4th Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday

This Sunday, on account of the gospel and the collection taken up by the Church for the support of the National Seminary, is called Good Shepherd Sunday. The focus of Jesus in the gospel for the day, however, appears to be not only on himself as the Good Shepherd, but also on the sheep: "They will not follow a stranger but will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." (Jn 10: 5) People are waiting to hear Christ and his message. he calls them out from despair, loneliness and isolation. The loving rule of Christ is not an imposition. Likewise, the role of the ordained in the Church is not a diminution of people's freedom or a limitation on their practice of the Christian life. Rather, priests, in particular, are there to minister the sacraments to believers and to assist people to know Christ and to make him known. Unfortunately, the experience of sin shows that even ordained ministers can be a counter sign. The answer to such problems is not for clergy to become more like laity. Priests only become better priests by imitating more closely and faithfully the one whom they represent every time they celebrate the sacraments - Jesus Christ. Priests need to speak and act so that people can hear the Good Shepherd whose presence and voice they are waiting for and this way act as gatekeepers: "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his sheep  by name and leads them out." (Jn 10: 3) I encourage all parishioners to help their pastors through different ways of affirmation and constructive criticism so that their priests are encouraged in their ministry and more conformed to the person of the Good Shepherd.

3rd Sunday of Easter

The disciples on the way to Emmaus are not in "lock down." Nevertheless, staying in their "bubble," they head off for an unknown future. I wonder if it is a married couple or is it a couple of friends who have been their with Jesus "from the beginning"? They do not keep a "social distance" from the stranger who joins them on the road. Instead, they open their hearts to him and relate their dashed hopes: "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." (Lk 24: 21) They may not be confined with the rest of the disciples back in Jerusalem, in the Upper Room, but in their minds they remain imprisoned by fear and their insufficient/inadequate idea of who the Messiah is and what he could do. In fact, the Resurrection reveals that he is able not just to save Israel but to redeem the whole of humanity from sin and death. The disciples only get to grasp this, intellectually, when the stranger leads them once again through the Scriptures starting from the very beginning: "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into glory?" (Lk 24: 26) Yet, the impact of the Resurrection a and what it means for them as disciples is only brought home to them at the "breaking of the bread." (Lk 24: 35)

Living in 2020 we, too, have heard of the Resurrection and we, too, have often had disappointments about the Church and our Catholic faith. In lock down, with no access to the sacraments, we have had opportunity to reflect and even to read the Scriptures or to follow Masses on line as they are live streamed throughout New Zealand and the rest of the world. Throughout all of this we have had Christ walking with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. I pray that when we get the chance, we will be able to gather with other disciples at Sunday and weekday Mass, as well as other sacraments, with a new perspective. In this light we will be able to see how our faith has guided us even in the lowest moments of boredom, anxiety or despair and how important our Communion is to each of us. We will then understand even more clearly the disciples when they said to one another: "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" (Lk 24: 32)

Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy

Why should we make a big deal of the rising from the dead of a builder/tradesman's son from Nazareth? The world seems in 2020 to have continued with the rise and fall of empires, pandemics and all the other ills of human society. As the saying goes: "the more things change the more they stay the same." Most people in New Zealand seem to no longer to believe in God let alone his Incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. In such a setting should we simply abandon our fanciful ideas and join with people wittering on about Easter eggs and Easter bunnies? The answer is given for us in today's Second Reading: "... he (God) has given us a new birth into a living hope though the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: a birth into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you...". (1 Pet 3-4) Let us be mindful, today, of how beautiful and joyful this inheritance is and how it sustains us in this covid 19 crisis. 

On this day Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, comes into our lockdown rooms where we live in anxiety and trepidation about the damage the pandemic is doing to our people, our economy and our Church. He says: "Peace be with you." (Jn 20: 19) It is then that the disciples, as do we, see his wounds which testify to his love for us and the extremes of his Passion. This, however, is not the end of the story. We do not stop at the wounds. Jesus then says: "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." (Jn 20: 21) We not only have an inheritance for eternity but a mission! We do not set out to bring the Good News of Christian hope to the world without support, however, since Jesus immediately gives them all they need to accomplish the task at hand: "When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'." (Jn 20: 20) With these gifts of living hope, peace and the Holy Spirit we can encounter with confidence whatever challenges the future throws at us.