2025 May 18 SUN: FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 14: 21-27/ Ps 145: 8-9. 10-11. 12-13 (see 1)/ Rv 21: 1-5a/ Jn 13: 31-33a. 34-35

The word "love" is sort of tricky. We have to consider that we give two main meanings to the word "love." And one of them really is a starting point, whereas the other is the goal. We use the word "love" to refer to a simple attraction, such as, "I love ice cream." And that's what we're saying, that ice cream is an object which is desirable to us. It doesn't do anything for the ice cream, so it's not relational. The ice cream has its own fate, which does not build it up in any way. So we have to consider that that is a starting point. There's nothing wrong with it, but we have to build on it.

We find with experience and with, above all, the grace of God, that love is a virtue which recognizes the dignity and worth of all the people in our life. And we respond with love as we say, "Yes, God has given me this dignity, and I want others to respect me and therefore I respect them." And in fact, if I have a responsibility to a particular person, I am utterly committed to that person, and I accept that person even with his or her faults. This is difficult, and we know we need a lot of practice. And we know we need to make mistakes, and the mistakes teach us very well what the opposite of love is.

I think of some history that I am listening to right now. This has to do with the civil rights movement, and in particular I was listening to people who were known as "freedom riders" back in 1961. They confronted unjust segregation laws, witnessing to the injustice, but acting with love, non-violently confronting people. And of course, if we think about that, to respond to violence with non-violence is to cause the violent person to have many, many questions. To ask, "What does this mean? That these people are, first of all, standing up to us, and then not even responding to our force with force." This was a powerful witness in those days, and we see that this applies to our own lives and our own situations, even today.

This requires a lot of practice and a lot of discipline to be so focused on the virtue of love. And this is what Paul and Barnabas were attempting to do. We read today about their visits to various cities along the Mediterranean Sea. They found that there were many people who accepted the good news of Jesus, and there were those who quite flatly rejected them, but they kept at it. They kept going, and we know that that sort of persistence is necessary for us as well. 

We have again a beautiful image from the Book of Revelation of the new Jerusalem coming down from the heavens. We may be puzzled by a statement of John that the sea was no more. We have a reference to this actually in the opening hymn today, which refers to God as the master of the sea. And we may wonder, "Why is the sea no more?" It is because the sea was looked upon as the source, a source at least, of chaos, and it was supposed that there were great sea monsters in the deep.

So "the sea was no more" simply means that God is doing away with chaos and threats. And we ourselves must consider what is chaotic or what is monstrous in the ways in which we respond to one another. And as we reflect and as we accept the grace of God, we will find that we can live out this command: Love one another.

2025 May 11 SUN: FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 13: 14. 43-52/ Ps 100: 1-2. 3. 5/ Rv 7: 9. 14b-17/ Jn 10: 27-30

In my junior year of high school at Decatur St. Teresa, I was in a religion course called Social Justice. And in that course I learned about the social teaching of the Catholic Church, which began in 1891 with a writing called Rerum Novarum, that is, "of new things." And in this document, the new things being treated were the changes in society having come about as the result of the Industrial Revolution. And this writing championed the rights of workers so that they might not find themselves as mere cogs in a money-making machine, but that they might be respected in the fullness of their humanity, in the depth of their gifts. This caught my attention because my father was a factory worker at the Decatur Plant of Caterpillar Incorporated. And this is what I needed to hear because I was thinking about the priesthood, but apparently I needed to hear something which would secure for me a sense of the credibility of the Church. And I found it when I heard about this social teaching. The Pope who issued Rerum Novarum in 1891 was Leo XIII. 

Now we have all experienced some amazing events in these past few days, and I can well imagine that you are expecting to hear from me something like, "Oh, Pope Leo, personal friend of mine." No. We are two years apart in age. The thing that we have to keep in mind is that we were on different tracks: he as a member of a religious order, the Augustinians, while I was studying to be a diocesan priest. And it is of some interest that there is some overlap. Two instances. I went to St. Louis in 1977 for my third and fourth years of college seminary. And in that same year, 1977, Pope Leo went to St. Louis for his novitiate period. And no, we did not run into each other. And then we were also studying canon law in Rome at the same time. But we were at two different universities. So there is no possibility of my claiming some kind of closeness. 

But I go back to the thing that sparked my sense of the credibility of the Church back when I was in high school. Robert Francis Prevost took the name Leo XIV because of what Leo XIII wrote about justice. And he said as much to the Cardinals yesterday. And for that reason, I feel a kinship with Pope Leo because our minds and our hearts are on the same thing. We want to see every human being in the world realizing their dignity first of all as being created by God the Father and by being lifted up by the love of Jesus for all of us. 

Now, our bulletin deadline is Tuesday. And I realized, well, I won't have anything about a new pope. And I suspected we'd have a new pope by Friday. Well, it came on Thursday. But I had the bulletin deadline. So I wrote something about the writings of Pope Francis. And it turns out again yesterday as he was addressing the Cardinals that the first apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, which I mentioned on the front of the bulletin today, was also cited by Pope Leo yesterday. And he intends to continue all that Pope Francis has taught. I am grateful for that. 

Now, this happens to be Good Shepherd Sunday, quite aptly. And we have an account of the difficulties that Paul and Barnabas ran into in proclaiming the Good News. We also have a very joyful image from the Book of Revelation about all the people in white garments who have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb. And again, the Lamb who had been slain is at the center there. And then Jesus, speaking about shepherding, notes the fact that sheep are very good at distinguishing voices. And we pray that we, every one of us, will be attuned as we get to know this new pope and as we consider all the teaching of the People of God, the Church. That we will hear the voice of the Shepherd.

2025 May 4 SUN: THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 5: 27-32. 40b-41/ Ps 30: 2. 4. 5-6. 11-12. 13 (2a)/ Rv 5: 11-14/ Jn 21: 1-19

Many people look upon the Book of Revelation as a rather forbidding sort of writing, full of things that can cause terror in people's hearts. But today we have an utterly joyful passage from Revelation. We have a description of heaven itself. And there is mention of the creatures of earth, all creatures, on land and in the sea. And in the center of it all is the Lamb that was slain. We need to think about this. The reason for the great joy is that the Lamb, who is Jesus, was slain, but has overcome death and lives forever. So this is the joyful image of heaven which we receive from the Book of Revelation. 

And as we turn to the other readings today, we see further cause for joy. In the Gospel we find Peter in some sense wishing that he could just disappear. And we're familiar with how he feels. He demonstrates embarrassment when John says it is the Lord. Peter is embarrassed. He says he needs to tuck in his garment. And it says also that he jumped into the water. Now, if he wanted to obscure his presence, he could have done one thing or the other. But he does both. And all of us who are familiar with our own embarrassment can recognize that we can have an exaggerated response to our sense of embarrassment.

Now, embarrassment is particularly tough because we feel powerless when we feel it. And we also feel its connection with shame. And we need to know that shame does not do us any good, whatever. If we feel guilt, we are saying to ourselves, "I did something wrong." But when it's shame that we feel, the message is, "I am something wrong." And that, of course, is something that we must allow to die within us.

Although we've heard that many times, it's not true. And if we experience embarrassment, it's uncomfortable just to feel that way. But we can also kind of torture ourselves by anticipating that we might be embarrassed somehow. And that keeps us in a state of tension which is definitely not creative tension. It is tension which damages us, really. And then we think of Jesus asking Peter three times, "Do you love me?" This is for Peter an occasion for embarrassment because he is remembering the three times he denied even knowing Jesus at the time of his arrest and his passion.

But Jesus is setting Peter free. He is telling him, "You can go forward and you can proclaim the good news of my death and resurrection." It's expressed in somewhat forbidding terms here that there will come a time, Jesus says, when you will be led where you do not want to go. And it's fitting for us at this time when the See of Peter is vacant that we consider what Peter did in laying down his life. And by tradition we understand that this was around between the years 64 and 67 on the Vatican Hill in Rome that Peter was crucified. And this was during the cruel reign of the Emperor Nero. And every successor of Peter, including the one we will probably receive later this week, every one of the successors of Peter is a human being with faults and sins.

Nevertheless, because of the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we as a church have been able to carry on and not go completely wrong. And we see that Peter goes on in the Acts of the Apostles today to say, "We will obey God rather than men." They received their warning and they said, "We have to keep doing what we've been doing, proclaiming the good news of Jesus." So that was quite a step forward from wanting to sort of hide himself. He and the other apostles were happy to witness and we benefit from their witness. And in this season of Easter, we banish shame from our hearts and we embrace the joy of all that has been won by the Lamb who was slain, but who lives.

2025 Apr 27 SUN: SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 5: 12-16/ Ps 118: 2-4. 13-15. 22-24/ Rv 1: 9-11a. 12-13. 17-19/ Jn 20: 19-31

Well, a week ago was Easter Sunday, and after Holy Week and the Easter Triduum, I was ready to get away for a few days. That's exactly what I did.

And awakening Monday morning and learning that Pope Francis had died, I was shocked. Now, we all knew that his health was precarious. We had heard from his doctors that he needed at least two months of recovery. In other words, not doing very much. And at least I had a prediction that came true, and that was that he did not do the washing of feet on Holy Thursday, as much as that act means to him. But on that Holy Thursday, he did visit a prison very close to the Vatican. And we are aware that on Easter itself, he was present and made himself present. He was with us through Easter Sunday itself. And then, as we know, he died.

And we have had a great gift from Pope Francis in his 12 years as Bishop of Rome. I am planning to give you information on his various writings over the past 12 years. They are utterly beautiful and they are very easy to access. You just have to go to vatican.va. Of course, one difficulty with papal documents is they always have, or most of the time, have a Latin name, sometimes an Italian name. So that's always a bit difficult, but we have the bulletin at our disposal so we can make those very precious documents known to all of us. 

And here on the Second Sunday of Easter, we're getting started in the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation. And it is especially significant that this first passage we have from Revelation includes Jesus. This is the one like a Son of Man, amid the seven lampstands that St. John sees. 

And of course, Jesus is present in this Gospel.

We have to understand that the good news, which we proclaim Sunday after Sunday and indeed day after day, is absolutely precious to us. In fact, our own faith in resurrection relies upon the witness of these people.

And we know that they were not just making something up. They tell us that they were surprised and amazed that this had happened, that Jesus was risen from the dead. He had told them this many times, but they were afraid to question him further about that. They were already in great sorrow when he said he had to lay down his life: he had to die. And so they are bringing us this greatest of good news as people who weren't expecting it. 

There's a theologian I rely upon a great deal who explains that you and I live in a world mediated by meaning. Well, what does that mean? We know we have our own personal experience of things, and that personal experience is extremely important. We also have what we call common sense, and then there is the world mediated by meaning. 

We can't personally experience everything that goes on in the world. Our ability to reason out particular things, that is quite limited as well. But then we have mediation by meaning, and by this is meant that so many things that we know are given to us by people who have had the personal experience. And for this reason, we understand the witness of the apostles to be utterly precious to us. This is the basis on which we have faith in Jesus' resurrection.

Jesus said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." Well, this is the vast majority of all Christian believers, all through the nearly 2,000 years since these events occurred. We want to develop a sense of being profoundly gifted. And in this way, we will be happy to keep passing on the gift.

2025 Apr 20 SUN: EASTER SUNDAY. The Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Acts 10: 34a. 37-43/ Ps 118: 1-2. 16-17. 22-23/ Col 3: 1-4 or 1 Cor 5: 6b-8/ Sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes/ Jn 20: 1-9 or Mk 16: 1-7 or, at an afternoon or evening Mass, Lk 24: 13-35

On this day of resurrection, we remember how we came here. We remember that it was through a remembrance during the weeks of Lent, a remembrance of how the Son of God [had] taken on our human nature and be[come] truly human, as well as truly God.

Submitted to all the sufferings which every human being encounters in this world which is twisted by sin, he offered his life. He accepted the cross, and he said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And then the incredibly surprising thing occurred. It was something that even those closest to him were not grasping and did not grasp until it occurred.

When he rose victorious from death, he conquered all the griefs of this world. We may want to question how he did it. We may want to say, "Well, in an instant at the time that you rise from death, why didn't you banish all suffering?" One partial answer to that is the fact that we have to turn our hearts over to him.

We read at the Easter Vigil last night Ezekiel's words about a new heart and a new spirit, exchanging our stony hearts for truly living responsive hearts of flesh. And we must remember that the resurrection is not some otherworldly thing.

As Peter told Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles, "We ate and drank with him after his resurrection." We profess every Sunday that we believe in the resurrection of the body. Our God loves us as we are, body and soul.

And as we turn our hearts over to him, and as we recognize the meaning of the baptism by which we ourselves have died and are risen with Jesus, so we are called, as Colossians says today, to live out that baptism, and we can do so because, in fact, we have died with Jesus.

If the resurrection is something that we find we have a hard time with, we have to remember that those closest to Jesus did not dare to ask him what he meant. When he said, "I must be put to death and then rise from the dead," they never pressed him on that question.

The news of his death stopped them in their tracks. It was something that it seemed impossible to believe. They would not dare to believe it.

But in our baptism, in our conversion, as our stony hearts become hearts of flesh, we discover that we are willing to bear the griefs of this world in witness to Jesus' resurrection. So this is our great joy and promise this day, and throughout all the Sundays of the Easter season leading up to Pentecost.

We have before us a world which obviously has not been rid of suffering. We look at the human family across the world, and we see wars, and we see policies of government which in no way speak of the inheritance of all the people of God, an inheritance into resurrection and eternity.

We must, as we witness to resurrection, witness to the human dignity which leaves wars behind as something curious and cruel, things that we cannot abide. This resurrection is for the sake of our changing and of the world changing.

Jesus has given us his death and his resurrection. We are called to act with courage, to witness to truth and goodness and love in this world of sorrows.

2025 Apr 13 SUN: PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION
Procession: Lk 19: 28-40. Mass: Is 50: 4-7/ Ps 22: 8-9. 17-18. 19-20. 23-24/ Phil 2:6-11/ Lk 22: 14 -- 23: 56

We have heard from a suffering servant song of Isaiah and also from the great hymn of St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians regarding the self-emptying of Jesus, true God, and true man. And there is so much that we could comment on in St. Luke's Passion, but I will point out just one detail. Anyone else who addresses Jesus in Luke's Gospel uses terms such as Lord and Master. But the man who is crucified along with Jesus, the man who rebukes the other criminal, this man says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And this is the only time in Luke's Gospel* in which Jesus is addressed by his name. So there is a great intimacy to be found in this strange spectacle. He must have heard Jesus teach at some point. And now as both are dying, he makes this request with his first name, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus replies, "This day you will be with me in paradise." 

We remember that the reason for Jesus' death was that he might open the gates of heaven, the gates of paradise, so that all could enter. And we think very kindly of the first man who proceeded [there] with Jesus.

* [in fact, in ANY Gospel]