A First Easter

“Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.”  (Matthew 28:5)

Imagine experiencing Easter for the very first time.

Sometime last year, one of our youth group kids brought a young lady to church with her.  This young lady had never been to church before, had never been baptized, and knew almost nothing about the faith.  Soon she started coming to youth group and I got to know her and noticed she was a kind, very peaceful young lady.  It’s rare to find a teenager who radiates peace.  One night, as I processed up for the evening Mass, I noticed that her friend had invited her to sing in the choir.  So August rolls around and I start announcing that our Catechumenate classes were about to start for all those who weren’t baptized, and this young lady approaches me to tell me that she would like to be baptized.  Of course, I’m overjoyed whenever anyone, especially a young person, tells me that they want to be baptized.  So she begins her classes and is ever attentive to every lesson.  She goes on her first retreat back in September with the Youth Encounters where she delves deeper into who Jesus is, and around Christmas she tells that friend who first brought her to church that she would like her to be her godmother.  As Holy Week approached, I tell those who are going to be baptized to join me for all the Holy Triduum services so that they can experience them for the first time and walk with Jesus on his journey.  Now this young lady was going to play an integral part in our Good Friday services since our youth group kids were going to stage a living Way of the Cross, and she had been chosen to be Mary.  I had no objections.  I just smiled thinking that we were asking a sweet young lady who wasn’t even baptized to play the part of the Mother of God.  As we went through the stations, she looked on at the young man playing Jesus as if he were Jesus himself.  The tears streaming down her cheeks were genuine.  She wasn’t acting or performing, and when we came to the 13^th station when Jesus is taken down from the cross, he was placed in her arms right in front of me and her head sank so tenderly down to his body.  In every photograph that was taken of that scene, you cannot see her face.  She felt Mary’s pain.  She felt the agony of that moment.  Later on, the young man playing Jesus told me that when she held him at that 13^th station, he felt as if his own mother was holding him.  Truly, you can’t make this stuff up especially when it comes to teenagers.

So we come to last night and the great Easter Vigil.  Seventeen people were going to baptized along with this young lady who sat in the third pew on the aisle hanging on to every word that was uttered and on every liturgical action.  Then the moment came when she approached me at the baptismal font with her best friend who is now her godmother.  I try to be very stoic during Masses and weddings and baptisms, but I must confess that it was tough holding in my genuine joy at that precise moment.  She approached me with her big, peaceful brown eyes and bowed her head over the baptismal font, and I gently poured water three times over her head and invoked the Holy Trinity.  Every person baptized last night got a rousing applause, but the entire youth group was sitting in the back and exploded in cheers when she emerged from those life-giving waters.  She was finally home.  I proceeded to confirm her and give her First Communion.  She was really home.  At one point, I thought to myself, “Would you look at that? `Mary’ is finally baptized!”

What struck me throughout the week is how she took in all of this mystery for the first time. I don’t know much about her past, and quite frankly I really do not give it a second thought.  All I know is that she has a future filled with grace with this great family of the Church that she was just baptized into.  She is a living witness of the Risen Christ just like the women who went to the tomb early on that first Easter morning.  Those women were overjoyed at meeting the Risen Christ just as this young lady was and their mission was to tell others what they had seen. 

We would do well to learn from the example of this new sister in Christ who experienced the Easter mysteries for the very first time.  Imagine how those women felt when they saw Jesus.  Imagine how Peter and John felt when they saw the empty tomb.  Imagine how our mother Mary reacted when she first saw her Son risen from the dead.  Our Lord is very much alive and I have seen him in the wonderful young people that walked with him these last few days from the table of the Last Supper to Gethsemane to Golgotha and finally to the empty tomb.  May we approach our Risen Lord this Easter Sunday as if we were meeting him for the very first time.

Postscript:  I preached this homily at my 10am Mass this morning.  Many of the youth group kids were back and went to Mass again because they were helping out with our Easter Egg Hunt.  The newly baptized young lady was not there.  When I preached this homily again at our way overcrowded Noon Mass, I was a quarter of the way through the story when I looked to my left and noticed that the kids had snuck her in through a side door and they were all sitting on the floor in front of the first side pew to my left.  When I finished the story, I approached her, took her by the hand, had her stand up and said to her, “Let me introduce you to your new family” as I motioned to the overflowing church.  The congregation erupted in applause, and, as always since I’ve known her, she cried tears of joy. (And if this story doesn't get any better, today is her birthday!)  What a gift to be a Christian!  What an even greater gift to be a new Christian on Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter, my friends!

Holy Saturday: Silence, Please

The Church marks Holy Saturday with silence.  We wait by the tomb for Jesus to rise.  Silence is elusive, challenging, and sometimes very hard to find.  During the three days of the Triduum, I try to catechize my people to observe solemn silence before and after the liturgies.  This is especially true on Good Friday when the Service of the Passion begins and ends in silence.  Last night, before I said the "Prayer Over the People" which concludes the liturgy, there was a hushed silence in a church that was packed with at least 1500 people.  So before we finished, I asked the people to observe that same silence as they walked out of the church.  It worked last year.  This year, as I was reading the second to last sentence of the final prayer, there was a big thud in the back of the church and some commotion.  I looked up briefly and noticed that someone had fainted.  It took me an extra five seconds to finish the prayer and then the ministers and I departed the sanctuary in silence while the back of the church was still murmuring over the man that had fainted.  The gentleman was fine, but everyone, God bless them, had to pass by and inquire how we was doing.  "So much for silence," I thought. 
Even this morning, it is difficult to find silence in any church as we prepare and decorate our churches for tonight's Easter Vigil.  Just sitting here in my office writing this mediation I was interrupted several times to check on one thing or the other.  "So much for silence."  Yet we must make time for silence this day as we prepare our hearts for what will happen tonight:  the Great Easter Vigil.  If you have never been to the Easter Vigil, I invite you to attend one in your parish.  It is a beautiful liturgy that consists of a Service of Light, the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of Baptism (as we baptize 17 adults in my parish alone), and finally the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  This is the night in which our Savior rises from that silent tomb.  So until we gather in church this evening to light our candles and rejoice in the central mystery of our salvation, may we make time for silence to reflect on what has happened during this Holy Week and what is yet to come.

Good Friday: Look What We Did to Our God

"Who would believe what we have heard?" (Isaiah 53:1)

Behold the cross.  Look at what we did.  Just look at what we did to Mary's boy.  His only crime was loving us, having faith in us, forgiving us, healing us, and this is how we repay him.  This is what we do to the greatest gift our Father in heaven has ever given to us.  Look at what we did to our God.

The cross is a challenge to each of us.  As Max Lucado says, we cannot ignore the cross nor be indifferent to it.  When we behold the power of Christ's love for us as he hung there in agony, we must ask ourselves:  "What can I do, what MUST I do to repay such love?"  Everyone around that cross reacted in different ways to what transpired on Golgotha.  They may have reacted with scorn or with love but none of the participants in this drama were indifferent.  The thing is that we take the cross for granted.  We want our Jesus clean and risen and glorious and smiling, but how do we react when he is being tortured on a piece of wood, gasping painfully for every breath, looking almost inhuman:  "so marred were his features, beyond that of mortals his appearance, beyond that of human beings (Isaiah 52:14)."

As we come forward to adore the Holy Cross, take in what he did for you.  He did this, he gave his life, he suffered the cruelest of deaths because he loved you.  It was Blessed John Paul II that once said during a Stations of the Cross:  "Look at what you have done, in this man, to your God."

Holy Thursday: Sharing the Oil of Gladness

"If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet." (John 13:14)

Around Tuesday afternoon, I had already in my mind figured out the central theme for my homily for this Mass of the Lord's Supper.  I wanted to speak in general terms more or less about how at ordination, priests are anointed with the oil of gladness to share with their people.  Well, first thing this morning when I woke up, even before offering up my morning prayer, I reached for my iPad so that I could read Pope Francis' Holy Thursday Chrism Mass homily to his priests and wouldn't you know it, some of his first words were:  "The Lord has anointed us with the oil of gladness."  Later that morning, I was buying incense for tonight's Mass at the Daughters of St. Paul and jokingly told one of the sisters, "Sister, I think the Pope is stealing my material."  Obviously, this is the work of the Holy Spirit!  There is a central message that the Spirit wants all of priests: from the Pope to this lowly priest to share.  Tonight we gather to celebrate the institution of the priesthood and of the Eucharist.  Jesus offered us the great example in tonight's gospel when he bowed before his disciples and washed their feet.  As the Holy Father pointed out, Jesus took on the task of a slave.  He gave us a shining example of how to serve others.  The Eucharist, like the priesthood, becomes the sacrament of total self-giving.  Just as Christ offers himself at this altar every time we gather to celebrate this sacred mysteries, so too we are called to offer ourselves as our Lord did.

As a priest and a pastor, this evening takes on special significance for me because I get to do what the Lord did with his disciples.  I get to express my love for all of you in a very real way in just a few minutes when I will kneel before 12 of our brothers and sisters and wash, dry and kiss their feet.  As a priest, I was anointed with the oil of gladness, the Holy Father points out, so that I may anoint you with the oil of gladness.  And this oil, this sweet, sweet oil contains such a divine fragrance.  Just like the incense that we offered at the beginning of Mass that rises to the heavens with our prayers, this oil should give off the fragrance of love.  "Jesus loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the extreme."  As priests, we model our lives after our Master, Jesus Christ, and lay down our lives for each of you.  We anoint you with the oil of gladness, and when we fail you, you lift us up with your prayers and squeeze out every ounce of oil from our hands so that we may bless you.  What a joy it is to be a priest of Jesus Christ!  What a joy it is to serve each of you!  What a joy to be able to anoint you with this oil of gladness!  Each of us, who through baptism were anointed with the same Sacred Chrism that my hands were anointed with, yes, each of us carries the fragrance of the Son of God because we were made one with Christ in his ministry as priest, prophet, and king.  Jesus came not to lord over us as a king who rules, but to serve us as a servant king.  The King of Kings knelt down like a lowly slave to wash his disciples feet in a supreme act of love and as an everlasting example for us to follow.  And as my mom so beautifully pointed out to sum up this evening: this act of love of washing each others feet is not the work of slaves, it is the work of kings!

Praised be Jesus Christ, our Shepherd and High Priest!

Holy Wednesday: The Francis Effect

Last night, my associate and I with the help of a Pauline priest walked out of our confessionals at 10:30pm after hearing over 200 confessions.  When the evening started, I looked out at a chapel full of penitents and I knew that more were on their way.  After 12 years, I'm used to this and even embrace this merry onslaught of confessions during Holy Week.  After we were done, my associate and I emerged from our confessionals tired but joyful.  He smiled and simply said jokingly, "This is the Pope's fault.  The picture of him going to confession has brought all these people out."  I couldn't agree more.  My associate has been faithfully serving at my parish for over 17 years.  He noted that in all those years, we had never heard so many confessions during Lent.  It wasn't just last night. Last Saturday, he heard 64 confessions by himself on Saturday afternoon because I was out of the parish at a wedding.  Last Friday and Saturday, our neighboring church and many churches throughout the Archdiocese were open for Reconciliation Weekend and were full.  I joined 6 priests on Friday night and it took us 2 hours to hear everyone's confessions.  A few weeks ago during our Lenten mission, two Argentine missionary priests heard probably over 30 hours of confession in my parish during the course of a week.  And still there were more confessions to be heard....

So, if this famous picture below is what is causing this rush back to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, then "Thank you Holy Father" for inspiring our people to return to the Lord and embrace his mercy.  There's still time.  Call your parish and ask for the sacrament.  Don't let Easter dawn if you haven't cleansed your soul.

Holy Tuesday: Pray for Your Priests

This morning all of the priests of the Archdiocese of Miami will gather in the Cathedral of St. Mary's for the Annual Chrism Mass and the Renewing of Priestly Promises.  We gather with our Archbishop to renew the promises we made at ordination to be good shepherds after the Lord's own heart, to pray for our people, and to offer the sacraments for the redemption of souls.  It is a beautiful Mass that is part of Holy Week and brings together this uncommon brotherhood of men who serve God's people as their priests.  Towards the end of the renewal of priestly promises, the Archbishop turns to the people and asks them to pray for their priests and the people consent to this request.

Truth be told, we need your prayers and we feel your prayers.  Many years ago, a wise old priest would tell everyone he met as he said goodbye to them, "Please pray for me."  Notice how Pope Francis in almost every one of his remarks always asks the people to pray for him (he started his Pontificate asking the people in St. Peter's Square to pray for him).  There is a beautiful spiritual relationship that exists between a priest and his people and it is held up and strengthened through prayer.  Almost daily, someone comes up to me and to tell me that they are praying for me.  This lifts us up more than you can know.  Obviously, being a priest is not easy, but it comforts us to know that we have an army of faithful praying for us not just on this day but every day.  So wherever you may be reading this and from whatever parish you are from:  on this day, pray for the priests of your parish.

Holy Monday: Divine Fragrance

In today's gospel, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointed the feet of Jesus with perfumed oil.  This is not unlike the chrism that is used to the anoint the head of a child when he/she is baptized or used to anoint the hands of a priest at his ordination.  Chrism contains a special perfume that lifts our senses to the heavens.  I remember that the smell of the chrism rubbed on my hands during my ordination lasted for two days.  Recently, a friend of mine texted me a couple of days after I baptized her daughter to tell me that she had washed her daughter's hair several times after the baptism, but that the beautiful smell of the chrism was still with her and it reminded her of the baby's baptism.  We all carry the fragrance of the Divine.  The gospel tells us that when Mary was anointing Jesus' feet, the aroma filled the entire house.  The sense of smell also can transport us to heaven.  It is not unlike when we burn incense in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.  The smell of incense reminds us of Jesus in our midst.

Today, may we remember that we were all anointed with this Sacred Chrism, with this special aroma, at our baptism and confirmation which means that we carry with us the fragrance of Jesus Christ.  May this reminder challenge us to better imitate our Lord and bring his presence wherever we go.

Day 40: How Quickly We Turn on Jesus

“Hosanna to the Son of David…”  (Matthew 21:9)

“Let him be crucified.” (Matthew 27:22)

 

How easy we are led astray by the world.  The crowd that shouted the praises of Jesus as he entered into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday would soon be shouting that he be executed.  We are very quick to shout Jesus’ praises, but when we are tempted by the lures of the Evil One and of this world, we turn just as quickly on the Lord and join in the cries for him to be crucified.  This morning in his homily Pope Francis asked:  “Who am I before the Jesus who enters Jerusalem amid celebration?  Am I able to express my joy, to praise him?  Or do I keep a distance?  Who am I before the Jesus who suffers?”

 

Maybe we do praise him at a distance to not get fully immersed in the challenges of living a Christian life.  Maybe we only praise him when he is in triumph and turn our backs when he suffers.  Do we not realize that Jesus achieves the ultimate triumph on the cross?  It is there on that wood that he is exalted above all as we hear in the second reading:  “Because [of his death on the cross] God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name (Philippians 2:9).”  How distant are we from Jesus?  Will we walk in his footsteps during Holy Week and praise his name along the way for what he did for us?  Or will we be swept up with the rest of the world and keep a distance from our Lord?  As I say every year: don’t let this week be like any other. Make this week HOLY!

Day 39: Gazing at the Cross

This morning Pope Francis tweeted: "How beautiful it is to stand before the Crucifix, simply to be under the Lord’s gaze, so full of love. (EG 264)."

Yesterday I asked that we look upon the crucifix to behold Jesus' wondrous love for us.  As we prepare this day for the beginning of Holy Week tomorrow and the celebration of Palm Sunday, we recall that Jesus entered into Jerusalem fully knowing what the will of the Father was.  He knew that he was journeying towards the cross.  And there, on that cross, pure love is manifested for all of humanity.  There on that cross he still showers us with his Divine Mercy.  If someone asks you for an example of pure love:  show them the cross.  For Christians, the cross is both an example of love and the ultimate challenge to walk in the footsteps of our Savior.

Day 38: Jesus Christ, High Priest

Last night, I went to do a wedding rehearsal at St. Jude Melkite Catholic Church.  It's a small little church on Brickell with many beautiful icons.  While I was waiting for the bridal party to arrive, I sat in the front pew to pray and sat directly in front of the icon pictured below, Jesus Christ, High Priest.  A copy of this icon hangs in my office.  As I prayed, I thought about the events we will be celebrating a week from today.  Jesus Christ is both priest and victim on the cross.  He offers his very self to the Father for the forgiveness of our sins.  He is tortured yet glorified on the cross.  As Isaiah points out:  "See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.  Even as many were amazed by him--so marred was his look beyond that of man, and his appearance beyond that of mortals... (Is 52:13-15)."
How wondrous what happened on that glorious cross!  Look upon the crucifix this day and ponder what our Lord did for you!