Easter Octave Tuesday - 2024 - To share in God's life is to share in His work.

The Easter Octave, the eight-day celebration beginning on Easter Sunday is a period deeply imbued with the joy and triumph of Christ's Resurrection. We read the various Gospel accounts of Easter Sunday, and our first readings are taken from the Acts of the Apostles, particularly from Pentecost Sunday.

Why do we read about Pentecost on Easter?

Reading from the Acts of the Apostles during the Easter Octave connects the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection with the mission of the Church.  

The Lord’s resurrection is God’s victory over sin—the mission for which Jesus was sent, the salvation of souls, succeeded. And during Easter we consider how the Lord’s mission of salvation continues through us—who share in his life through baptism. 

The new life of Easter involves a new share in the work of God. You can’t share in the life of God without sharing in his work.  Christians are called not only to a personal relationship with God, but also a sacramental relationship, a communal relationship through his Church, and also a share in the missionary life of the Body of Christ. Christ came as a missionary to the human race, and his church continues that missionary mission.

And we read from the Acts of the Apostles, to show us what that missionary life looks like. 

Yesterday, we heard Peter declare, “Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs… This man…you killed… But God raised him up.” Sharing in the life of Christ involves proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus—sharing the good news men need to hear.

And today, Peter’s speech not only proclaims Christ risen, but also invites those guilty of crucifying Him to repent and to enter into life. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

All those guilty of crucifying Christ, that’s all of us—God wants baptized in order to bestow signs of that living relationship through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The call to repentance and baptismal faith that we hear in Peter's speech is not just a historical event 2000 years ago but an ongoing invitation to each of us. 

Baptism, which some of us received decades and decades ago, involves an openness to the unfolding and increase of God’s grace. Continuous dying to our old selves in order to rise to new life. Life can always be renewed, if we are 2 weeks old or a 102. There is always something to new, there is always new life, new gifts, God wishes to bestow for the sake of the mission. 

Like Mary in the Gospel, tears, shed over losing sight of Jesus, are meant to make way for proclamation. “Why are you weeping…Go and tell my brother…” Okay you found me, now get up and get to work. Don’t just stay here at the tomb, this is a place of death. Get up and prove that you are alive through action, through the work of the Church. 

May our easter celebrations continue to open us to the joy of the gospel, the joy that comes through active participation in the good work of the Church for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Friday - 7th Week of Easter 2017 - Do you love me?

On these last two weekdays of Easter, our Gospel passage comes from the epilogue and the very last chapter of John’s Gospel.  As I mentioned recently, Saint John’s Gospel has often been called, “the Gospel of Love.”  It should be no surprise that the final story of the final chapter of his Gospel is a conversation about love.

For Peter, loving Jesus means feeding his sheep. Each of the Gospels show how Peter is given a unique role in the Church, to be chief of the shepherd apostles: leading, governing, feeding the flock of Christ, the Church. Jesus prophecies that when Peter grows old, he too will stretch out his hands and lead him where he does not want to go. The Good Shepherd “will lay down his life for the sheep”, like Jesus Peter’s role as the shepherd of Jesus’ sheep will lead him to lay down his life, culminating in his martyrdom, stretching out his hands as he is martyred by crucifixion in AD 65.

Jesus asks this question to each of us: do you love me? By his death, by laying down his life like the Good Shepherd, for the Good Shepherd, Peter proves his love. And we are called to the same.

The Church celebrates two saints, Marcellinus and another Peter: two Roman martyrs mentioned in the Roman Canon, the first Eucharistic Prayer. Marcellinus was a priest, and Peter was an exorcist. They were arrested for the faith during the persecution of Diocletion and imprisoned. While in prison, they preached the Gospel, leading many of their fellow prisoners to be baptized there in prison.  When the prison guards caught on that the two saints were winning converts, Marcellinus and Peter were taken to a forest in the middle of the night in secret, forced to dig their own graves, and beheaded. However, one of the soldiers was so moved by their courage, that he converted to Christ, then told the Church where Marcellinus and Peter were buried, so they could be properly venerated.

“Do you love me?” Jesus asks. For Peter and the Popes that means leading, shepherding, governing, guiding the flock to be faithful to the Lord. For Marcellinus and Peter, it meant preaching the Gospel in prison when it would certainly result in their death. What does it mean for you, what does it mean for me?

Certainly it means being faithful to the duties and responsibilities of our respective vocations as priest, spouses and parents, religious, single. It certainly involves being courageous in sharing the Gospel with others and strengthening fellow Christians in the faith, works of charity in our community, fervor in prayer. And a love for Christ which imitates him in laying down our lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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That the Spirit of Pentecost may be with the Holy Father Pope Francis and all the successors of the Apostles, that they may lead the Church faithfully in the way of the Good Shepherd.
For the imprisoned, that the Gospel of Christ may spread among them, that they may know the closeness of God and the healing of the wounds of sin.
For our young people beginning summer vacation, that they may be kept close to the truth and heart of Jesus.
That our parish festival may be preserved from inclement weather and may be an instrument for the strengthening of our parish and the spread of Christ’s saving truth.
That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.
For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.
O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.