Month: March 2024

Jesus died around three in the afternoon on Friday and was buried shortly thereafter. His Resurrection occurred by Dawn on Sunday. These verses from the Gospel of John recount the scene at the tomb early Sunday:

“Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

“So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple [John], the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.’

“Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

“Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the napkin, which had been on His head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

“Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

“But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head, and one at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’

“She said to them, ‘Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.’

“Saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?’

“Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’

“Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, ‘Rab-boni!’ (which means  teacher).” John 20: 1-16

He is Risen!

After Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, a great crowd with swords and clubs, led by Judas, one of the Twelve disciples who will betray Him, enters the Garden and seizes Him. (Matthew 26: 36-50)

Peter, another of the Twelve disciples, draws his sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest’s slave. Jesus orders Peter to put his sword away, saying:

“’Put your sword back, for all who take the sword will perish. Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?’” (Matthew 26: 51-54)

A Roman legion at full strength had approximately 6,000 soldiers. So, that’s a minimum of 72,000 angels that Jesus can call upon for assistance.

And yet Jesus does not call for the angels. Instead, He quietly and willingly turns Himself over to the crowd, knowing that His decision to accept God’s plan will end in His Crucifixion. (Matthew 26: 36-56)

From the Cross, in absolute agony, Jesus says these words aloud:

“”Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’” (Luke 23: 34)

Jesus asks God to not only forgive those who have crucified Him – Jesus begs the Father’s forgiveness for all of us – those who have gone before us, those here now, and those yet to enter the world. He prays and intercedes for all of humanity, from the Cross.

Before He dies, Jesus looks down from the Cross at his beloved Mother, Mary and disciple, John, and says these words:

“’Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your Mother!’” (John 19: 26)

Before He dies, Jesus reminds us of His Commandment to love one another – and positions His Mother as a powerful intercessor for all of us.

For centuries scholars, theologians, historians, believers, and non-believers have asked what would compel someone — and particularly the Son of God — to willingly accept death by Crucifixion?

In considering Jesus’ final actions and words from the Cross, we find our answer:

LOVE.

Dearest Jesus, Song that the Angels sing, how deeply we adore Thee and love Thee.

Fair and wise judge Jesus, forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, source of all goodness, our souls long for You.

Gentle and faithful Shepherd, lead us to see the face of God.

As I move through Good Friday, the most solemn day of Holy Week, a question stirs uncomfortably in my mind – Why does it have to be this way? Why does God choose to demonstrate the depths of His Love and Mercy for us through the Crucified Jesus?

The prophets foretell that the anointed Servant of the Lord will one day offer Himself as a sacrifice to suffer viciously for the sins of all God’s people. The prophet Isaiah describes that the Lord’s Suffering Servant will be “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities; upon Him lies the chastisement that will make us whole, and with His stripes, we are healed.” (Isaiah 54: 3).

Another prophecy in Deuteronomy describes that “a hanged man is accursed by God.” (Deuteronomy 21: 22-23)  In these verses, any man who is “hanged on a tree” is described as being “cursed.” The atoning and sacrificial nature of Jesus’ death is clearly evident in these verses since He takes on the punishment and curse that belongs to sinful men and women.

But the question still remains – Why is it that the horror of the Cross must stand at the center of the history of our Salvation? What is God trying to show us through the Cross?

St. Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on the Mercy of God (Dives In Misericordia, or “Rich in Mercy) offers us answers:

“The events of Good Friday and, even before that, in prayer in Gethsemane, introduce a fundamental change into the whole course of the revelation of love and mercy in the messianic mission of Christ. The one who ‘went about doing good and healing’(Acts 10: 38) and ‘curing every sickness and disease’ (Matthew 9: 35) now Himself seems to merit the greatest mercy and to appeal for mercy, when He is arrested, abused, condemned, scourged, crowned with thorns, when He is nailed to the cross and dies amidst agonizing torments. (Mark 15: 37, John 19: 30). 

“It is then that He particularly deserves mercy from the people to whom He has done good, and He does not receive it. …

… “In the passion and death of Christ — in the fact that the Father did not spare His own Son, but ‘for our sake made him [bear the burden of] sin’ (2 Corinthians 5: 21) — absolute justice is expressed, for Christ undergoes the passion and cross because of the sins of humanity. This constitutes even a ‘superabundance’ of justice, for the sins of man are ‘compensated for’ by the sacrifice of the Man — God.

“Nevertheless, this justice, which is properly justice ‘to God’s measure,’ springs completely from love: from the love of the Father and of the Son, and completely bears fruit in love … The divine dimension of redemption is put into effect not only by bringing justice to bear upon sin, but also by restoring to love that creative power in man … [for] he once more has access to the fullness of life and holiness that come from God …

… “The cross on Calvary, the cross upon which Christ conducts His final dialogue with the Father, emerges from the very heart of the love that man, created in the image and likeness of God, has been given as a gift, according to God’s eternal plan … It is love which not only creates the good but also grants participation in the very life of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For he who loves desires to give himself.

“The cross of Christ on Calvary … includes the call to man to share in the divine life by giving himself, and with himself the whole visible world, to God, and like an adopted son to become a sharer in the truth and love which is in God and proceeds from God. It is precisely beside the path of man’s eternal election to the dignity of being an adopted child of God that there stands in history the cross of Christ, the only begotten Son, who, as ‘light from light, true God from true God,’ (The Nicene Creed) came to give the final witness to the wonderful covenant of God with humanity, of God with man — every human being.

“This covenant, as old as man … is equally the new and definitive covenant … open to each and every individual. … And yet this is not yet the word of the God of the covenant: that will be pronounced at the dawn when first the women and then the Apostles come to the tomb of the crucified Christ, see the tomb empty and for the first time hear the message: “He is risen.” They will repeat this message to the others and will be witnesses to the risen Christ. …

… “Believing in the crucified Son means “seeing the Father,” (John 14: 9) means believing that love is present in the world and that this love is more powerful than any kind of evil in which individuals, humanity, or the world are involved.

“Believing in this love means believing in mercy. For mercy is an indispensable dimension of love; it is as it were love’s second name.”¹

I love this encyclical so much. St. Pope John Paul II’s words are even more meaningful when we reflect on his life. Although he was the child of a loving family, his life was not easy. Born in Poland, in 1920, he had lost his mother and older brother by the time he was twelve years old. An older sister had died in infancy. He was raised by his father, a deeply religious man, in the midst of political turmoil and social chaos. St. Pope John Paul II would lose his father to a heart attack in 1941. Through all of this, St. Pope John Paul II continued to search for and find the indescribable Love and Mercy of God.

St. Pope John Paul II’s life and words give us great hope.

On this Good Friday, as we look to the Cross, let us recognize the power of Divine Love and Mercy to lift all of us high above the horror of sin and the chaos of evil.

¹Click here to read in full St. Pope John Paul II’s Dives In Misericordia, published November 30, 1980. The excerpts above are taken from Chapters 7 and 8.

In my early search to know Jesus, my sister gave me a book titled, Jesus: An Interview Across Time¹. It’s written by Andrew G. Hodges, M.D., a practicing psychiatrist who seeks to answer questions that are centuries-old. Here is an excerpt from the foreward:

“Dr. Hodges believes the humanity of Jesus has been neglected. He has creatively fashioned a format in which Jesus answers intimate questions about the details of His life, including some that are not recorded in the Gospels.” Pg. 13

The book is a fascinating read of Dr. Hodges’ own estimation of Jesus, drawing from the Gospels and Hodge’s own life experiences and beliefs. Dr. Hodges’ book is filled with questions that perplex believers and non-believers alike:

“Then how did you find out that you were the chosen one, the Messiah? Did your mother tell you?” pg. 28

“You fulfilled over three hundred specific prophecies about the Messiah, yet the scholars, the ones who were supposed to teach the people what to look for in the Messiah, missed your appearance entirely. Why? Pg. 56

“Tell me about the message behind the miracles.” (pg. 180) “There have been scattered miracles performed in recent years and Christians continue to report unbelievable responses to prayer; but why don’t you do these spectacular miracles anymore?” (pg. 144)

“You didn’t care for the Pharisees very much, did you?” (pg. 191) “As I read the gospels, I never cease to be amazed at the number of times you provoked the Pharisees.” (pg. 196) “You never let up on the Pharisees.” (pg. 199)

“Can you really love a spirit, ‘someone’ you can’t see, like God?” (pg. 239)

“What do you most vividly recall about those four days between Palm Sunday and the Last Supper?” (pg. 284)

The book is provocative in the sense that each page challenges the reader to reflect more deeply on what he or she believes about Jesus. So many years later, as I seek to draw nearer to Jesus, I still find myself turning from the book to cited Bible verses, sifting what I think Jesus is trying to tell me through His life and words.

Here’s a particularly moving excerpt from Hodges’ book about prayer:

“Tell me about prayer.

[Jesus’ response] – “People think that to really pray they have to be alone for long periods of time. They don’t realize that God is their friend, who is always with them, and He is someone they can tell things to at any time, just as to a husband or a wife or a dear friend.

“Another major reason people don’t pray enough is that they’re afraid of the power they’ve been given. Imagine this: you can move the hand of God. Listen to what He says, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33: 3)

“He’s waiting to answer you. That’s why I told My disciples so many times to ask. Six times in my last message before my crucifixion, I told them to ask. Power makes people uncomfortable. They back off from the influence they have, and then their God becomes too small. I hope my people never forget that they’re made in the image of God.” (pp. 230-231)

Let your eyes and heart wander back over what Dr. Hodges is trying to share in the preceding excerpt. The “power” Hodges writes of is Love – human love and Divine Love.

Love remains the most humbling, inspiring, and freeing action any of us can choose to take. Through His Life, Death and Resurrection, Jesus shows us the undeniable power of Love to change lives. Jesus does not teach that we need to wait for heaven to know God and the full depths of His Love. Through Jesus’ remarkable humanity, we understand that we can claim the power of God’s love right now, in the present day.

Love has the power to transform our earthy lives because it naturally compels us to be more merciful toward one another. It is God’s Mercy – made known through Jesus – that frees us to be who we are meant to be – men and women wonderfully made in the very image of God. (Genesis 1: 27)

Jesus’ disciples witnessed firsthand the unparalleled power of Love and Mercy, Divine and human — and they spent the rest of their days sharing Jesus’ remarkable story:

“This was their heritage. Love was to be our power that would conquer the world, not might or material wealth or political strength or fear. A new day was dawning for all people, and my disciples were the first to know. Those who believed in Me and My Father were to be My brothers and sisters, and there would be a oneness that the world had never known.” (pg. 307-308)

This Holy Week, seek to know Jesus more deeply. Spend time in quiet prayer with Him and ask Jesus what little things you can do today, to be better — for yourself and for others. Jesus loves us and wants us to invoke the power of His Love and Mercy right now, within this earthly paradise.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1: 14

¹ Andrew G. Hodges, M.D. Jesus: An Interview Across Time (MI: Kregel Publications, 1986, 2003).

We are deep within our Lenten journeys now. Yesterday (March 24), Catholics around the world celebrated Palm Sunday, the final Sunday of Lent and the start of Holy Week. Palm Sunday commemorates the triumphant arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem, and His Passion and Crucifixion a few days later.

In one week, the Church will celebrate the Risen Lord, on the first Easter.

My heart, this morning, is focused on the mercy of Jesus, revealed in particular by St. Pope John Paul II. In 1980, he published an encyclical dedicated to revealing God’s Mercy. Titled Dives in Misericordia¹ (or, “Rich in Mercy”), St. Pope John Paul II’s message focuses entirely on showing us that the very heart of the mission of Jesus Christ is to reveal the merciful love of the Father.

In this memorable encyclical, St. Pope John Paul II writes that mercy “is love’s second name.” He goes on to write, “Mercy is the greatest of the attributes and perfections of God, and the Bible, Tradition and the whole faith life of the People of God provide particular proofs of this.”

Early in the Old Testament, in the Book of Exodus, as God’s Commandments are made known to us, God reveals more about the depth of His Mercy:

“I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to THOUSANDS of those who love Me and keep My Commandments.” Exodus 20: 5-6

Do not be thrown off by God’s use of the word “jealous.” God is not irrational or insecure! But He is jealous for, or deeply desirous of, our love and devotion because He understands that only by entering into His Love can we find the hope and peace we yearn for in life. Only with His Love can we find the purpose and meaning that we desire, enabling us to live good and happy lives.

Only with His Mercy can we understand that God gives us each new day to start again. If we are truly sorry for our sins, and try to be better than we were the day before, God and His angels swoop in to help us.

Do we understand the depth of God’s Mercy? Yesterday at Mass, our priest said this to us:

“If you were the only person left on earth, when Jesus came down from Heaven, He would have willingly died for you alone, on the Cross. Jesus came to earth because He loves us and wants to redeem our souls — your soul and my soul.”

Jesus Himself directly tells us that He came to earth to reveal the merciful love of the Father:

“‘As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; abide (or remain) in My Love.'” John 15: 9

How do we remain in Jesus’ love? All we need is a sincere desire to know Him, to follow His teachings, and to love Him. He loves us so much. As Jesus is about to leave the world, He says this to His disciples:

“‘I will not leave you desolate (or alone); I will come to you.'” John 14: 18

Jesus is beside you now. If you ask Him to, Jesus will reveal that of all the many gifts He has to share with us, His Mercy is by far his greatest attribute and perfection. St. Pope John Paul II describes this best, within his encyclical:

“In this way, in Christ and through Christ, God also becomes especially visible in His Mercy; that is to say, there is emphasized that attribute of the divinity which the Old Testament, using various concepts and terms, already defined as ‘mercy.’ Christ confers on the whole of the Old Testament tradition about God’s mercy a definitive meaning. Not only does He speak of it and explain it by the use of comparisons and parables, but above all He [Jesus] Himself makes it incarnate and personifies it. He [Jesus] Himself, in a certain sense, is mercy. To the person who sees it in Him – and finds it in Him – God becomes ‘visible’ in a particular way as the Father who is rich in mercy.”

Jesus loves us so much. Truly, Mercy is Jesus’ — and Love’s — second name.

¹St. Pope John Paul II, Dives In Misericordia, published November 30, 1980.