Category Archives: Podcasts

For 40 days, we fasted, sacrificed, and prayed in preparation for these days. Thursday, we were there when Our Lord gave us the Eucharist at the Last Supper. Friday, we watched as Our Lord was tortured, crucified, and died. Saturday was spent in a watchful anticipation. It was all worth it, because Our Lord has risen from the dead, and we can shout, “Alleluia! Jesus Christ has risen from the dead! Alleluia!”

While we know now that Our Lord had to suffer, die and rise again, we can see in today’s Gospel that the Apostles and disciples didn’t have the clarity of vision that we have with 2,000 years of hindsight. They were still reeling from the fact that their master, whom they had followed for three years, was now dead, killed by the religious leaders and secular authorities. To top it off, now there’s a report that the tomb had been broken into and his body stolen, the ultimate insult to pile on top of injury. Peter and John couldn’t believe it. They had to see for themselves.

Too often, we’re like the Apostles. We have to see it to believe it. If someone tells us in the middle of drought that it’s going to rain tomorrow, we might say something like, “I’ll believe it when it happens.” In some cases, it might even be good to be skeptical, especially when someone is trying to cheat us or lie to us.

There are things, however, that we must accept without any proof. Much of what we profess in the Creed every Sunday cannot be fully demonstrated, and must be believed through an act of faith. This act of faith comes about when we consciously accept a truth that has been revealed by God.

We celebrate one of those revealed truths today. Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead so that we may also rise with him after our time on Earth has ended. His resurrection and appearance to his Apostles demonstrate to us what will happen for us after our deaths. We must have faith that the resurrection of Our Lord into his glorified body will also happen to us, that our bodies will be glorified as his was. We must also have faith that, as the Apostle Peter said in the first reading, “everyone who believes in him receive forgiveness if sins through his name.”

May we be open to that forgiveness, and pray that those who have died may enter into glory iwth Christ.

Of all the images that have been created that portray the Passion of Our Lord, one of the most moving has to be that of Michelangelo’s “Pieta”, in which we see Mary with her son’s body draped over her lap. She is looking down at the face of Jesus with an expression of sorrow and anguish. We are reminded of this powerful image every time we read the Passion narrative on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, as we did today.

While this moving image is one of sorrow, it should also bring us great joy and hope, as it depicts the greatest moment of salvation history. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, accomplished his mission. He suffered and died for our sins. Through his blood, our sins are washed clean.

Our Lord’s sacrifice on the Cross was prefigured in the covenant that God made with the Israelites. Through the law given to Moses, the Israelites were commanded to offer the sacrifices of goats and bulls so that the transgressions of the Israelite people would be forgiven. These sacrifices were not a one-time-only event, but needed to be repeated year after year.

The mission of Our Lord was to be the perfect sacrifice, the sacrifice that would end all other sacrifices. No longer would animal sacrifices be necessary for forgiveness of sins. Now we unite ourselves with his sacrifice through the waters of baptism which washes away our sins and make us sons and daughters of God. Likewise, through the Eucharist, we participate in the sacrifice of Christ. At every Mass, we are standing at the foot of the Cross with Mary and the beloved disciple. Even through 2,000 years and many thousands of miles separate us, the Sacrifice of the Mass makes this moment present to us wherever and whenever we are.

Today, as we venerate the Cross, may we be able to do so with great joy, but also with the realization that Christ died for our sins.

Today, as we begin this last week of Lent, this Holy Week, we commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem shortly before his Passion and Death. He approaches the city very humbly, riding on a donkey, but the people of Jerusalem line the path before he can enter the city. To use a modern phrase, Jerusalem rolls out the red carpet before him.

Why would the people greet Jesus in such a dramatic manner? If it sounds like they were welcoming him as their king, it’s because they were. This whole event is the public proclamation of Jesus as their messiah. The term messiah is frequently understood in Christian circles as synonymous with savior, but it had a different connotation in Jesus’ time. The Jewish people were under the control of the Romans, and were looking for a great king that had been foretold by the prophets. This king would free the land of Judah from the foreign oppressors, and would set up a great Jewish kingdom.

Jesus was thought to be this great king, and his entry into Jerusalem was seen as the fulfillment of the prophesy of the prophet Zechariah. In this prophesy, written about 500 years before Jesus’ time, Zechariah foretold that the great king would come to Jerusalem “triumphant and victorious [. . .] humble and riding on an ass.” (Zech. 9:9) This king would not only restore the kingdom of Judah, but he would also bring about peace among the nations.

The problem with this view is that it understands the messiah as an earthly king. The people were looking for the establishment of an earthly kingdom, but that wasn’t Jesus’ mission. He came to proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven and to establish it here on earth through his Church. Instead of establishing a kingdom solely for the Jews, the Kingdom of Heaven proclaimed by Jesus is open to all humanity, both Jew and Gentile.

Through the waters of baptism, we have entered into this kingdom. At the same time, we pray within the Lord’s Prayer “thy kingdom come”. If God’s kingdom is already here through the establishment of the Church upon earth, why do we pray that it will come? As members of the Kingdom of Heaven, we want to see God’s plan of salvation come to fruition. In essence, by praying “thy kingdom come”, we are looking forward to the return of Our Lord Jesus Christ and our triumphal entrance into Heaven.

This is foreshadowed within the Mass when we sing the “Holy, Holy, Holy” immediately before the Eucharistic Prayer. With the people of Jerusalem, we exclaim, “Hosanna in the highest” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Today, as we sing these words, may we enter more fully into the Kingdom of Heaven, and proclaim to the world that Jesus is Lord and Messiah.

In our culture today, many are obsessed with postponing or even eliminating mortality. Movie stars and politicians spend thousands, even millions, annually on plastic surgery and make-up to keep themselves looking like they’re 20 years old. Scientists are actively looking for the “aging” gene, trying to find that element in our DNA which causes us to grow old and eventually die. Some more eccentric people with far more money than common sense are even having themselves cryogenically frozen at the moment of death so that they can be thawed out and resurrected at a future date. Great quantities of time and money are spent in the search to find the technological equivalent to Jesus’ miracle in today’s Gospel.

While we are concerned about our physical deaths, our culture is ignoring the far more serious death of sin. As physical illnesses can bring about the death of our bodies, sin can bring the spiritual death that comes when we allow our sins to cut ourselves off from God. Through our sins, we turn from God and push away from him. Much like one might stand outside on a sunny day with the sun on our backs and see our shadow before us, sin causes us to turn away from the light of Christ and be drawn into the darkness that is in the world.

Like the stench from Lazarus’ grave, this darkness of sin pervades our world today. Sins that were once avoided are now tolerated, even encouraged. Virtues, such as chastity and religious observance, are mocked and derided. Success is viewed as the achievement of wealth and power. Professional sports players, big-screen actors, and other public personalities are idolized, while those who live humbly and morally upright lives are denigrated and ridiculed. In many ways, the only true sin in the eyes of the world is daring to believe that there truly is right and wrong, virtue and vice.

The deeper that we are drawn into the world by sin, the tighter that sin ties us up. Like Lazarus in the tomb, sin binds our hands and feet, keeping us from the grace that God promises us. When we willingly choose a gravely immoral action that we know to be immoral, we commit a mortal sin, which can even cut ourselves off completely from God, ensnaring us from head to toe with sin. To die in this state would cut us off from God for all eternity, which is the definition of what it means to be condemned to Hell.

There is a bright side, however. We can get the bindings of sin removed. We can turn back to God and enjoy his grace through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we celebrate this powerful and beautiful sacrament, we admit our sins to God and ask for his forgiveness. Through the words of the priest, we hear that God gives us his forgiveness and exhorts us to “Go, and sin no more.” Our bindings are removed, we come out of the tomb of death and enter into glorious light of life. Our souls bask in the glory of God.

I will be the first to admit that confession of sins is painful. It’s difficult to closely examine how sin has affected us and to admit our failings. It’s also very difficult to go to another human being and lay bare our souls, especially if we know the priest well. The joy that comes from being truly in union with God more than makes up for the momentary pain of confessing our sins.

Through our sins, we are bound to death, but through God’s mercy and forgiveness, we are released to life.