Category Archives: Musings

New Life

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Today at the Mass for the children of the parish elementary school, the gospel reading is taken from John 20, the scene on Easter morning when Mary Magdalene encounters the risen Jesus. As part of the encounter, Jesus says to Mary: “Stop holding on to me.” What could those words mean? What is Jesus trying to tell Mary?

In part, I think Jesus is telling Mary that the “old Jesus” – the one she knew – has been raised from death into a new life. While it is hard to think of the “new Jesus” when Jesus is truly God. But remember He is also truly human. Standing there in front of Mary is new life, the newness of life that awaits us.

St. Paul told the people of Rome that if we have been baptized in Christ then we are promised the newness of life, but in the same letter he also tells them that they can’t hold onto things from the past that would keep them from the new life.

I think Jesus understands that Mary’s comfort zone is the Jesus she knew, the One she depended on – and as good as that is – as great as that is – there is a newness of life awaiting with the coming of the Holy Spirit that will bring her and all believers new grace, new gifts and new life.

I hear tell that “eighth grade-itis” has come upon the senior class of the school. They are ready for the school year to conclude – but also ready for the new life that awaits them in high school. You have worked hard and are well prepared. Hold onto the memories and friends you have made here, but be ready to step into new opportunities and roles that await you in your new life.

That seems a very appropriate message here on the first full day of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. From the South Side of Chicago, to seminary, to Chiclayo Peru as priest and later Bishop, to Rome as Cardinal, and now as the 267th pope.  Each step, newness of life awaited him, even as he treasured the life he was leaving behind to serve the people and the Church. 

It was Jesus’ message to Mary. It is Jesus’ message to us – strengthened by the grace of God, step into the newness of life

Anima una et cor unum in Deum: One mind and one heart intent upon God

Image credit: Patheos, CC-BY-NC

Random Happens

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Sometimes there is a nexus of events that seem random or perhaps purposeful – usually hard to discern the difference. Many years ago when leading a Bible study on the Book of Revelation, one of the participants told me that every evening when driving home from the session (it was summer), he saw a black crow sitting on a fence. He asked if it was a sign. Could be…. or since it was farm country and the fence was bordering a corn field, it might have just been a crow. I have to admit there is a part of me that operates out of the old maxim: if you hear hoofbeats don’t assume zebra, it’s probably a horse. At least it’s a good maxim for the United States.

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Privateering – the new side gig

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Given the state and possible future of a new global order in a world of trade wars, tariffs, and mercantile mischief, I thought it good to again post an article from last year. It might just be, for you, a viable side-gig.

Did you know that you have a constitutional right to become a government-sanctioned pirate? I present for your consideration Article I, Section 8: Clause 11, War Powers – To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water. This means that, with Congress’s permission, private citizens can weaponize all manner of watercraft, put  out to sea, capture enemy vessels, and keep the booty. Rather than fly the Jolly Roger, you’d proudly fly the Star-and-Stripes. And even more, rather than taking on the name “pirate”  although that has a certain cache to it, you might go by the title “privateer.” But I must admit that “Pirate Jack” sounds a fair bit more daunting than “Privateer Jack.”

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Everything else in the universe

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The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people, and especially of governments, always have effects that are unanticipated or “unintended.” We live in a world that is a complex system with interconnections we do not know, can’t or have not yet imagined, or as the American naturalist John Muir offered: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

A well-known example is when the British government in India offered financial rewards for people who killed and turned in cobras. People, reacting to incentives, began breeding the snakes. Once the reward program was scrapped, the population of cobras in India rose as people released the ones they had raised. This event gave birth to the term “the cobra effect” which describes an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result that is contrary to the intentions of its designers. In other words, an unintended consequence.

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The Work of God

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So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” (John 6:28-29)

Accomplishing the works of God – now that seems like something that should be on the top of our list. When we look at beginning of the Gospel of Luke, we encounter Jesus in the synagogue

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Perhaps these are the works of God? Or maybe St. Matthew outlines the important works:

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Sounds of the World

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One of things we should all attempt to do is to read widely – or listen widely if podcasts are your cup of tea. I subscribe to all manner of left-middle-right news and opinion pieces and sort through the flotsam and jetsam to cull out sources that are extreme and simply uninformed. And then there are the folks whose content often comes back to language, etymology, and how this things float in the midst of our culture and life.

One of the folks I read pretty consistently is NY Times columnist Johh McWhorter, an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches American studies and music history. In today’s column he writes about the phenomena we have all experienced. Someone near to us on the street, in the mall, and other public forums that is listening to music or other entertainment at a volume that we find inconsiderate at best and rude in the most. I have that reaction whether it is music I enjoy or music which I do not prefer. McWhorter has an interesting insight;

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Behind the Scene

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In the gospel reading for today we share the story of the two disciples on that first Easter heading home discouraged by the events that had unfolded with the death of Jesus. By the time that Cleopas and his unnamed companion had walked with Jesus the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus, the evening darkness had descended upon them. When Jesus acted as if he would continue walking, they implored him, “stay with us, for the day is almost over.” And so they had dinner at Emmaus.

During the day the men hadn’t recognized the resurrected Jesus, but at dinner “their eyes were opened” in the breaking of the bread and they understood what had happened. They immediately returned to Jerusalem and told how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. They added their testimony to the earlier testimony of the women who’d visited the empty tomb.

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A Life of Lasting Joy

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In the gospel reading today we encounter a well known scene. It is Sunday morning in the first light of the day, the third day since the crucifixion. Mary Magdalene is there to complete the burial rituals to honor the corpse of Jesus – only to discover an empty tomb. She was already grieving, carrying that pain and loss until the completion of the Sabbath, and now this – someone has taken the body of Jesus; a final insult and desecration. It is too much. She is in tears.

She encounters two angels who ask her why she is crying. There is no reaction to the encounter itself. She is taken in her grief. She shows no concern for angels, but only asks where someone might have moved the body. They have no answer and so she moves on encountering a person she takes to be the gardener. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, or Peter and the disciples later at the Sea of Galilee, she doesn’t recognize Jesus,

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Apostle Signs Nike Endorsement Deal

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Around Easter each year friends and family send me all kinds of Easter-themed images, memes, articles, and what-not. I am always amazed at the creativity and imagination of some folks, for example:

The (fake) Press Release from Nike:

JUDEA — Saint John the Apostle has reportedly signed a lucrative six figure deal with Nike following his win against Saint Peter in a footrace to the tomb of Jesus.

Saint Peter has continually maintained that it was not a race, and that they were just excited to learn if Jesus had indeed risen. However, that hasn’t put a stopper on Saint John’s growing fame as a sprinter. Nike decided to strike while the iron is hot.

“We’re proud to have signed John to an official endorsement deal,” said Nike CEO Tiberius Calceus. “We’re also excited to announce a collaboration with the apostle on the brand-new Nike Air John 1, the shoe for beloved winners. Run like John with a pair of Air John 1’s today.”

Image and text courtesy of Babylon Bee

Resurrection Faith

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Today’s gospel from St. Matthew  is familiar to all readers: Jesus has been crucified, died, and laid within a tomb guarded by soldiers and watched by Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary.” The Sabbath has passed and dawn approaches on the first day of a new week.

The gospel accounts of the empty tomb are fairly similar. Women (names and number of women differ) come to the tomb early on Sunday morning. The stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. Some of the gospels have an angelic messenger who speaks to the women.

There is great diversity in the accounts of the appearances of the risen Christ. It is difficult to harmonize any of them. Perhaps there is a message in that: Our contemporary experiences of the risen Christ will differ. There are those who visibly see a white light and others don’t. There are those who experience Christ in a radical transformation, A “born-again” event in their lives. There are those for whom Christ has been such a reality throughout their lives that they can’t think of a moment when Christ wasn’t present to them or when there was a great turning point in their lives. How the risen Christ comes to people differ – then and now. Our stories about the risen Christ’s presence in our lives differ – and in that lack of uniformity there is witness to the breadth of humanity.  

The woman left the empty tomb “fearful yet overjoyed” only to encounter the Risen Christ telling them: “Do not be afraid.” A good message for us. Resurrection faith does not arise on the basis of evidence, of which the chief priests and soldiers had plenty, but on the basis of the experienced presence of the risen Christ, by testimony of those to whom he appeared, and by his own continuing presence among his disciples – on the Easter morning and in all the days since.

We need to be a people unafraid to proclaim a radical resurrection faith in the present, not just a historical event. We need to tell it with joy!

He is risen! Alleluia!

Image credit: Christ’s Appearance to Mary after the Resurrection | Alexander Ivanov | Russian Museum | PD-US