Doubt – A Reflection for the Second Sunday of Easter

By Sister Natalie DeLuca, MHSH

Acts 4:32-35; Ps 118:2-3,13-15,22-24; 1Jn 5:1-6; Jn 20:19-31

The first reading for the Second Sunday of Easter is taken from the Acts of the Apostles and gives an almost picture-perfect word sketch of those first followers of Jesus: “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common….With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus….There was no needy person among them….

Full of conviction, the second reading from the first letter of Saint John, gives us the key to this legacy: “And the victory that conquers the world is our Faith.  Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” 

But the Gospel brings us back to the faith-struggle and gives us a reality check.

Remember when the risen Lord appeared to the disciples behind locked doors the first time? Thomas wasn’t there.  When he was told of the appearance, he was skeptical, to say the least!   Yes, he was still one of them—that motley group of followers, of weary fishermen, of common folk.  Thomas probably thought he would gather with these same believers to share memories, loss, grief, a need to mourn and to muster the courage and the will to “move on” in life.

It wasn’t going to be an easy task.  He seemed convinced his friends, perhaps stricken by grief, were imagining things.  The memory of a bloody Jesus, beaten and defiled filled his heart.  How could Jesus have stood in their midst and greeted them with “Peace”?  How could this be?   “We have seen the Lord.”  It was a declaration of certainty.  And no one could convince them otherwise.

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week goes by.  The disciples have gathered together again.  And this time Thomas—with all his doubts—was with them.  Locked doors were hardly a barrier for Jesus.  Again, Jesus stood in their midst and said: “Peace be with you.”  And then he turned to Thomas.  “Put your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving but believe.” 

“My Lord and My God!” Thomas replied with believing eyes and a humble faith. 

For reflection:

• Where am I in my journey of faith? Skeptic? Infancy? Teen? Adult? Struggling believer
• Faith does not preclude questions or even doubts.
• Begin a dialogue with the resurrected Jesus about your faith journey.

 

Waiting for Resurrection

By Sister Joanne Frey, MHSH

Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Jn 10:1-9 

We live much of our lives in waiting, most of it waiting in hope:

…For the birth of a first child, or of a second child
…For white smoke over the Vatican
…For word we’ve been accepted at our preferred college
…To hear we got the job
…To be tenured in our position

All these periods of waiting can be completed in joy, in exultation; in a fullness of life that we had hoped for. All positive waiting is seeking new life, enriched life, fulfilled life.

The celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection is all about life—life that overcame the greatest of losses—death of the self—of his very being.

Looking at Jesus’ life among us in one way is all about causing resurrections:

• The man blind from birth is given sight; surely he rises to a new life.  He knows, he experiences resurrection. (John 9:1-41)
• The woman touches the garment of the Lord with faith in what Jesus can do for her and she is cured of a hemorrhage she has suffered for years and years.  Surely she rises to a new life among her family and friends.  She experiences resurrection. (Luke 8:44-49)
• The paralytic takes up his bed and walks at the word of Jesus.  Surely he rises to a new life among his comrades.  He experiences resurrection. (Matt 9:1-8)
• The woman at the well, searching with a determined perseverance for happiness, she feels deeply that happiness is her right.  The Lord offers her “living water” and she accepts discipleship.  She surely experiences resurrection.

Alright, Jesus, we get the message. It isn’t meant that we wait until this body “gives up the ghost.”  We are meant to experience resurrections as we travel the journey of this life.

I experience a taste of resurrection when the word comes that my friend’s pathology report finds “no cancer.”  The word is shared among family and friends, life is shared and resurrection is experienced.

My friend phones after a long wait.  She has been overly busy.  I hear her voice and loving greeting.  She has missed me as much as I have waited for her call.  I delight in new life.  I experience resurrection.

All of this waiting and all the joys of resurrection won’t hold a candle to the great day of our rising to new life in Christ.  In the meantime, let’s wait in joyous expectation.

For your reflection:

It may be a good start to take your New Testament and read the stories in the sections mentioned in the above text.

Now, just sit quietly and recall the experiences of resurrection to new life that you can truly call your own.

A reading of John, chapter 20, will describe for you the Resurrection of our Savior. Spend time with Jesus to describe for him your experiences.

An Easter Prayer

Lord, we believe we are here to be light, to bring out God’s hue, God’s color, in the world. Imagine the transformation if we make a commitment to flood our world with God’s brightness, with positive energy, with hope and compassion. We want to stand in the light and spill the amazing and astounding light of God at the center of all that we can hope to be  for our world.  Amen  (Edith Prendergast)

A Reflection for Good Friday

By Sister Elizabeth Langmead, MHSH

Is 52:13-53; Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25: Heb 4:14-16; Jn 18:1-19:42

Good Friday.  Five brief days from the glory of Palm Sunday when Jesus entered into Jerusalem amidst cries of “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…Hosanna in the highest.”  Today, in the Gospel of John, we hear the crowd cry, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!”  How quickly life can change.

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord,” goes the hymn.  Our readings for Good Friday speak of some of those who were there and of some who foretold the happenings of this day regarding Jesus the Lord, the suffering servant.

Jesus, the one who says, “…learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart.” (Mt 11:29)  St. Paul writes, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor 9-10) What does it mean to believe that when we are weak we are strong?  How are we challenged to be followers of this suffering servant?  Where in our world today do we see the Cross of Christ—the one who “was spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hid their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.” (Is 53:3-4) We might pause and call to mind those we hesitate to look upon…who did we pass by today?  Who is it in our world we consider weak or when are those times we become discouraged by our own weakness?

Perhaps a guide for this day can be Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Can’t you almost hear her speaking to us in the following worlds by Robert Browning Hamilton:  “I walked a mile with Sorrow, and never a word said she; but, oh, the things I learned from her when Sorrow walked with me?”

Not too many days ago we celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be the mother of God.  As she pondered this happening in her heart did she have any idea of where that “Yes” would lead her?  Mary gives witness to “love as a verb.”  To hold in heart and prayer the pain of a loved one is no passive act.  Oftentimes, it has been my realization of how very little I can do for another in their pain that allows me to surrender to the need to do something.  It is then that I am able to give myself over to simply being with another in their sorrow. 

Have you sat with a friend or loved one experiencing the betrayal of divorce…the death of a child, a spouse, a sibling, a parent?  Perhaps it was when you were waiting with someone in the doctor’s office or emergency room of a hospital.  Have you tried to reach out to someone hurting?  Mary stood by and stood with Jesus and his friends knowing the deep sorrow of powerlessness, while remaining faithful to her “Yes” to the mystery of God.

We know that Good Friday and the Cross are not the final answer, yet endure our crosses we must if we are to rise to new life.  Look to Jesus, the one who shows us the Way, who is our Truth and our Life. (Jn 14:6). In his weakness is our glory!

“This Night” – A Reflection on Holy Thursday

By Sister Clare Walsh, MHSH

Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; Ps 116:12-13, 15-18; 1Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15

Holy Thursday. Passover. “Why is this night different from all others?”

We are tempted not so much to ignore the evil in the world as to feel overwhelmed by it, frozen by a sense of futility. Holy Thursday opens countless opportunities for prayer, but among them are ordinary acts having a profound, long-lasting effect.

Friends gathered, a meal shared, forgiveness offered, bread broken, wine poured, memory evoked, service rendered. Most often it is the small, everyday act of kindness and compassion that define us and break the cycle of futility.

Holy Thursday makes clear that we are not here to lord over one another; we are here to wash another’s feet. It is as if Jesus is saying to us, “Do not be afraid to stoop down and offer the most humble service imaginable to one another.”

Homeless people having their feet washed by volunteers at the First United Methodist Chuch of Miami.

Foot washing is one of those small, everyday expressions of humble service that reveal us to be followers of Jesus. Look around your world of family, neighborhood, work…what might foot washing look like today?

Why, in 2012, “is this night different from all others?”

Entry Into the Paschal Mystery – A Reflection for Palm Sunday

By Sister Donna Fannon, MHSH

Mk 11:1-10 (At the procession); Is 50:4-7; Ps 22:8-19, 17-20, 23-24; Mk 14:1-72; Mk 15:1-39

Palm Sunday ushers us into Holy Week.  As we receive our palm branch and listen to the opening Gospel we are transported in our imagination to the scene of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, seated on a donkey.

The crowds are still looking for a triumphant hero who will release them from the treacherous rule of the Romans.  But, as we hear the Passion narrative—this year it’s from Mark—we remember that Jesus was alone in his suffering and death. The crowds did not get what they were looking for.

It is significant that Mark’s Passion narrative begins with the story of a woman who manages to break into a dinner party where Jesus is present.  She anoints Jesus’ body with expensive oil.  We are told that the oil was worth a year’s wages.  She breaks the jar and pours the oil on Jesus’ head.  Her action was not appreciated by the dinner guests.  However, Jesus commends her.  Immediately after that, Judas goes off to look for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to the authorities.

This story can inspire us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We might think of how we spend a year’s wages (a sharing of our gifts) to soothe the pain of those who make up the suffering Body of Christ in the world today.

As Holy Week unfolds and leads us to Easter joy, we come to a deeper realization that although there may not be many earthly rewards for us as disciples, Jesus promises to be with us now and “he prepares a place for us so that where he is, we also may be.” (Jn 14:3)

Questions for reflection:

• Do you feel confident enough in your relationship with God to trust your life with him?
• How does God trust you?  Who are some of the people that God entrusts to your care?
• What graces do you need in order to live in this trust?

“Create A Clean Heart in Me, O God” – A Reflection for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

By Sister M. Martha Pavelsky, MHSH

Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51:3-4, 2-15; Jn 12:20-33

Last spring, during the Easter season, we enjoyed the beauty and fragrance of several hyacinth plants. After they had bloomed and then gradually wilted and dried, I continued to water them in the hope of a second bloom.  Nothing happened and after a while I gave up and put the pots aside. Almost a year has passed and the other day something in the neglected flower pots caught my eye.

What was that yellowish, white thing? Could it be? Yes, it was a tender shoot pushing through the earth saying, “I died and was buried, but now, here I am emerging from the earth alive and new.” It took time, but the transformation happened. Another and another bud pushed through and I was awed at the miracle and determination of life over death.

We hear about such surprise and transformation in the readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent.  Jesus tells us that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.  But if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

Being the servant, the follower of Jesus means that we understand the story of the seed, the lesson of the plant. Those periods of death, darkness, loss, doubt and confusion that every one of us experiences in our lives, are the environment, the incubation period from which faith, enlightenment and rebirth emerge.

And where is the nurturing place for such a faith? In the first reading we hear the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people.”

God has placed the seed of faith in our hearts. Our hearts are that place of incubation for renewal, discovery, transformation, birth. Our Lenten discipline enables us to clarify the direction of our lives, to face and deal with the dark places within and to accommodate the challenges of daily dying and rising.

May we nurture in our hearts during this “season of incubation” new stirrings of hope, possibilities and responsiveness to the call of the one who “became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

We pray in the words of the responsorial psalm:

“Create a Clean Heart in Me, O God”

The “Sticky Fingers of Divine Providence” – A Refection for the Fourth Week of Lent

By Sister Jane Geiger, MHSH

[2 Chr 36:15-16, 19-23; Ps 137:1-6; Jn 3:14-21]

“Gutsy” might best describe Nicodemus:  gutsy, but not stupid. It seems he had to meet with Jesus, but he took care to come in the dark so fewer people would see—although, as part of a small population, he certainly knew that even the night has eyes and word travels fast.

So his status as a respected religious leader might have been jeopardized by his visit to a questionable “wonder worker.”  Nevertheless, he went, impelled by a hunger to understand.

Cyrus, too, seems daring. Yes, he may have wanted to deport a troublesome ethnic group, but they were also one of his main sources of labor (why does this sound familiar?), and their exodus left the country in significant need of workers.  Credit—or blame?—is attributed to God for inspiring Cyrus’ decree.

In our time, God gets less credit or blame for the decisions of humans.  Only when we look back from some decades’ distance do we perceive the sticky fingerprints of divine providence and mutter to ourselves, “So that’s where God was going,” or “So that’s why that evil was allowed to happen.”

We need to learn and relearn, all through the span of our days, that life can be drawn even from darkest death.  We need to be patient, giving God time to draw dazzling good out of deep evil.

–What “deep evil” do you see—in our world or in yourself—that you are hoping God can heal?

–How might your patient waiting and working toward that healing be in itself a work of God?

–Do you see any sticky fingerprints as you look back?