, come out!"  And Lazarus comes out.  Christ has miraculously raised him from death, so that people may know that the Father sent Him (Jn 11:42).  

I have heard some cynically say that Lazarus is to be pitied above all men, because the poor man had to die twice.  There is a certain amount of truth to that.  After all, Lazarus is not still walking about alive today, two thousand years later.  He did, eventually, die a second death.  However, he is not to be pitied, because his death - even the second time - was not the end.  Jesus said in today's reading, "This illness is not to end in death; it is for the glory of God" (Jn 11:4).   Jesus was speaking, of course, of Lazarus' particular illness at the time, but like many things in the scriptures there is a deeper and broader meaning to be had.  The "illness" Jesus mentions is our fallen human nature and our suffering due to sin (original and personal).  With Christ, this illness will not end in death.

Throughout the readings today we hear talk of resurrection.  In our first reading from Ezekiel, we are told, "O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them (Ez 37:12).  In our second reading, St. Paul tells us, "If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also" (Rm 8:11).  

In our gospel today, before performing His miracle, Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise.  Martha says, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day" (Jn 11:24).  There was by this time a strong belief among most of the Jewish people (with the exception of the Sadducees) of a general resurrection, meaning our physical bodies would rise again at the end of time.  They understood, as we Christians understand now, that death is not natural.  It is an affliction that entered into the world as a consequence of original sin, but from the beginning was not part of God's plan for us.  

Our Catechism teaches, "Even though man's nature is mortal, God had destined him not to die.  Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin" (CCC 1008, cf. Wis 2:23-24).  

God made us as creatures with both a material body and a spiritual soul.  We could, in a way, be described as "part animal, part angel."  But this is by comparison only.  The truth is we are neither.  We are unique in all creation, citizens of both the physical and spiritual realms.  Death is the separation of the soul from the body.  Death rips apart the physical and spiritual aspects of our being.  We call a body without a soul a "corpse" and a soul without a body a "ghost."  Neither are very pleasant things.  This is not how God made us to be, and this is why death is so tragic and so sad.

The shortest sentence in the Bible is contained in today's reading.  "Jesus wept" (Jn 11:35).  Even the Incarnate God, who knew that He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead only moments later, mourned the death of His friend.  I have known Christians to feel a bit guilty when they mourn for deceased loved ones, because they have been told that for Christians death is a happy occasion, a birth into eternal life.  But here we see that even Jesus mourns the dead, and rightly so.  God did not make us for death, and so death - even temporary death, as we see with Lazarus - is sad.  It is right to grieve.  

Martha expresses her faith in the general resurrection at the end of time.  Jesus tells her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (Jn 11:25).  We will not exist in the world to come as disembodied spirits.  Nor will we be transformed into angels or any other spiritual beings.  We will be the human beings God made us to be, and that means body and soul.  

Jesus is the resurrection the Jewish people awaited.  He is the reason for their hope (1 Peter 3:15).  His resurrection of Lazarus is a foreshadow of His own Resurrection to come.  For even the one who said, "I am the resurrection and the life" had to die.  It is by His death that Christ conquerors death for us, and so if we are to rise with Him we must also die with Him.

Through baptism, the Christian has already sacramentally died with Christ.  If the Christian dies in the friendship of God (not in a state of mortal sin), then physical death completes that "dying with Christ" and therefore completes our incorporation into His Resurrection (CCC 1010).  

St. Ignatius of Antioch is one of my favorite early Church Fathers.  He was the second bishop of Antioch after Peter (most likely ordained bishop by the Apostle), and he was instructed in the faith by the Apostle John.  He is a true witness for us of the Apostolic faith.  I will leave you with his words, from his letter to the Church in Rome, where he was to become a martyr for the faith around the year 110 AD.

It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth.   Him it is that I seek - who died for us.  Him it is I desire - who rose for us.  I am on the point of giving birth... Let me receive pure light; when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man.

--
WCU Catholic Campus Ministry
Matthew Newsome, MTh, campus minister
  
(828)293-9374  |   POB 2766, Cullowhee NC 28723

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CCM Bulletin week of march 31

I believe that we are not real social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of the people. But we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the body of Christ twenty-four hours a day. We have twenty-four hours in his presence.
You, too, try to bring that presence of God in your family.
And I think that in our family, we don’t need bombs and guns, to destroy; to bring peace—just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence to each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world. There is so much suffering, so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home.
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do.
~Mother Teresa, accepting the Nobel Peace prize


___________________

Karen Soos
Associate Chaplain and Catholic Campus Minister
Davidson College
Campus Box 7196
Davidson NC 28035
704. 894. 2423

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