The Most Holy Trinity, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Ashville NC, USA..

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“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”    2 Corinthians 13:13.

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This is the core belief of all Christianity. This was the ultimate revelation Jesus proclaimed before he ascended into heaven. Inexplicable in human terms, where “Three Persons in One God” makes no logical sense at all, this teaching and reality is the foundation of Christian belief in God. It was in the name of the Blessed Trinity that Jesus instructed his followers to invite all who would listen and respond to the call to love (Matthew 28:19-20). But Jesus did not come to us to confuse or blind us with impossible conundrums. He came to show us that the one, the only, way to conduct our lives was in and through love. The Trinity is the burning source of all love. It was through love that the universe, all of us, were created, for no other reason. As we have been given the unique gift of free will, we are exposed to this message and may accept or reject it as we will. That means all of us who accept this gift are enabled to live a life which anticipates the joy of heaven almost here and now. How?

Pure love is never isolated. It is a reality which must grow. As the song says, “Love in your heart isn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love ’till you give it away” (Oscar Hammerstein). Love is the driving power of the Trinity. The Father, (Yahweh יהוה God’s name revealed to Moses at the burning bush, meaning, “I AM WHO AM”), ‎and the Spirit (remember that the word Spirit, רוּחַ Ruach, as shown in the Trinitarian symbol above, is feminine in Hebrew), whose love is so intense that the Son is the eternal emanation of that love. Recall the beginning of the gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1-2). This was the Word (Λόγος, Logos) that became flesh (John 1:14), Jesus (whose Hebrew name was Y’shua ישוע or Joshua), and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. And as John says, “we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father” (1:14). Then, as God deliberately and slowly revealed the Trinitarian nature of God through history, it was only through Jesus and his gift of the Holy Spirit (celebrated last week) that we were all eventually invited into that same burning heart of eternal love.

The closest we get to experiencing such a love is probably our family. There we should find unquestioned, unconditional, love. There we should find love which can be relied upon, always welcoming and always a source of strength and life. And “family” seems to come in many different forms today. The traditional definition is married life. But does that mean that love cannot exist in other ways? Even Jesus himself wasn’t married! Yet he demonstrated an unconditional love for God and for his followers even to death which is our model to this day. So God exists where true, unconditional, love exists, because God is the ultimate source of true love, born from the Trinity of Love which we celebrate today. Consider: love exists to be given away. Before the universe began, how could a solitary or single God of Love exist? It could not be love of self, which by definition a single God seems to suggest. It can only be love for another, which of course the Trinity always was, is and always will be. And love knows no limits. Love which is absolute can embrace even those who are imperfect, selfish, wanting in human mercy and behavior. We might well consider ourselves such from time to time, and even think “who could love someone like me?” Well Jesus himself answered that one in his parable of the lost, prodigal, son, who “came to his senses”. Love always welcomes, never rejects as we see in that wonderful parable. And we worship and thank a forgiving God of Love! How infinitely fortunate we are! Let us all reflect on that love that, with God’s help, we must always show in all that we say, think and do.

God is Love, desertcart.us.

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The Descent of the Holy Spirit, L’Evangile Illustré: Quarante Compositions de Frédéric Overbeck Gravées par les Meilleurs Artistes de l’Allemagne, Overbeck, c.1851

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….a noise like a strong driving wind filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.   Acts 2:2-3.

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Today’s feast day commemorates the birthday of the Church. Last week I mentioned briefly the church’s short definition of a miracle. The transforming moment has to be instantaneous, permanent and inexplicable. Today’s event satisfies all three without question, perhaps the greatest miracle of all time save for the Resurrection itself. Consider: the entire Christian Church was gathered in one spot, scared to death that they would be condemned to the same fate as Jesus; they were behind locked doors, as St. John’s gospel tells us twice. Even the appearance of the risen Jesus was not sufficient to encourage them to spread the word, as he himself had told them to. They were probably even more terrified at the time of this gospel passage because Jerusalem was packed with Jewish pilgrims celebrating the Feast of Weeks, Shevuot as it is called today. It was one of the great pilgrimage feasts, meaning in the old days a journey to Jerusalem to give thanks in the Temple was expected. This great Jewish feast commemorated the giving of the Law, the 10 Commandments, to Moses by God at Mount Sinai. By tradition that was 50 days after the Passover and  the escape from Egypt and the miraculous passage through the sea, so it took roughly seven weeks, hence the name. But there was another name for this feast day, Pentecost, (πέντε, pente, five, being the root of the name). Additionally the feast was also a thanksgiving for the first fruits of the harvest in the early summer. 

Then it happened.

It was sudden: it tells us clearly that in the Acts of the Apostles. One moment they were scared, the next they were not

It was permanent. The Church has survived from that day to this.

It was inexplicable. How on earth did that small group of people, hiding in a small room scared to death suddenly become lions of the faith, preaching to anyone and everyone who would listen?

It was a miracle!

Hence for Christians, this day is celebrated by an equal number of names: The Birthday of the Church, the Descent of the Holy Spirit and called Pentecost, a name which was taken from the Jews who now never use it. For Christians, it was 40 days after the Resurrection. And note the description of the Holy Spirit in this gospel passage. There was a strong wind at this event we are told. The (feminine) Hebrew word for Spirit also includes the sense of wind and breath, in this case the Breath of God! 

Finally there is the appearance of the Spirit as of fire. A transformative fire, inspiriting the terrified followers of Jesus with a burning power which has not been extinguished in 2000 years. This is the power which has driven Christians down through the ages, the power which enabled martyrs to face any and every threat to belief in the Lord. In other words, it has given us the strength which Jesus had to face his terrible death, the strength to withstand any of life’s challenges. The strength to live the life that Lord expects of us, the life that leads to eternal happiness.

The Holy Spirit of God that day was extremely powerful in allowing these Christian pioneers to spread the word. They could speak in all the tongues of the polyglot pilgrims gathered from around the Roman Empire for the Feast of Weeks, a unique situation for a unique event. Scholars point out that all this indicated the reversal of the punishment handed by God at the building of the Tower of Babel. This was when the pride of the people thought they could conquer any further flood sent by God if they built the tower big enough! God confused their tongues, Genesis’ explanation of foreign languages (Genesis 11:1-9). Now a uniting force, also sent by God, reversed the old curse of division. It was God’s way of saying that all people should be united as one in one belief. So, 2000 years later, with the Christian church no longer one but many, we are still all united in the Holy Spirit, worshipping the One God, following the model established by Jesus the Lord. So this day represents the full realization of the Blessed Trinity, united in love, the overwhelming and all-conquering power from the heart of God into which each one of us is invited.

The Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Saint James the Greater Catholic Church, Concord, North Carolina, USA.

 

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Mary Magdalene Runs and Tells the Disciples that the Body of Christ is No Longer in the Tomb, Tissot c.1894, The Brooklyn Museum, New York City, USA.

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After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying…       Acts 1:12-13.

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Now note that extract from today’s first reading from today’s Scripture. After the departure, the Ascension,  of Jesus, they did NOT go spreading the word of salvation, they did NOT preach on the street corners, they did NOT go straight to the Temple to denounce the crucifixion of the Lord and pronounce him the Son of God. They simply crawled back to the “Upper Room” and hid. You could say the entire Christian Church was crammed into a single space awaiting the fate that their Lord had endured, and, not surprisingly, were terrified. Indeed, the gospel of John states quite clearly that they were behind locked doors – and he says it twice! In effect, there was no Christian Church at all, just a bunch of people who were understandably more interested in preserving their own skin than in anything else. And who could blame them? They were clearly not in the state of mind so boldly and clearly stated in today’s second reading, “Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly”. Today’s gospel seems to show that Jesus was aware of their state of mind as he prayed to his Father, “Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them “. As well he might! He knew full well that they were “in the world” as he says, with all that that implies.

Clearly all this is setting the stage for one great happening, without which we would not be Christian today, there would be no Church, no teaching of love and no knowledge of eternal happiness resulting from that. In fact, the only positive thing they seem to have done is replace he treacherous Judas with Matthias. A friend of mine once said that they replaced him with another man, not a woman, as they had not yet received the Spirit of God! Just a provocative thought.

And there we have to leave them, shivering away, crammed together, fearing the absolute worse, as I suspect most of us would be too, waiting for the banging on the door in the middle of the night. Heavens, they needed help! All of Jesus’ mission had been handed over to their care. All of it was in critical danger of being lost forever. This was utterly understandable, so something was needed; something instantaneous, permanent and inexplicable (the Church’s definition of a miracle).

The supposed Cenacle, or Upper Room, Jerusalem, Israel.

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Interior of the Main Dome, Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.

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I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him.     John 14:15-16.

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Today’s three readings taken together seem to point to a new reality. Remember that the Old Testament reveals the intervention of God into our history with the still small voice telling the very old Abram/Abraham to uproot and move to a new country where, God promised him, he will have descendants and land. Abram believed God, despite his barren and old wife Sarah. He trusted the voice. Once there God revealed divine power by granting husband and wife a son, Isaac. Then God insisted on the child being sacrificed to him. Abram, now Abraham, did that, being stopped at the literal last moment. All of which, I believe, was God’s plan to establish a new template, or style, of living. The land was Canaan, and in that land there was a religion which was, I believe, the reason God intervened in history at all. As God had not revealed the divine nature, humans had to respond in some way to the deep instinct we have within us for the spiritual, for the infinite, for a life beyond death. So, not having any divine guidance, that society used the only model known to them. If you wanted something, you had to pay for it. So, if what you wanted was massive, such as avoiding invasion, famine, natural disaster and so on, the price had to be massive, such as the sacrifice of your children thrown, in this case, into a fire as the price, it was thought, to get divine assistance. The god Moloch was considered powerful enough to render the service, provided the high price – a child – was the payment. And it was this practice which, I believe, was sufficient to cause divine intervention. Through the centuries then, the Hebrews came to understand who God was and what had to be done to live a decent life. It was, therefore, in Christian eyes, the slow revelation of God the Father. God always spoke through prophets, but when humanity was deemed ready for the supreme revelation, God took on human flesh, Jesus, God the Son, who came to live among us and show us that it is possible to live the right life no matter the challenges, just as he had done, no matter the consequences. 

“Your Descendants will be as Many as the Stars of the Heavens”, von Carolsfeld 1860, Die Bibel in Bildern.

Now today’s readings. Jesus, Son of God, was preparing his followers for his departure. Firstly he announced that we would not be alone once he had gone. There would be another divine Person to guide and help us, an Advocate who would support and defend us. He also stated that although he would be with the Father, he would also remain with us “I will not leave you orphans” he said. And certainly he remains with us through the Eucharist. So the Holy Spirit in a sense, became the divine presence on a daily, minute-by-minute, basis, 24/7, with the Eucharist as our spiritual center as it were. This was all preparation for the Ascension, and the arrival of the time of the Holy Spirit, our present age. Hence the Holy Trinity was slowly and deliberately revealed over the centuries, carefully preparing us for such a revelation. We live in the Age of the Holy Spirit, and just as the first Age of God the Father had the prophets to guide and encourage the people, and the uniquely blessed time of God the Son literally had God walk among us, so today we have the Advocate, the Holy Spirit as the constant presence of God in all that we do, with the saints throughout the centuries as our “prophets” providing us with the example of living a holy life.

Now, I have said before that it is my opinion that this Person of the Holy Trinity demands much more consideration than we are wont to give. Let me state my strong opinion that we should regard and think of the Holy Spirit as the essence of the feminine, and never be referred to as “he” as in today’s readings. We have “he” for Father and Son, quite rightly because Jesus was clearly male, and always referred to God as his Father, or even Abba, which means Dad. But the Third Person of the Trinity demands something else. First, the word spirit in the language of Jesus, Aramaic, and also in Hebrew, is רוּח pronounced roo’-akh has a feminine gender in that language. It also carries the idea of “wind” and “breath”. Now think of that. God “breathed” life into Adam (Genesis 2:7)… God, by means of a great “wind”, opened the sea for the Hebrews to escape slavery in Egypt and gain the freedom of the Promised Land (Exodus 14:21). And, as if to confirm this interpretation of the Holy Spirit, the word for wisdom in Aramaic and Hebrew, חָכְמָה pronounced khok-maw‘ is also feminine in gender. Wisdom and Spirit are used almost interchangeably in Scripture, so according to this idea, they are one. As I have said before, Jesus would have been just as shocked to hear today’s translation “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.” as we would be with “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows her. But you know her, because she remains with you, and will be in you.” But that is exactly what Jesus and all the people of his time and place would have heard and accepted without question. It all springs from our New Testament being written in Greek, where Spirit, πνεύμα, pneuma, is neutral, hence translated as “it”, which is unacceptable. In translating the Greek into Latin, “pneuma” was rendered “spiritus”, which is masculine, and has been ever since. So we, in the great age of the Holy Spirit of God should look on this Person of the Holy Trinity in perhaps a very different light. Just as God is Our Father, so the Spirit is Our Mother, offering to us a recognizable human reality, even if there is no gender, as such, in God. But it suggests a God much more attuned to our human experience. Here we have a Trinity where the love between God the Father and the Holy Spirit is so strong that the Son is clearly the beloved emanation of such a numinus reality. The perfect model for human life.

The Holy Trinity, van Balen 1603, Sint-Jacobskerk, Antwerp, Belgium.

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Initial B: The Trinity, probably from a medieval choir book, Crivelli c.1465, The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA.

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Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.     John 14:9.

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Today’s readings range from the ultra mystic, the Trinity itself, to the utterly mundane, people arguing in the early church about who is getting the better, or bigger, dinner portions. From those days to these, such has been the range of disputation within Holy Mother Church. The mystery of Three Persons in One God still challenges the experts, at the same time as we argue, and I’m treading on eggshells here, whether we should allow Mass in the vernacular or in Latin, both being valid yet prompting huge argument which has gone on for years. Today’s first reading tells the story leading to the institution of the diaconate in the early Church, deacon, diakonos or διάκονος in Greek, meaning servant or helper. That is straightforward. Jesus saying that to see him is to see the Father is not. What does he mean? We struggle with the meaning and will almost certainly still be searching when we hear the trumpet calling us to the Last Judgment when all will, at last, be revealed. So, as a suitable via media, or middle way, let us take a look at the second reading today, taken from the first letter of St. Peter.

This epistle, a word meaning letter, in the New Testament was sent to the persecuted early Christians in the Middle East. The author uses the language of encouragement and exhortation to rise to the challenges they are facing and maintain the faith:

…let yourselves be built into a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices…

and:

You are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people of his own,
so that you may announce the praises” of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

So the people for whom this letter was written were seemingly under threat of persecution or were actually being persecuted. They were following, it says, in the footsteps of the Lord himself who had been  rejected by human beings. More even than that, the letter states that these persecuted early Christians were the foundations of the new Christian spiritual house where there had been nothing before. Some things never change. We today do not have to be under active persecution for our belief to be under attack. The demons of money, drugs, power, consumerism and so on, are constantly at our door. In that bleak landscape, today’s Scripture tells us to hang on, act on our belief in the Lord who is so close to God that he and God (our Father) are one. And he was “the way, the truth and the life” for them (and also the same for us) to follow, no matter what. So although their lives were under pressure, even danger, the author of 1 Peter attempts to strengthen their faith and urge them to carry on. That is a message as clear and as strong today as it must have been 2000 years ago. And what it all promises is also as important. This is to say it gives us a clear foundation on what to base our life, to carry on our life, and to look forward to a life way beyond anything we can imagine. Remember how often Jesus began his teachings by saying “The kingdom of heaven is like….” Well that suggests that if we follow that teaching, a deep sense of satisfaction and even happiness is the result; a sense of heaven here and now. So heaven is not only a wonderful goal, but can be present in the here and now, truly the way, the truth and the life.

 

Papyrus Bodmer VII-IX, oldest known copies of the Letters of Jude, 1 Peter and 2 Peter, 3rd-4th Century, unknown writer, Vatican Library, Vatican City State.

It is in studying documents such as this that scholars create a picture of the church in its earliest days. They are entirely in what is called koine Greek, namely the common Greek spoken in the street at that time. In studying these ancient documents and the earliest reports of what the early Church practices were back then that changes can be considered. In mentioning the Latin Mass today, the Mass with with which I grew up and thought immutable, study of early church documents make it very clear that the Mass was said in the language of the local church. Hence that change was implemented throughout the modern church. Such changes can only be made with support from scripture and early tradition in the Catholic church.

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Return to the Field, Jacque, 1880, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, California, USA.

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[Jesus said] “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”   John 10:9.

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Jesus lived in an age which was much much closer to raw nature than most of us are today. If he talked about sower sowing seed or a shepherd tending sheep, his audience would know all about it, the techniques, the strength, the knowledge and the experience required to do a good job, and so on. For almost all of us, we wouldn’t have a clue. When was the last time you saw a live sheep? When did you last walk over an agricultural field or visit a farm? For me, not in many, many years. For Jesus’ listeners, they would not even have look over their shoulders! So to us, sheep are those woolly animals who are scared of us and move around in flocks, are served up as lamb in restaurants and maybe have a reputation of being rather stupid. Yet Jesus was very fond of calling all of us his sheep. He would be the good shepherd leaving all the others to go in search of each one of us individuals if we got lost. And then, famously, there was Pope Francis’ call for the pastors of the world to become familiar with the “smell of the sheep”. Note also that “pastor” is the Latin word for a shepherd… And apparently, from studies conducted on them which strongly support Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, sheep do not deserve the modern reputation they have for  being stupid. There’s much more to a sheep than ever I knew, but I bet Jesus’ first listeners knew everything about them, and would not have been the slightest bit insulted by being called to enter Jesus’ flock when he named not only himself as its shepherd, but also, as today, the gate by which we enter into his flock. And then there is the supreme ennoblement of the sheep when John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God. The image of the lamb as a totally innocent, utterly harmless creature is perfect for the Lord. In addition, remember it was a lamb without blemish which was sacrificed for the first Passover dinner to nourish the Hebrew people for their march out of slavery in Egypt towards the freedom of the Promised Land. Note the full parallelism here. So there is a perfect fit for Jesus not only being the perfect shepherd, but also the perfect sacrifice, another term for his passion and death. 

St. Peter, the chief shepherd following Jesus, is recorded in today’s first reading as speaking to the crowds of pilgrims in Jerusalem gathered for the feast of Shevuot, the Feast of Weeks, 40 days after Passover. He spoke only minutes after the Holy Spirit had descended on the frightened and cowardly followers of Jesus hidden away in Jerusalem and transformed them into lions for the new faith. In fact, he was repeating the very claims that had got Jesus condemned to death, so fundamental was his Spirit-inspired fearlessness. His words were so new and profound that the first converts to the new faith were made that day, about 3,000. He told them of the Lord Jesus, crucified by them, but who was the long-awaited Messiah offering them the Holy Spirit of God if they would but repent and have their sins washed away in baptism. And so the first of God’s flock entered by the baptismal gate as the first converts. This same Peter, in today’s second reading, actually picks up on Jesus’ image of himself as the supreme shepherd welcoming even those whose sins had been washed away by the blood of the crucified Savior. 

So profound was this image of the Lord as a shepherd that is was possibly the first image of Jesus which began to appear widely in the years following the legalization of the faith in 313. Not Christ on the cross, but the Good Shepherd. Crucifixion was still considered a most shameful death at that time; the image of a shepherd tending us, his sheep, was much more acceptable, and so it proliferated throughout the Roman Empire. Typically this showed a young man with a Roman appearance (most Christians by that time were descended from converted pagans, not Jews, and so had no idea what a young Jewish man would look like). That was the image which appealed more than any other of Jesus, and from today’s readings we can understand perfectly why that was so. It would not be surprising if it was also our favorite image today  that were the subject of an opinion poll. The thought of a shepherd overseeing us, protecting us, someone to whom we have access and can call upon at any time, is surely highly attractive. And so he is.

The Good Shepherd, Catacombs of St.Priscilla c.Second half of 3rd Century, Rome, Italy.

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The Road to Emmaus, Zünd 1877, Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland.

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Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”    Luke 24:32.

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At the beginning of the Acts of the the Apostles, not one of today’s readings, it says the risen Lord stated loudly and clearly to his followers “not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father…” (Acts 1:4). Pretty clear wouldn’t you say? In today’s gospel we have possibly the source of Jesus’ instruction. Two of his followers had done exactly that. They fled Jerusalem to make their way to Emmaus just days after his brutal death. Clearly they were running away, probably hoping to avoid what had happened to Jesus, as they were his followers. How do we know that? Because they recognized him in the breaking of the bread, when he vanished from their sight. And that was enough for them to return to the city and tell everyone about their experience with the risen Lord. They had in a sense abandoned the call of the Lord, but the Lord himself came running after them! There is a universal message for all of us there, isn’t there? “The Hound of Heaven” might be an appropriate thought for those of us who have stumbled and perhaps fallen because of weakness or fear or addiction or whatever has caused us to run from the source of life and love. Yes, following the Lord has its challenges, no question, but the flip side of that is peace, love and the satisfaction that the Lord walks with us, guiding us and picking us up when we do fall. Today’s first reading shows a similar rejection of fear and a declaration of what the Lord’s message is all about. Peter, the leader of the apostles,  is standing and declaring his belief in the Lord as Israel’s Messiah, the very charge which brought disaster upon Jesus. Yet Peter is proclaiming this to anyone who would listen to him! This is moments after the Holy Spirit had descended upon Jesus’ followers, Pentecost as we call it. Today’s second reading is a look at the source of the power that comes to us if we believe in the Lord and obey his message.

The Supper at Emmaus, Rembrandt 1648, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

Zünd’s painting of the countryside on the way to Emmaus, seen at the top of this page, is how he envisioned it, and is possibly similar to the real way to Emmaus today. It was a town which vanished from history but may have been rediscovered recently, north west of Jerusalem. But what is clear is that two of Jesus’ disciples were getting out of town! They might possibly have witnessed, from a distance of course, the torture, humiliation and death of the man they had been following and who, they thought, had offered them a glorious promise of eternal happiness and contentment. What had happened to him must have looked like the end of everything he stood for and taught. That’s something we could all appreciate I think. The resurrection changed it all. It was then that all he said and did began to make sense and become the foundation of their, and our, lives. Without the resurrection there would be no Christianity. With the resurrection there is a real hope for everything that Jesus taught us, because he conquered even death, the ultimate enemy. And note the language of today’s gospel story:

And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.

We would, all of us, now expect the words:

The Incredulity of St. Thomas, Guercino 1621, The National Gallery, London, UK.

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Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”    John 20:28.

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If possible, put yourself in Jesus’ shoes in this scene from today’s gospel. He had gone through hell and even down to hell according to the Apostles’ Creed, and was essentially on his own, abandoned by his closest friends, save at his actual moment of death with the two women, including his mother, and St. John, present. But there was no-one standing up for him at his “trial” in front of the high priest, where St. Peter betrayed him (“You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said. But he denied it. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said, and went out into the entryway. Mark 1:67-68). All the others had vanished. They were now cowering from the authorities, fearing they would be condemned to the same fate as their master. And now Jesus was standing in their midst, among the very people who had abandoned him. Note loudly and clearly, he had not abandoned them! Now, standing in his place, what would you have done and said? Having undergone most brutal torture, suffered an extreme agony and humiliating death nailed to a cross, naked and utterly without any protection whatever, what would you have said to these “friends” who had left you there? That is worth a moment’s Easter meditation. Then compare that to what Jesus said at that moment.

“Peace be with you”

Christ Appears to the Apostles Behind Closed Doors, Duccio 1311, Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, Siena, Italy.

It says it all. This man held no anger, resentment or retribution to spray over his unfaithful, treacherous so-called friends. He only wanted them to be at peace with him and themselves, probably the last thing of which they were capable at that moment. They thought he was dead! They thought they were next in line for the same punishment. Peace? Never, But peace is what they received from him. Then there is Thomas’ famous moment. He had refused to believe his colleagues who claimed to have met the risen Lord. Not unreasonable. I would have said the same thing and I’m sure I am not alone. It was not logical or reasonable to say this man was alive after what he had been put through. Then, with Thomas present, he appeared in their midst. Not letting the moment go, he went straight to Thomas and presented his tortured but now glorified body to him still displaying the wounds made just a few days earlier. We are not told if Thomas actually responded to Jesus’ invitation to touch his wounds, but we do know the effect that all this had on Thomas. I imagine his reaction was to sink to his knees before the Risen Christ and utter the most profound words in all Scripture: “My Lord and my God!” addressed to a mortal man. He was the only one to utter them, and it summed up Jesus’ entire mission, completely human, yet supported with the power of God. And you could say Thomas more than made up for his incredulity, or disbelief, in Jesus’ resurrection. He, by reputation and very long history, established the Christian Church in India,to be precise. It was the furthest any of Jesus’ apostles went to spread the Good Word, and is still active and productive today. It was a very suitable response. By their fruits you will know them....

Finally, this being Divine Mercy Sunday, we have a supreme example of mercy in today’s gospel. One fine definition of mercy is “compassion on someone who doesn’t deserve it”. Who among those close “friends” of Jesus, except perhaps John, deserved any compassion or forgiveness from the Lord? They were cowards, protecting their own skin rather than anybody else’s, not worth a second thought. Except from Jesus who saw in them the seeds of a tremendous movement which would spread throughout the world focussed on recognizing and developing the good in all of God’s creatures, trying to be Christ to the world in all and every way. Thomas and his followers have proven their loyalty to Jesus for 2000 years! Alleluia!

Malayattoor Church, Kerala, India – established by St.Thomas (52 AD).

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The Empty Tomb of Jesus, Photo Granary.

Click here to read today’s Sunday Mass Readings for Easter Day.

Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.    John 20:8-9.

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The face on the Shroud of Turin, Holy Face Devotion.

For many people throughout the world and for most of the the past century, this image from the Shroud of Turin is the face of the crucified Jesus. The brutality it shows which was inflicted on this man corresponds exactly to the gospel accounts of what Jesus suffered. The blood stains are claimed to be group AB. The scourge marks correspond to the wounds which would have been inflicted by the Roman soldiers before any crucifixion. The wounds into the wrists and feet of the man strongly suggest brutal nailing of the man to a cross which he had dragged to the place of execution, seen from wounds on his shoulder. The blood stains on his head suggest he endured a total head covering of thorns, not a simple circlet as shown in countless paintings. The final brutal indignity to the body of the shroud shows a sword wound thrust into the left side of his body corresponding to the biblical account of the Roman soldier doing just that to the dead Christ (John 19:34). In addition to all this, how the image on the shroud was made remains a total mystery, The blood stains run through the material; the image does not. The image displays what we would now call a negative depiction, hence the first photograph, taken in the days of negative/positive photos, revealed the photograph negative picture for the first time, hence the “real”, or positive, picture of the man. That, of course, created a sensation.  The dating of the shroud made in 1988 showing its origin in the Middle Ages, has been strongly questioned for various reasons. The Shroud of Turin is apparently one of the most studied artifacts in history and continues to be the object of intense interest and fascination.

And all this centers on the simple yet stunning fact that Jesus returned to life after suffering a horrendous death at the hands of the Roman authorities intent on keeping the peace.  Jesus conquered death itself! It was the ultimate miracle, and one which he invites us to share with him no matter who or what we are. And note that all four gospels speak not one word as to what actually happened at that moment. Indeed, if authentic, the only witness to the resurrection is this Shroud itself! These three days, the Triduum, the Latin name for it, retrace that path Jesus took, from the table of the Last Supper to the cold stone tomb where his body was laid three days later. He was the only one who knew what was to happen. All this, even though he had told his followers several times that he was to be publicly humiliated, condemned and was going to be killed. They were incapable of believing him. No wonder! He had done nothing wrong, had performed incredible acts of healing and forgiveness, had accepted everyone he met, including Samaritans and Gentiles, setting an example of love and humility for all to imitate.

They didn’t know it at the time, but the Last Supper was his way of fulfilling his promise to be with them to the end of time, always present in the Eucharist. His incredible example of total faith in God and total commitment to the vocation God his Father had given him, to be the Messiah, set the example for us down to this day. He set the stage for his death when responding to the high priest’s question, “Are you the Son of God, the One who is to come?” Answering “No” would have betrayed his whole mission, his Father’s trust and his life work, even though it would have meant being spared the horror which was to come upon him. Answering “I don’t know” would have opened him to ridicule and laughter. Answering “Yes” would have meant death for blasphemy. He did not fit the popular image of the soldier-Messiah who was to reestablish the kingdom of David by fighting and conquering the Roman occupying forces, and that was the cause for his death. God’s Messiah was one who preached peace, forgiveness and love. And for that he was tortured and crucified. But it was peace, forgiveness and love which conquered death, the ultimate enemy itself. That is what we are remembering and celebrating in this ultimate, all-conquering event this weekend. It is the reason we are Christian. It is the reason we have hope, and it is the means whereby we make our way through life, inspired by the life, death and resurrection of the Lord. As our Greek Christian brothers and sisters say on Easter day, Χριστός ἀνέστη! Christos anesti – Christ is risen!, and we reply Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! Alythōs anesti – He is truly risen! These days commemorate why we are Christian, why we forgive, why we love and why we embrace life with all it challenges plus all its beauty, as this all comes from the hand of God.

The Last Supper, Cocco n.d., Altus Fine Art.

Reflections on next Sunday’s Mass Readings will be posted on Wednesday.

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