This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection. In today’s post we briefly consider: 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. 23 Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Continue reading
Today’s gospel is the well know and wonderfully told account of the two travelers on their way to Emmaus on the later afternoon of that first Easter Sunday. They are on their way home with hopes dashed: the one they thought the Messiah has been executed and is now entombed with the dead. They journey with fear, uncertainty, and a whole range of other emotions and worries. Not unlike us. And Jesus journeys with them. As he does with us. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection. In today’s post we consider the phrase, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The Fourth Gospel often speaks of Jesus being sent into the world by the Father: to do his will (6:38–39; 8:29), to speak his words (3:34; 8:28; 12:49; 14:24; 17:8), to perform his works (4:34; 5:36; 9:4) and win salvation for all who believe (3:16–17). Continue reading
In today’s gospel, we hear the familiar narrative of the encounter of Mary Magdalene and Jesus later in the morning after the Resurrection. She mistakes Jesus for a gardener. Why a gardener? John writes: “Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.” (Jn 19:41) So, it was natural that the one person who might have been working on site in the early morning, was the gardener. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection.
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 (Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Continue reading
“He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples” such is one of the verses before our gospel reading of this Easter Monday morning. This gives context and meaning to the following verse, the first one in our gospel reading: “Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.” Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. The gospel is taken from John 20:19-31, the scene in the Upper Room on the evening of the Resurrection. Our gospel contains the second and third appearances of the risen Jesus in John’s gospel. These three appearances take place in Jerusalem. There is a fourth and final appearance of Jesus later in a section referred to as the “Epilogue” of John. This appearance is at the “Sea of Tiberias” in Galilee (John 21). Continue reading
“…early in the morning, while it was still dark…” and so Easter begins. Begins in the place and time when it is hard to see, difficult to be sure what we are seeing, making it harder to be sure what we will later remember. We all have our own experiences of joyous Easter celebrations. My own memories are of churches blooming into color after the somber decor of Lent, easter egg hunts with the cousins, the quest for the golden egg, and many other happy memories. Perhaps your memories are similar. Maybe so much so that we pass over the beginning: disciples stumbling around in the half-light when the memories of Good Friday loom large. Jesus was captured, tortured, and crucified. He was buried in a tomb hewed out of the side of a hill – a stone covered the entrance. Hope died with him. It is now the third day and these disciples move about in the not-yet-light. Continue reading
In the Book of Job, chapter 14, Job is pondering the deeper things of life. He is asking the age old question in the face of pending or possible death? Will a person, once dead, live again? (יִ֫חְיֶ֥ה cf. Job 14:14). The question has now been answered. The tomb is empty. The defining conviction of Christian hope is that because Jesus was raised from the dead, the grave is not the final reality of human experience. “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is risen. Continue reading
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