Living in a Time of Preparation (Easter VI - Cycle C)

The first debate in the early Church was whether or not gentiles could become Christians and, if so, how. All of the first Christians were Jews and they understood Christianity to be the fulfillment of Judaism. As the Apostles preached the Gospel, more and more gentiles were also converting. Would they need to embrace all of the customs and practices of Judaism in order to follow Christ?

After a period of debate, the answer of the Church, as guided by the Holy Spirit, was that gentiles did not have to become culturally Jewish in order to be Christian. As Christians, we need to follow the teachings and practices established by Christ, which are rooted in and are the fulfillment of the Old Testament. We live according to the Old Testament in the way Christ reinterpreted the Old Testament teachings and practices for us.

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How to Love as Christ Loves (Easter V - Cycle C)

In my home, we have what we call the Wall of the Dead, where my wife and I display pictures of family members and friends who have died. As the years go by, the area keeps getting larger. But though we remember and pray for relatives who have passed, the sad reality is that in life we sometimes found it challenging to interact with some of them. Needless to say, all families experience such strife.

But what of the command of Jesus to love one another as he loves us? Did we love all our deceased loved ones with such a profound sense of love while they were still alive? Unfortunately, most of the time, we did not. I would love to go back in time and show all those relatives the true love with which we are supposed to love them, but of course that is not possible. But I believe that if we are so blessed as to be admitted into Heaven, there we will love one another as Christ loves us.

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Who Are the Sheep of Christ? (Good Shepherd Sunday - Cycle C)

After Pentecost, when the Apostles began to proclaim the Gospel, their initial understanding was that they were being sent only to the Jewish people. They would spread the Good News of the coming of Christ to all of the people of Israel and then Christ would return, still within their lifetimes. Only gradually did the Apostles start to understand that their mission entailed much, much more. They had to learn that Christ, the Good Shepherd, has far more sheep than just the Israelites.

The first step was the mission to the Samaritans, who lived between the Jewish territories of Galilee and Judea. The Samaritans were the closest to the Jewish people ethnically and religiously, but the two groups were archenemies. Despite the history of acrimony, the Samaritans were receptive to the message of Christ proclaimed by the Apostles and many of them soon joined the early Church.

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Loving with Full Love (Easter III - Cycle C)

I have often joked that feasting at Easter is very biblical because when Jesus returned from the dead, he ate with the disciples. Of course, feasting on joyful occasions is very much a biblical value. But Jesus eating after the resurrection means more than just a celebration.

When the Gospels were written, a philosophical movement called Gnosticism was popular in some circles. Gnostics believed that there were two gods, an evil god who had created the material world and a good god who had created the spiritual world. They believed that humans were a part of the divine spiritual spark that got trapped in the evil material world and that the goal of life was to be freed from matter and return to the spiritual realm. They considered marriage and procreation to be evil because having children perpetuated the entrapment of the spiritual spark in evil matter. The Gnostics had no organized structure of their own, but instead they infiltrated the religious organizations of others and reinterpreted the existing tenets and practices of those groups to suit their outlook.

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The History of the Universe Speaks of God's Mercy (Divine Mercy Sunday - Cycle C)

The Old Testament is usually seen as focusing on the punishment of humanity. But the Church has always read the Old Testament through the lens of Christ, as the preparation for the coming of Christ. Looked at it from that perspective, we can see that the Old Testament is, in reality, an elaborate preparation for God's most merciful act.

God became incarnate, becoming one of us, taking on our human nature. He then offered himself up as a sacrifice upon the Cross to atone for the sins of humanity, for all of our sins. From the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis, the entire Old Testament is a preparation for the Incarnation, for Christ coming among us and redeeming us through his death and resurrection.

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How Easter Transformed the Universe (Easter Sunday - Cycle C)

We see in the Book of Genesis that God created a perfect world, free of any defect or imperfection. Clearly, however, we do not live in such a world today. Reflecting on the human condition might leave us with bleak thoughts. Our lives are beset with sorrow. Society is in the grip of destructive forces. The natural world tends toward decay. Our brief journey upon the earth ends in death. But there is much more to our story than such despairing thoughts. The message of Easter gives us true hope, true meaning.

The Fall of humanity had marred all of the world. But the death and resurrection of Christ changed the course of human history and set in motion the transformation of the entire universe. The restoration and renewal brought about by Christ has three aspects: our personal salvation, the healing of society, and the remaking of the natural world.

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Two Powers Opposed Each Other on Palm Sunday (Palm Sunday - Cycle C)

As the Passover approached, two opposing powers entered Jerusalem. The first was Pontius Pilate, with a strong force of Roman soldiers. The Romans always strengthened their presence in the city in preparation for the Passover feast. The Passover celebrated the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery by the miraculous intervention of God, when Moses was given the power to lead the Israelites to safety.

But at the time of Christ, the Israelites were celebrating the great feast of their liberation under the foreign occupation of the Romans. Unrest was very likely. The city was like a tinderbox that could go up in flames any moment. The Romans made a show of raw military power to reinforce their occupation and the oppressive order that the Empire had imposed upon the land. Pilate himself, the local Roman governor, was in town to oversee the demonstration of dominance.

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