FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER-First Communion

Again, congratulations to you boys and girls who are to receive our Lord in Holy Communion for the first time in just a few minutes; I’m sure you’re really excited.  You girls look so pretty in your white dresses and you boys look very handsome, too!  Do you know why so many of you are wearing white today?  When was the first time many of you wore white to church?  You don’t remember it, but for most of you it was when your parents and godparents […]

We’re all familiar with the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  But, what do you know about shepherding sheep?  If you’re like me, probably very little.  One of the important aspects of shepherding sheep, as opposed to herding cattle, is that, unlike cattle, who are best moved along from behind, sheep prefer to be led.  And, in our Lord’s time, almost all families had a little flock of sheep even if they lived in a small town or village.  Family members would take turns between farming their little plots […]

On this Third Sunday of Easter, as we continue to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we hear one of the most familiar stories in all of the gospels.  We all know this touching account of the two disciples encountering the risen Jesus as they were leaving Jerusalem and going to Emmaus.  We don’t know why they were traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  Despite all of the archeological work done in the Holy Land, we’re not even sure where Emmaus was; it’s not there anymore.  But, […]

God’s peace and mercy.  That’s what we celebrate today as we come to the end of the Octave of Easter.  Three times in today’s gospel, we hear Jesus say: “Peace be with you.”  And, this isn’t just a pleasant greeting but a powerful assurance.  Jesus has just overcome death and the power of sin in our lives through his rising from the dead and now he comes in the midst of his followers who were hiding in a room with locked doors out of fear and says: “Peace be with […]

Again, allow me to wish all of you a joyous Easter with a hopeful message we all need during these most challenging times.  Christ is risen! Alleluia!  These are the victorious words we shout with gusto on this greatest of all feast days and especially at this time of political, social, military and climactic turmoil.  But, in order to fully appreciate them, we need to go back in time to the people who first discovered this reality. We need to put ourselves inside their skin and see with their eyes.  […]

The Easter Vigil is the holiest night in all the year, and yet Christmas Eve seems to get all the attention.  At Christmas Eve, so many people come to church that we have to three Masses.  Tonight, our church is only 2/3 full.  I imagine this is the case because of all the excitement of receiving gifts at Christmas.  And, as you know, we exchange gifts at that time as a sign of the great gift we receive at Christmas – our Lord, Jesus.  But, at Christmas, the full importance […]

We begin tonight the Sacred Triduum, the three days that call us together to celebrate the mysteries of our redemption.  In order to help us enter more deeply into these mysteries, each celebration that occurs on these three days has its own unique character and particular points of emphasis.  They move us from the events that occurred at the Last Supper, to our Lord’s Passion and death on the cross, and finally to the Easter Vigil, when we joyfully celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead which gives each of […]

How quickly things can change, and how fickle people can be! We begin our worship today with the joyous arrival of Jesus in the holy city of Jerusalem like a king coming in peace astride a colt with palm branches waving and the crowd chanting words forever enshrined in our Eucharistic celebrations: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Then, we end our readings from Scripture today with Jesus having been betrayed and tortured, denied, mocked and crucified.  Some people are uncomfortable that we hang crosses with […]

“O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them. …Then you shall know that I am the Lord.”  Our readings today go straight to the heart of our Christian faith.  They speak of death, and new life in Christ.  We hear it promised in the first reading from the prophet Ezekiel and we hear about it actually happening in today’s powerful Gospel account.  In a world where we spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to look young and doing everything medically possible to avoid […]

Today’s Liturgy of the Word – where God reveals himself to us – starts out with the Israelites and Moses in the desert.  After gladly accepting God’s invitation to abandon slavery for freedom, the people quickly started complaining.  They missed the food the Egyptians let them have, they feared they would die of thirst … and on and on.  Acting as if God had made no plans and was incapable of providing for them, they groused so much that Moses feared for his life.  In response, and to show how […]