April 2020

III Sunday of Easter – April 26, 2020

Frackville, From the Pastor /

And this is where we find two disciples on the road to Emmaus today. They are disappointed and afraid. They have witnessed the public humiliation and execution of their friend and leader, Jesus of Nazareth. Their hopes have been crushed and they are returning home to safety and to pick up the pieces of their lives. They have heard stories that Jesus is alive, but they don’t believe them. They should have expected that the Christ would suffer and so enter into His glory. However, their doubts are not resolved until the stranger blesses and breaks the bread as He shares a meal with them. Then their eyes are opened and they recognize the Lord, only to find that He has disappeared from their sight. Now they have faith, they no longer need to see Him. They know that He continues to be present with them as they returns to Jerusalem to share the good news.

So many people in the world today think of the Bible as merely a book of stories for children. They say stories of our origins cannot be true as they do not correspond with modern scientific knowledge. Creation of the world in seven days? Nonsense. Human generation from a single couple Adam and Eve? Rubbish. Miracles? Impossible. The people of our generation have very largely lost the wisdom and ability of our ancestors to discern the truth of our purpose as human beings as this is revealed through the texts of sacred scripture. However, we are people of faith in the midst of such an unbelieving society. We constantly hear things that deny and even ridicule what we hold most dear: our values, our moral standards, the fundamental building blocks from which, we believe, a human society can be built. Sunday, after Sunday, as the scriptures are proclaimed and explained in the community of faith, our hearts begin to burn again. Our hope are raised. We try to do what Jesus commanded us to do: to love one another as He has loved us; to keep His word so that He and the Father will come to us and make their home with us. Jesus, our risen Lord, shows himself to us. We don’t see Him, but we believe. He opens our eyes to see His wounds in the wounds of our brothers and sisters all around the world, and He sends us. We are empowered to be a believing people in an unbelieving world. This is no mere story for children. It is the promise of eternal life. But it is only those who have a childlike attitude who will be capable of understanding and be able to enter the kingdom of God.

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Low Sunday – April 19, 2020

Frackville, From the Pastor /

The disciples are exactly the same as us; in today’s Gospel account we find that the disciples are afraid and have locked themselves away in a room. Now they are hearing that Jesus is alive from the dead; if it’s true, what will He have to say to them? Perhaps they are thinking that Jesus might have good reason to come back to the disciples in a foul mood: ‘Where were you when I needed you, how could you have run away, did you not promise that you would die for Me?’ Maybe Jesus realizes that the disciples are confused and have not really taken in His gift of peace, and so He says for a second time, ‘Peace be with you.’ This is something for us all to take to heart. Jesus is speaking the same words of peace to us. This peace comes from the prince of peace. With this peace of Jesus gifted to us, we can be people at peace with ourselves, at peace with the Lord himself; and then become people of peace in our world, which truly needs peace.

It is easy to imagine Thomas’ disbelief when the disciples tell him their incredible story. We today often call him “Doubting Thomas”, as if we are thinking that we would have done much better than poor Thomas. But he had witnessed the horror of the passion of Jesus. Many of us would have reacted in exactly the same way as Thomas does in this Gospel passage. What once again, are the first words out of Jesus’ mouth? As the prince of peace, He says, “Peace be with you.” After Thomas and Jesus have a catch-up, Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” Thomas has the privilege of being in the presence of our living Lord and he is inspired to salute Jesus in this way: “My Lord and my God!” Today, as we continue to be an Easter people, let us take the peace of Jesus deep into our lives and let us be true ambassadors of the Lord, taking His peace into the world.

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Resurrection of the Lord – April 12, 2020

Frackville, From the Pastor /

The Gospel for this Easter Sunday tells how Mary of Magdala arrives early in the morning and sees that the stone has been rolled away and the tomb is empty. She has come to grieve and spend some quiet time with her beloved friend and to try to make some sense of what has happened. She is greatly surprised to find that the tomb is empty and she runs off to find the apostles. John waits for Peter to enter first. We don’t hear Peter’s reaction when he sees the linen clothes and the empty tomb. We know that when John enters, he sees and believes. All that Jesus taught and preached suddenly becomes clear and John knows that Jesus is the Son of God who has risen from the dead. Suffering, evil and death have been conquered. The kingdom of God can continue to be preached. From this joyful scene at the tomb, the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead spreads to Peter and then to other apostles and discipes. We are people who carry the light of Christ to others and have the responsibility to hand on this faith.

This new life invites us to model our attitudes and actions on those of Christ: to love the weakest members of the community, to be generous to those who are poor, to forgive wrongs, to heal those who hurt. To help each person to rise up to meet Christ through us. We pray that God who has begun this good work in us may bring it to fulfillment. May we, and the whole world, know peace and joy this Easter Day.

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Good Friday – April 10, 2020

Frackville, From the Pastor, PNCC /

We have listened to the story of Jesus giving His life for us. St. John tells us that the reason for this was love: love of the Father and love of His disciples. In St. John’s Gospel Jesus has no need of help: there is no Simon of Cyrene to assist Him with carrying the cross. He takes up His own cross and marches to Calvary which is the scene of His fulfilling His mission and revealing God to the world. His last words are not a cry for reproach, accusing God of abandoning Him, but a shout of triumph: It is accomplished. In the final scene of today’s passion reading, we meet once more the character called Nicodemus: he is no longer the shadowy figure who comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness. Now he appears boldly in broad daylight to assist in the solemn burial of Jesus, which involves a royal and extravagant amount of spices and oils. The mention of Nicodemus might remind us that he was the one to whom Jesus summed up the message of the Fourth Gospel, which reaches its climax in the paschal event which are celebrating today. Jesus told Nicodemus: God loved the world so much that He have His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.

Is it too good to be true? Could someone love us enough to give their life so that we might live? Jesus’ mission was to reveal God’s love for human beings and invite us into a relationship with God is best described as friendship. Throughout St. John’s version of the Gospel story we are given examples of people coming to believe in Jesus, growing in their appreciation of who He is and what He means to them. Today we are invited to consider that the cross is more about love than it is about justice.

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Maundy Thursday – April 9, 2020

Frackville, From the Pastor, PNCC /

In our Gospel reading, the whole idea of hierarchy is turned on its head. Jesus’ washing the feet of His disciples is a symbol of what the whole event of His passion means. It is primarily an act of love, the ultimate giving of Jesus’ self for His disciples and all people. A Jewish slave couldn’t be compelled to wash anyone’s feet. Yet here, the master, freely and on His own initiative, takes a place lower than the most lowly servant in the household. The Gospel tells us that Jesus loved His disciples to the end of His life and also to the furthest extent possible, that is, by giving His life for them. When Peter refuses to allow Jesus wash his feet, Jesus warns him that unless He does, he can have no part with Jesus.

Jesus himself gives the application of His action: “you should wash each other’s feet”. Perhaps the persons whom this most obviously concerns are those in any position of authority. Leadership within the community of disciples should be exercised as humble service, something particularly evident in our Holy Church. The symbolic washing of parishioners’ feet is not just a ritual, but a true expression of the way we live, the relationship between the person performing the action and those who are having their feet washed.

We can all learn from the example of Jesus and work to live it even better. Authority and power are not the same: Jesus is giving us an example of what authority involves, namely the courage to be humble, to be a servant of our brothers and sisters. If we can do this, then we are truly following His example.

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