Fullerton T

3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER

ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS  

This weekend as we continue the COVID 19 isolation we celebrate the third Sunday of Easter.  We remember and offer a prayer for all the front line workers and all who are unwell as a result of the Pandemic. We also pray for all those who have died and their families at this difficult time that God may console them.

Our gospel reading for this Sunday recounts the apparition of Jesus on the evening of Easter to two disciples who were going from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  Their life with Jesus had come to an abrupt end. They were So disappointed and so disillusioned about Jesus and the way he died that they decided to leave the community of his followers.  Slowly but surely they are walking away from it all and then Jesus comes to them and walks with them along the road asking them about what had gone on in Jerusalem. Why did the Lord not tell the disciples straight away who He was? Indeed, in the dialogue that the Gospel Story presents to us today, it almost seems that Jesus did all He could to avoid revealing His true identity.  He pretended not to know what Cleopas and his companion were discussing and then He went on to ‘explain to them the passages throughout scriptures that were about Himself’ (Lk 24:27) but without making direct reference to who he was.

 Then at the end of the reading they recognised him in the breaking of the bread and went back to Jerusalem to tell the others that they had seen the Lord and Jesus had risen as he said he would. This passage has a different purpose from the other gospel accounts whose intent is to demonstrate that the Lord is truly real in a new spiritual way. This gospel of the encounter of the two disciples with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and in the breaking of the bread is a story of friendship. The Risen Lord is a friend who talks with them as they walk, a friend who shares a meal with them. Luke describes an intimate, personal encounter marked by tenderness and hospitality. He was walking with the disciples in their time of wondering what will happen next. He walks with us during times of great joy, as well as in our darkest moments. At times we become so caught up and distracted with what’s happening in our lives that we fail to recognise his presence with us remember that line from Christmas that Jesus the Son of God is Emmanuel that means God with us. Jesus doesn’t give up and leave us, he continues to walk with us if we  look around we see his presence in those around us. Sometimes we don’t realise his presence and how it is strengthening us, but it is certainly there.

Many people have left the Church, only to return again and find their spiritual home. Many feel distant from God, discouraged over an unresolved faith issue, or snubbed by someone in the Church or whatever. Then, something happened to turn them back. If we look closer, we will find it was not a personal crisis or children or maturity that made them return. It was God who travels the roads of life with us as Jesus travelled the road to Emmaus  with the apostles who were running away in the Gospel story for this Sunday. May we continue to walk the often bumpy roads of life over these days and the days to come knowing that Jesus walks with us

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

This Sunday we continue our COVID19 isolation and as we do that we have been told that the isolation will be continuing for at least another three weeks. But as we keep our distance and remain in isolation we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. There are many people out there during  this pandemic who need both our help and our prayers We remember  all the various front line workers and the work that they are doing  we also remember all the people who have died as a result of COVID19 and their families and we bring all of them to the Lord.

I was sitting here a few days ago  thinking that Lent, Holy Week and  Easter  Sunday have come and gone so quickly even with the ongoing covid19 pandemic life seems to be going at breakneck speed. Many people think that Easter begins and ends on Easter Sunday but it doesn’t stop there, the celebration of the season of Easter goes on for 50 days and ends on Pentecost Sunday. I wonder what the Apostles would think if they were to come down to us these days and find that we are celebrating the Death and Resurrection of Jesus that took place 2020 years ago, they would be amazed especially as they thought everything was over with the Crucifixion on Good Friday.

In this Sundays Gospel reading the Apostles were still huddled together behind locked doors, mulling over the shocking experience from the week before when all seemed to be lost. Then Jesus appeared  to them and assured them that He was alive. His message must have troubled them as well when he told them: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”   In the same way as the apostles were sent out we are sent out to bring his message of god’s mercy  and love to other people . Then of course there is doubting Thomas who heard the witness of the those who saw Jesus but, like so many of us today he wanted more proof. Jesus says to Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” That is a favourite quote for us, who have not “seen” the risen Christ in person as the disciples did. We have come to believe though we have not seen him in the flesh but he is with us in the midst of our communities through so many different people especially during these days of lockdown.  When Jesus says to the Apostles Peace be with you the Peace he is talking about is much more than the lack of conflict.  True peace, gives us happiness, since it is built on trust in God and one another.  The gospel tells us how Jesus gave his followers peace because they trusted him.

In spite of the scepticism of Thomas and so many others, throughout history Jesus  offers us the same peace of heart mind and soul.  As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday we remember the joy, the hope, the grief and the anxieties of the people in our time those we know and those unknown to us and we bring them to the Lord. The people throughout the world  are hurting so much because of the things that are happening within it with many people wondering what will happen next and none of us really know that what will happen or when but we trust in God to be with us and show us the way. These days are filled with uncertainty and anxiety and we bring all of it to God who is rich in mercy and love for all of us. May all of us be witnesses to the love  and mercy of the Gospel as we bring the caring face of God’s mercy to the people wherever we are called to be in these difficult times.

HOLY SATURDAY AND EASTER

The cross is empty now Jesus lies in the tomb and everything around us is still. The silence echoes the reality of our lives these days with corona Virus and all the the  issues around it . The heavens and the earth cry out with longing for the sinless one who is not to be found, if we stop to think for a moment we remember that Jesus died and rose again on the third day. We wait, as mourners beside a grave, unsettled, ill at ease, almost not knowing what to do with ourselves. The Church has only one thing to do today: to pray through the emptiness of Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday then is the day when we experience watching and waiting at the tomb as we await the celebration of the Resurrection which we celebrate in the Easter Vigil and the season of Easter. 

Having  completed our Lenten observance and after the liturgies of Holy Thursday and  Good Friday we  are now at the stage of celebrating the Easter Vigil and the day of resurrection that is Easter Sunday. The heavens and the earth cry out with longing for the sinless one who is not to be found, when  we stop to think we remember that Jesus died and rose again on the third day. We wait, as mourners beside a grave, unsettled, ill at ease, almost not knowing what to do with ourselves. The Church has only one thing to do today: to pray through the emptiness of Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday then is the day when we experience watching and waiting as we await the celebration of the Resurrection which we celebrate in the Easter Vigil and the season of Easter.

The Psalm for Easter Sunday says, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”Above all days, Easter is a season of joy . But what is joy? The answer St. Francis gave to this question is famous. St. Francis said to his Brother Leo, “When we come to St. Mary of the Angels [our house], soaked by the rain and frozen by the cold, all soiled with mud and suffering from hunger, and we ring at the gate of the place and the brother porter comes and says angrily: ‘Who are you?’ And we say: ‘We are two of your brothers.’ And … he does not open for us, but makes us stand outside in the snow and rain, cold and hungry, until night falls—then if we endure all those insults and cruel rebuffs patiently, … oh, Brother Leo, … perfect joy is there!” Whatever we may think of St. Francis’s explanation of perfect joy, Easter reminds us that Francis’s kind of joy is not the end of the story. At Easter, we celebrate the other kind of joy, the kind each of us longs for, when every tear is wiped away, and there is no sorrow any more no more suffering from weather or hunger or hurtful human beings. As we sing in the much-loved hymn by Fr. John Foley, S. J., at Easter, “the cross and passion past, dark night is done, bright morning come at last!” 

When we ourselves rise to meet our risen Lord, in that bright morning we will hear him say, “Come away, beloved. The winter is past; the rain is gone, and the flowers return to the earth” (Song of Songs 2:10-12). In the loving union of that encounter, all the heart brokenness of our lives will be redeemed. That will be perfect  joy.So in that same vein of perfect joy we say “this is the ‘day which the Lord has made.’ Alleluia!  let us take fresh hope,  with Christ our Passover everything is possible! Christ goes forward with us in our future!” Let us go forward together as Easter people rejoicing in the Resurrection.