April 28, 2012
4th Sunday of Easter - B (April 29, 2012)
John 10: 11 - 18
It's the Same Love
The Good Shepherd knows his sheep the same way Father knows him and the same way he knows the Father. "I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father."
That is how intimately the Good Shepherd loves us. That is how intimately the Father loves us.
That is why the Good Shepherd can lay down his life for us.
And no one is excluded from this love. "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, ... and there will be one flock, one shepherd."
4th Sunday of Easter - B (April 29, 2012)
World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Readings
April 21, 2012
3rd Sunday of Easter - B (April 22, 2012)
April 14, 2012
2nd Sunday of Easter
John 20: 19-31
Having Seen the Lord
The Trinity are all involved in the sending of the disciples.
The disciples are sent with the same authority with which Jesus was sent, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
The once afraid disciples are now sent because they have received the gift of peace from the Risen Christ.
And they are sent after they have received the Holy Spirit.
All of these they received when they see the Risen Lord.
Yet, ironically, they failed at their very first attempt of doing what they were sent to do. They could not convince Thomas, one of their own, to believe that they "have seen the Lord."
It is never sufficient for us, messengers of the Risen Christ, to share with words our experience of an encounter with the Lord.
We must lead people to their own encounter with the Risen Christ.
That was true in the case of Thomas.
We will not likely meet Jesus in the flesh as did Thomas and the disciples. Yet, the Risen Christ is with us in his words and in the Eucharist.
He is also present to us in the community of believers, which is his Body.
May we become the presence of the Risen Christ to one another and to those we are sent to proclaim God's love and forgiveness.
To us and to those who will meet the Risen Christ in us, the Lord says, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
2nd Sunday of Easter (April 15, 2012)
April 7, 2012
Easter Sunday (April 8, 2012)
Easter Sunday (April 8, 2012)
When the sabbath was over,
Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome
bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.
Very early when the sun had risen,
on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.
They were saying to one another,
"Who will roll back the stone for us
from the entrance to the tomb?"
When they looked up,
they saw that the stone had been rolled back;
it was very large.
On entering the tomb they saw a young man
sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe,
and they were utterly amazed.
He said to them, "Do not be amazed!
You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified.
He has been raised; he is not here.
Behold the place where they laid him.
But go and tell his disciples and Peter,
'He is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him, as he told you.'"