News - April 2021 RSS Feed

Our world tells us that suffering should be eradicated. Our nature prompts us to avoid it at all costs! But faith offers a different perspective. St. Catherine knew that in order to be like Christ, we should think and desire with Him. Out of love for us, Jesus embraced His Cross, and so redeemed the world. Jesus wedded suffering to love, and through it opened the path to salvation.

It comes as no surprise to anyone these days that our political climate is rife with conflict, controversy and downright animosity towards those with whom we disagree. Some would prefer to live their lives engaging only with those who share or take for granted their own views and bias. Sadly enough, such tension can also be experienced within the Church itself. Conflicts arise because of our differing perspectives on tradition and authority but also because of culture, language and custom.

When we sin, we deny the Holy and Righteous One. At times we do this willingly; that is when we commit a mortal sin. But we may also act out of ignorance. In both cases, we still need God’s forgiveness. Peter and John are addressing their communities, not to shame them, but to bring them to the light of the Lord’s face by repentance and by living the Commandments.

We want to thank the members of the Dominican family who were able to share their daily reflections this Lenten and Easter Season. Your words prepared our hearts to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord. This year we will extend the reflections beyond the Easter Octave. Please keep an eye out for reflections posted on the remaining Sundays of the Easter Season and Dominican Feast Days.

“Seeing is believing!” As a people of faith, we believe even though we do not see.  The Risen Lord revealed the glory of his resurrection to his disciples over a period.  Even after they saw the empty tomb and heard the reports of Jesus’ appearances, their faith was weak. Once Jesus appeared to them, He showed them the wounds of His passion.  He told them to “see’ and “believe”. 

Jesus, in today’s gospel, commissioned the Apostles to “Go into the world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” In the Acts of the Apostles, they tell the Sanhedrin that it would be impossible for them not to speak about what they have seen. Just as Jesus commissioned the Apostles, He has commissioned us to share the Good News of the Resurrection to everyone around us. After we have seen and heard all Jesus has done for us, how could we not share the Good News with others?

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it”. (Psalm 118: 24) This gospel acclamation is sung during the Easter Octave. Nathanael, Zebedee’s sons, and the two other disciples who joined Peter when he said, “I am going fishing”, were not rejoicing after spending a night on the sea of Tiberias without catching anything – not even a small fish.

When did you first hear about Jesus? My earliest memory is from a Christmas when I was about three years old. My parents told me the Nativity story and we had a little creche on a table. Jesus already knew me because I’d been baptized as an infant, but it’s the recounting of the story that stays with me. For many, perhaps, most Christians, knowledge of the Christ seeped into our consciousness little by little through Bible stories, sacraments, sacramentals, and daily prayers. The dawning awareness, whatever the source, always extends back across time and space to the eyewitnesses of the Resurrected Christ encountered in today’s readings.

Today’s first reading is an example of what it means to live the Christian life. Speaking to the limp beggar, Peter says, “I do not have silver or gold, but what I do have I give you.” As Christians, we are called to consistently give of ourselves, and often we do not have what is sought after. As Peter does, we must realize that even when we cannot give what is being asked of us, we still have something to offer to everyone we encounter. In our interactions with others, we should always represent Christ to them, showing them the love and dignity that He would show them.

Have you ever felt disappointed like the disciples in our gospel reading whose hopes and dreams were lost? I have had that kind of experience. Twenty years ago, I lived in San Antonio, Texas, when my world came crashing down around me. I lost the person I loved in the blink of an eye when our unborn baby died. My family lived 1,800 miles away, so I had no one to rely on for help dealing with this tremendous loss.

When we speak of the Dominican Charism and the centrality of preaching the Truth, we mean being a witness to the resurrection to which belongs every member of the baptized. By the very nature of the grace which floods our soul and to which we have been joined to Christ, have died and been raised, we are witnesses of the resurrection. We have experienced it! The risen Christ is in us and is closer to us than we are to ourselves. What a gift! Already this life has put on immortality.

In today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus calls Mary Magdalene to be the first witness and preacher of His resurrection from the dead.  For this reason, after leaving the Risen Christ, Mary Magdalene finds His disciples and tells them, “I have seen the Lord.”  This call reaffirms the important role of women in the Church for being faithful witnesses and proclaimers of the Risen Christ.  

The Commentary on the General Norms for the Liturgical Year after Vatican II stated, “The faithful should understand that the last three days of Holy Week are not a preparation for Easter but, as St. Augustine wrote, ‘the most sacred triduum of the crucified, buried and risen Lord’.”  Thus, our constant Catholic teaching explains that the solemnity of Easter has the same kind of preeminence in the liturgical year that Sunday has in the week.  We stand today on top of the mountain as we celebrate our greatest liturgical feast.  We are at the heart of the Paschal Mystery:  Christ has risen from the dead, and what is crucial for us is the age-old tenet of our faith:  Christ’s resurrection is also our resurrection!

Tonight’s solemn liturgy begins with the priest carving the number 2021 into the wax of the Paschal candle as he declares: “Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end. . .” The acolytes will then kindle the Easter fire, a symbol of Christ’s victory over the darkness of sin and death. In his dying and rising celebrated this night, we will acclaim him as the Lord of the Eternal Sabbath.

The recurring theme in the readings is “to remember.” As we look toward the future, we imagine that we will remember these past twelve months vividly. They have been unlike anything else any of us had experienced before. We have experienced our vulnerability, distress, anxiety, weariness, restlessness, and many other feelings that make the pandemic difficult to forget. However, the readings ask us to remember not something unpleasant but instances of love events.