The Lake Isle of Innisfree

 

Pearl

The beauty of a single pearl, or a string of the precious stones, is unmistakable. Few jewels capture the eye quite like a perfect pearl. Know how the pearl came to be? In the beginning, it’s only a grain of sand. That tiny little irritant slips inside the tight seal of an oyster’s shell, and immediately causes discomfort. With no way to expel the grain of sand, with no way to ease the pain, the oyster coats the sand with a layer of the inner lining of its shell to make the sand smooth. This still does not ease the oyster's suffering. Again and again the oyster coats the sand, but all the attempts to get rid of the irritant have little effect. As far as an oyster is concerned, what we call a “pearl” is nothing more than great suffering. But one day the oyster is fished from the water and opened. The gem inside has amazing beauty and holds great value – all because the oyster had great suffering.

Maybe it’s no accident that the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:21) are made of pearls. It’s the suffering of our Savior that allows the gate to be there in the first place, and more than likely, all who enter those priceless gates will have also known the personal cost of great suffering.

Take Time

Work and Family

To the world you are just a person. To a company you are just an employee.

The day you resign, your work cubicle will be replaced. Your absence missed for a day then the company forgets you. They went on to make their money for they need to, and they have no time to grieve because of the expectations they have to fulfill. Occasionally they make mistakes and it may come with a price, you have to pay.

This is why, my friends, do not mix work with family. Do not take your work home, cast your family aside and forget about giving time to your children. Because in their hearts you are never replaced, because when you are gone, every day you will be missed. If anything happen to you, it will be your family and friends crying like crazy for you. Because to them, even though you are just one person, you are their world.

So reset your priorities. Be a good worker but be a better father / mother / friend / daughter / son / sister / brother / husband / wife.

Easter Sunday

 

Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Jesus has risen!  Alleluia!

Back in the 4^th Century AD St Augustine wrote a beautiful discourse on the psalms. For Psalm 148 subtitled All Creation Summoned to Praise he wrote “we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. …What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter is something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise.  Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing. “ 

It is so easy for us to get stuck in the before Easter mindset that St Augustine wrote about so long ago.  All we have to do is turn on the television or read the newspaper.   Bad news makes for exciting media.  But we are not bad news people.  We are good news people.  And the good news is that three days after he was crucified, died and was buried, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, was raised from the dead.  ALLELUIA!   And, St Paul tells us, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Romans 6: 4).  ALLELUIA!

Given this extraordinary historical event we all should be out in the streets shouting “Alleluia, Alleluia, Jesus has risen from the dead.”   There is more, St Augustine tells each one of us to make sure “your praise comes from your whole being in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.”   Sixteen centuries later, Saint Pope John Paul II said “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.” 

Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Jesus has risen!  Alleluia!

Heavenly Father and God of mercy,

We no longer look for Jesus among the dead,

For he is alive and has become the Lord of life.

From the waters of death, you raise us with him

And renew your gift of life within us.

Increase in our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ,

And help us to grow as your people

Toward the fullness of eternal life with you.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

It is Finished

So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews." Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be," in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled (that says): "They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots." This is what the soldiers did.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst." There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished."

And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

From The Gospel of John

Passion of the Lord

I believe that the foundation of Christianity and our Catholic faith is love.   And I believe that the whole point of Christian life is for us to receive the unconditional and overwhelming love of Christ and share it with other people. So, as I reflected on today’s readings for Palm Sunday and the Passion of the Lord, I found myself asking “where is the love in these readings”?  We begin Mass with a story of triumph that leads to death. We hear about betrayal, the miscarriage of justice, torture, indifference and execution. And today’s readings end with a sealed tomb. It is an emotional roller coaster.  

In this dramatic narrative, Jesus is a lonely figure.  Although he is surrounded by people he is very much alone.  His friends failed him, one disciple betrayed him, another disciple denied him and the rest of them abandoned him. The chief priests, scribes and elders spat on him and slapped him.  The Roman soldiers mocked and struck him.  The crowed reviled him. Jesus endured all this humiliation, pain and suffering in obedience to his father and out of his unconditional love for us. The story of the Crucifixion of Jesus is tragic, painful and shocking. Yet this is the greatest love story ever told.  Jesus on the cross is an eternal reminder of the profound love God has for us. Jesus hanging on the cross is a story about love.   

During this Holy Week, we all have an opportunity to unite our hearts, our suffering, our pain and our sadness with that of Jesus.  We can gather with our community of faith to renew our commitment to service in the washing of feet and celebrate the last supper on Holy Thursday.  We can walk with Jesus towards his crucifixion and death by participating in the Station of the Cross and the Good Friday Liturgy.  Finally, we can celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday, renewing our baptismal promises, restoring our faith and rekindling our spirits of love, hope and joy. 

God our Father,
in the passion and death of Jesus, your Son,
you make us aware
of how deeply you love us.
Make us also conscious of how evil sin is
and help us to keep believing in your love
when we have to bear the cross of suffering.
For after the cross follows the resurrection,
for Jesus and for us.
Give us this firm faith
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.