The Lord has indeed risen, alleluia! Glory and kingship be his for ever and ever! Alleluia!

Easter faith in the resurrection is something practical. It is not pie-in-the-sky. Yet, practical as it is, it is also mystery. It is something hidden. But that does not mean that it is not something practical, that we cannot experience it. God himself is mystery and he too is hidden. But he is there. I can experience him. And I can also experience resurrection. And then it is practical. Then it is real.

We experience resurrection through the presence of Jesus in our lives. Mary Magdalene, when she went to the tomb, had lost sight of the presence of Jesus in her life. He was dead and buried. She had witnessed his death on the cross. And now, to make matters even worse, his body had been stolen. She went to the tomb and the body was gone. There was no other explanation. Mary was in bad shape that resurrection morning. She was weeping so hard she didn’t recognize Jesus when he appeared to her. She thought he was the gardener – until he called her by name. Then she was once again in his presence and she rose from depression and loss to perfect joy.

Sometimes, we too lose sight of the presence of Jesus in our lives. This can happen, for example, at the time of the death of a loved one, when grief clouds our vision; at a time of crisis in our lives, at a time of serious illness, at a time of great loss. These things can be powerful enough to blind us to the presence of Jesus in our lives. And when this happens, we do not rise. We go down into the pits.

I experienced this whole process for over a four year period in my life, my last four years of struggling with the disease of alcoholism. The disease had blinded me to the presence of Jesus in my life. He was nowhere to be found. My life was hopeless and I was going down, down, down. Then, one Saturday evening 33 years ago, after trying to say Mass when I was in no condition to do so, and after having made a spectacle of myself in front of many people, Jesus decided enough was enough. As I walked to the back of the church to remove the vestments after the Mass, I met a little old lady seated in the last row of pews, right on the aisle. I had never seen her before that evening and never saw her again after that evening. As I passed her, she shook her finger at me and said, “Shame on you, shame on you.” Jesus,

through that little old lady, had, as it were, called me by name. Suddenly I recognized him again. He was present to me again. And with his presence in my life and his help, I have risen. Many of you, I know, have had similar experiences. Trouble, disaster, came and then Jesus called you. You followed him and it was OK. You had risen.

It is precisely at such times of difficulty, when we are blinded, that we must open our eyes to the presence of Jesus in our lives and listen as he calls us by name. Then we too will rise. At a time of grief or sorrow or confusion, or at the time of our physical death, we will rise to joy and spiritual dancing. As long as I remain in the presence of Jesus, everything will be fine.

Fr. Howard

The first words of Jesus after his resurrection to the women running on the road to announce the good news of his rising were: “Do not be afraid.” It is almost like Jesus saying to them and to us, I have risen over the power of death. Death could not hold me nor will it hold you. Why should you fear? “Go tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” I am present to you again and all will be fine. Fear not.

All of us have fears. And just because Jesus told us not to fear does not mean the fears we have are bad. There are good fears and bad fears, if you want to label them as such. It is good that I have the fear of not wanting to cross the street against the light in heavy traffic. That fear saves me from serious injury or death. It is not OK to fear when in doing so I turn away from my faith and trust in God and take things into my own hands. I can remember when my mentally handicapped brother, Bobby, was my responsibility. It would have been easy to stay awake nights worrying about, fearing, what might happen to him. But I had turned him over to the care of the Lord, and I slept well.

The answer to these fears we have that lead to worrying about this and that is found in the 3^rd Step of the Twelve Steps: We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him. If we put things in his hands and leave them there, why should we worry? I still have fears today. One of my main fears is that the world will continue to drift away from Jesus and this frightens me. I need to put this fear and my other concerns into the hands of Jesus knowing he will handle things in his own way in his own time. I have to let God be God. If you find yourself with fears that lead to worry, turn them over to the Lord. It works!

Fr. Howard

I remember reading somewhere that people are hugged into the Church. They do not come to the Church and Jesus because of theological arguments but because of the witness to love that they see in us. Love is all over this Gospel for today’s Liturgy. It is obvious that Mary Magdalene loved Jesus very much. There she stands outside his tomb weeping her eyes out. She came to see his body and it was gone, he was not there. What else could she do but weep? She was weeping so profusely she couldn’t see that it was he she was speaking to in the garden. She thought he was a gardener. Then he said to her simply, “Mary!” He must have said her name with a great deal of love and it was in this word of love that she recognized him.

The same thing is true for people seeing Jesus in us. They don’t see him simply because we have degrees in theology and philosophy. They see him and come to him because they can see by our actions that we love him and the people around us and they can see that Jesus loves us too. It is love that makes the world go around. Nothing else.

Fr. Howard

Just a day or two ago I spoke of fears and remarked that I still have a few that I have to turn over to the care of Jesus. One of them is my fear that we

are not taking full advantage of the great gift Jesus has given us in the Eucharist. Prior to the beginning of the 20^th century, Catholics were accustomed to receiving Jesus in Eucharist once or twice a year. That’s the way it was. It was St. Pope Pius X who was mainly responsible for changing this. He encouraged the weekly if not daily reception of the Eucharist. Then, not too many years ago, the Church went a step further. Now if we attend Mass three times in one day, we may receive Eucharist each time. We may receive Eucharist every time we attend Mass.

In our Gospel today we see two of Jesus’ disciples leaving Jerusalem because of their disappointment in Jesus. Here they thought he was the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, and now he was dead and buried. What a bummer this was in their eyes. Now they were on their way to Emmaus to get on with their lives. Jesus, however, had different plans for them. He joined them walking on the road and got into conversation with them. They must have been fascinated with his words for when he was going to leave them, they urged him to stay. Then, as they sat together to have a bite to eat, Jesus “took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.” It was in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist, that they recognized Jesus. Presumably, they lived out their lives as Jesus’ disciples.

We cannot underestimate the power of the Eucharist. It is our nourishment, our means to growth in the life of Jesus. Let’s not set it aside because of our work or whatever. For that matter, the best work we do comes after our encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist. I am rather sure that the disciples on the way to Emmaus in the Gospel discovered this too. Daily Mass is a good practice for us all. “Stay with us, Lord, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”

Fr. Howard

In today’s Gospel, Jesus appears to his disciples and lets them know that he has truly risen from the dead, that he is not some kind of ghost or whatever. He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?” Jesus was once again present to them and their fears and concerns vanished. His presence brings them peace.

Shalom is a Hebrew and Jewish word meaning peace, nothing missing, nothing broken, wellbeing, and complete. It is also used to mean, hello and goodbye. St. Thomas Aquinas defines peace in two Latin words: tranquilitas ordinis, the tranquility of order. In other words, everything is in its proper place, nothing is out of its proper order, everything is as it should be. This kind of peace is almost synonymous with joy.

The source of this kind of joy for us is, of course, Christ. In him alone do we find peace. Jesus is risen! He is present with us once more! Come, Lord Jesus, and bring us your peace. Shalom!

Fr. Howard

In today’s Gospel for the Liturgy, Jesus reveals himself to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberius. Things have settled down a bit for the disciples and they decide to go fishing. They fished all night long and caught nothing, zilch. At dawn, Jesus appeared on the shore and asked them if they had anything to eat. When they told him they had nothing to eat because they had not caught any fish, he told them to throw their net over the right side of the boat and they would find something. The result was enough fish in the net so they could hardly lift it. At this point, John said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Sure enough! Jesus showed up and immediately wonderful things began to happen.

All during this past week, I have been passing over the first readings for the daily Liturgies. All of them are taken from the Acts of the Apostles, a continuation of the Gospel of St. Luke. And all of them point out the

wonderful things that will happen in our lives because of the presence of the Risen Lord. A number of miracles are reported in these readings that happened “in the name of the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” And the same will happen for us. It is through our welcoming the Risen Savior into our lives that wonderful, sometimes miraculous, things will happen.

Fr. Howard

At long last, the Liturgists give the Gospel of Mark a place in the Liturgies for the Octave of Easter. The Gospel of Mark ends with chapter 16, verse 20. And it is interesting to note that verses 9-20 are not a part of the Gospel of Mark. It seems they were added to the original Gospel in the first or second century by another, unknown author and they have traditionally been accepted as the inspired Word of God.

These words were added to give the early Christian some proofs that Jesus rose from the dead by listing various personal appearances made by Jesus. We still find people in the world today who doubt or deny the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We ourselves, perhaps unknowingly, do the same thing when we get all bent out of shape by our troubles, sickness, death, and our frustrations and discouragement over what is happening in the world today. All of these things are to be surrendered to the Lord. Once again, we are powerless over these things, but God isn’t. Lord, once more we ask you to please strengthen our faith and trust in you.

Fr. Howard