Reflection on the Gospel-Easter 2A, 27 April 2014 (John 20:19-31)

Not so long ago we used to speak of the Sundays ‘after’ Easter. The terminology has changed and we now speak of the Sundays ‘of’ Easter. In other words, we now recognise that the liturgical readings and prayers for each Sunday between Easter and Pentecost invite us into different movements of the one great symphony of resurrection faith.

The first scene in today’s gospel has the disciples hiding behind closed doors ‘for fear’ of those who had handed Jesus over to be executed by the Roman authorities. As supporters of someone executed on a political charge, they had reason to be fearful. Jesus appears among them, offers a greeting of peace, and tells them that he has been sent by God, his ‘Father’. They receive from him the gift of the Holy Spirit. He sends them in turn to bring peace and to mediate the forgiveness of God through the power of the Spirit. The story invites us as believers to place ourselves in the shoes of the earliest disciples. It invites us to receive the gift of the Spirit, to emerge from behind the doors that close us in on ourselves and that prevent us from rising above the fear of reprisals in the pursuit of justice and peace.

The second and third scenes in today’s gospel focus on Thomas who was not with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared in their midst. Thomas seems to trust only his own first hand experience. We all know people like Thomas. They test our patience because they seem to lack imagination. Then they make big statements when they come around to understanding what everyone else has known for a while. If we think, however, that those who hear in the first place are any better than Thomas, we need to note that the doors are still closed eight days later! The simple fact of knowing has not dispelled the fears. Even those who do believe and trust often need time to take the gospel message on board.

While Christians continue to celebrate Easter, our Jewish sisters and brothers have been marking Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day (April 27-28). We might join our prayers with theirs for the many who died at the hands of those who allowed their racial fears and prejudices to take unimaginable directions. We might also pray for the courage to challenge all forms of discrimination and shameful brutality in our own times and the strength to open our hearts and our homland, without fear, to those who seek refuge among us.

 

Anzac Day will begin with Mass at OLMC at 9.00am followed by the march in Sunbury at 10.00am concluding with the Prayer Service led by the Anglican Vicar and Catholic Priest. The wreaths will be laid within the Prayer Service at the War Memorial.

Three months ago we began planning for Lent and Easter, meeting on two evenings for a total of four hours.
Every week, our team of volunteers cleans our two churches. Each Sunday, our musicians lead us in prayerful music.

The Annual Priests Mass was celebrated last Tuesday by 240 Melbourne priests active and retired, ministering in parishes, colleges, hospitals and prisons. During Mass we renewed our vows of priestly commitment and the Oils for the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Anointing of the Sick were blessed. Then we had lunch together.

Reflection on the Gospel-Easter Sunday Year A, 20 April 2014 (Matthew 28:1-10)

After death, Jesus is cared for by a faith-filled man in the presence of two faith-filled women. These three people are fearless in the face of possible reprisals for their support of a “political criminal”. Joseph, who comes from Arimathea, a little village just north of Jerusalem, cares for Jesus out of his personal wealth, providing a clean linen cloth and his own newly rock-carved tomb. With his own hands, he performs the burial ritual, lays Jesus’ body in the tomb, and rolls the stone into place. The women disciples who witness the closing of the tomb are both named Mary. One is from Magdala, centre of a fish-salting industry by the Sea of Galilee, and the other is the mother of two male disciples. These women have contributed their goods and services to Jesus over the long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem.
The two women set out at dawn ‘to see the tomb’. This seems a little strange until we realise that they are once again functioning as witnesses, this time to the dramatic opening of the tomb and the appearance of God’s interpretive messenger. ‘Seeing’ becomes a metaphor for insight. In the earthquake phenomenon and the allusion to lightning, there are echoes of other great moments of God’s appearing to Israel, such as the encounter with Moses and the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai.

The two Marys are the first to learn the news of Jesus’ resurrection. They are also the first to be commissioned to proclaim it. The women ‘see’ the place where he was laid. They obey the angel’s command not to be afraid but to go quickly to the scattered disciples and inform them that the risen Jesus has gone before them to Galilee, the place of mission, where they too will ‘see’ him. Resurrection life energises these faith-filled women disciples/apostles and negates the death-dealing power of the Roman Empire. Ironically, the Roman tomb guards become ‘as though dead’.

As the women hurry away from the tomb, Jesus comes to meet them. He addresses them with the familiar greeting, ‘Chairete’, a greeting of joy. This is the first appearance of the risen Jesus and it draws from the women a profoundly reverential response: taking hold of him, they fall down in worship, an action foreshadowed by the courageous but doubly marginalised Canaanite woman (15:25). Jesus reiterates the commission already delivered by the angel: not to be afraid and to let the men know what has happened. These same men will later be commissioned on the mountain top (Matt 28:16-20). Often, the temptation is to stay on the mountain, instead of recognising the appearances of the Risen One on the open road of life and getting on with the mission.

 

Reflection on the Gospel-Passion Sunday Year A, 13 April 2014 (Matthew 26:14-27:66)

Capital punishment is abhorrent to most of us, particularly when a just person dies for specious reasons or to political ends. Public executions of convicted criminals were part of life in the ancient Roman Empire. That’s what confronts us in today’s gospel, although the gospel writers pay little attention to the details of the death and suffering of Jesus. They are much more interested in the meaning of these events.

The Romans execute Jesus outside Jerusalem when the city is filled with Jewish pilgrims who have come there for the Passover festival. For Jesus’ friends and followers, every subsequent Passover is celebrated in the light of his death by crucifixion. They share their memories and reflect on the meaning of his death in the light of their sacred traditions. Every element of the Passover story, the ancient story of God’s deliverance of their ancestors from slavery, resonates with echoes of the experience of Jesus who is now present to them in a new way. It is not surprising, then, that the final events of Jesus’ life were probably the first part of his story to be committed to writing.

Though Matthew draws much of his material from Mark, he fashions the tradition into a new narrative and adds several distinctive features. “To fulfil all righteousness” is Jesus’ stated mission (3:15). He has declared “blessed” those who suffer for the sake of righteousness [justice]” (5:10-12). He now embodies his own teaching as the just or righteous one, the one in right relationship with God. The prayer on his lips as he faces death (Psalm 22) is that of the suffering just Israelite who is utterly faithful to his mission and whose trust in God never fails.

There are hints that Jesus’ death is not the end, but rather the beginning of the new age of God’s empire, a compassionate alternative to the brutality of Rome. In response to the high priest Caiaphas, Jesus points beyond death to his post-resurrection life “at the right hand of power….” Extraordinary signs follow his death: the tearing of the temple curtain; the trembling of the earth; the recognition of the Roman centurion and his companions that this man is of God; and finally, the opening of the graves and appearance of the dead in anticipation of the final resurrection.

The story offers the hope of reversal to all who witness the events surrounding Jesus’ death. It offers hope to the women who have followed him all the way from Galilee and “ministered to him”, to the male disciples who have deserted or denied him, to faithful disciples like Joseph of Arimathea, and even to his Roman executioners. It has the potential to bring hope to their counterparts through the ages such as those who keep watch for the innocent on death row or for desperate seekers of asylum.