St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Easter

In today's Gospel passage, Nicodemus, a well-educated person with strong beliefs, seems surprised and confused in his conversation with Jesus. The conversation is challenging because what Jesus says doesn't align with what Nicodemus holds as true. In response, Jesus encourages him to let the Holy Spirit dwell in him so he may be reborn.

Often, we are told to surrender ourselves to the Spirit, but in today's passage, Jesus is not asking us to surrender. Instead, he asks us to open our minds and hearts to the Spirit. He is not asking us to give up anything but to listen to the Spirit.

Our relationship with God is a relationship, which means that we actively participate in speaking and listening. In this relationship with the Spirit, we can understand who and what God is in our lives and souls and who we are to God.

Let us pray that we will truly open ourselves to the Holy Spirit so that we may come to know God and keep Him in our awareness as an ever-present and influential reality.

 

Homily for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Today, we commemorate the Annunciation of the Lord. It was the moment when Mary received God's call to be the mother of His Son. It must have been scary for Mary to be visited by an angel and to put her reputation, along with Joseph's, at risk of being accused of wrongdoing.

Despite her fears, Mary answered God's call with all her heart, soul, mind, and body.

Let us pray that Mary's selfless devotion to God's will may inspire us to follow God with all our hearts, even when it is difficult, unpopular, or at odds with those around us.

Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

In his book entitled Miracle on the River Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells the story of British soldiers, prisoners of war, who their captors forced to work on a jungle railroad. Suffering drove the prisoners to hate their captors. Even their behavior toward one another degenerated into division and bitterness.

One day, a shovel was missing. The officer in charge was enraged and demanded that it be returned. Not one of the prisoners budged. The officer raised his gun and threatened to begin killing them on the spot if the guilty one did not come forth. It was apparent he meant what he said.

Then, one of the prisoners stepped forward, trembling with his head bowed. The officer immediately killed him. After this, he ordered a recount of all the tools to be sure nothing else was missing. At the second count, it was discovered that none of the shovels were missing. There had been a miscount the first time. Every tool was there.

Word spread like wildfire throughout the whole camp. An innocent man laid down his life to save them! His sacrifice had a profound effect. Prisoners began treating each other like brothers. And not only each other.

When the victorious Allies swept in, the surviving soldiers, who were hardly more than human skeletons, stood between their captors and the Allies. Instead of attacking, they protected the captors, saying, "No more hatred, no more killing. Now we want forgiveness!" One man's sacrificing love transformed them.

The image of God's love for us, Jesus dying on the Cross, transforms us. When we see the image of Jesus on the Cross, we are reminded that whenever one of His members suffers, Jesus suffers, for we are His body. When our bodies are in pain, our heads suffer as well.

Eight days after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Apostles. He stretched out His hands before them and said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands; and bring your hand and put it into my side."

Jesus could have said, "Look at my hands, look at my side. See the wounds." Instead, He tells Thomas to enter His wounds, "Put your hand into my side." In other words, “Let your flesh become one with my flesh, your sufferings with my sufferings.” Jesus suffered because we, His body, suffer many things.

The sacrifice of one soldier inspired the others by his example of love for them. The inspiration Jesus gives is infinitely greater. He breathes His Spirit into us: inspiration. He enters us and takes our wounds upon Himself to bear our sufferings. The image of Jesus will be on the Cross until the last member of His body shares in His Resurrection and ascends with Him into the kingdom of heaven.

Homily for Saturday in the Octave of Easter

The Sanhedrin, who had rejected the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, also disputed that He had risen from the dead. This was because accepting this fact would require them to reinterpret their traditions.

However, Peter and John, two humble fishermen, boldly stood before the Council and affirmed that Jesus, who had been crucified, was now alive and present on earth, bringing healing and renewal. Despite the Council's formal ban on such statements, they risked their lives to deliver this message, as it was too important to be suppressed by human authority.

The Resurrection of Christ removed more than just the stone that blocked the entrance of His tomb. It opened the doors to a vast future and offered a glimpse of what lies beyond.

Like the disciples, we are called to accept Jesus as our Savior. This acceptance forces us to re-examine everything we believe as He illuminates our lives with new perspectives. If we trust that He has risen from the dead, our faith will energize our lives and bring light into our hearts, minds, and souls.

Homily for Friday in the Octave of Easter

After a night of fishing, the disciples returned empty-handed and feeling discouraged. Jesus appeared on the shore and met with them in the early morning light. He invited them to have breakfast with Him. He had placed before them an abundant table full of fish and bread. In their disappointment, Jesus was present to them and fed them physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Similarly, Jesus meets us at the water's edge to offer comfort and sustenance for our journey. However, like the disciples, we must recognize Him in our lives, wherever and in whomever He appears, and make ourselves present to Him to hear His invitation.

As a result, nourished by the food of His Word and the sacrament of His Body and Blood, we become His presence to others, nurturing, healing, and loving all we encounter.

Homily for Thursday in the Octave of Easter

As we just heard, Jesus’ followers had difficulty believing that the man standing before them was the same Jesus they had come to know and love. They believed they were seeing a ghost.

They had been so traumatized by the Crucifixion just a few days earlier, that they struggled to believe that Jesus was really alive. It was too much for them.

Perhaps, even today, we struggle to take in the good news of Easter, to really believe it. It is easier to identify with the death of Jesus than with His Resurrection. We can easily connect with His suffering.

Maybe that is why we need seven weeks of Easter: to take it all in; to recognize that the Risen LORD is indeed standing among us, saying to us what He said to His disciples, “Peace be with you.

He offers us that peace of mind and heart, which is the fruit of His love and poured into us by the Holy Spirit.

When we allow ourselves to receive this gift, He sends us out as ambassadors of reconciliation, love, and peace, just as He sent out His disciples nearly 2,000 years ago.

May our hearts be open to the reality of that love so that we may go forth and truly and fully share it with others.

Homily for Wednesday in the Octave of Easter

In today's Gospel passage, two of Jesus' disciples are walking away from Jerusalem on the first Easter night as they had negative memories of the city. It was there that Jesus, to whom they had given their lives, was crucified. The city took away not only Jesus but also the hopes they had invested in Him. They wanted to leave, but Jesus had wanted them to stay.

Although they hadn't realized it yet, Jerusalem was also the city where Jesus was raised from the dead, where He would pour out His Holy Spirit upon his disciples, and where His message would begin to spread to all the world.

Jesus accompanied the two disciples and helped them to see that there was more to Jerusalem than they had initially thought. Similarly, in our own lives, the places we avoid, whether a physical location or a place deep within our souls, may seem dark and gloomy. However, these are the very places where the seeds of new life grow and where God is mysteriously but powerfully at work in the darkness.

Homily for Tuesday in the Octave of Easter

Yesterday, we heard St. Matthew's account of Mary Magdalene's experience at the empty tomb on the first Easter morning. St. Matthew briefly mentioned Mary's fear, but didn't delve into it. St. John's account provides us with more details, revealing that Mary was so distraught that she didn't even recognize Jesus when she first saw Him.

As we listen to the Gospels, we may be tempted to think that some of Jesus' followers were slow to grasp the significance of His teachings and miracles. However, the truth is that they, like us, grew in faith gradually, through moments of revelation and discovery.

Even though we know the story of Jesus' life, death, and Resurrection, we can still struggle to recognize His presence in our lives today. When we face difficulties and feel alone, we may wonder if God is even there.

But our faith teaches us that God is always with us, just as He was with Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, even though she was initially unaware of His presence.

Let us pray that we remain aware of God's abiding presence in our hearts and lives, so that, like Mary Magdalene, we may hear the voice of Jesus and be filled with the awareness of His love and presence.

Homily for Good Friday

In St. John's account of the Passion of Jesus, we hear it was the day before the Sabbath. This was a hectic day for the Jewish people because it was the preparation time for Passover. So everyone was incredibly busy with the many, many tasks that had to be completed before these observances began—everyday things but necessary things that couldn't be done during the holy days.

So there was a real sense of busyness, of people focused on a particular mission. These people were far too busy, far too focused on their tasks, to notice what was taking place in Jerusalem's official business.

Unlike the other Gospel accounts of this scene, John's account of the Passion of Jesus does not include jeering crowds demanding Jesus' death. In John's account, Jesus' arrest and trial took place in the middle of the night, when most people were sleeping. Pilate, some soldiers, and some Jewish authorities were there, but not as many others as the other Gospels indicate.

Some scripture scholars say that John's account is the most accurate description of what happened on that first Good Friday. The death of Jesus was not the focus of the day for the people in Jerusalem. The image of vast crowds demanding Jesus' death in the other three Gospels may not have been the case; Pilate and his forces may not have allowed that. To them, the issue of Jesus was a Jewish matter that only concerned them in so far as it could cause chaos in town. So, they dealt with it as they would any other matter: straightforwardly, quickly, and coldly. And so, these scholars conclude, Jesus died practically alone and out of sight of the general public.

So, while the Jewish people of Jerusalem went about the many tasks in preparation for Passover, God was putting into motion a second Passover.

As a brisk trade in the buying and selling of lambs for Passover was taking place all over the city, the Lamb of God was slain just outside the gates.

While the preparations for the Passover Seder continued, the new Passover was completed on a bleak and lonely hill.

During the Jewish community's celebration of their flight from slavery to nationhood, God was calling his people to a new flight from death to life.

In our contemporary world's busyness, the same thing takes place on this Good Friday.

This Good Friday continues to be a day of preparation. The events of this day are not an end in themselves but the means to a much more significant event. God completes the work of His second Genesis, in which He re-creates humankind in the Paschal mystery.

This Good Friday is God's calling us to a second Exodus journey, marked by the slaying of His Son, the Lamb, who becomes for us the new Passover Seder Meal – today is our exodus from the slavery of sin to the freedom of compassion and forgiveness, our Passover from this life to the life of God.

Homily for Holy Thursday

In today's Gospel reading, we witness Jesus washing his disciples' feet at the Last Supper. Although there is an incident from this scene that we don't see in our reading today, it is provided for us in Luke's Gospel. Most of us are familiar with it. Amid the incredible things happening in the Upper Room, some of the disciples begin to engage in a petty argument about who among them is the greatest. The debate gets rather heated.

One must wonder what Jesus’ inner reaction was to this pointless argument of His disciples. We will never know. But, what He did do was He stood up and picked up a towel and wrapped it around His waist. Then He took a pitcher and basin of water and began to wash His disciples’ feet.

Peter protested much the same way we would when someone of great stature would do something like that. We would shrink away from it. We know that we are supposed to be humble before God but it is hard to see God being humble before us.

He did this for each one of us and also gave us a command to serve and break bread, thereby revealing the presence of Christ. This is a huge responsibility and a great call. Every time we gather to break bread and share the chalice, we must remember this command. 

Our Eucharist is all about the presence of God in simple bread and wine and the responsibility to be bread and wine to others. Breaking open the Word of Scripture and consecrating bread and wine to bring Christ among us is both comforting and challenging.

This is what we celebrate on Holy Thursday: The gift of God who gives His Flesh and Blood and, with no apology, gives us the command to do the same.