CORPUS CHRISTI

Theologically, the miraculous feeding of the crowd of five thousand men could be understood as a type or prefiguring of Jesus’ gift of the Eucharistic Bread that would spiritually nourish those who believed in him. Christologically, the taking, breaking, and giving of the loaves anticipated the ‘taking” of Jesus in the garden, the “breaking” of his body during his passion and Jesus “giving” of himself as a sacrifice for the sins of humankind. The description of the miracle also points out the disciples’ role in the miraculous feeding of the multitude. Only after they give him what little they have can Jesus bless, break and give it back to them to distribute to the hungry crowd. St. Luke tells us that Jesus demands all his followers to “share what little they have” when they gather for the Lord’s Supper. No matter how insignificant or small our gift, it could be the very thing Jesus blesses to satisfy the hunger of those around us. To die by becoming one with each other and to die by sharing ourselves are at the heart of the Eucharist. If those elements are missing, our rubrics and actions are meaningless. In Greek, the word  Koinonia is used by the Christian writers to describe both the Eucharistic communion and the communion of wealth. For the first Christian communities the two things were the same. (Acts 2:42-45).

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

The feast of the Most Holy Trinity invites us to live in the awareness of the presence of the Triune God within us: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Holy Trinity, a doctrine enunciated by the ecumenical councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, is one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity and the greatest mystery of our Faith, namely, that there are Three Divine Persons, sharing the same Divine nature in one God. “There is one God, who has three Persons, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Each Person is God, yet there is still only one God.” We have Father Who is the Creator, Son the Redeemer and Holy Spirit the Sanctifier and Counselor. The doctrine of Three Persons in one God, equal in Divinity yet distinct in Persons, is not explicitly spelt out in the Bible. Even the very word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible. But the doctrine of the Trinity underlies the major Christian feasts, including Christmas, the Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. All the official prayers of the Church, including the Holy Mass and the Sacraments begin with an address to the Holy Trinity:”  In the name of the Father and the Son and the holy spirit.”We are baptized, absolved of our sins and anointed in the name of the Trinity. Throughout the world, church bells can ring three times a day inviting Christians to pray to God the Father (the Provider);God the Son (the Savior); and God the Holy Spirit (the Sanctifier). We bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross invoking the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and we conclude our prayers glorifying the Holy Trinity, saying  “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.”

THE CHRISTIAN PENTECOST

 

Pentecost marks the end and the goal of the Easter season. For Christians, it is a memorial of the day the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and the Virgin Mary in the form of fiery tongues, an event that took place fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus. The paschal mystery of the Passion, the Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Jesus culminates in the sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father at the request of His Son on Jesus’ disciples. The feast also commemorates the official inauguration of the Christian Church, the Church established by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, by the apostolic preaching of St. Peter, which resulted in the conversion of 3000 Jews to the Christian faith. The Scriptural readings remind us that Pentecost is an event of both the past and the present. The main theme is that the gifts of the Holy Spirit is something to be shared with others. In other words, the gift of the Holy Spirit moves its recipients to action and inspires them to share the gifts with others.

THE ASCENSION

Each Sunday we profess through the Creed , “He ascended into Heaven.”Christ’s Ascension was the culmination of God’s Divine plan for Christ Jesus, and he returned to his Father with  “Mission Accomplished.”The Ascension is the grand finale of all his words and works done for us and for our salvation. It was a culmination, but not the conclusion. As he is now with God in glory, he is now with us in Spirit:  “Behold, I am with you always.”The feast of the Ascension celebrates one aspect of the Resurrection, namely Jesus’ exaltation. He did not wait 40 days to be glorified at God’s right hand. That had already happened at his Resurrection. The focus of this feast is the heavenly reign of Christ, not the historical details, the when and where of the Ascension itself. The Lord would be  “seated at God’s right hand,”meaning He alone would be in control of the continuing plan of salvation through the Spirit, unrestricted by time, space or culture. Thus the Pascal Mystery of Jesus’ passion, death , Resurrection, Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit forms one unbroken reality which is to be understood by Faith. Ascension means that Jesus is with his Father in glory now and will return to us  in glory at the end of time.

JESUS GIVES HIS FOLLOWERS FOUR GIFTS

First, he gives them his love, which will enable them to keep his word. Next, he gives them the Holy Spirit, who will teach them everything they need to know. The Holy Spirit is the abiding love of God available to us, enabling us to accept the friendship of Jesus, while imitating Him, the Master. Third, he gives them his peace to strengthen them against fear in the face of trouble. Here, “peace’ is not just the absence of conflict, but also the far wider concept of  Shalom,the total well-being of the person and community. The promise of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will bring a peace that will quell their fears of the unfolding darkness ahead. In Johannine language , peace, truth, light, life and joyare figurative terms reflecting different facets of the great gift that Jesus has brought from God to the world.  “Peace is my gift to you,”is another way of saying , “I give them eternal life.”The Holy Spirit is available as comforter and guide to those who believe in Jesus and follow in his way. God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are pure love. This love of God and Jesus and the Spirit comes and lives in us, takes up residence in us and lives in our body. When God’s love lives in us, there is much more peace in our families, our churches, our offices. Fourth, Jesus rewards them with the assurance of his second coming.

THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPT OF GLORY

The glorification mentioned in this week end’s gospel passage refers, above all, “to the glory which Christ will receive once he is raised up on the cross (Jn 3:14, 12:32). St. John stresses that Christ’s death is the beginning of his victory; his very crucifixion can be considered the first step in his ascension to his Father. At the same time, it is glorification of the Father, because Christ, by voluntarily accepting death out of love, as a supreme act of obedience to the Will of God, performs the greatest sacrifice man can offer for the glorification of God. The Father will respond to this glorification which Christ offers Him by glorying Christ as Son of Man, that is, in his holy human nature, through his resurrection and ascension to God’s right hand. Thus, the glory which the Son gives the Father is at the same time glory for the Son.” As Christ’s disciples, we also will find our highest motivation and glory by identifying ourselves with Christ’s obedience in our daily lives, especially by keeping his new commandment of sacrificial, unconditional, and forgiving Love.

GOD THE GOOD SHEPHERD

For a long time, the Jewish people had used the Good Shepherd image for God. The usage goes all the way back to Genesis 49:24, which says that Joseph was saved  “By the power of the mighty one of Jacob, by the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, the God of your father…..”  Such imagery was used by Moses, Isaiah, Jerimiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Zachariah, and of course by David in his Psalms. The psalmist addresses Yahweh as his shepherd (Psalm 23:1). “The Lord is my shepherd; nothing I shall want.” “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand”(Ps 95:7).  “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers his lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care”(Is 40:11). Ezekiel foretells what the Messiah will do as a good shepherd.  “I myself will tend my sheep…..I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen th weak”(Ez 34:15-16). In short, God is the ultimate Shepherd of the people, providing guidance, sustenance and protection (Ps 23), and He intended their kings and other leaders to be their shepherds as well.

EUCHARISTIC MEAL WIITH THE RISEN LORD

The return of the apostles to their old occupation sets the stage for the next conversion. Eventually they come to understand that the stranger on the shore directing them to a tremendous catch of fish actually is “the Lord.” They recognize him while they are doing what they have always done. Immediately afterwards, the disciples eat a meal with Jesus. Though later followers of Jesus narrowed the Eucharist into a formal ritual in which everyone shares a small piece of consecrated Bread and a sip of consecrated Wine, his first disciples celebrated his resurrected presence with a complete meal. Jesus authenticated their work by adding to the meal some of the fish they had caught. It was at this point that they realized that their “Lord” was among them, imparting to them the experience of his glorified presence. In John’s Gospel, Jesus opens his ministry with another miracle of abundance at Cana (2:1-11) and closes his ministry with a miracle of abundance on the sea of Tiberias (21:4-6).  “Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish”(21:13). This wording has Eucharistic overtones, but there is no mention of the breaking of bread, both of which are part of the usual Eucharistic formula. This is also reminiscent of the earlier feeding of the five thousand on the shores of the same sea (6:1-!5). Jesus is sensitive both to people’s physical and to their spiritual needs. Since then, the Church has followed Jesus’ example of feeding, clothing, housing, caring for the sick and educating people. Our concern for people’s physical needs not only relieves human suffering, but also constitutes a powerful spiritual witness.

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

 

St. Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, describes the life-style and activities of our earliest predecessors in Christian Faith, holding up for us, as it were, a model of what the Church is called to become. Today’s first reading explains how the Risen Lord continued to show the Divine Mercy to the sick through the healing and preaching ministry of His Apostles in the early Church. The apostles’ Faith enabled them to minister to the people, giving them the Lord’s healing love through the  “signs and wonders”that Jesus has promised would accompany their work. Following the model of service set forth by Jesus, they healed the sick by wielding God’s power over disease and unclean spirits.  “People even came crowding in from towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits-and all of them were cured.”These cures illustrate how the power of the Resurrection can work miracles, even through ordinary people. We know that this power of the Resurrection still operates today because we have seen how a friendly smile, a gentle touch or a willingness to forgive can heal a broken spirit, and how the challenging words of a parent or teacher or a friend can quicken the mind and heart.

 

EASTER: THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

Jesus himself testified to his Resurrection from the dead. (Mk 8:31; Mt 17:22; Lk 9:22). The tomb was empty on Easter Sunday (Lk 24:3). Although the guards claimed (Mt 28:13) that the disciples of Jesus had stolen the body, every sensible Jew knew that it was impossible for the terrified disciples of Jesus to steal the body of Jesus from the tomb guarded by a 16- member team of armed Roman soldiers. The initial disbelief of Jesus’ own disciples in his Resurrection, in spite of his repeated apparitions serves as a strong proof of his Resurrection. It explains why the apostles started preaching the resurrected Christ only after receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The transformation of Jesus’ disciples immediately from men who were hopeless and fearful after the crucifixion (Lk 24:21; Jn 20:19) into men who were confident and bold witnesses of the Resurrection (Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:2), is another proof pointing to the Resurrection The Jews and the Romans could not disprove Jesus’ Resurrection by presenting the dead body of Jesus. The apostles and the early Christians would not have faced martyrdom if they were not absolutely sure of Jesus’ Resurrection. The apostle Paul’s conversion from a persecutor of Christians into a zealous apostle, preaching the Good News of Jesus throughout much of the Gentile world supports the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection (Gal 1:11-17; Acts 9:1; Acts 26: 15-18). The sheer existence of a thriving, empire-conquering early Christian Church, bravely facing three centuries of persecution, supports the truth of Resurrection claim. The New Testament witnesses do not bear the stamp of dupes or deceivers. The apostles and the early Christians were absolutely sure about the Resurrection of Jesus. HAPPY EASTER!!!!