July 3 2019 - St. Thomas the Apostle - Freedom from doubt

On this eve of our nation’s Independence Day, we celebrate the feast of the apostle Thomas. Thomas in a sense is a model for freedom, ultimate freedom. For where doubt once dominated, faith granted freedom.

What was it that allowed Thomas to become free from his doubts? The encounter with the risen Jesus Christ.

Earlier in the Gospel, Thomas expressed his willingness to follow the Lord unto death. When Jesus heard of the death of Lazarus, he exhorted his apostles to follow him to Bethany, which would bring them dangerously close to Jerusalem.  On that occasion Thomas said to his fellow disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Yet, where was he when the Lord climbed the hill of Calvary? The cross certainly filled Thomas with doubt. The news of Jesus’ death caused doubt to dominate. But that encounter with the risen Christ brought Thomas a new freedom and a new faith. As he touched the nail marks of the risen Christ he was freed.

Accounts from the 3rd century tell of Thomas’ apostolic and missionary works in hat is modern day Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and of course his missionary activity led him to India where he was martyred when he crossed the Indian King.

Freedom, discovered through the divine encounter, impelled him to preach the Gospel that all men might be free.

Thomas is a model for us, to endeavor to open our minds and hearts to the divine encounter, in prayer and in the sacraments. And having encounter Christ in our prayer, in our reception of his body and blood in the eucharist, in the mercy of the confessional, we are freed from our own fears and doubts to go and proclaim the Gospel in our words and deeds.

May all those who lack faith, through the prayerful intercession of the Apostle Thomas come to a life-changing encounter with Christ, and may he help us all to be free from all that keeps us from witnessing to Christ with zeal for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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Since we will not have Mass tomorrow, you will use today the beautiful petitions composed for the inauguration of President George Washington by Archbishop John Carroll, First Roman Catholic bishop in our country whose brother Charles Carroll was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through Whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy holy spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of the United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. We pray to the Lord.
Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty. We pray to the Lord.

We pray for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they maybe enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability. We pray to the Lord.

We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal. We pray to the Lord.
And we pray especially for all of our countrymen who have gone before us in faith, for all those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, for all the of the deceased members of our family and friends, and for N., for whom this Mass is offered.  We pray to the Lord.

Divine Mercy Sunday 2019 - The Wounds of the Risen Christ

It was nineteen years ago, that Pope Saint John Paul II surprised the world, and even many of his cardinals, by declaring this second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday.

Though the title for this Sunday is relatively new, the message of God's merciful love is certainly not a new concept.  It's the central message of the Christian faith preached for almost 2000 years.  God has mercy upon sinners; we are loved by God even when we are unlovable because of our sins—no matter how sinful, God's forgiveness is available to all who turn to Him.

The celebration of Divine Mercy is a fitting conclusion to the octave of Easter.  On Easter Sunday we celebrated the triumph of God's love over the powers of sin and death.  Jesus' resurrection shows that Sin and death do not get the last word.  God did not counter our sin with fiery wrath from heaven.  Rather, God defeated man’s sin in a totally unimaginable and unexpected way, Mercy.

Think about it.  On Mount Calvary, we violently rejected God in the flesh.  The crucifixion, in a sense, is man's ultimate rejection of God.  At that moment, more than any in human history, wouldn't God have been justified in simply ending this whole project, condemning us as too sick, too depraved, so corrupt we’d rather kill God than admit our errors.

Yet from the cross Jesus pronounces not wrath, but forgiveness, and from his side blood and water flowed as rays of divine mercy. The resurrection of Jesus on Easter then is a stamp of approval from God, that mercy is granted.

Pope Benedict XVI said, Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: Encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God.  Jesus willingly gave himself up to death so that we might be saved and pass from death to life.  Mercy has a name, mercy has a face, mercy has a heart. 

The Gospel reading for this Divine Mercy Sunday, is wonderful message for people of every place and time. Even though the investigation into the Gospel message might begin with some doubt, some hesitation, those who seek the Risen Christ, shall find Him, those who seek to honestly verify the Gospel, shall find it to be true.

Last Year, on Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis, preaching from St. peter’s square, reflected upon this Gospel.  Listen to the Holy Father’s Words: “in today’s Gospel, we hear, over and over, the word “see”.  The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord (Jn 20:20).  They tell Thomas: “We have seen the Lord” (v. 25).  But the Gospel does not describe how they saw him; it does not describe the risen Jesus.  It simply mentions one detail: “He showed them his hands and his side” (v. 20).  It is as if the Gospel wants to tell us that that is how the disciples recognized Jesus: through his wounds.  The same thing happened to Thomas.  He too wanted to see “the mark of the nails in his hands” (v. 25), and after seeing, he believed (v. 27).

“How can we see him?” the holy Father asks. “Like the disciples: through his wounds.  Gazing upon those wounds, the disciples understood the depth of his love.  They understood that he had forgiven them, even though some had denied him and abandoned him. To enter into Jesus’ wounds is to contemplate the boundless love flowing from his heart. This is the way. It is to realize that his heart beats for me, for you, for each one of us.  Dear brothers and sisters, we can consider ourselves Christians, call ourselves Christians and speak about the many beautiful values of faith, but, like the disciples, we need to see Jesus by touching his love.  Only thus can we go to the heart of the faith and, like the disciples, find peace and joy (cf. vv. 19-20) beyond all doubt.”

For Pope Francis, the wounds of Christ, is a key to faith, believing the Gospel message. For the wounds of Jesus are a result of his love for us. You can see Jesus, you can come to know him, and know his love for you, by contemplating his wounds.

As you may know, there is an ancient devotion to the five wounds of Jesus. That devotion can be traced back to today’s Gospel. The apostles, and Thomas, as the Holy Father Pope Francis explains, turn their gaze to the wounds of Christ in order to know him, and see Him, to see His love, better.

The very beginning of the Easter season, in fact, includes a liturgical act, memorializing the five wounds of Jesus. As the priest blesses the new easter candle at the easter vigil, he inserts five grains of incense into the new candle in the form of the cross, and says, “by his holy and glorious wounds, may Christ the Lord guard us and protect us.” You can see these five grains of incense inserted into our own easter candle here.

In the middle ages, St. Bernard and St. Francis of Assisi encouraged devotions in honor of the five wounds. Perhaps, Pope Francis’ Divine Mercy homily on the wounds of Jesus was inspired by his namesake. Later in life, St. Francis of Assisi, in fact, would be marked by the holy stigmata, receiving the five wounds of Jesus in his own flesh.

In your easter prayer, in addition to lifting up your petitions to God every day, praying for the courage to preach the Easter Gospel: take a moment to meditate upon the wounds of Jesus. Ask Jesus to help you to see his love for you, through his wounds. Ask him to bring the healing power of his resurrection to your own wounds, to the wounds in our parish, to the wounds in our families.  For as Isaiah the prophet said, “by his wounds we are healed.”

Jesus, bearing his wounds, enters the upper room, and announces Peace to his disciples. Much peace, the fullness of peace, is offered to us through Faith in Him, recognizing him bursting into the locked doors of our own lives, inviting us to contemplate his wounds, his love.

Recognizing Jesus’ great love and his victory over death, filled the apostles with great courage. Recognizing the Risen Christ, wrote Pope Francis, “casts out fear from the hearts of the apostles and pushes them out of the Upper Room, to bring the Gospel. We also must have more courage to witness to faith in the Risen Christ! Let us not be afraid to be Christian and live as Christians!” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

2nd Sunday of Easter 2018 - "Men do not die for things they doubt.”

Happy Easter! He is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen! For much of the world, Easter is over. For Catholics, we are just warming up. Easter is celebrated over the course of a whole season of 50 days: from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. We celebrated with particular solemnity over the first 8 days of the easter season, called the easter octave. So, if you attended weekday Mass this past week, we were singing the Gloria every day, and our scripture readings related some amazing events that took place after Jesus resurrected: His appearance to Mary Magdalene, Having breakfast with his apostles on the shore of the sea of Galilee, his appearance to his disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Why do we dwell upon the “Easter-event” for so long? For the same reason Jesus appeared over and over to his disciples before ascending to the Father: to strengthen their faith, their conviction, that he is truly risen. And it took a while for the apostles to really get it. Those first few appearances Jesus has to convince them that he’s not just a hallucination, he’s not a ghost. He’s really there in the flesh—resurrected flesh. He eats fish and bread with them on the seashore, he invites Thomas, as we heard in the Gospel today, to put his hand in Jesus’ side.

He does this so they would stop doubting and truly believe.

I know some of you have seen the new movie about the Apostle Paul out in theaters. It’s very good, I highly recommend it—a perfect way to spend a…snowy easter Sunday. It tells the story of the Apostle Paul in the last weeks of his life. He is imprisoned in Rome, awaiting his martyrdom. The emperor Nero has blamed the Christians for setting fire to the city, and so the small Christian community is facing persecution. Christians are forced into hiding, and those they capture are being put to death. They are covered in pitch and burned alive in the streets, they are arrested and sent to be torn apart by wild beasts in the Coliseum.

One of my favorite scenes, and this shouldn’t give too much away for those who haven’t seen it, is when this Roman prison guard is questioning Paul about his Christian faith. This Roman guard challenges Paul about the truth of the resurrection. Paul answers, “If Christ had not risen from the dead, then our preaching is useless, and so is our faith.” The Roman Guard responds, “So you have no doubts at all?” And with a steeled look, forged by the terrible suffering he has already endured for the Gospel, Paul answers, “Men do not die for things they doubt.” “Men do not die for things they doubt.”

St. Thomas in the Gospel today, for his moment of doubt, has for two thousand years been known as “Doubting Thomas.” But the Apostle Thomas is really a testament of the power of faith to transform doubt to apostolic zeal.

For, after this scene from the Gospel today, after he places his hands in the side of the Risen Lord Jesus, Thomas is transformed.

The scriptures record no further accounts of the apostle Thomas, but accounts from the early Church tell of Thomas’ apostolic and missionary activity in modern day Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, sadly, places where Christianity has been virtually eliminated in recent years. Finally, Thomas brought the faith to western and Southern India where he was martyred.

“Men do not die for things they doubt.” Through God’s divine mercy, the encounter with the risen Lord transformed Thomas’ doubt into a blazing faith.

Blazing faith, apostolic zeal, is not just “up here”, it’s not something we profess for an hour on Sunday and forget by the time we hit the church parking lot.

St. John reminds us that “For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.” The commandments of the moral law, and the commandments of the new law, like the one Jesus issued on Holy Thursday: love one another, as I love you, and the mandate Jesus issues before his Ascension: go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Yes, each of us is inspired to say along with Thomas, Jesus, “you are my Lord and my God”, but like Thomas we must leave the upper room, to spread the faith, and to live that faith in our day-to-day lives.

St. Thomas the Apostle is a perfect example of this. Thomas, as we’ve said, carried the good news thousands of miles, to the middle east, and eventually to India. A pagan Indian King, upon meeting the apostle, was so impressed with his conviction and holiness that the King made Thomas a trusted advisor and his royal architect.  This is why Thomas the Apostle is the patron saint of architects.
Anyway, the king put at Thomas’ disposal the great wealth of his treasury for planning and building a new royal palace.  But Thomas donated the entire sum to the poor, telling the King, that this way he builds a greater palace in heaven.  For this Thomas was forgiven when the king’s dead brother appeared to the king and testified to the reality and glory of the heavenly palace.

Thomas was martyred, however, when he converted the king’s many wives to Christ and they insisted that marriage is between one man and one woman.

 “Men do not die for things they doubt.” St Thomas and the apostles, and countless martyrs whose names we will only discover in heaven, found the courage and willingness to follow Jesus anywhere, to speak Christian truth in front of kings and judges. They model the faith for us, showing us how the encounter with the Risen Christ changes us, and emboldens us for courageously living the moral life, generously engaging in Christian service, and zealously laying down our lives for the spread of the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our Easter celebrations, our to deepen our conviction that Christ the Lord is Risen, that this truth may permeate every dimension of our life for the glory of God and salvation of souls.