FEAST OF THE ASCENSION
Fullerton T
RELIGION LITURGY AND LIFE
Archive for the category “Faith”
6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER
This weekend we celebrate the 6th Sunday and soon we will be at Ascension and then Pentecost Sunday which is often called the birthday of the Church. In this Sunday Gospel Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to the apostles as the advocate. Although Jesus had spoken to the Apostles and told them many different things, he knew them well and realized that they wouldn’t remember everything he said Jesus also knew that they would have to endure many struggles, that they would have to face ambiguity and confusion, difference and disagreement. We see all of this in the Church today with many people agreeing with Pope Francis and many others disagreeing with him on issues of faith. The Apostles would not see eye to eye on everything; they would have different memories of Jesus; they would emphasise different things. In the conflicts that would arise they would have to put their faith to work. That is why he told them and he tells us that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in his name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.
These words are a direct pointer towards Pentecost and the gifts that the Holy Spirit would bring to them as well as us. We don’t have the physical presence of Jesus with us the way his first disciples did when he talked with them around the table at the Last Supper, washed their feet, and gave them his reassuring promises. His farewell to them was a real farewell he was going, he would no longer be with them as he had been. But he assured them and us that he is present in a different way, in his gift of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel Reading Jesus also promised the Apostles Peace ‘A peace that the world cannot give.’ Sometimes we mistake this peace for our idea of quietness or tranquility, but the peace the Jesus gives is a peace that can be found even in the midst of turmoil. This peace is not something we can manufacture ourselves by our own power. It’s a gift that comes from Jesus, who doesn’t want to lose touch with us. Jesus chose his followers to carry out God’s plan of salvation. He chooses us today to do the same. By allowing us to participate in his work of redemption, he gives us a personal stake in the Kingdom of God.
With all the confusion ambiguity and disagreement that we see as people of faith we remember the great gift that is the Holy spirit is something that unites us. If we keep on trusting in the presence of the Spirit of God we will have peace in the midst of any personal, family, or community turmoil that comes our way as well as someone who will keep us going along the right Road!
5th Sunday of Easter
This weekend we stop and say a prayer for all those who are doing exams at the moment A levels GCSE’S or University exams, Our world puts great store on education and sometimes it forgets the pressure that this puts on our young people especially at exam time and not all of them are able to deal with that pressure. During this exam season we remember all those who are finding the exams hard to get through and we pray for all those who are doing exams in the days ahead that they may be inspired to do their best and know that there are people out there family, friends teachers and lecturers who value them no matter about the exam results.
In this Sundays Gospel Jesus calls us to a new way of living when he tells us to love one another as I have loved you. At one level this is a simple call to love, at another it is a big challenge for us to be Christ like to others in this sometimes horrible world. This means that we should love as Jesus loves, in order to be the face and heart of Christ to a wounded and hurting world.
It seems to me that our faith should constantly challenge us to live lives of love, love of God and love of one another and this ideal is so very hard to achieve. The love Jesus speaks of seems to be narrow and restrictive. He is addressing his disciples when he says, “love one another.” This love may seem insular and applicable just to an inner circle of his followers. Is he telling us that the sacrificial love he calls us to applies only to those around us in the Church? No, of course he is not saying that because we know from other parts of John’s gospel that Jesus’ mission of love includes an outreach to the world That outreach in our modern times must include all those who have left the Church for many reasons we should not leave them behind as many people might want to do. Jesus wants us to be united with him and one another in A loving and caring community. A loving and caring community that has a great effect on others bringing those who might be doubtful with it. What more articulate proclamation of the gospel can there be than a group of diverse people drawn together, not by similarities in education, economic status, neighborhood, citizenship, race, etc., but by the love that God has for them and their bringing that love for one another to other people? A community such as this couldn’t help but draw others into it and to one who is the source of their universal love. We are called to be that community showing the love of God to those around us and this is not easy to do but we should try and not be afraid to do that as we go forward.
5th Sunday of Easter
This weekend we stop and say a prayer for all those who are doing exams at the moment A levels GCSE’S or University exams, Our world puts great store on education and sometimes it forgets the pressure that this puts on our young people especially at exam time and not all of them are able to deal with that pressure. During this exam season we remember all those who are finding the exams hard to get through and we pray for all those who are doing exams in the days ahead that they may be inspired to do their best and know that there are people out there family, friends teachers and lecturers who value them no matter about the exam results.
In this Sundays Gospel Jesus calls us to a new way of living when he tells us to love one another as I have loved you. At one level this is a simple call to love, at another it is a big challenge for us to be Christ like to others in this sometimes horrible world. This means that we should love as Jesus loves, in order to be the face and heart of Christ to a wounded and hurting world.
It seems to me that our faith should constantly challenge us to live lives of love, love of God and love of one another and this ideal is so very hard to achieve. The love Jesus speaks of seems to be narrow and restrictive. He is addressing his disciples when he says, “love one another.” This love may seem insular and applicable just to an inner circle of his followers. Is he telling us that the sacrificial love he calls us to applies only to those around us in the Church? No, of course he is not saying that because we know from other parts of John’s gospel that Jesus’ mission of love includes an outreach to the world That outreach in our modern times must include all those who have left the Church for many reasons we should not leave them behind as many people might want to do. Jesus wants us to be united with him and one another in A loving and caring community. A loving and caring community that has a great effect on others bringing those who might be doubtful with it. What more articulate proclamation of the gospel can there be than a group of diverse people drawn together, not by similarities in education, economic status, neighborhood, citizenship, race, etc., but by the love that God has for them and their bringing that love for one another to other people? A community such as this couldn’t help but draw others into it and to one who is the source of their universal love. We are called to be that community showing the love of God to those around us and this is not easy to do but we should try and not be afraid to do that as we go forward.
4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY
This Sunday we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Easter also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. In our diocese we are concluding a nine day novena of prayer for Vocations to the priesthood and religious life. There are so many different forms of vocation but this weekend we think about the vocation to priesthood religious and diocesan. I would like to take this opportunity to ask anyone who reads this to pray for and encourage priestly vocations as we are nothing without our priests and we pray that God will send us Good Shepherds. The idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is a lovely thought because it is a well-known fact that the shepherd never leaves his sheep outside the sheepfold. If any are outside the shepherd will seek the lost sheep at all costs until they are found. The wandering figure of the shepherd, anxiously tending his sheep to the point where he is willing to surrender his life for them, is the image Jesus uses about himself in this Gospel Reading.
That mixture of tenderness and toughness, care and self-sacrifice, is one that summarises his own practice of leadership. It is not a leadership of detachment and defensiveness; rather, it is a leadership of involvement and self-sacrificial love. In the good shepherd’s foolish extravagant love, his own life matters less than that of his sheep as we know Jesus gave up his life for us on the cross Good Friday and left us an everlasting memorial in the Eucharist. The good shepherd is not an image of religious authority that is involved with its own importance, blind to the useless pain it causes in those it leads. The authority of the shepherd costs the shepherd, not the sheep. The image of the shepherd cannot be separated from the way that the shepherd actually cares for his own sheep. When we see how Jesus actually behaves as a leader, we see his tenderness in caring for the people and his courage which led him to the cross. The parable of the Good Shepherd has many consoling truths and promises for people of every century, including ourselves in the twenty first.
The good shepherd challenges us not to leave the lost sheep behind: Jesus said “I have come to seek out and save the lost.” All of us know people who have wandered away from the Church, who have lost their sense of belonging, who feel they have no community to belong to. How will they know they are welcome back if no one tells them? How will they be helped back if no one offers to make the journey with them? It is up to us to help everyone to feel that they are welcome though sometimes that can be hard. The Gospel of the Good shepherd is a call to us to help those out there who have lost their way to come back to the loving shepherd who seeks out the lost sheep and rejoices when they are found. It is also a particular call for us to pray that the lord of the harvest will send labourers into the harvest so that the world will believe.
Third Sunday of Easter
This Weekend we celebrate the third Sunday of Easter it seems strange that we have come so far from the ashes of Ash Wednesday right through to Jesus resurrection at Easter. In the resurrection We celebrate the one who affirms for us that God has walked on our streets, confronted the evil we confront and suffered died and rose again for us. Jesus resurrection assures us that life can come out of death and good can overcome evil and it does. It doesn’t always seem that way these days when we see the suffering of the people around the world but for people who have faith in God nothing is impossible. After a tragedy like Sri Lanka or whatever there is a strong response of self-sacrifice and compassion from everyone to help the victims and those affected by the violence. Then with the passage of time we go back to where we were before the crisis, preoccupied by our concerns and yet through all of this bad stuff God is with us.
After the earth shattering events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday Peter and the others were ready to put the events of those days behind them and return home to what they did before they came across Jesus. But Jesus won’t let them go and by association he won’t let us go either. In our Gospel Story for this Sunday he comes to the shore looking for them. He gets their attention, as he did when he first called them, with a large catch of fish. He prepares breakfast for them and invites them to eat, “Come, and have breakfast.” After the meal Jesus asks Peter three times about the reality of his love. Insisting on love is something of a mark with Jesus. Three times Peter affirms his love, as three times Jesus insists on it. And when Peter professes his love Jesus commissions him to care for his flock when he says feed my sheep. And that is what Peter does – as we hear in Sunday’s first reading. In his ministry of preaching and healing Peter gets through to many people, and the authorities become nervous at the ability of Peter and the apostles to work in the name of Jesus.
In spite of the opposition Peter will continue insisting on his love for Jesus and this insistence will take him to martyrdom in Rome. No matter whether the believer is new or old, a pew sitter or a leader of people, the call of Christ is the same: “Follow me.” Following Christ means life in the community of faith where we are. Are we, like Peter, spreading the net for new believers and professing a true love for our Savior? Or are we on the sidelines watching others doing the work when we should really be out there doing the work with them? At the end of the day whatever happens we remember that God is with us and wants us to be with him now and in the future, He is with us in good and bad times so let us take courage this Eastertime to go forward in faith.
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY
This Sunday we celebrate the great Mercy of God on the second Sunday of Easter that has come to be known as Divine Mercy Sunday. We celebrate the mercy of God made known to us in a particular way by Saint Faustina the polish nun.
I was sitting here a few days ago thinking that the season of Lent, Holy Week and Easter Sunday have come and gone so quickly this year and are now a distant memory. Many people think that Easter begins and ends on Easter Sunday but it doesn’t end 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 over 2000 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, pondering the shocking experience from the week before when all seemed to be lost. Then we are told that Jesus appeared to them and to assure 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 wherever we are. 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 favorite quote for many of 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. 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 skepticism of Thomas and so many others, 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 merciful Lord. Our world is hurting so much because of the things that are happening within it with so many people at each other’s throats for so many reasons. 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 in our own communities wherever we are called to be.
EASTER
The Forty Days of Lent are over. We have celebrated the beginning of the priesthood and the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. We have also celebrated The Passion and Death of the Lamb of God and the tomb is now empty as we wait on the joyful call that Christ has risen from the dead. The darkness of good Friday is gone and the flowers in our churches symbolize the New Life that has come into the world. Jesus Christ lives! He has Risen as he said he would and his light lights up our world. During the Easter Vigil we lit the Easter fire and from that fire we have lit the Paschal Candle that will be used over the next year.
Our Gospel story for the vigil tells us that we should not look for Jesus among the dead for he has risen and the light of Christ lights up the darkness of our lives and our world. The Easter celebration is an invitation to come out of darkness into the light of the risen Christ. In that light we see him and recognise each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord. It is that light which summons us to leave the darkness of our lives behind and all of us have some of those dark places. As a result of Jesus conquering death on the cross nobody can be written off as a lost cause ever again. Year after year when we celebrate Easter we hold as holy the memory of God’s great love for us when he raised Jesus from the dead. We believe that God’s graciousness will be extended to ourselves and that our own death will not be the final word. Our faith tells us that we will participate in Jesus resurrection on the last day. But a question raises itself: is our faith in the resurrection limited to remembering Jesus’ resurrection and hoping for our own on the last day? Hopefully it will mean more to us than that.
The resurrection of Jesus is a proclamation that this outcast from Galilee is the beloved Son of God who cannot be held in the darkness of death because someone else takes action. Jesus did not raise himself; he was raised by God his father. All of us believe that God’s work continues not least because we believe Jesus’ words: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Our celebration of the Easter Season begins with our celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday with the Vigil on Holy Saturday evening during which we welcome and baptise Adult converts to the faith Then on Easter morning we celebrate our Easter masses as we renew our baptismal promises and don’t forget that the feast of Easter continues for 50 days until Pentecost. So full of gratitude for Christ’s passion, with joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey this Easter time.
Holy Saturday
We await the resurrection at the tomb in the quietness of Holy Saturday. All seems to have ended yet this is only the beginning As we wait at the tomb we think about Mary the mother of Jesus and the disciples who were the witnesses to Good Friday how must they feel? As we think about them we also remember that we are the inheritors of this great salvation event and we pray:
Almighty, ever-living God, whose Only-begotten Son
descended to the realm of the dead,
and rose from there to glory,
grant that your faithful people,
who were buried with him in baptism,
may, by his resurrection, obtain eternal life.
GOOD FRIDAY
On this day in the liturgy we read St. Johns account of the passion, we pray for the needs of the Church and the world, we venerate the Cross and we receive the blessed Eucharist. We think of the death of Jesus on the cross, his death was a result of the courage of his convictions. He lived his life with a message of compassion, of equality and love, Jesus was often critical of those who lorded it over those who were less well off or who had little or even nothing at all. The cross of Good Friday is a sign and a symbol that all of us recognise, it is a sign of the completeness of the love that God has for each one of us faults and failings included.
It is not accidental that the Passion according to John is always read on this day. This account shows that Jesus is always in charge, in total command of his situation. John’s Passion is an extended commentary on an earlier statement of Jesus found in John 10:17-18: “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” The focus of the liturgy of Good Friday, is not primarily a meditation on Jesus’ pain, nor on our sinfulness, or our imitation of Jesus’ humility. Instead the focus on the cross is a reminder to us that we are beneficiaries of this event and so we call the Friday “Good” by thanking God for what God has done for us . The final words of Jesus from the cross say it all for us, “It is accomplished!” Jesus is not overcome. On the contrary! He has overcome and the fact that we are celebrating Good Friday in 2019 bears witness to this. When we go up to venerate the cross on Good Friday we should allow the cross to move us to be better people. Consoling, comforting and challenging the people we meet with the values of Jesus and the Cross.
How splendid is the Cross- of Christ! It brings life,
not death;
Light not darkness; Paradise, not its loss.
It is the wood on which the Lord, like a great warrior;
was wounded in hands, and feet and side,
but healed thereby our wounds.A tree had destroyed us,
a tree now brought us life.
Theodore of Studios
Fullerton T 