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COLUMNS
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» In Light of Faith
 
Second Sunday of Easter, Cycle A, March 30, 2008
by Richard Linneberger
Inquiring minds want to know!
Why didn’t the Gospel writers give more details about Jesus?
Why don’t we know more about his birth, his life before his public ministry, his mother, and on and on?
If only we could read more about his life, see more in print about him, then we would believe even more. Seeing — Believing. Inquiring minds want to know!
Today’s Gospel has Thomas saying: “Unless I see … put my fingers … put my hand … I will not believe.”
Only IF he sees and touches will he believe. Thomas wanted more than just the word of others that they had seen the Lord.
How much like Thomas we can be. We want to know more, to see more, to experience more.
Does this ring true for you?
The concluding sentences of our Gospel today remind us that “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”
What are all these other things? Inquiring minds want to know!
St. Peter reminds us in the second reading today: “Although you have not seen him, you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him …”
How can this be? If we haven’t seen the Lord Jesus, how can we love him?
If we have not seen him, how can we believe in him?
Today’s reading is about faith and what that means to us. How can we have faith in Jesus Christ if we have not seen him? If we have not touched him? How can we have faith when we want to know more?
Whenever we discuss faith, one should remember that faith is first and foremost a “gift from God.” For whatever reason, God has given the gift of faith to you and me.
“Why” you and I have been given this gift is unknown to us. The gracious (grace-ful!) response is to say “thank you.”
Thank you, God, for giving me the gift of faith.
Faith also involves our response to the gift. While it is true, we may not physically see the Lord Jesus, we can experience him — we can come to know him.
How? First and foremost is in the “breaking of the bread.”
When we gather at Eucharist, we have the graced-moment of being in the presence of the Lord and sharing in his very life — through his Word proclaimed to us and in our sharing in the Bread and Wine. We are also able to experience him in the Assembly gathered and in the priestly ministry.
Our response to this gift of faith? “Thank you.”
Our response to our faith continues once we leave the celebration of the Eucharist. Since we have experienced the Lord Jesus, we then put our faith “into action.”
If we believe, we act. How we act expresses in a practical way our “thank you.”
Our inquiring minds become thankful hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God for it is truly right and just!
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Walking in the dark
by Mary Hood Hart
Most mornings, I wake at dawn and walk in my neighborhood for at least a half hour. Recently, when we switched to Daylight Saving Time, my morning walk began in the dark.
When I embarked on my walk, I had no idea how dark it would be. I was well down the street when I realized I wouldn’t see sunlight most of the way.
My morning walk felt strange. I was doing the same activity I always did, at the same time, in the same place, yet the fact that I was walking in the dark made my routine seem eerie, spooky.
At one point, I encountered a neighbor walking his dog. I often encounter this neighbor whose dog-walking time coincides with my walk, yet even though we are accustomed to greeting each other, meeting in darkness was startling.
Only a few feet from each other, almost simultaneously, we each recognized a human form approaching from the shadows. Even my neighbor’s dog wasn’t aware of my approach.
My neighbor and I were both startled at the same time; then we laughed in relief at recognizing one another. We continued our separate ways, and I realized how easily, under cover of darkness, someone could sneak up on me.
I felt much more vulnerable in the darkness. It was as if sunlight was my shield.
While I felt vulnerable, it occurred to me that others, like my neighbor walking his dog, could find me threatening solely because I was walking in the dark. Whereas in the daylight I am easily identified as a 50-something woman on a morning walk, the shadow of darkness places me under a shade of suspicion. Because of this vulnerability and sense of being perceived a potential threat, darkness created in me anxiety I wouldn’t have normally experienced.
With Easter soon approaching, my experience walking in the dark prompted me to consider the metaphors of darkness and light when it comes to my spiritual well-being. Literally walking in the dark brought to my mind the many times I have found myself spiritually walking in darkness.
Those times usually occur when I am overcome with anxiety about an impending problem and I become consumed by it, determined to solve it on my own. In this mix of self-reliance, worry, and stress, I am spiritually blindfolded, trying to find my way out of a deep pit. I become vulnerable to despair.
Other times spiritual darkness is due to my sin, when I have rejected the light of Christ and blindly followed my own selfish desires. While my relationship with God is threatened, my relationships with others also become threatened, strained, exploitive. The darkness of my sin casts a shadow over others.
On a global scale, when nations are immersed in the darkness of ignorance, racism, ethnic hatred, violence, war, materialism, the innocent body of Christ suffers.
Jesus was betrayed at night. Standing in the shadows of a charcoal fire, Peter denied he knew Christ.
That same night, Jesus was brought to the authorities where he was held captive overnight in darkness. As Jesus suffered and died on the cross, darkness swept across the sky.
Because of sin, individual and collective, darkness threatens to obscure hope. As we approach Easter, we remember we are called to be light to the world, to walk in his bright promise.
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The nightmare is over
by Barbara Hughes
The 16-year-old had been released from jail after DNA evidence proved his innocence.
After being indicted on rape and abduction charges, Shaka Harrell had spent two months in jail. If convicted, he could have spent the rest of his life in prison but instead, he was coming home.
Upon his release, television cameras captured the emotional reunion between the teen and his mother. Throwing her arms around him she wept for joy.
One can only imagine the relief Ms. Harrell must have felt as she held her son and realized that the nightmare they had been living was over.
The next day as I read the newspaper account, I couldn’t help but draw a comparison between the scenes captured by the media with the Gospel accounts of that first Easter morning.
Within a short period of time the emotions of Mary Magdalene, Salome and Mary the mother of James went from sorrow, to disbelief, to unimaginable joy.
The intended anointing of Jesus’ body had ended in a completely different scenario than expected. Scripture tells us that after the women saw the stone had been rolled away and were told that Jesus who was crucified is among the living, they went in haste to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard. Not believing the women, the disciples ran to the tomb to see for themselves.
John’s Gospel offers an extended version of the events of that morning. Only John recorded the encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene on that day of days. He tells us that Mary assumed Jesus’ body had been stolen and that her grief was so immense that when the others returned home, she remained weeping near the tomb where Jesus had been laid.
When at last she saw someone whom she mistook for the gardener, Mary prevailed on him to show her where he had taken the body of her Lord.
Only when Jesus called her by name did Mary recognize Jesus. The reason why Mary failed to recognize Jesus has been debated among Scripture scholars, but it was the words that Jesus spoke to her that I find far more interesting.
Anyone who has been reunited with a loved one would naturally want to reach out and hold onto them just as Ms. Harrell held her son. But rather than allow Mary to do so, Jesus responded by saying, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Rather go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God!’” (John 20; 17)
Jesus’ words were more than a mandate to share the news that he is alive. He instructed Mary to resist her first impulse which was to hold on to Jesus, assuming things would be the same as before he died.
But Jesus makes it clear that things are different now, that touching Jesus is not as important as the fact that she had been touched by him. He had risen from the dead and nothing could ever be the same.
In the next breath he tells Mary that he has not yet ascended to the Father. His words emphasize the transcendent dimension of his mission that until then had eluded the followers of Jesus.
Focused on the here and now, an earthly Kingdom and human relationships were all they had known. But Jesus points out that he must ascend to his Father and theirs.
The scope of their world was expanded to include the heavenly kingdom, which was now part of their inheritance. In the dying and rising of Jesus, the gates of heaven were open to all and their destination, like that of Jesus, was union with the Father.
Rather than allow Mary to cling to him as human nature would have her do, Jesus instructed Mary to go forth and tell the others. And there we have it in Jesus’ own words.
Once our lives have been touched by Jesus, we are to go forth and share the love that God has placed in our hearts. But to do that we must overcome the temptation to cling to God as our personal possession.
Prior to Holy Week, I visited a Carmelite Monastery, praying and meeting with my spiritual director. The solitude and time spent in prayer were blessed, and I wished I could have stayed longer.
But the graces received were not just for me. They were given to further the Kingdom. They were the means for the mission, and Jesus was always about mission.
If we are to follow him, then we must adopt the mindset of Jesus. We must take his instruction to the “Apostle to the Apostles” personally.
Like Mary, we must rise, dry our tears and go forth rather than cling to the consolations of God.
We have been called and chosen to share God’s love with the world. Jesus has risen! He overcame sin and the nightmare is over for all people, for all time.
Let us rejoice and be glad!
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