Proof of Christ's Resurrection.       We continue along the 50 days of the Easter Season, this week being the octave of eight days of Solemnities celebrating the Easter Resurrection of the Lord.       This Sunday, the eighth day and Second Sunday of Easter, is also Divine Mercy Sunday. The Opening Prayer (Collect) says it all: “God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast [Easter] kindle the faith of the people you have made your own, increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed [baptized], by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed.”       Naturally, being eight days after Easter, our Sunday Gospel reading is from John 20:19-31 , relating when Jesus appeared to the 11 disciples [minus Judas Iscariot] eight days after his resurrection. In the Early Church, those who were called “Apostles” (“sent” ones) were persons who had both seen the ris

Touching Christ.       Easter is an octave of eight days to celebrate the blessings and mystery of the solemnity. Mass is Monday April 18 at 6:00 PM; Tuesday April 19 will be a Communion Service at 5:30 PM; and Mass is then on Wednesday April 20 at 9:00 AM, Thursday April 21 at 5:30 PM (which will be followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction), Friday April 22 at 7:45 AM, and Saturday April 23 at 9:00 AM.       As was done in the early years of the Church, each day of Easter Week we read the different Gospel accounts of Christ’s resurrection: Monday: Mary Magdalen and the “other Mary” from Matthew28 . Tuesday: Mary Magdalen from John 20 . Wednesday: disciples on the road to Emmaus from Luke 24 . Thursday: the report of those disciples gave when they returned to Jerusalem that night also from Luke 24 . Friday: Jesus’ appearance by the sea from John 21 . Saturday: the summary of the Easter day events and Jesus’ commission to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the g

The Lord' Supper and the Fourth Cup.         This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.  The Mass of the Lord’s Supper is on Holy Thursday. Th e Mass remembers when Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist during the Jewish Passover Seder with his disciples.       The Passover Seder includes four cups of wine. The first cup has a special blessing spoken over it, followed by a serving of herbs. The Exodus Passover story is told, followed by the second cup. The main meal, consisting of lamb and unleavened bread, follows next, and afterwards the third cup, the “cup of blessing.” St. Paul seems to confirm this was the cup the Lord used in the institution of the Eucharist when he says, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?” ( 1 Cor 10:16 .)       Paul gives us the earliest record of what happened: “On the night when he was betrayed [Jesus] took bread, and when he had given thanks [Eucharist means thanksgiving] he broke it and said

Salvation Seminar Week 6.       St. Paul writes, “... [W]ork out your own salvation with fear and trembling” ( Phil 2:12 ).       Hmmmm. We are to work out our own salvation? I thought our salvation was all God’s grace through faith in Christ ( Eph 2:8-9 ). Yes, indeed it is. At the same time God invites and even requires us to participate in our salvation – a sharing, a partaking, in that grace.       After “... with fear and trembling,” Paul continues: “for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” ( Phil 2:13 ). So God works in us, both by the exercise of the will (his and ours) and by the actual good works (his and ours). We will, God wills. We work, God works.       Another way Paul expresses this is that we are to imitate God by walking in love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us ( Eph 5:1-2 ).       That’s why salvation is not a “spectator sport.” It is, rather, a “koinonia,” a fellowship, a communion, a sharing, a partnership – we