Easter Sunday Homily, March 31 2024

GOSPEL   John 20, 1-9

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

​

GOSPEL   John 20, 1-9

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SHORTER HOMILY . . . Easter Sunday is described in the Gospel as the “first day” of the week, but it is really the eighth day of the Lord’s creation since it follows upon all the sublime events of the previous seven days. If we allow Christ’s resurrection to penetrate into our existence, then everything changes, for everything is now understood from the perspective of heaven and eternal life. In fact, the second reading encourages us to stop thinking of things from an earthly perspective, since our real lives are hidden with Christ in God. We cannot live this new life according to our usual categories of defending ourselves, depending on our own efforts and seeking our own advancement. It is that very “survival” approach that entrapped us in a life without perspective. The second reading goes on to say that, when Christ appears, we too will appear with him in glory. This does not refer only to glory after death. Easter calls for a shift in my life from a perspective on worldly things to the perspective of the resurrection.  When Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb, she finds that the stone has been moved. No-one could move this stone by themselves. What happens in the resurrection is purely the work of God. Why was the stone moved? To allow Christ out? No! Jesus does not need physical doors to be opened to him any longer. You do not come out of death to return to the old mode of existence. You exit to enter into a new kind of life. Jesus did not come out of death to resume being a carpenter in Nazareth. Instead he passed to an existence with the Father. Why then was the stone moved? For our benefit. It is we who do not see the resurrection, who do not see the true glory of life, who need to stop living out of the multitude of infantile perspectives that we carry inside. Our dependencies on material and self-referential things only render us mediocre, incomplete and take away our beauty. Converts or those who rediscover their faith come to realize that their entire existence has been redeemed. The stone is taken away and a new life is ignited. Only God can remove this stone, but what is important to realize is that this life is ALREADY there and waiting for us. This stone is in the hearts of every man and woman, a stone that only the Lord can move. In the Gospel, the beloved disciple arrives first at the tomb. He allows Peter to enter and then he too goes in, sees and believes. It is only now, in the light of the resurrection, that the Scriptures begin to make sense to the disciples. They did not need new Scriptures or new writings. The removal of the stone and the fact of the resurrection enlightened what they already possessed. Let us celebrate Easter, let us celebrate newness! May the Lord remove the stone so that we may enter into life. In the resurrection, all of our weakness and fragility take on the potential of new life, because in Christ everything that is ours is redeemed.

 

LONGER HOMILY 

God’s solutions are always surprising. The people of Israel escape from Egypt right through the middle of the Red Sea. Abraham receives the promise of the Lord during the night of faith in which he was asked to sacrifice his only son.

On this joyous feast of Easter we listen to the narrative regarding the discovery of the empty tomb. This is described in both the Gospel of the Easter Vigil and that of the Sunday Mass. The stone has been moved and Jesus’ body is no longer there. Peter and John race to the tomb. John arrives first but awaits Peter before entering. There is much symbolism in these different speeds of running and the respectful waiting by John. Peter goes inside and sees the cloths, but the body is certainly not there. Then John enters, “sees and believes”. They had not yet understood the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. Easter is something imponderable, the surprising action of God. It is the aspect of reality that we never calculated. It is the escape route, the solution that we never considered. That which we never understood, the sacred Scriptures, were the deposit in which all of these promises were contained. They tell us that God is surprising, that he is not like us, that his solutions are not the ones that we think us. The escape route for the people of Israel in the great story of the Jewish Passover was through the sea! Who would have ever suspected it! Moses appeared to be leading the people to a dead end, but the sea opened and they had the incredible experience of passing through it. The water that was their salvation was also the instrument by which the oppression of the Egyptians was destroyed. In a similar way, during the night of faith of Abraham, the Lord asked for the very thing that Abraham was most attached to. It was necessary for Abraham to discover that God does not ask; God gives. That which appears death becomes life; that which appears the end becomes the beginning.

 

Salvation always involves the unexpected action of God

The first three readings from the Vigil recount the great works of the Lord. In the first reading God creates from nothing. He puts life where there is no life. These are things that we are asked to understand, but we are unable to understand this creation from absolutely nothing. We do not comprehend a faith that is actually gaining everything at the very moment when it appears to be losing everything. We do not understand the solution of God which is always in the place where no one would think of looking. The successful escape of the Exodus did not depend on the speed of the people but on the power of God.

 

Let us free ourselves from our stagnant ways of thinking! The Lord opens roadways in the sea and brings life from nothing!

Our sin leads to destruction, but the Lord places himself there, in the midst of our confused and contradictory pathways. He accepts our sin, takes it upon himself, and transforms it into unexpected salvation. In the night of Easter we sing the proclamation which has the famous patristic phrase “O felix culpa!” - the happy fault that merited such a great Saviour. Because of the Lord, the sin is no longer closed up in itself but open to the saving action of God. The death that we inflict on Jesus is resolved in the response of the Father, the resurrection, the beginning of something that we will never fully understand. Let us free ourselves from our preconceived modes of thinking! God moves the stones and makes the dead rise! He opens roadways in the sea and brings life forth from nothingness.

 

In order to experience the Easter of the Lord, we do not need any special techniques or mental schemes. All we need to do is abandon ourselves to him and allow him to lead us on his unexpected pathway to life.

It is one thing to be fixated with our own capacities and limits, and to think that life depends on what we make of it; it is something completely different to abandon ourselves to the Lord and be led by him along pathways that are completely unexpected and are not our own. I will never know how the Lord intends to lead me, how he intends me to progress, but the important thing is that he is calling me to let myself be led by him. This Sunday, we proclaim the joyous resurrection of Jesus, which is not a preconceived scheme, or a spiritual technique, but an act of abandonment. It involves handing ourselves over to him and allowing him to lead us to a fuller life, a life that no one will ever be able to take from us. When someone experiences the Easter of the Lord, he will never forget it again. When our pain or our oppression has been illuminated by the power and providence of the paternity of the Lord, then it will remain with us forever. The Christian celebrates Easter over and over again because the seas part in front of us over and over again, the tomb opens in front of us many times, and that which seemed the end becomes a new beginning.

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, 

Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.

March 24th 2024.  Palm Sunday

PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL   Mk 11:1-10

 

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

​

PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL   Mk 11:1-10

When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,

to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, 

he sent two of his disciples and said to them, 

"Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, 

you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone should say to you, 'Why are you doing this?' reply,

'The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.'"

So they went off  and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, 

and they untied it.

Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"

They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, 

and they permitted them to do it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it.

And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, 

and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.

Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:

"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!

Hosanna in the highest!"

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SUMMARY

On Palm Sunday of Year B we read the Passion of Our Lord from Mark’s Gospel and so begins Holy Week, which finds its maximum expression in the Easter Triduum. From a literary point of view, all four Gospels are really a long introduction to the account of the Passion, death and resurrection of Our Lord. The liturgy of Holy Week normally envisages the dynamic participation of the faithful. The procession on Palm Sunday should begin outside the Church and move through the streets of the neighbourhood. This year, our movements will be very much restricted on account of the pandemic. However, we can still participate bodily by shaking the palm branches at the appropriate times, kneeling during the account of the death of Jesus, kissing the cross, fasting on Good Friday and having a festive vigil on Saturday night. In order to celebrate these events fully, it is important that we enter into these bodily gestures. Why? Because the salvation that the Lord offers us is not an intellectual thing! If we try to approach the events of Holy Week in an intellectual way, it will slip through our grasp and will have no effect upon us. Christ loved us by undertaking the Passion with his body, not with an abstract discourse. He gave us bread and wine as true sacramental signs of his body and blood. Prostrate in Gethsemane, he offered himself to the Father with his entire body. He was beaten, spat upon, crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross. With his body, he passed through the events of Easter and arrived at the resurrection and the Father. The salvation of Christ is not assimilated by reading a book or attending a conference. It is assimilated in the sacraments which trigger the working of grace in our lives. Tertullian said that the flesh is the hinge of salvation. If we wish this Holy Week to be meaningful then we must participate in its liturgies with our bodies. Sometimes it is good when the Lord strips us of what we have so that we can appreciate the things that matter. Easter must become tattooed and engraved on our bodies, for it is in our bodies that we have been loved by Christ. And with our bodies we can give glory to Christ by loving in return. This Holy Week is an appeal to enter into the fullness of life. We love with acts, not simply with sentiments. A sentiment which does not transform itself into acts is simply a transient state of soul. The Lord loved us with his entire body and his love is concrete.

 

The passion and death of Jesus is at the heart of the Gospel. This is not a passage to be read on an intellectual level. It must be lived, and for that reason we are asked to enter into the liturgy with our bodies

Palm Sunday is dedicated to the proclamation of the Passion. Literally speaking, the Gospels are long preparations for the narration of Our Lord's Passover, at which point the rhythm and intensity of the story clearly change. This proclamation is the heart of the Gospel, and it must always be remembered that passion and death are only a part of a single story, which, without the resurrection, is incomplete. There are essential elements in these texts that go beyond their vocal proclamation. In fact, vocal proclamation is not sufficient: one must "celebrate" this story; it is not enough to just read it or listen to it. It is not something to be comprehended solely with the mind, but something which must be lived. In fact, on Palm Sunday we are entering Holy Week, and it is an opening that has a lively and engaging liturgy. The event starts with a joyful procession and involves the use of palms. We are asked to kneel down when the story arrives at the point of Jesus' death, and we are asked to shake the palms during the Sanctus. The other liturgies of this week will introduce further gestures: the washing of the feet, the veneration of the cross on a day of fasting, and finally a festive night vigil. In short, it is a week when the whole body is invited to be involved, as always, in the liturgy. Because the salvation that Our Lord brings us is not just a different way of looking at things. With his body and through his body Christ saves us; and he saves our whole body, not just our intellect. It is in his true body that, passing through the events of Easter, he arrives at the Father.

 

Christ saved us with his body. He was anointed, gave us the bread and wine as sacramental signs of his body and blood, was beaten, spat upon, was crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross. With his body he loved us, and we are asked to respond with our bodies during these liturgies: through our fasting, our prayers, our physical and wholehearted participation in the liturgy.

He will receive perfume on his head, because the name “Christ” means "anointed with perfumed oil"; in the bread and wine he will give us the sacramental sign of his body and blood; prostrate in Gethsemane, he will invoke the heavenly Father with the intimate word of a child ("Abba"), while he hands himself over to the most terrible of fates; he will be betrayed with a kiss, they will lay their hands on him; and he will receive spits, blows and slaps; on his head will be placed a crown of thorns, and his hands and feet will be nailed to the cross. These are the essential features of the Passion as summarized in the Gospel of Mark. In his real body he will rise again, because in his real body he has been killed. The salvation he has wrought for us cannot be assimilated in a book or by attending a conference, but with the sacraments, with these liturgical acts that seal and trigger the works of grace in our lives. Tertullian, in the third century, said: Caro salutis est cardo, which means "the flesh is the cornerstone of salvation". If we approach Holy Week seeking to understand it intellectually, it will slip out of our hands and have no effect. In order for it to influence our existence, we must allow it to be written on our bodies, through liturgy, by acts of fasting, in genuine prayer, taking advantage of the opportunities that Providence gives us to be in communion with others and do deeds of mercy. Easter is something that must be tattooed, engraved on the body. We have been loved with the body. With the body we love

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, 

Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.

March 17 2024. Fifth Sunday of Lent

 

GOSPEL   John 12:20-33

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

​

GOSPEL   John 12:20-33

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast

came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,

and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."

Philip went and told Andrew;

then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

Jesus answered them,

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,

it remains just a grain of wheat;

but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Whoever loves his life loses it,

and whoever hates his life in this world

will preserve it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me,

and where I am, there also will my servant be.

The Father will honour whoever serves me.

"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?

'Father, save me from this hour'?

But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name."

Then a voice came from heaven,

"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."

The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;

but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."

Jesus answered and said,

"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.

Now is the time of judgment on this world;

now the ruler of this world will be driven out.

And when I am lifted up from the earth,

I will draw everyone to myself."

He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

SHORTER HOMILY . . . On this fifth Sunday of Lent, we read from the long discourses of John’s Gospel which precede the Last Supper. Some Greeks ask to see Jesus. This theme of seeing or beholding Jesus is a favourite one of St John the Evangelist! In the Prologue of his Gospel, we read that “the Word became flesh and we have seen his glory”. The first letter of John speaks of what our eyes have seen and our hands have touched. At the foot of the cross, John, the beloved disciple, testifies solemnly that he himself has seen the blood and water coming from the side of Christ. Later in the same Gospel, St Thomas, in order to enter into the fullness of faith, places his finger in the wound of Christ and experiences it directly. In all of these cases, it is a personal experience of Christ that transforms everything. This direct beholding of God was lost to humanity after the Fall. After the sin in the garden of Eden, Adam hides himself. When God calls out, “Adam, where are you?” it is the anguished cry of a father who has lost his son. The Old Testament is really the story of a humanity who is seeking to rediscover the face of God again. The second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the intimacy between the Father and the Son. What is it to see the face of God? Is it something intellectually satisfying or aesthetically pleasing? No, it is to see a Son who trusts in the Father, and a Father who does not abandon his Son. In the Gospel, Jesus knows that he is about to be crucified on account of sin. Our existence is a constant effort to run from our destiny, to escape death, to deny our vulnerability.At the heart of every act, we are struggling with our mortality and fear of death. This often leads to depression and anguish, the sensation of having no way out. How does Jesus respond when he finds himself confronted by death? He entrusts himself into the hands of the Father, confident that he will not be abandoned. This is the source of the glory of Christ! These Greeks want to see Christ. What is it to see Christ? To see a Son who trusts in his Father. If we try to affront the darkest things of life with our own resources, we will fail continually. But if we see in the darkest situation in front of us an occasion to walk behind Christ, then the situation is transformed. Death and suffering are the places where we entrust ourselves to the Father, confident that he is always with us and for us. In these places, the Father is waiting for us so that his name might be glorified in us.

 

LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

 

Jeremiah speaks of a new Covenant when the law will be written in our hearts. But how can we get to the point of observing God’s ways from our hearts, out of love and not out of obligation?

In this fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear the beautiful prophecy from the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah concerning the new covenant, the covenant that will finally put into the heart of man the wisdom of God: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts”. How can a law be written in our hearts? When we speak of law, we are usually referring to a code that is observed physically and externally in a certain way. But there is a big difference between observing a norm because I am constrained to do so, and observing something that I cherish in my heart. It is the difference between legalistically observing a norm of behaviour and following that same pattern of behaviour out of love, because one has understood the norm to its depths. But how do we get to the stage of observing the norms because they are beautiful, because they have become part of us?

 

The Gospel, at first sight, seems to have a different theme. Jesus speaks of falling to the ground and dying in order to produce new life. And this is essentially the same point that we find in Jeremiah. In order to have the life of the new covenant in our hearts, we must die to our old ways

The Gospel seems to have another theme altogether, but if we reflect on the Gospel in its profundity, then we discover otherwise. The story of the Gospel has arrived at the point where even the Greek visitors to Jerusalem are asking about Jesus. Everyone is talking about him and wants to see him. Jerusalem is the place of the cult with great numbers of visitors, and many people wish to know if Jesus is the Messiah. Word comes to Jesus that some Greeks wish to see him, but his response is very strange. He says that the time has come for him to be glorified. “Truly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.” What is all of this about? Why is Jesus talking about death, about losing oneself? Unless a seed goes into a state of decomposition, it cannot become the plant. Jesus must die in order to manifest his glory. He must be annihilated in order to show that he is everything. “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” In order to arrive at the new wisdom, in order to have love in our hearts so that we no longer do things solely out of obligation, in order to have new life, the old life must die. It is pointless to think that the new covenant, the beauty of the new relationship with God, can coexist with the way we were originally. We only recognize the power of God when we renounce our own power. When do we experience the power of God? When we cease trying to rely on our own resources. “Dying” in this sense does not mean dying biologically but serving and following the Lord Jesus.

 

The Greeks thought that Jesus was a spectacle to be casually observed, but we cannot truly encounter God unless we empty ourselves.

We are honoured by the Father when we give Him His rightful value. The word “honour” in Hebrew means to attribute to something its rightful value. It is only when we abandon our own lives into the hands of God that we, to the depths of our being, allow Him to give His life for us.  It is only then, like the seed, when we allow ourselves to be by broken down and destroyed, when we are taken to the point of nothingness, that we can become completely His. The Lord Jesus empties Himself completely because in us there is always something lacking. Easter and the time of resurrection are coming soon, so this is the time to open ourselves to this moment of transition. We must allow this phase of annihilation, of annulment, to happen. In order for Jesus to arrive at the glory of the resurrection, He had to pass the oblivion of the tomb. Jesus had the omnipotence of God within Him but it was left aside at the time of the crucifixion and death. The hands that were capable of healing were nailed to the wood. The feet that walked new paths were rendered immobile. The heart that was capable of such love was torn apart. He gave himself completely. How can a man truly love a woman without giving himself completely? How can a woman be a genuine spouse to her husband without giving everything and holding nothing back for herself? And how can God be our true God if we do not give Him our lives? The Greeks in the Gospel treated the Lord as a spectacle to be seen, but in reality one cannot encounter God unless one empties himself before God. This is not an act of the will or an exertion of the muscles, but an act of abandonment. What we really need to do is allow ourselves to be taken, allow ourselves to be saved, allow ourselves to be transfigured. We need to give Jesus everything and not resist Him any longer. We need to open the door, give Him the password, follow Him until He is truly our Lord. This is the road to Easter and new life

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, 

Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.