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.

Easter Sunday

In contrast to the chaos of Good Friday and the silent grief of Holy Saturday we experience today wonder, joy and peace. The tomb is empty but in order: "... he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, went in, and he saw and believed" (Jn 20: 6-8) Our response to the Easter event needs to be one of faith which is "hope in things not seen." (Heb 11: 1) We have not seen the empty tomb nor have we, like the apostles and other disciples, encountered personally the risen Christ. yet, the Holy Spirit has been sent into our hearts as the first fruits of the new creation: "And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba! Father!' " (Gal 4: 6) 

Without the resurrection our hope are in vain yet we know in faith that death no longer has any power over him: "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ is the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ." (1 Cor 15: 20-23) This does not give us solely some historical phenomenon, therefore, but a living hope that we will share with Christ in his glory: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have to suffer various trial, so that the genuineness of your faith - being ore precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Although you have no seen him, you love him; and even though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome for your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Pt 1: 3-9)

Easter Vigil

The end of Lent is signaled by the Easter Vigil. It is the beginning of the great festival of Easter which, at fifty days, surpasses the forty days of preparation we embarked upon on Ash Wednesday. What a tragedy that this majestic and compelling liturgy, which is the climax of the Church's year, will not be enacted in churches this year due to the corona virus emergency! Nevertheless, how many parishioners have never attended a Vigil? Those of you who have Sunday Missals or can access it online, I encourage to read all the readings that the Church gives us for this celebration. Enter into the mystery of salvation and open yourselves to the glory which outshines the angels who appeared the the shepherds at Christmas. Let us all be mindful of the amazing gift of baptism and how the promise of the resurrection fills us with joy and enables us o overcome suffering in all of its forms: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in  a resurrection like his." (Rom 6: 3-5)

Holy Saturday

There are no readings for today. There are no sacraments today. The Church and church are quiet. For many of us in lock down this has become a daily experience. The absence and loss experienced by the disciples after the events of Good Friday have, in part, become our own not just today but throughout the time of this crisis. We need to use this as a time to enter more deeply into the mystery of Christ and the radicality of his love for us. The Jewish people, in the Book of Lamentations, speak in a period of loss and despair not just of their grief but also of their confidence in God's love that never fails. Let us all place our confidence in this love that knows no end even in darkness and uncertainty:

He has made my teeth grind

on gravel,

and made me cower in ashes;

my soul is bereft of peace; 

I have forgotten what happiness is;

so I say, "Gone is my glory,

and all that I had hoped for in the LORD"

The thoughts of my affliction and

my homelessness

is wormwood and gall!

My soul continually thinks of it

and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope.

The steadfast love of the LORD

never ceases,

his mercies never come to

an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The LORD is my portion," says

my soul,

"therefore I will hope in him."

The LORD is good to those who

wait for him,

to the soul that seeks him.

It is good that one should wait

quietly

for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for one to bear

the yoke in youth,

to sit alone in silence

when the Lord has imposed it,

to put on'e mouth to the dust

(there may yet be hope),

to give one's cheek to the smiter,

and to be filled with insults.

For the Lord will not

reject forever.

Although he causes grief, he will

have compassion

according to the abundance of

 his steadfast love;

for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve anyone. (Lam 3:16-33)

Good Friday

The Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we commemorate today, reveals to us the power of suffering redeemed through the love of God. Suffering and sin, in themselves, are absurd. Without faith in God people are enslaved by them to anxiety and fear or resort to idolatry as we seek to "buy off" the invisible powers or fate which seem to govern our lives. Another option is to distract ourselves from the emptiness and pain through retail therapy, abuse of substances or incessant travel and entertainment. Through faith we can know the power of God's mercy and love which would otherwise be beyond us when we are blinded by selfishness and despair. This applies to all human beings regardless and is available across all ethnic and social divisions. St Paul says: "For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood effective through faith." (Rm 3: 22-25) This gift needed to be given purely out of love because we had nothing to offer God in return: "But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." (Rm 5: 8)

This begs the question: "How can I avail myself, in a society oppressed by fear of the corona virus and economic hardship, of this amazing love?" As we have just seen St Paul tells us that this  grace is made effective through faith. This faith, brought about through love, transforms our lives. "For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has dies for all, so that those who live might love no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them." (2 Cor 5: 14-15)  It is important to realize that this faith does not make of us mere spectators of God's work and suffering but makes us participants in it and therefore of its saving power: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I live I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2: 19-20) and "The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Rm 6: 10-11) 

This means that we cannot by passive, rather, we must all strive to make the lessons of Christ's Passion a reality in our everyday conduct. This is so our faith can become a vital and enlivening principle that guides us in all. We remain as disciples, not yet masters, since we are yet to attain the glory of the resurrection that is promised to us: "No that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. beloved, I do not consider hat I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3: 12-14)

The result of all this is that our own activity takes on a new significance: the way we speak, the way we use money, the way we show love. The passion of Christ is made present in our own response to our own suffering and that of others. Our conduct becomes a signpost to the efficacy of faith and the wonderful love of the pioneer of our salvation who is Christ Jesus. Thus, we are made heralds for Christ and invite others to journey with us "in this vale of tears.We accompany one another on this pilgrimage of life not oppressed by fear but with a song of joy in our hearts and on our lips: "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once new Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in this way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, who has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." (2 Cor 5: 16-20)