Pause for Prayer: EASTER SUNDAY

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Nothing on my own calendar of calamities
can overpower the approach, the arrival, the afterglow of Easter…

Nothing in my life can diminish the light of the Risen Christ.

And yet I might find myself lost in the deep folds of a forest
where the light of Easter seems distant:
out there, over there, up there, shining on others
but not on me...

There can be times when seeing the light in the distance
might be more painful than seeing no light at all:
why is it shining there, on others
- but not here, on me?

The image above might be helpful
for those who find themselves in the shadows,
in the light of these Paschal days...

The light is shining over and through these woods
even where the long shadows leave dark traces on the ground…

See how the light moves and plays in and among the shadows...

See how the beams of light stretch forth
from source and power unseen,
searching out those lost in the dark...

See how the light has greened the forest's carpet
even in the dark places...

See how the trees block the light
and at the same time shield
from what might be too bright for a first glance...

See how even branches blocking the light
still show the path the light spills before us:
a path that leads from the darkness behind
to the light that goes ahead of us,
through shadowed fears...

And see how, within arm's reach,
dawn's light pierces through leaves
with a warmth to take away the chill of night...

No, nothing on my own calendar of calamities
can overpower the approach, the arrival, the afterglow of Easter...

Nothing in my life can diminish the light of the Risen Christ...

For Christ is the Light no darkness can extinguish...

Amen.

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Easter Homily 2018

The Women at the Tomb by Julie Rodriguez Jones

Homily for Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday

(Scriptures for the liturgy)

Audio for homily

 
On entering the tomb the women saw a young man
sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe
and they were utterly amazed.
He said to them, “Do not be amazed.”

Oh, how I wish the angel hadn’t told the women,
“Don’t be amazed!”

I’m afraid that might be the one line of scripture
that our age has most seriously taken to heart.

There’s so little left in our lives that amazes us.
We are, if you will, no longer “amazeable.”

Were we amazed at Christmas to remember that the eternal God,
Creator of all that is, took flesh, became a human being,
born a baby, nursing at his mother’s breast
in a barn in Bethlehem?

Were we amazed?

Are we amazed that the baby born in Bethlehem
grew up to be a preacher
and for all his good words and all his good works
and for all his truth and wisdom and miracles
this Cross is what we offered him in return, through our sins,
when we found his words and wisdom
too uncomfortable to live with?
too inconvenient to live by?

Are we amazed every Sunday that in this very place,
in the readings, through our neighbors’ voices,
God speaks to us in the scriptures?
That at least once a week,
God wants to have a word with us,
a sit-down, a chat, a conversation –
to tell us how much he loves us?

Are we amazed at this?

Are we amazed that every Sunday,
the Lord who speaks to us
makes of this altar a table
where we offer the simplest of gifts
which he returns to us as himself, his Body and Blood –
so intimately does he desire to become one with us
that he invites us to consume him?

Are we amazed?


In fact, we’re probably more amazed
by what Google or the latest iPhone can do for us
than by what God offers us every day.

Too often, even regularly,
we have ceased to be amazed by the wonder of faith.
Perhaps it’s because we consider ourselves too sophisticated,
too avant-garde, too knowledgeable and level-headed
to be people of faith?

But if that’s the case, we should be cautious and careful
lest after finding ourselves too advanced for faith
we then find ourselves somehow beyond
hope, somehow beyond love.

How tragic:
that we should be more amazed by the virtual than by the real;
more closely connected wirelessly than personally;
more amazed by gadgets than by God’s presence and power
in our lives.

• Are we amazed that each one of us is a person
uniquely and individually created by God’s design and hand?
• Are we amazed that God knows each of us by name?
• That God new our names before we were conceived?
• That God knows our minds and hearts
better than we know our selves?

• Are we amazed that God wants each of us and every one of us
to have peace - even and especially
when our circumstances frustrate our finding that peace?

• Are we amazed that God walks with us, weeps with us,
laughs with us, hurts with us and reaches out to heal us?

• Are we amazed at the depth of honesty, goodness and generosity
to which God calls every one of us?

• Are we amazed that no matter what we do, no matter what we do,
God will forgive us, freely,
and welcome us back into his embrace?

• Are we amazed that not even death
could keep Jesus from living among us, around us and within us,
always – indeed at this very moment?

Can we, this Easter, be at least a little less jaded,
a little less blasé, a little less skeptical and cynical -
and consider, again, the wonder and beauty of the promise
that there is more to life than what I can know
and understand and touch?

Can you and I pray, this Easter,
to be amazed by what God has done for us
and by what Jesus is doing in our lives
and by what the Spirit promises
to those willing to look at life through eyes of faith,
those willing to look disappointment and even death in the face,
trusting, in faith,
that there is more, that there is so much more
than we might dream or imagine or hope for.

Can we, like the women at the tomb,
be amazed that Jesus rose from the dead and goes ahead of us,
long ago to Galilee
but now to wherever each one of us may go from here:
to home, to work, to school, to our neighborhoods,
to our joys and sorrows, our disappointments and hopes?

Wherever we go, Jesus goes ahead of us.

As your pastor I pray this Easter
that if only for a moment each of us might sit, quietly, with the Lord
- and be amazed at his love for each of us.

Will you and I take a deep breath or two and relax
and be still… be quiet… be at peace…
and know that the Jesus, the risen Lord is near, is here:
beside us, above us, below us, around us, within us -
that the Lord who rose some 2,000 years ago
is with us still?

Come, find the peace within…

Be amazed, this Easter,
that the Risen Jesus isn’t just a story in an old book
but that he lives in your heart, in mine and in our neighbor’s.

Jesus is risen from the dead -  and that’s pretty amazing.

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One of my FAVORITE Easter songs!

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Pause for Prayer: HOLY SATURDAY 3/31

The Dead Christ by Mantegna

On Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord's tomb,
meditating on His suffering and death.

The painting above by Mantegna is a compelling image,
confronting us with the reality of Jesus' death...

On this day, the altar is left bare, Mass is not celebrated.

Only after the solemn vigil during the night,
held in anticipation of the resurrection,
does the Easter celebration begin with a spirit of joy
that overflows into an Easter season of fifty days.


A Prayer for Holy Saturday

This is the hardest time to pray:
after the drama and catastrophe,
before the angels and the big reveal.

The passion, the agony, the desperate grief
have given way to numbness
and absence
in this time in between.

God seems to be offstage,
preparing for the final scene,
taking care of ancient souls in other worlds
or clothing the hidden, broken body
in resurrection glory.

So let our prayer this day be plain
and to the point:
May God be with us in the waiting,
and may we wait with hope,
today
and every time in between.

Amen.

- by Kerry Greenhill



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Good Friday Homily

Homily for Good Friday 2018
(Scriptures for today's liturgy)

Audio for homily


(There are musical elements in my homily involving the
whole assembly but you won't experience these by just 
reading the text so I suggest you listen to the audio.)

The suffering and death of the crucified Jesus

stare us in the face.

What are we to do with this?

What are we to do with the suffering of Jesus?

the death of Jesus?

What are we to do with the love of Christ

who laid down his pure and innocent life for us,

the sinful and guilty?

What are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

After supper with his friends on the night before he died

Jesus went into the garden to pray - and his betrayer was there.

Judas was there, and I was there, and you were there,

all of us were there –

• betraying his perfect love for us  - with our selfishness and sins,

• betraying the innocent one with our transgressions –

• betraying him unto death.

And what are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

And later in the courtyard,

Peter, just hours before filled with faith and bravado -

Peter denied that he even knew Jesus.

• And we were in that same courtyard,

denying, many more than three times,

denying our faith in Jesus.

• We were in that courtyard denying him

with our fear of being known as believers,

with our reluctance to name Jesus the Lord of our lives,

with our desire to protect our sophisticated selves

and enhance how others perceive us…

•We were there in the courtyard,

denying by word and deed that we even know Jesus,

denying him unto death.

And what are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

• With the chief priests we handed Jesus over to death,

hiding behind the law to shield our unjust deeds.

• With Pilate in the praetorium

we condemned Jesus to death by our playing with the truth.

• With the crowds we called for Jesus’ death

by going along with what everyone’s saying,

what everyone’s doing.

We conspired, by our selfishness and sin

to condemn Jesus.

And what are we to do with the death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

• We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because by the mercy and grace of Jesus

his death is the forgiveness of our selfishness and sin.

• We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because in the offering of his heart and life

our hearts our healed,  and our lives redeemed.

• We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because our hearts can know no greater love

than the love of One

who lays down his life for ours.

Such is the mystery of our redemption

in the suffering and death of Jesus.

In the face of it, we have nothing to offer in return

and so, this is what we do:

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ.

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts

because his dying is our living

-- and so we remain with Jesus the Christ.

It is Good Friday

and the suffering and death of the crucified Jesus

stare us in the face.

What are we to do with this?

What are we to do

with the love of Christ in his suffering for us?

What are we to do with the love of Christ

in his dying for us?

What are we to do

with him who laid down his pure and innocent life for us 

- the sinful and guilty?

What are we to do with the suffering and death of Jesus?

We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.

Living, now we remain with Jesus the Christ. 

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Happy Passover!

I pray a happy Passover for our Jewish brothers and sisters!

In the United States, Passover begins today at sundown and will end at sundown on  Saturday, April 7.

For a quick overview of Passover, take a look here.

Over at  To Bend Light, Alden Solovy offers us some beautiful Passover prayers which I heartily commend to your attention and your own prayer and I take this opportunity to wish Alden and his family and friends a happy and healthy Passover. 

Catholic Christians keep their celebration of Passover in the Paschal Triduum which began at sundown yesterday, March 29, with the celebration of the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper and ends at sundown on Easter Sunday, April 1.

 

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The Heart of Jesus on Good Friday

Sacred Heart of Jesus by Dali

Of all the images of Jesus' heart, Salvador Dali's is my favorite.  

Its in-your-face divine strength contrasts with its fleshy humanity: Jesus' love offered here as a rose on the stem of the Cross...

Dali's Sacred Heart portrays so clearly, so frankly the beauty and strength, the intensity and raw humanity of Christ's divine heart. 

This isn't the passive Jesus of so much religious art but rather a powerful Lord of selfless love, his heart crucified for us.

Here is a Christ we can imagine fishermen leaving their boats and nets to follow. Here is a Christ strong enough to carry any burdens we lay on his shoulders. Here is a Christ with a heart robust enough to pump the life of its Spirit through the universe.  Here is a Christ with a heart tender enough to welcome any and all who seek refuge within it.  Here is a Christ with a heart unafraid to expose itself in love and mercy.  Here is a Christ with a heart ready to give itself away from unfathomable depths.  Here is a Christ with a heart great enough to be the very heart of God, the heart of God's Word made flesh, the heart of Christ who laid down his life for us.   

The heart of Christ is mercy for my soul..

The heart of Christ forgives my foolish sins...

The heart of Christ pardons
my crimes against others' hearts...

The heart of Christ, sentenced to the Cross,
is my parole, my freedom, my own sentenced served...

Help me know and confess my need 
for your heart's mercy, Lord...

Open my heart to all that your heart offers me...

As you have forgiven me, 
help me forgive those whose words and deeds
have wounded me...

Help me forgive those who've hurt me the most:
open my heart to welcome them back...

Help me forgive those 
who haven't said they're sorry,
who haven't acknowledged the harm they've done...

Help me forgive the hard-to-forgive, Lord:
remind me of how freely, how fully you forgive me,
regardless of how I've offended you...

And when others forgive me, Lord, 
help me graciously accept the pardon they offer...

Draw me into your heart of hearts
where the gift of your mercy springs forth,
a fountain of pardon and peace...

Lord, open my eyes to your heart's beauty,
opened for me on the Cross,
that I might have life
and have it to the full...


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