What does it mean to rise with Christ?

Reading: John 20:19-31

Doubting Thomas. What did Thomas doubt? He doubted the word of his fellow disciples.

Remember, when Jesus insisted on going back to Judea where his life and those of his disciples would be in danger due to the death of Lazarus, it was Thomas who said, "Let us also go to die with him" (John 11:16). It seems that while Thomas knew what it might be mean to die with Christ, he did not know what it meant to rise with him. But, then, neither did the other members of the Twelve.

Because resurrection is to be lived and not just believed as some discrete historical fact, the question is, Do you know what it means to rise with Christ? Do you understand what it means to say Christ is risen?

In his final Urbi et orbi message, Pope Francis proclaimed: "Christ is risen!" He went on to assert- "These words capture the whole meaning of our existence, for we were not made for death but for life. Easter is the celebration of life! God created us for life and wants the human family to rise again!"

The Doubting Thomas,, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1882

The proof that we must learn what it means to rise with Christ is our propensity to keep sinning after we are baptized. In this regard, sin is doubt in the same sense Thomas doubted. It is an indication that you have not believed the testimony of witnesses to the Lord's resurrection.

Hence, every time you go confession, make a good confession, receive absolution, and complete your penance is yet another opportunity to believe. Another chance God, in His mercy, gives you to live the new life you received through baptism.

Perhaps the most distorted way to understand scripture is by looking down on those who, like Thomas, do "the wrong thing." This implies that under the same circumstances I would do better. In this case, I would believe those who told me that someone I know is dead because I saw him die, has come back to life.

It's interesting to note that nowhere in our Gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter does the inspired author tell us that, even though invited by the Lord to do so, Thomas did touch His wounds. When exhorted by the Risen Christ not to be unbelieving but to believe, Thomas simply says, "May Lord and my God." He believes. Meaning he starts to learn what it means to rise with Christ.

Paul and Francis: Two complementary popes

A lot, probably too much, certainly more than he would have liked, is being said and written in the wake of Pope Francis' death. Let's not forget when asked in an interview by Fr Spadaro at the start of his pontificate who he was, Pope Francis started by saying simply, "I am a sinner." Because he was not perfect, his papacy was not perfect. No papacy is perfect because no pope is perfect. A Vicar, after all, is a stand in.

I think Pope Francis served longer than he expected to and longer than those who selected him expected him to serve. He became pope when he was past retirement age for a bishop. A huge life change at a time of life when he was probably thinking about retirement.

I had an impromptu meeting this morning with my bishop. Towards the end, we were talking about Pope Francis' legacy. I told him that one aspect of the Franciscan papacy that seems to me overlooked is his revitalization, even rehabilitation, of the amazing papal magisterium of Pope Saint Paul VI.

While this is beside the point, for those who know Latin, Pope Paul was likely the last of the great Latin stylists. His Latin is beautiful, poetic, moving.

I still think it significant that Pope Francis was the first pope to be ordained a priest after Vatican II. I imagine as a young priest, Paul VI made a deep impression on him. Pope Francis made no secret of his deep immersion in Paul VI's teaching and his admiration for his predecessor.

For example, Evangelii Gaudium, the charter for Francis' pontificate, took Paul's Evangelii Nuntiandi as its starting point. It's clear that Francis deeply appropriated Paul's encyclical Populorum progresso. I won't go on other than to say it took great courage on the part of Papa Montini to begin the post-conciliar reforms. He suffered as a result. This did not seem lost on Francis.

I even think the way Pope Francis spoke about Humanae Vitae was very much in harmony with Pope Paul's pastoral approach to this delicate matter. An excellent piece over on the outstanding Where Peter Is by Pedro Gabriel is worth reading: "Pope Francis, disciple of Humanae Vitae." Though, in honesty, I can't imagine the mild-mannered Montini using the phrase "breed like rabbits."

Finally, it was Pope Francis who, on 14 October 2018, canonized Pope Paul VI. There is good reason to believe that Pope Francis was ready to canonize Paul as early as 2015. He was prepared to do this using the canonical procedure he invoked to make Pope John XXIII a saint: "equipollent canonization." In the main, this by-passed the need for a second verified miracle attributable to Montini's intercession. But then, a miracle occurred. Verification of it took a few years.

Anyway, I thought that was something worth putting out there. Better than celebrities who met the Pope sharing their experiences. Poor Francis, what would he think? The media is a factory of "content." Egads. We still have the novendiales to get through. The Masses, great! The commentary? Ugh: circus ecclesiasticus.

Because I am in a wistful mood today, despite having way too much to do, our traditio is Palestrina's Tu Es Petrus:

Notes before the Conclave: Final Update

First update in italics and bold; second update in bold only; third update bold and underline, fourth update bold, underline and italics

At the time of Pope Francis’ death yesterday, there were 135 members of the Sacred College of Cardinals under eighty years of age. Together, these 135 Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church (excepting perhaps a few who are unable to participate due to age and/or ill health) will comprise the Conclave to elect the 267th Bishop of Rome. It is the Bishop of Rome who serves as pope, exercising a universal ministry for the entire Catholic Church.

One hundred thirty-five is 15 over the 120-member limit set by Pope John Paul II in the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, promulgated on 22 February 1996, the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter.¹ Pope Benedict XVI amended this motu proprio with Normas Nonnaullas, promulgated 22 February 2013, just days before his resignation, which occurred on 28 February 2013.

Being the Supreme Legislator and Judge for the Church, a pope can appoint more than 120 Cardinal electors. One hundred seventeen Cardinals were in the 2005 Conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. In the 2013 Conclave from which Cardinal Bergoglio emerged as Pope Francis, there were 115 Cardinal electors.

With up to 133 Cardinals participating, the upcoming Conclave will be the largest in history. Two Cardinals have announced they will not attend the Conclave due to poor health: Vinko Cardinal Puljic, Archbishop Emeritus of Sarajevo and Antonio Cardinal Cañizares, Archbishop Emeritus of Valencia, Spain. Puljic was elevated to the Sacred College by Pope John Paul II in 1994. Cañizares was created Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. With electors from 70 countries, it will also be the most universal Conclave in the Church’s history. It’s universality and its size were things about which Pope Francis seemed very intentional.

Of the now 133 electors, only 25 were not created Cardinals by Pope Francis. This amounts to ~19% of the upcoming Conclave’s likely participants. Of those 25, four were created by Pope John Paul II and the remaining twenty-one by Pope Benedict XVI. Both non-participating Cardinals are quite conservative.

Upon reaching 80 years of age, Cardinals become superannuated. Superannuated Cardinals, while they may participate in the daily General Congregations held by the Sacred College between the death of the Roman Pontiff and the start of the Conclave, are not part of the Conclave to select the next Vicar of Christ. They are also given the faculty not to attend these Congregations.²

During the sede vacante period, the so-called interregnum, the Sacred College of Cardinals governs the Church. Governance is mostly in the hands of the Particular Congregation, led by the Camerlengo and consisting of three other Cardinals, one from each order. These are called “Assistants.”³

Initially, Assistants of the Particular Congregation are chosen by lot from among the Cardinals already present in Rome. There must be one member from each order: Cardinal Bishop, Cardinal Priest, Cardinal Deacon. Cardinal Kevin Farrell (a Cardinal Deacon) is the Camerlengo (Chamberlain). Members other than the Camerlengo serve for three days, when they are replaced by three other cardinals (one from each order) chosen by lot.⁴

The Particular Congregation reports to and consults daily with the General Congregation “solely for the dispatch of ordinary business and of matters which cannot be postponed, and for the preparation of everything necessary for the election of the new Pope.”⁵

Under Universi Dominici Gregis, no Cardinal becomes superannuated between the death of the pope and the start of the Conclave. So, any Cardinal younger than 80 when the Holy See becomes vacant is eligible to be in Conclave.⁶ This is not a concern for this Conclave.

The next Cardinal to turn 80 is Carlos Cardinal Osoro Sierra, the Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid, Spain. His birthday is 16 May. The last Cardinal to turn 80 before Pope Francis’ death was George Cardinal Alencherry, Major Archbishop Emeritus of Ernakulam-Angamaly (Syro-Malabar), India. His eightieth birthday was last Saturday, 19 April. Cardinal Alencherry is the only member of Sacred College from the Syro-Malabar Church. This Church is the second-largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. Due to his superannuation, this Church will not be represented in the Conclave.

It also bears noting that due to a punishment of sorts for financial crimes of which he has been convicted but is the process of appealing, Giovanni Angelo Cardinal Becciu cannot participate in the Conclave. While he remains formally a Cardinal, he was stripped of all prerogatives of being a member of the Sacred College.⁷ At one point, Becciu was going to sue in the Italian courts for financial damages incident to being deprived of the opportunity to become pope!⁸

Fifteen full days must elapse between the Holy See becoming sede vacante and the start of Conclave.⁹ This can be moved forward if all the voting Cardinals who can be present will be present.¹⁰ During their Fifth General Congregation today, the College of Cardinals determined that the Conclave to elect the 267th successor of Saint Peter will start Wednesday, 7 May.¹¹ The Conclave can also be moved back, according to the governing law, for "serious reasons" the Conclave can be delayed a few days.¹² This is what happened with this Conclave.

Pope Francis’ funeral is set for Saturday, 26 April. His funeral liturgy will be celebrated in Saint Peter’s Basilica. Afterwards, his earthly remains will be transferred to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major for burial in accordance with his final testament.¹³

---

1 John Paul II. Apostolic Constiution Universi Dominici Gregis (UDG), No. 33.^↩
2 UDG, No. 7.^↩
3 UDG, No. 7.^↩
4 UDG, No. 7.^↩
5 UDG, No. 2.^↩
6 UDG, No. 33.^↩
7 See "Convicted Cardinal Becciu claims conclave voting rights; Vatican said ‘no’."^↩
8 See "Ousted cardinal sues Italian newspaper for report he claims prevented him from becoming pope."^↩
9 Pope Benedict XVI. Motu proprio Normas Nonnaullas, No. 37.^↩
10 Normas Nonnaullas, No. 37.^↩
11 See Conclave to elect new Pope to begin on May 7th."^↩
12 UDG, No. 37.^↩
13 See "Pope Francis's Testament.^↩

"... now and at the hour of our death"

It is no great surprise that Pope Francis will be buried in the Pauline Chapel of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, not in the Vatican. This is where the icon of Our Lady, Salus Populi Romani is kept for veneration.

After each journey from Rome, upon his return, Pope Francis would bring flowers, venerate, and pray before the image of Our Lady, Salus Populi Romani. He did the same on Marian feasts.

Roman Catholics are the populi Romani.

From the Holy Father's final testament:

Throughout my life, and during my ministry as a priest and bishop, I have always entrusted myself to the Mother of Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. For this reason, I ask that my mortal remains rest - awaiting the day of the Resurrection - in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

I wish my final earthly journey to end precisely in this ancient Marian sanctuary, where I would always stop to pray at the beginning and end of every Apostolic Journey, confidently entrusting my intentions to the Immaculate Mother, and giving thanks for her gentle and maternal care.

I ask that my tomb be prepared in the burial niche in the side aisle between the Pauline Chapel (Chapel of the Salus Populi Romani) and the Sforza Chapel of the Basilica, as shown in the attached plan.

The tomb should be in the ground; simple, without particular ornamentation, bearing only the inscription: Franciscus

In modern times, only Pope Leo XIII, who served as Roman Pontiff from 1878-1903, is not buried in the Vatican. Incidentally, Leo XIII (born in 1810) is likely the earliest born person to be captured in a motion picture. Leo XIII is buried in Saint John Lateran, the Pope's Cathedral as Bishop of Rome.

Among Pope Leo's achievements over his long ponificate was his encyclical Rerum Novarum ("On Capital and Labor"), promulgated in 1891. This encyclical launched the Catholic Church's modern social teaching. Notable among Pope Francis's contributions to the Church's social teaching are- Evangelii Gaudium, which he called the charter for his pontificate, Laudato Si' and its sequel Laudate Deum, along with Fratelli Tutti.

Pope Francis' tomb will mark quite a contrast with Pope Leo's:

Tomb of Pope Leo XIII in Saint John Lateran, Rome

Pope Francis, requiscat in pace

Hopefully, as the news of Pope Francis' death sinks in, I will be able to post some thoughts later this week. I think it a great grace that he died on Easter Monday. Of course, we observe the Easter Octave as one day. So, Jorge Mario Bergoglio died on Easter.

I already miss him. I think his voice is needed now more than ever. God thought otherwise. I will go with God.

I have been praying fervently each day since he was hospitalized for his full recovery. That was not to be. But I am glad he was able to leave hospital and return to the Vatican, making his way back to the Casa Santa Marta, where he lived after becoming pope. He never moved into the Papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace.

At least to me, Francis' papacy had the feel of a pilgrimmage, a mission. He has now completed his pilgrimmage of hope. Pilgrimmage of hope is an apt desciption of each Christian's life.

After his return to the Vatican- I won't say "home" for two reasons: Buenos Aires was his earthly home and now he is truly home in the house of the Father- I was most moved by the Holy Father's willingness to show his vulnerability, his humanity, over the last few weeks of his life. In this he was truly the Vicar of Christ, the Crucified.

I find it somewhat sad that after leaving Buenos Aires for Rome in March 2013, after the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, he never returned either to Buenos Aires or even to Argentina. This despite visiting South America four times as pope.

O God, immortal shepherd of souls,
look on your people’s prayers
and grant that your servant Pope Francis,
who presided over your Church in charity,
may, with the flock entrusted to his care,
receive from your mercy
the reward of a faithful steward.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen
(from the Roman Missal)

Urbi et Orbi- Easter 2025

URBI ET ORBI MESSAGE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
FRANCIS

Easter 2025

Mary Magdalene, seeing that the stone of the tomb had been rolled away, ran to tell Peter and John. After receiving the shocking news, the two disciples also went out and — as the Gospel says — “the two were running together” (Jn 20:4). The main figures of the Easter narratives all ran! On the one hand, “running” could express the concern that the Lord’s body had been taken away; but, on the other hand, the haste of Mary Magdalene, Peter and John expresses the desire, the yearning of the heart, the inner attitude of those who set out to search for Jesus. He, in fact, has risen from the dead and therefore is no longer in the tomb. We must look for him elsewhere.

This is the message of Easter: we must look for him elsewhere. Christ is risen, he is alive! He is no longer a prisoner of death, he is no longer wrapped in the shroud, and therefore we cannot confine him to a fairy tale, we cannot make him a hero of the ancient world, or think of him as a statue in a museum! On the contrary, we must look for him and this is why we cannot remain stationary. We must take action, set out to look for him: look for him in life, look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters, look for him in everyday business, look for him everywhere except in the tomb.

We must look for him without ceasing. Because if he has risen from the dead, then he is present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals himself even today in the sisters and brothers we meet along the way, in the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives. He is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us.

READ THE ENTIRE ADDRESS

The Resurrection of the Lord

Readings: Acts 10:34a.37-43; Ps 118:1-2.16-17.22-23; 1 Cor 5:6b-8; John 20:1-9

For those who experienced the Sacred Triduum, by Easter Sunday you are so immersed in the Paschal Mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection that words not only fail but can get in the way. Liturgy, Mother Church teaches, is prima theologia (i.e., first theology). As the suffix urgy (from the Greek urgos, meaning "to do") indicates, liturgy isn’t just something you do. It is an experience.

When engaged in wholeheartedly, liturgy is an experience that becomes an encounter. It is nothing less than an encounter with the Risen Lord, an experience of His real presence. In speaking of the Lord’s real presence in and through the sacraments, He can seem ghostly. This is okay because, until He returns, Jesus is made present by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Spirit is the mode of Christ’s post-resurrection presence. So, the Holy Spirit is the way, the means by which, the medium of His presence. The sacraments are the Holy Spirit’s masterworks. Each of the Church’s seven sacraments features an epiclesis. Epiclesis is a Greek verb meaning to call down.

At baptism, plunging his hand into the water, the minister calls the Holy Spirit down on the font. This makes the water “holy.” This is what makes baptism more than just getting wet, which is the outward sign of this sacrament. It is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes the water of the font efficacious for the inward graces conferred by the outward sign.

What are the inward graces received in baptism? Being washed clean from sin, restored to the state of original grace, being reborn as child of God, dying, being buried, and rising to new life in Christ. Because Jesus is risen, so are you! As Nietzsche observed: “only where there are graves are resurrections.”¹ Resurrection is not something you believe happened a long time ago. Resurrection is the mode of Christian life.

I was joking a few days ago that maybe for his homily I would just say, “He is Risen! Let’s go live like it.” In truth, this encapsulates what Easter is all about. Let’s not forget, every Sunday, even in Lent, is Easter. Eternal life starts at baptism, not after physical death.

Just as every Sunday is Easter, every Friday, making exceptions for Solemnities that from time-to-time fall on Friday, is Good Friday. There is what I call the inverse property of redemption. There is no resurrection without crucifixion. Also, crucifixion without resurrection is nothing other than the cruel and tortuous execution of one more insignificant peasant by the Roman imperium.

This inverse property of redemption is why it is important to experience the entire Triduum: Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, and then Easter.

Easter is the time of overflowing grace imparted through the Church’s sacraments. Last night, in this very church, seven men and women were baptized. Along with two others, they were then confirmed, and they all received Holy Communion for the first time.

Resurrection can remain an abstract concept, a mere belief in a fact, or it can become a matter of experience. Faith is not a differential equation. Like the disciple who arrived at the tomb first but entered it after Peter, who saw the burial cloths strewn about the empty tomb and believed, faith is the experience of the mystery to be delved into ever more deeply.”²

Despite believing, along with the others, this disciple did “not yet understand the Scripture that [Jesus] had to rise from the dead.”³ As Anslem of Canterbury insisted: Credo ut intelligam- “I believe so that I may understand.”⁴ Not the other way around.

It is a custom in the Greek Ukrainian Catholic Rite for each person present at a baptism to receive a martyr’s ribbon. Marty, too is a Greek word. It means witness. What is it we witnessed last night? We witnessed seven people die, be buried, and rise to new life.

This is what I mean when I say liturgy is an experience that becomes an encounter with our Risen Lord. In a few moments, we will renew our own baptismal promises and be sprinkled with water from the same font in which our sisters and brothers were baptized last night.

Renewal of baptismal promises is that for which Lent is preparation. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving along with other penitential and spiritual practices, including going to confession, which is made more available during Lent, is how we prepare for this renewal each year.

Through baptism, you are plunged into this mystery. It is this mystery you live as it unfolds through the events that make-up your life. What is life but experience? It is through experience that we come to understand ever more deeply what it means to rise from the dead.

Alleluia. Christus resurexit, quia Deus caritas est. Alléluia!

---

1 Friedrich Nietzsche. Thus Spake Zarathustra, Second Part XXXIII, “The Grave Song.”^↩
2 John 20:8.^↩
3 John 20:9.^↩
4 Anslem of Canterbury,Proslogion, 1.

Triduum: Holy Saturday

Dead Christ,, by Hans Holbein, the Younger, 1520-1522

Something strange is happening — there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began¹

---

1 Liturgy of the Hours. Office of Readings for Holy Saturday. From an Ancient Homily on Holy Saturday.^↩

Triduum- Good Friday- Second of Jesus' Seven Last Words

Luke 23:43- “I tell you this: today you will be with me in Paradise”

Only one of the Seven Last Words of Jesus that comprise this devotion is found in more than of the Gospels. The remaining six are found in only one Gospel. This is particularly relevant for this second Word. While present in all four canonical accounts of the crucifixion, the thieves only speak in Luke’s Gospel.

Samuel Beckett’s most well-known work, Waiting for Godot, features two vagrants, two hobos, two ne’er-do-wells, Vladimir (“Didi”) and Estragon (“Gogo”) as main characters. Didi and Gogo are waiting by a tree on a country road for someone named Godot.

Beckett, who wrote about the fittingness of being born not only on Good Friday, but on Friday the thirteenth, was raised as an Anglo-Catholic.¹ He had a deep Christian sensibility.

Druid’s production of Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, photography: Matthew Thompson.Used under the provisions of the Creative Commons License

Beckett’s unique artistic gift was to deal with life’s big questions, what we might call metaphysics, in an ordinary way, a way we might call existential. His works and characters are gritty, earthy, and intense. When dealing with matters theological, his approach was oblique, as opposed to straightforward.

In Waiting for Godot (is the name Godot, spelled G-o-d-o-t, a reference to God?), Godot never shows up. Not given to expositing his work ex post facto, choosing instead to let them speak for themselves, Beckett was always very coy about the name Godot. But it’s interesting, isn’t it, a tree and two suspicious people waiting for Godot?

Early in the play’s opening act, Didi mentions the two thieves “crucified at the same time as our Lord.” Gogo chokes on the word “Lord,” which causes Didi to modify and use “Savior,” noting “One [thief] is supposed to have been saved and the other…[pause] damned.” “how is it,” Didi asks, “that of the four Evangelists only one speaks of a thief being saved”?² Vladimir doesn’t care for these odds.

Tradition has dubbed the good thief Dismas and has canonized him: Saint Dismas. He is a model believer. He is us. Dom Christian de Chergé, the martyred abbot of Our Lady of the Atlas Cistercian monastery in Algeria, ended his last testament, written to and for the Islamist insurgents who killed him and most of the other monks, with these words: “May we meet again as happy thieves in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both.”³

---

1 Gerry Dukes, Samuel Beckett (Woodstock: The Overlook Press, 2002), 5.^↩
2 Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot, Act I.^↩
3 Dom Christian de Chergé. Testament.^↩

Triduum- Good Friday

The Crucifixion, by Giotto (b. 1267 or 1277 - d. 1337 CE). Part of a cycle of frescoes showing the life of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. Scrovegni Chapel (aka Arena Chapel) in Padua, northern Italy. From c. 1304 to c. 1315

"He mounted the Cross to free us from the fascination with nothingness, to free us from the fascination with appearances, with the ephemeral."

Servant of God Msgr. Luigi Giussani

Since Good Friday was my last post last year prior to taking a long hiatus, I am re-posting the same Good Friday post. I've been posting this on Good Friday with different paintings of the Lord's Crucifixion for years.

Triduum- Holy Thursday

Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet, by Jacopo Tintoretto (1519-1594)

“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” (John 13:8)

"In his person, the deacon makes it clear that the liturgy must have concrete consequences in the world with all its needs, and that work in the world that is done in the spirit of charity has a spiritual dimension" Herbert Vorgrimler, Sacramental Theology, 270.

Since Holy Thursday and Good Friday last year were my last posts for a good, long while, and nearly the of Καθολικός διάκονος, I am re-posting the same Holy Thursday post.

Monday of Holy Week

Readings: Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 27:1-3.13-14; John 12:1-11

A lot of people in Bethany were curious to see Lazarus, the man Jesus raised from the dead. Just as earlier in John’s Gospel, the people of Cana sought out Jesus because He turned water into wine at the wedding feast there. In both cases something more subtle and more profound occurred.

If you remember, after returning to Cana from Jerusalem, people followed Jesus around hoping to see Him perform another marvelous deed. He was sought out by a distraught father, who wanted the Lord to come home with him and heal his son, who was in danger of death. In that instance, Jesus healed the man’s son without going to his house. He said the word and, as the man found out from his servants after journeying more than day to reach home, the boy was healed.

This miracle was not accessible to those who were hanging about to witness a miracle. The boy’s healing, while perhaps as sudden as it was mysterious, probably did seem all that miraculous to those who were there when he was healed. Only Jesus and the man knew.¹

The profoundly subtle event in our Gospel today is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, the same one who was intent to sit at Jesus’ feet while her sister complained she wasn’t helping, anoints Jesus’ feet with costly oil.² Judas takes exception to this. He doesn’t even point out that the costly oil could’ve been sold and given to the poor out of self-righteousness. As a thief, according to this Johannine narrative, who has been stealing from the common purse, he says this in a manipulatively.

Don’t get me wrong, selling luxury items and giving the money from their sale to the poor is a laudable thing. After all, the Lord Himself tells us that the poor will always be with us. This is not a throwaway line, let alone a justification for ignoring the poor by seeing their plight as God-ordained. Rather, it is something of an indictment.

Why will there always be poor people? Here’s a clue: it isn’t because the number of people, even now, outstrip the good earth’s abundance. In other words, there is enough to go around and then some. The failure lies in how the earth’s bounty is distributed. No matter the economic system, distribution of the earth’s goods favors the powerful. Economics is all about the problem of scarcity. This begets competition. “Get yours while supplies last!”

Used under the provisions of the Creative Commons License

Once the distinction between wants and needs is blurred or, as in advanced modern societies, is obliterated, we find ourselves far from God’s kingdom, as the story Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus not so subtly demonstrates.³

So, the reason there will always be poor people is not because God decrees that they should be poor. Rather, it is due to our fallenness and sinfulness. Because God does not coerce but invites, encourages, and exhorts, you and I are free to act as we will in this regard. In doing so, each of us should keep in mind Jesus’ teaching. After all, it is He who will return to judge the living and the dead.

Dorothy Day, a truly American saint (though not yet canonized), founder of the Catholic Worker movement, which, though still extant, is in dire need of revival, wrote about a Holy Thursday she experienced: “The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for him.”

Day continues that recognizing Jesus in the poor “is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love.” Therefore, she concludes, “The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.”⁴ Let’s never forget, Deus caritas est- “God is love.”⁵

So where does this leave us with Mary’s extravagant gesture? On the side of Judas? Was she right to anoint the Lord’s feet with costly oil and dry them with her hair? Well, was she in the right when she chose to sit at His feet while her sister scurried about getting things ready? These are, of course, rhetorical questions. Mary’s prophetic gesture was not grasped by those who witnessed it.

As the Lord noted, Mary’s seemingly over-the-top devotion, which occurs well before Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, pointed to His death and burial. While I can never repay the debt I owe to Him, I can see and serve Jesus in the poor after the manner of Mary. The Lord’s identification with the poor is not a mere metaphor. It is a true identification. This why Mother Teresa called the poor Jesus in a “distressing disguise.”

Making a nod to our first reading from Isaiah, which is one of five so-called “Servant Songs” found in deutero-Isaiah, Saint Oscar Romero noted, “As we draw near to the poor, we find we are gradually uncovering the genuine face of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh.”⁶

---

1 John 4:43-54.^↩
2 Luke 10:38-42.^↩
3 Luke 16:19-31.^↩
4 This and the preceding two quotes from Dorothy Day.“The Mystery of the Poor.” Plough online, 21 March 2015.^↩
5 1 John 4:8.16.^↩
6 Oscar Romero. The Violence of Love, 203. Compiled and translated by James R. Brockman, S. J. ^↩

Passion Sunday- Procession

I only gave this short homily after reading the Gospel for the Procession at our last Mass for Passion Sunday.

Reading: Luke 19:28-40

The procession we are about to undertake is not just something that happens before Mass, like a prelude, or an added-on extra. It is part of the Passion Sunday liturgy, an integral part. Mass has begun. Liturgy is our way of participating, even now, in the Paschal Mystery referenced at the start of our gathering.

Processing is different from just walking. A procession has a distinct destination. Our ultimate destination, of course, is eternal life with Christ. Our procession today is the procession of Jesus' triumphal entry into the holy city, which culminates with entering the Temple. Our church building symbolically represents the Temple just as we represent those hailing and lauding Jesus and Father Andrzej symbolically represents Christ.

Today, if you're processing without a palm branch, you're not processing. It makes no sense to process without a palm branch. These branches are blest, making them sacramentals. As such, they are signs and symbols of your own recognition of Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and Lord. Far from being incidental to this part of the Passion Sunday liturgy, the palm branches are an essential element of it.

During this procession, the sound that should be heard is our joylful singing- All glory, laud, and honor to You, Redeemer King. If we don't cry out, maybe the stones will.

Sisters and brothers,
like the crowds who acclaimed Jesus in Jerusalem,
let us go forth in peace

"You Just Walk on In"

Earlier this week I ran across the blog of the brother of someone with whom I attended high school. I know, "Luke, I am your father's brother's former roommate." But, I make connections where I am able. What can I say?

I am not going to name the person or the blog. Reading this person's reason for blogging, I was thrown back a bit on how confusing life often is and also back on my own reasons for continuing this very small-time online effort. Couple this with reading Kierkegaard and George Pattison on Kierkegaard and you have a invitation to just write something. So, here I go.

I don't write because I think I have it all figured out. I write to help me figure things out. Perhaps more acuurately, I write just see what my own viewpoint is after some reflection. The metaphor I have most often used to describe my own reason for blogging is that is has served me as a vehicle of growth over the years.

At least for me, growth is not a steady progression. It is more of a two-step. I am no expert in dancing. The only dance I ever really learned how to do was the polka: 1-2-3, turn; 1-2-3, turn, etc.

Seeking meaning is important. But this seeking is just that, seeking. Answers, for the most part, are provisional. What is it I seek? Well, truth, I suppose. Or, if you want to play amateur metaphysician: Truth.

Seeking the truth usually makes me realize how off my preconceptions are. By this, I don't mean always wrong, through sometimes they are. Usually very incomplete and somewhat myopic.

Used under the provisions of the Creative Commons License

Kierkegaard railed against the philsophical and theological systematizers of his day- Hegel being his chief but by no means only target. Kierkegaard priviledged reality over theory. Reality can't be confined to a system.

When I consider the pontificate of Jorge Bergoglio, I see this same dynamic at work. His approach is very Ignatian. Since he's a Jesuit, this should come as no surprise.

Religion can either broaden your view or narrow it. True religion, it seems to me, should broaden you, opening you up to people, to reality. Faith is not a shortcut to the truth. Anglican theologian John Macquarrie was very good on this point. At the root of a truly Catholic, that is, universal perspective, is the idea that faith and reason have the same source, namely God. And so, ultimately, the two cannot stand in opposition.

How one sees things is a matter of perspective. What premises lead you to your conclusions? What presuppositions to bring to the matter at hand? Are you willing to admit, especially to yourself, that you may be wrong or at least not entirely correct?

I suppose scripture and tradition, which, at least on a Catholic view, together constitute divine revelation stand in relation to each other in similar way as do faith and reason. Revelation constitutes the content of faith. And so, this is what Catholics bring to the table in the often dialectical encounter with reason.

Nonetheless, like Kierkegaard, I remain a convinced Christian, a Catholic Christian, albeit one with some noticeably Lutheran tendencies. Like, Kierkegaard, I am convinced that subjectivity, what might more poetically be called "the heart," is what matters most. This is not some unconditioned subjectivity, not by a long stretch!

Perhaps stretching things a bit (but only a bit), "heart" aligns with spirit as used by Paul. In this Pauline sense, spirit is opposed to flesh. In the apostle’s writings, flesh is not body. Spirit is not opposed to body. Together these form a God-created unity.

As Christians we're not dualists- although dualism has been a distorting feature of Christianity since its beginning. “Flesh” in these passages is a translation of the Greek word sarx. Greek for body is soma. Sarx, then, is something like an impulse, urge or craving as opposed to true desire- that for which you really and truly long.

Your heart is the criterion by which you judge. This requires ruthless honesty with yourself. This is hard because we are masters of self-deception. It is also difficult because the flesh exercises its pull on us in a variety of ways.

Our traditio for this final Friday of Lent is Brother Tom singing "Don't Knock." Next Friday, which is Good Friday, is not Lent. It is part of the Triduum, which is its own liturgical season.

Fifth Sunday of Lent- Homily for Third Scrutiny

Readings: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Ps 130:1-8; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

“Lazarus, come out!”¹ Today, my dear Elect, Christ addresses these words to you. You see, the scriptures cannot be read merely as tales of incredible things that happened a long time ago. If the inspired words of the Bible aren’t somehow addressed to us, then what good are they?

Take our first reading from Ezekiel. Contextually, it is addressed to ancient Israel. God promises to bring them back from exile. Just as Israel experienced God in their exodus from Egypt, by their return from exile, they will come to know, yet again, that the LORD is God.

To a degree, scriptures must transcend context. Exile is life apart from God. Perhaps the main effect of exile is alienation. The hallmark of what we might call “existential alienation,” a state of being all too familiar in our day, is meaninglessness. Returning to God, which, Saint Augustine tells us, is also a return to oneself, ends alienation.² You don’t so much return to God as God gently pulls you to Himself.

This is why the apostle, in our reading from Romans, insists that it is necessary for the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead, to dwell in you: to give you life. This life in the Spirit is what Saint Augustine, in his letter to Roman widow Proba, called the life that is truly life. To Proba, who was wealthy and influential, Augustine wrote:

It becomes you, therefore, out of love to this true life, to account yourself desolate in this world, however great the prosperity of your lot may be. For as that is the true life, in comparison with which the present life, which is much loved, is not worthy to be called life, however happy and prolonged it be…³

The “true life” is life in the Spirit, which is a gift from God, a gift you, our Elect, are preparing to receive through the life-giving Easter sacraments. As you emerge from baptism, Jesus says,

Chastin, come out!      Ty, come out!      Emily, come out!
Seth, come out!      Brianna, come out!      Austin, come out!      Sharon, come out!

But as you move toward baptism be aware of something Friedrich Nietzsche noted: “only where there are graves are there resurrections.”⁴

This insight of Nietzsche’s draws our attention to a part of our lengthy Gospel reading that is normally overlooked. After being notified of the illness of His good friend, Lazarus, and after delaying two days, Jesus says to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”⁵ Why Judea? Judea is where Bethany is, where Lazarus lives with his sisters Martha and Mary. They must go because Lazarus has died.

Jesus’ disciples make a reasonable objection: “Rabbi,” they say to Him, “the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”⁶ His answer is a prolonged “Yes.”⁷

The Raising of Lazarus, by Léon Bonnat, 1857 (photo: Public Domain)

Doubting Thomas gets a bad rap for his refusal to believe that Jesus was resurrected based on the say-so of his fellow disciples. Let’s be real, if someone, even someone you trusted, told you that someone who you knew was dead had come back to life, how likely would you be to believe it? It’s incredible.

What happens next in today’s Gospel, I think, redeems Thomas from his bad rap and his unbelieving rep. In response to Jesus’ determination to return to Judea where he and his followers would be in danger, it is Thomas who says, “Let us also go to die with him.”⁸

The cross is the doorway to eternal life. To be called forth, you must first die. Thomas certainly seems to grasp the latter half of this. The main paradox of being a Christian is that to truly live you must die.

Especially in our time and in our culture, it’s quite common to leap to the happy conclusion. But just as between today and Easter lies our commemoration the Lord’s Passion and death, so between now and resurrection lies death and not merely physical death. As we sing in a verse of a popular Lenten hymn:

As you did hunger bear and thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and so to live
By your most holy word⁹

While it is important, like Thomas, to know what it means to die with Christ, it is more important to learn what it means to live in Him, which is to live for Him, which means letting Him live through you. As Saint Paul wrote to the Galatians:

I have been crucified with Christ;
yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me¹⁰

Not just to our Elect, but for all Christians: your new life should be different from your old one. For those of us already baptized, confirmed, and communed, Lent is a time during which we prepare to renew our own baptismal promises, to renounce sin and so live in the freedom of the children of God.

Do you think Lazarus lived the same way after being raised from the dead?

---

1 John 11:43.^↩
2 Saint Augustine. Confessions, Book VIII, Chap X.^↩
3 Saint Augustine. Letter 130 (AD 412), Chapter 2.^↩
4 Frederich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra. Second Part, XXXIII, “The Grave Song.”^↩
5 John 11:7.^↩
6 John 11:8.^↩
7 John 11:9-15.^↩
8 John 11:16.^↩
9 "Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days."^↩
10 Galatians 2:19b-20.^↩

"...once you have recovered..."

I am still reading my way through the twenty-second chapter of Saint Luke's Gospel using The Jerusalem Bible. It's interesting to read a short section and then just reflect on it. Today's section was one that comes after Jesus tells the Twelve that one of them will betray Him (Luke 22:31-34). The Lord does not designate which one it might be. This causes these men to wonder amongst themselves, "Who is it?"

Between the short section about His betrayal and the one I read and reflected on today is the section where Jesus settles the dispute about which of them is the greatest. This section contains Jesus' words "I am among you as the one who serves" (Luke 22:27). Stated a bit more literally, the Lord tells them, "I am among you as a deacon."

After this, turning to Peter, Jesus tells him that Satan desires to "sift all of them like wheat"- to crush them into powder and scatter them. The Lord then reassures Peter by telling him that He has prayed for him, assuring him that his faith would not fail. Then Jesus makes an elliptical statement telling Peter than once he has turned back, he needs to strengthen his brethren.

As readers, we know to what Jesus is referring: Peter's denial (something He makes explicit in this passage after Peter pledges loyalty come what may). The Jersualem Bible uses the word "recovered" as in" "...I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and once you have recovered, you must strengthen your brethren."

Among the insights to be gleaned from these inspired words is that faith is a gift from God, a grace, a supernatural virtue. In other words, it isn't merely a choice made by someone, anyone, to believe. Faith comes from God and is fortified and nourished by God. Christ nurtures and nourishes your faith through the sacraments, which are privileged and sure means of God's grace. As the Concluding Prayer for Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent has it:

O God,
who have prepared fitting helps for us in our weakness,
grant, we pray,
that we may receive their healing effects with joy
and reflect them in a holy way of life

This, too, anticipates not only Peter's betrayal but the Lord's forgiveness of his betrayal. The tenth verse of Psalm 51, the Miserere, the penitential psalm prayed on Fridays throughout the year as the first psalm of Morning Prayer, sets this in relief beautifully:

You will let me hear gladness and joy;
the bones you have crushed will rejoice

Crushed, but not ground into powder and scattered- restored and recovered, not disintegrated.

When I survey the wonderous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride