7 April 2013 - winning team

7 April 2013 - winning team

The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:

The LORD wants us to share in his victory.  We are immobilized by fear, locked in the upper room.  But the LORD enters anyway and reveals himself.  He is not simply raised to the life he had before as Lazarus was.  He is the Risen One who will never die again.


He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last, the one who lives.
Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever.
I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.

And this is the victory we share.  As we share in it more and more the world around us is transformed.


A large number of people from the towns
in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered,
bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits,
and they were all cured.

Hearing us this may well inspire us to feel like Thomas if this hasn't been our experience of the Christian life.  We may feel left out that the others saw the LORD's resurrection and we haven't.  It may even make us stubborn and slow to believe what they tell us as his witnesses.  But no need to fear! The LORD comes for us as well.

Jesus came, although the doors were locked,

and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

He will not let anything stop him from revealing himself to us in the full power of the resurrection except for our own free will.  Let us not be somewhere off on our own.  Let us gather with the disciples so that the LORD may draw the confession of Thomas from the depths of our hearts as well:

“My Lord and my God!”

6 April 2013 - motivational speaking

6 April 2013 - motivational speaking

It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”

This is the attitude which the LORD desires for us as well.  He wants us to have so encountered him in the power of his resurrection that, frankly, we can't shut up about it.

But, we say, we haven't seen with our own as as they did and so of course they have an advantage in terms of entusiasm over us.


he appeared to them
and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart
because they had not believed those
who saw him after he had been raised.

He works powerfully in those who testify on his behalf.  The grace present in such testimonies is more than enough to cut to the heart and convert.  If we have trouble believing the witnesses he sends the problem is likely within us rather than them.  But even so, he doesn't leave us.  He appears to us, too, to confirm and renew our faith.  This empowers us to share the mission he has for everyone.


He said to them, “Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

As we experience the LORD's victory we are empowered to share it with all we meet.  Let us share the psalmist's experience of overwhelming joy in the LORD's victory so that our lives might radiate his presence to others in a way that is contagious.

“The right hand of the LORD is exalted;

the right hand of the LORD has struck with power.”

5 April 2013 - net profit

5 April 2013 - net profit

So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”

Jesus wants us to recognize the characteristic ways in which he works in our lives.  Peter is to be a fisher of men so Jesus blesses him to see the fruitlessness of his own efforts compared to the huge numbers he catches when he listens to the voice of Jesus.

God is equipping Peter to answer this question:

“By what power or by what name have you done this?”

It is a preparation which is ultimately completed and sealed when he is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered them,

Filled with the Spirit he can speak definitively and with certainty:


There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”

He knows what happens when he fishes in his own name and what happens when he fishes in the name of Jesus.  Circumstances may make it seem like there is risk to the net itself (which might be the Church or the family or something else) but if he trusts in Jesus there is not.

Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

If we don't know that there is only salvation in the name of Jesus we tend to try every other name first.  We build with every stone except the cornerstone of God.  The name of Jesus is a plan B or a last resort  for us.


He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.

Building on Jesus as the cornerstone means a lot more than a subjective decision about Jesus.  It means how that decision plays out in everything we do in life.  In fact, it means relinquishing control of the whole building project and letting the LORD do it.


By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.

What is he building?  A renewed world.  The world of time is being reoriented toward eternity.  The everlasting is breaking into the world even now in the lives of Christians who know the power of the name of Jesus.


This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.

4 April 2013 - i, witness

4 April 2013 - i, witness

Then he opened their minds

Even though he had spoken very plainly before about his death and resurrection the apostles couldn't quite accept it.  They were so fixed on their ideas of how he would "redeem Israel" that they couldn't understand his actual plan.  They are not left on their own to figure it out, however.  He himself opens their minds which by all indications would otherwise remain closed.  Still, one wonders why now and not sooner.  Apparently, the actual experience of the Paschal mystery is a prerequisite to understanding it.  Now they aren't just people with a certain special knowledge.  They are witnesses to an event.  

You are witnesses of these things.”

The events of the Paschal mystery are not just historical knowledge to anyone.  They are an encounter with love himself and a choice of how to respond.


You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.


In our every sin we are there condemning the author of life.  But this is part of his plan from the beginning.  No wonder we can't understand fully at this point, still partly set against him as we are.  Even so, he holds out the choice to us:


Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away,
and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment
and send you the Christ already appointed for you, Jesus,

It isn't simply that he is going to let us get away with our crime.  It isn't even that he is just going to wipe it away, though he is.  He wants to grant us times of refreshment.  He wants to see the temporal order ("times") itself renewed. He wants to fill us with his joy.


O LORD, our Lord,
how glorious is your name over all the earth!

Just as he gave Adam and Eve dominion over the natural creation Jesus now bestows on us a supernatural dominion over sin and death by the power of his resurrection.


You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet.

This is exactly what the beggar experiences from Peter in the temple.


And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.

Insofar as we let Jesus open our minds to his love and plan for the world we will begin to experience his dominion over sin and death.  Our hearts will be transformed and we will experience victory over habits of sin that seemed unbreakable.  We will be able to relate to people with a new and selfless generosity rather than just what we have left over after taking care of ourselves. Even physical healing is now possible if the LORD wills because death is defeated!  All this is possible in the name, that is, united with the whole divine and human person, of Jesus.

O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

3 April 2013 - Close Encounters

3 April 2013 - Close Encounters

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

Isn't it interesting that he is walking alongside them, speaking to them, and teaching them. Yet they don't recognize him.  It isn't that the Risen One is far from them.  It isn't that he is silent.  It is a process. There is such a mixture of hopes and disappointments that keep pulling them in different directions and keep them from seeing the one who stands next to them.


Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning 
and did not find his Body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.

And at the same time:


how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;

All the while Jesus stands next to them.  Even after he explains the whole plan to them they still don't quite get it.


Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.

But when he gives them the option to continue or not they know enough to keep him close.

But they urged him, “Stay with us,

for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”

Darkness is closing in on them but if he stays with them they know it won't be so dark.  Finally he reveals himself definitively and they are able to recognize him.

he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The new mode of his presence already begins to supersede the old.  It may seem more abstract but it is actually much more intimate and close.  Now they can look back on their past with new understanding:

“Were not our hearts burning within us

while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

It is this closeness which gives Peter the conviction he shows to beggar in the temple:

but what I do have I give you: 

in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”

Jesus isn't just alongside of him.  He has the Spirit.  He has the Eucharistic LORD.  And he has such abundance that he can't help but give him to others.

Sing to him, sing his praise,

proclaim all his wondrous deeds.

Indeed, let the experience of the beggar be our own:

He leaped up, stood, and walked around,

and went into the temple with them,

walking and jumping and praising God.

2 April 2013 - called by name

2 April 2013 - called by name

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”

She doesn't realize that she talked to angels.  At first she doesn't recognize Jesus even when he himself is speaking to her.  The risen Jesus speaks to her but she doesn't realize it until he calls her by name.


Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” 

Only when it is personal and she is known in all of her individuality does is she finally able to see the one who is speaking to her.  We are not just one amongst a a congregation.  We are not just one lost in a sea of faces.  He knows us.  He calls our name.  He comes to us in all of our individuality to reveal himself as the risen one.  He knows about our preconceptions and struggles and everything that makes our case unique and difficult.  Mary Magdalene displays immense love for the LORD yet she clings first to the idea that he is dead and second to the idea that now things will be just as they were before he died.  In calling her by name Jesus penetrates past all this to the deepest part of her heart.  She is able to realize he is risen and is able to restrain her desire to keep him here as he is and so allow him to go to the Father in order that he might pour out the Spirit on his people.

The Spirit guides his people into all truth.  Whereas Jesus before his ascension is still external to us the Spirit is the very life of God within us.  Before the Pentecost we see cycles of fear when Jesus is distant and hope when he is near.  But now that the Spirit has come we are closer to God than ever before and need never be distant from him again.  His truth is now internal, written on our hearts, and so we can be confident like Peter.


“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Transformed by the Spirit we can't help but want for others what we ourselves have received.


“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We have doubted his plans for us and for the world at one time or another.  Maybe we're even doubting it right now.  But the Spirit is ready to fill our hearts with new confidence.


Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.

1 April 2013 - life unlocked

1 April 2013 - life unlocked

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the news to his disciples.

They are fearful yet they cannot keep this to themselves.  Everything is changed now.  Just a day ago all of their most profound hopes had been dashed to the ground.  Now everything seems possible.  But the fear is a remnant of the old world order.  It is even now being cast out by the Holy Spirit.


he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit 
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear.”

Peter too experiences the joy of the resurrection but is still dominated by fear before Pentecost.  He sees the risen LORD but remains in the locked upper room.  Once the Spirit comes he can remain locked in no longer.  His boldness is striking.


This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.

Our encounters with the risen Jesus are meant to be a starting point.  Already we can't help but speak of the experience.  But there is still fear.  We need more and more the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He himself is the life of the resurrection alive in us. We need our own personal Pentecost to inspire us to unlock the doors and go out and tell a dying world about our hope in Jesus.


Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, 
and there they will see me.”

We need not fear any more because he lives.  Let us fix our gaze on him.


I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.