Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney
Mob: 0417 279 437
mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon
Mob: 0438 562 731
paschalokpon@yahoo.com
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack
Mob: 0437 521 257
pmccormack43@bigpond.com
Deacon in Residence: Rev Steven Smith
Mob: 0411 522 630
steven.smith@aohtas.org.au
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au
Secretary: Annie Davies
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Felicity Sly
Mob: 0418 301 573
fsly@internode.on.net
Mob: 0417 279 437
mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon
Mob: 0438 562 731
paschalokpon@yahoo.com
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack
Mob: 0437 521 257
pmccormack43@bigpond.com
Deacon in Residence: Rev Steven Smith
Mob: 0411 522 630
steven.smith@aohtas.org.au
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au
Secretary: Annie Davies
Finance Officer: Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Felicity Sly
Mob: 0418 301 573
fsly@internode.on.net
Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
PLENARY COUNCIL PRAYER
Come, Holy Spirit of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia
and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age.
Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia
and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, bread for the journey from age to age.
Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC ACTIVITIES ARE SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Eucharistic Adoration Devonport, Benediction with Adoration Devonport, Legion of Mary, Prayer Group.
NO PUBLIC MASSES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO THE COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS) PANDEMIC
DAILY AND SUNDAY MASS ONLINE: You will need to go to the following link and register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gHY-gMZ7SZeGMDSJyTDeAQ
DAILY AND
SUNDAY MASS ONLINE: You
will need to go to the following link and register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gHY-gMZ7SZeGMDSJyTDeAQ
Sunday 19th April 9:00am
Monday 20th April No Mass
Tuesday 21st April 9:00am ... St Anselm
Wednesday 22nd April 9:00am
Thursday 23rd April 9:00am ... St George, St Adalbert
Friday 24th April 9:00am ... St Fidelis of Sigmaringen
Saturday 25th April 9:00am ... Anzac Day
Sunday 26th April 9:00am
If you are looking for Sunday Mass readings or Daily Mass readings,
Universalis has the readings as well
as the various Hours of the Divine Office - https://universalis.com/mass.htm
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Mark Aylett, Tony Kiely, Sand Frankcombe,
Judith Xavier,
Pat
Barker, Paul Richardson, & …
Let us pray for those who
have died recently:
Peter Phair, Vanessa Beasley, Lorna Watson, Graham Taylor, Bill Bracken, Bill Halley, Elizabeth Heckscher, Edward King, Charles Johnson, Annette Camaya
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
I read the Gospel slowly.
Weekly Ramblings
Some of you may have had the chance to read the emails I’ve
sent over the past few weeks or been able to watch the short Fr Mike’s
Ramblings which are now being posted to the Parish Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/MLCP1) and will have noted that, like everyone else, I am finding the
changing world we live in a bit of a challenge.
I was talking to Archbishop Julian yesterday (Wednesday)
and we were acknowledging how difficult it is to be connected with people on a
Livestream broadcast of Mass – the simple ability to see people’s faces and
responses to something we say is quite profound and challenging when it is
missing. I now have a very new respect for Newsreaders and hosts of TV programs
who do it every day.
This week has been tough for people here on the Coast and,
until things improve, it is going to continue to be challenging. Here, in the
Parish House, we are making every attempt to keep in contact with parishioners
but I would encourage every parishioner to take a few moments, if you aren’t
already doing it, to ring another parishioner or friend just to say hi and see
how they are going. Also, if you know of someone who isn’t receiving the
Newsletter via post or email please let us know so that we can get it to them.
Next Saturday is ANZAC Day and will be a very different
day. Around Australia people are being invited to be part of the Driveway at Dawn
Parade from 6am for a brief time and to observe a minutes silence to honour our
veterans and active service personnel. Please join me in this unique ANZAC Day
commemoration.
Stay safe, stay sane and stay home please!
CONTEMPLATIVE
PRAYER:
If you
are not familiar with these forms of prayer, I encourage you to give it a go. In this initial program over 4 weeks there will be appropriate
teaching to enable you to engage and incorporate into your own prayer. When? Wednesdays
at 7 pm - commencing Wednesday April 22. Could you please let me (John) know
by email if you are interested in this initial program, and then I can send you
the log in details.
Email: john.leearcher@gmail.com
Online Giving
The details for online Planned Giving are: Bank Commonwealth;
Account Name: Mersey Leven; BSB: 067 000; Acc No: 1031 5724. In the Description
area simply add your Name or Envelope Number. Thank You
Please support the work of Caritas/Project Compassion by
making your Project Compassion offering online: Bank: CBA, Account Name:
Caritas Australia. BSB: 062438 Account No: 10038330. Reference please put Agent Number 187907 then your
surname.
Letter From Rome
Catholics Continue To Stumble Liturgically Through The Pandemic
Even Pope Francis is becoming frustrated with live-streamed Mass; says it's not ideal - Robert Mickens, Rome, April 17, 2020.
This article is from the La-Croix International website - you can access the site here but complete full access is via paid subscription
One of the features of Catholic Christianity is its rich tradition of the sacraments and liturgy.
Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Roman Church has tended to administer or celebrate the sacraments within the context of a liturgy, usually the Mass (hopefully with the exception of hearing individual confessions!).
That was not always the case. And in some places, lamentably, it is still not.
Before the Council, for instance, children were not usually baptized during Mass. Now they almost always are. That's not because the pre-Vatican II baptismal ceremony was a-liturgical or non-liturgical.
It was a true baptismal liturgy. But it tended to be a small affair that included only the parents, godparents and maybe a few immediate family members.
The I.D. card of Christians
The reason Catholics now baptize infants and small children at Mass (usually on Sunday) is because baptism is the principal sacrament of initiation into the Christian family. And this larger family, or a significant representation of it, should ideally be present at every baptism.
This is the ancient Tradition and it has been revived. Like the early centuries, the Roman Church today receives new adult members during the Great Vigil of Easter, joining them to the body of believers through the three sacraments of Christian initiation – baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.
And baptism is the most essential. As Pope Francis has emphasized, it is a Christian's I.D. card or passport.
The pope often tells people to find out the date of their baptism if they don't already know it, and then to celebrate the anniversary of it every year, just as they celebrate their birthday.
Baptism makes people members of the Church family, brothers and sisters of Christ and one another. And the pope says all the baptized are called to develop an ever deeper and more intimate relationship with Christ throughout their lives. He says Christians need to become more and more familiar with the Lord.
However, he says believers cannot do that on their own. In fact, he says it's impossible.
Always in community around the table
"For Christians, familiarity with the Lord is always communitarian," Pope Francis said during the April 17 morning Mass in the chapel of his Santa Marta Residence.
He said becoming closer to Christ is obviously something intimate and personal, but it is never outside the context of the entire Christian community.
"A familiarity without community, a familiarity without the bread, a familiarity without the Church, without the people, without the sacraments is dangerous," he warned.
Francis looked and sounded pretty serious when he said that. And for good reason. There are not many Christians around the world who are able to physically gather as a community right now.
The anti-coronavirus confinement measures have meant that most Catholics have been in a liturgical lockdown for several weeks now. Most significantly, they have not been able to attend Sunday Mass, something long considered to be the litmus test for being a practicing Catholic.
So they are tuning-in to Mass on the internet or television. And by all accounts, it seems many of them are finding it spiritually nourishing. Who knows if they are following in real-time or "on demand"…
Either way, the pope is concerned that some of them may be getting the idea that following a virtual Mass (or viral, as he called it) is not really that different from physically attending the Eucharistic celebration in person.
He told the few people that gathered with him at Mass in the Santa Marta chapel to consider the example of the apostles.
The danger of this moment
"The familiarity the apostles had with the Lord was always communitarian, always at the table, a sign of the community. It was always with the sacrament, with the bread," the pope said.
Perhaps, some people may say that it is possible to experience this sense of community in a non-physical, spiritual way, just as the Church believes in the communion of saints – of all believers, dead and live, down the ages.
But Francis doesn't seem to be talking about that. He is clearly talking about physical presence.
"I say this because someone caused me to reflect on the danger (of) this moment that we are in, this pandemic that has made us all communicate religiously through the media… Even this Mass, we are all communicating, but not together, (only) spiritually together," he said.
The danger of this moment, Francis called it.
There is no doubt that he is growing more and more uncomfortable with the on-line Masses that, he must know, some people actually like.
Spiritual communion: this is not the Church
"You will get the Eucharist today," he told his tiny congregation in the chapel.
"But the people who are connected with us (via the media) only get spiritual communion. And this is not the Church: this is the Church of a difficult situation, that the Lord allows, but the ideal of the Church is always with the people and with the sacraments. Always," the pope said.
Again, in this concrete situation, he seems to be saying that Mass should always be celebrated with the people physically present.
Limiting people to spiritual communion is the not the Church. That is what he said.
"The Church, the sacraments, the People of God are concrete. It is true that at this moment we have to express our familiarity with the Lord in this way, but (only) in order to get out of the tunnel, not to stay there," Francis continued.
The tunnel, of course, is the coronavirus and the confinement efforts to stop its spread. But the pope is obviously anxious that not all Catholics see it this way.
He said a bishop complained to him just before Easter when learning that the papal liturgies for the Sacred Triduum were to be held in the massive St. Peter's Basilica with the participation of only a few people. Evidently, the bishop was furious and read Francis the riot act.
The pope said he didn't know, at first, what had gotten into the man, someone he knows to be a good bishop who is close to his people.
"Then I understood," said Francis, "He was telling me: 'Be careful not to viralize the Church, not to viralize the sacraments, not to viralize the People of God'.
"We "viralize" something – that is, make it go viral – when we take written words, sounds and images (moving or still), and spread them, over and over again, on digital media.
The pope seems to be saying this is not working too well for a Church at prayer, even as it struggles it way through the tunnel called COVID-19.
All Senses Meditation
This article is taken from the Daily Email sent by Fr Richard Rohr OFM from the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the email by clicking here
Our human senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and
touching are five distinct ways of knowing or experiencing the same thing, but
in very different “languages.” True spirituality always brings us back to the
original bodily knowing that is unitive experience. We cannot do all our
thinking with our minds! During times of stress, remembering how to come back
to our bodies can be tremendously beneficial. The following practice from
meditation teacher Lorin Roche helps us connect with each of our senses and
encounter something through each. Roche explains:
This exercise also lets you practice giving speech to your
immediate perceptions. Since childhood, you may not have had a chance to speak
freely without editing first.
Set aside ten or so minutes to “play” with all your senses
following Roche’s simple guide:
[1] Lorin Roche, Meditation Made Easy (Harper Collins:
1998), 59-60. Roche offers this meditation in more detail at
Huge Stones And Locked Doors
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
Soren Kierkegaard once wrote that the Gospel text he strongly identified with is the account of the disciples, after the death of Jesus, locking themselves into an upper room in fear and then experiencing Jesus coming through the locked doors to bestow peace on them. Kierkegaard wanted Jesus to do that for him, to come through his locked doors, his resistance, and breathe peace inside him.
That image of locked doors is one of two particularly interesting images inside the story of the first Easter. The other is the image of the “large stone” that entombed the buried Jesus. These images remind us of what often separates us from the grace of the resurrection. Sometimes for that grace to find us, someone must “roll away the stone” that entombs us and sometimes the resurrection must come to us “through locked doors”.
First, about the “stone”:
The Gospels tell us that early on Easter morning three women were on their way to the tomb of Jesus intending to embalm his body with spices but they were anxious about how they would remove the large stone that sealed the entrance of his tomb. They were asking each other: “Who will roll away the stone?”
Well, as we know, the stone had already been rolled away. How? We don’t know. Jesus’ resurrection happened with no one there. Nobody knows exactly how that stone was rolled away. But what Scripture does make clear is this: Jesus didn’t resurrect himself. God raised him. Jesus didn’t roll away the stone, though that’s what we generally assume. However, and for good reason, both scripture and Christian tradition strongly affirm that Jesus didn’t raise himself from the dead, his Father raised him. This might seem like unnecessary point to emphasize; after all, what difference does it make?
It makes a huge difference. Jesus didn’t raise himself from the dead and neither can we. That’s the point. For the power of the resurrection to enter us something from beyond us has to remove the huge, immovable rock of our resistance. This is not to deny that we, ourselves, have goodwill and personal strength; but these, though important, are more a precondition for receiving the grace of the resurrection than the power of the resurrection itself, which always comes to us from beyond. We never roll back the stone ourselves!
Who can roll back the stone? Perhaps that isn’t a question we’re particularly anxious about, but we should be. Jesus was entombed and helpless to raise himself up, all the more so for us. Like the women at that first Easter, we need to be anxious: “Who will roll back the stone?” We can’t open our own tombs.
Second, our “locked doors”:
It’s interesting how the believers at that first Easter experienced the resurrected Christ in their lives. The Gospels tell us that they were huddled in fear and paranoia behind locked doors, wanting only to protect themselves, when Christ came through their locked doors, the doors of their fear and self-protection, and breathed peace into them. Their huddling in fear wasn’t because of ill-will or bad faith. In their hearts they sincerely wished that they weren’t afraid, but that good will still didn’t unlock their doors. Christ entered and breathed peace into them in spite of their resistance, their fear, and their locked doors.
Things haven’t changed much in two thousand years. As a Christian community and as individuals we are still mostly huddling in fear, anxious about ourselves, distrustful, not at peace, our doors locked, even as our hearts desire peace and trust. Perhaps, like Kierkegaard, we might want to privilege that scripture passage where the resurrected Christ comes through the locked doors of human resistance and breathes out peace.
Moreover, this year, given this extraordinary time when the coronavirus, Covid 19, has our cities and communities locked down and we are inside our individual houses, dealing with the various combinations of frustration, impatience, fear, panic, and boredom that assail us there. Right now we need a little extra something to experience the resurrection, a stone needs to be rolled away so that resurrected life can come through our locked doors and breathe peace into us.
At the end of the day, these two images, “the stone that needs to be rolled away” and the “locked doors of our fear”, contain within themselves perhaps the most consoling truth in all religion because they reveal this about God’s grace: When we cannot help ourselves we can still be helped and when we are powerless to reach out, grace can still come through the walls of our resistance and breathe peace into us. We need to cling to this whenever we experience irretrievable brokenness in our lives, when we feel helpless inside our wounds and fears, when we feel spiritually inept, and when we grieve loved ones lost to addictions or suicide. The resurrected Christ can come through locked doors and roll back any stone that entombs us, no matter how hopeless the task is for us.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Arrangements are made by contacting Parish Office. Parents attend a Baptismal Preparation Session organised with a Priest.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC ACTIVITIES ARE SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Eucharistic Adoration Devonport, Benediction with Adoration Devonport, Legion of Mary, Prayer Group.
NO PUBLIC MASSES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE DUE TO THE COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS) PANDEMIC
DAILY AND SUNDAY MASS ONLINE: You will need to go to the following link and register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gHY-gMZ7SZeGMDSJyTDeAQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Please keep this confirmation email as that will be your entry point for all further Masses or Liturgies.
DAILY AND
SUNDAY MASS ONLINE: You
will need to go to the following link and register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gHY-gMZ7SZeGMDSJyTDeAQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email
containing information about joining the webinar. Please keep this
confirmation email as that will be your entry point for all further Masses or Liturgies.
Monday 20th April No Mass
Tuesday 21st April 9:00am ... St Anselm
Wednesday 22nd April 9:00am
Thursday 23rd April 9:00am ... St George, St Adalbert
Friday 24th April 9:00am ... St Fidelis of Sigmaringen
Saturday 25th April 9:00am ... Anzac Day
Sunday 26th April 9:00am
If you are looking for Sunday Mass readings or Daily Mass readings,
Universalis has the readings as well
as the various Hours of the Divine Office - https://universalis.com/mass.htm
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Mark Aylett, Tony Kiely, Sand Frankcombe,
Judith Xavier,
Pat
Barker, Paul Richardson, & …
Let us pray for those who
have died recently:
Peter Phair, Vanessa Beasley, Lorna Watson, Graham Taylor, Bill Bracken, Bill Halley, Elizabeth Heckscher, Edward King, Charles Johnson, Annette Camaya
Let us
pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 15th - 21st April, 2020
Valma
Lowry, Sandy Cowling, Kathleen Smith, Harold Cornelius, Ila Breen, Geraldine
Harris, Kate Morris, Raymond Breen, Elizabeth Davis, Terrence McCarthy, Dawn
Ashman, Bridget Imlach, Molly Dunphy, Stephen
Gibbons, Wilma Bacchin, Andrew Smith, Marie Nichols, John Munro Leo Sheehan,
William Newland.
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL:
I read the Gospel slowly.
Using my imagination I enter into the scene, standing with the disciples in the upper room, cut off and isolated as many are just now.
What is the mood of the gathering?
I wonder … what are they afraid of?
What are my own fears at this time of global crisis?
How do I feel when I listen to yet more alarming statistics on the news?
I imagine Jesus suddenly being present, standing alongside me ... looking deeply into my being; knowing, loving and accepting me just as I am.
Even in my doubt, Jesus is sending me to spread his love. What words of encouragement do I need to hear Jesus speak to me? What do I want to say to Jesus?
I close my prayer – like Thomas, with my own declaration of belief
Weekly Ramblings
Some of you may have had the chance to read the emails I’ve
sent over the past few weeks or been able to watch the short Fr Mike’s
Ramblings which are now being posted to the Parish Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/MLCP1) and will have noted that, like everyone else, I am finding the
changing world we live in a bit of a challenge.
I was talking to Archbishop Julian yesterday (Wednesday)
and we were acknowledging how difficult it is to be connected with people on a
Livestream broadcast of Mass – the simple ability to see people’s faces and
responses to something we say is quite profound and challenging when it is
missing. I now have a very new respect for Newsreaders and hosts of TV programs
who do it every day.
This week has been tough for people here on the Coast and,
until things improve, it is going to continue to be challenging. Here, in the
Parish House, we are making every attempt to keep in contact with parishioners
but I would encourage every parishioner to take a few moments, if you aren’t
already doing it, to ring another parishioner or friend just to say hi and see
how they are going. Also, if you know of someone who isn’t receiving the
Newsletter via post or email please let us know so that we can get it to them.
Next Saturday is ANZAC Day and will be a very different
day. Around Australia people are being invited to be part of the Driveway at Dawn
Parade from 6am for a brief time and to observe a minutes silence to honour our
veterans and active service personnel. Please join me in this unique ANZAC Day
commemoration.
Stay safe, stay sane and stay home please!
CONTEMPLATIVE
PRAYER:
The contemplative world is not just in a monastery. It can equally be in our domestic settings. And how appropriate to be considering such a
world in our current situation. So I am
offering an introduction to two contemplative prayer forms with the view to
maybe establishing an ongoing contemplative prayer group. These are:
Centering
Prayer - a receptive method of silent
prayer
· Chanting
– a contemplative practice of praying the psalms which naturally draws our
focus to the present and calms the dualistic mind.
If you are not familiar with these forms of prayer, I encourage you to give it a go. In this initial program over 4 weeks there will be appropriate teaching to enable you to engage and incorporate into your own prayer. When? Wednesdays at 7 pm - commencing Wednesday April 22. Could you please let me (John) know by email if you are interested in this initial program, and then I can send you the log in details.
Email: john.leearcher@gmail.com
If you are not familiar with these forms of prayer, I encourage you to give it a go. In this initial program over 4 weeks there will be appropriate teaching to enable you to engage and incorporate into your own prayer. When? Wednesdays at 7 pm - commencing Wednesday April 22. Could you please let me (John) know by email if you are interested in this initial program, and then I can send you the log in details.
Email: john.leearcher@gmail.com
Online Giving
The details for online Planned Giving are: Bank Commonwealth;
Account Name: Mersey Leven; BSB: 067 000; Acc No: 1031 5724. In the Description
area simply add your Name or Envelope Number. Thank You
Please support the work of Caritas/Project Compassion by
making your Project Compassion offering online: Bank: CBA, Account Name:
Caritas Australia. BSB: 062438 Account No: 10038330. Reference please put Agent Number 187907 then your
surname.
We are unable to provide receipts, Caritas will need to be
contacted directly.
Letter From Rome
Catholics Continue To Stumble Liturgically Through The Pandemic
Catholics Continue To Stumble Liturgically Through The Pandemic
Even Pope Francis is becoming frustrated with live-streamed Mass; says it's not ideal - Robert Mickens, Rome, April 17, 2020.
This article is from the La-Croix International website - you can access the site here but complete full access is via paid subscription
One of the features of Catholic Christianity is its rich tradition of the sacraments and liturgy.
Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Roman Church has tended to administer or celebrate the sacraments within the context of a liturgy, usually the Mass (hopefully with the exception of hearing individual confessions!).
That was not always the case. And in some places, lamentably, it is still not.
Before the Council, for instance, children were not usually baptized during Mass. Now they almost always are. That's not because the pre-Vatican II baptismal ceremony was a-liturgical or non-liturgical.
It was a true baptismal liturgy. But it tended to be a small affair that included only the parents, godparents and maybe a few immediate family members.
The I.D. card of Christians
The reason Catholics now baptize infants and small children at Mass (usually on Sunday) is because baptism is the principal sacrament of initiation into the Christian family. And this larger family, or a significant representation of it, should ideally be present at every baptism.
This is the ancient Tradition and it has been revived. Like the early centuries, the Roman Church today receives new adult members during the Great Vigil of Easter, joining them to the body of believers through the three sacraments of Christian initiation – baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.
And baptism is the most essential. As Pope Francis has emphasized, it is a Christian's I.D. card or passport.
The pope often tells people to find out the date of their baptism if they don't already know it, and then to celebrate the anniversary of it every year, just as they celebrate their birthday.
Baptism makes people members of the Church family, brothers and sisters of Christ and one another. And the pope says all the baptized are called to develop an ever deeper and more intimate relationship with Christ throughout their lives. He says Christians need to become more and more familiar with the Lord.
However, he says believers cannot do that on their own. In fact, he says it's impossible.
Always in community around the table
"For Christians, familiarity with the Lord is always communitarian," Pope Francis said during the April 17 morning Mass in the chapel of his Santa Marta Residence.
He said becoming closer to Christ is obviously something intimate and personal, but it is never outside the context of the entire Christian community.
"A familiarity without community, a familiarity without the bread, a familiarity without the Church, without the people, without the sacraments is dangerous," he warned.
Francis looked and sounded pretty serious when he said that. And for good reason. There are not many Christians around the world who are able to physically gather as a community right now.
The anti-coronavirus confinement measures have meant that most Catholics have been in a liturgical lockdown for several weeks now. Most significantly, they have not been able to attend Sunday Mass, something long considered to be the litmus test for being a practicing Catholic.
So they are tuning-in to Mass on the internet or television. And by all accounts, it seems many of them are finding it spiritually nourishing. Who knows if they are following in real-time or "on demand"…
Either way, the pope is concerned that some of them may be getting the idea that following a virtual Mass (or viral, as he called it) is not really that different from physically attending the Eucharistic celebration in person.
He told the few people that gathered with him at Mass in the Santa Marta chapel to consider the example of the apostles.
The danger of this moment
"The familiarity the apostles had with the Lord was always communitarian, always at the table, a sign of the community. It was always with the sacrament, with the bread," the pope said.
Perhaps, some people may say that it is possible to experience this sense of community in a non-physical, spiritual way, just as the Church believes in the communion of saints – of all believers, dead and live, down the ages.
But Francis doesn't seem to be talking about that. He is clearly talking about physical presence.
"I say this because someone caused me to reflect on the danger (of) this moment that we are in, this pandemic that has made us all communicate religiously through the media… Even this Mass, we are all communicating, but not together, (only) spiritually together," he said.
The danger of this moment, Francis called it.
There is no doubt that he is growing more and more uncomfortable with the on-line Masses that, he must know, some people actually like.
Spiritual communion: this is not the Church
"You will get the Eucharist today," he told his tiny congregation in the chapel.
"But the people who are connected with us (via the media) only get spiritual communion. And this is not the Church: this is the Church of a difficult situation, that the Lord allows, but the ideal of the Church is always with the people and with the sacraments. Always," the pope said.
Again, in this concrete situation, he seems to be saying that Mass should always be celebrated with the people physically present.
Limiting people to spiritual communion is the not the Church. That is what he said.
"The Church, the sacraments, the People of God are concrete. It is true that at this moment we have to express our familiarity with the Lord in this way, but (only) in order to get out of the tunnel, not to stay there," Francis continued.
The tunnel, of course, is the coronavirus and the confinement efforts to stop its spread. But the pope is obviously anxious that not all Catholics see it this way.
He said a bishop complained to him just before Easter when learning that the papal liturgies for the Sacred Triduum were to be held in the massive St. Peter's Basilica with the participation of only a few people. Evidently, the bishop was furious and read Francis the riot act.
The pope said he didn't know, at first, what had gotten into the man, someone he knows to be a good bishop who is close to his people.
"Then I understood," said Francis, "He was telling me: 'Be careful not to viralize the Church, not to viralize the sacraments, not to viralize the People of God'.
"We "viralize" something – that is, make it go viral – when we take written words, sounds and images (moving or still), and spread them, over and over again, on digital media.
The pope seems to be saying this is not working too well for a Church at prayer, even as it struggles it way through the tunnel called COVID-19.
All Senses Meditation
This article is taken from the Daily Email sent by Fr Richard Rohr OFM from the Center for Action and Contemplation. You can subscribe to receive the email by clicking here
Our human senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and
touching are five distinct ways of knowing or experiencing the same thing, but
in very different “languages.” True spirituality always brings us back to the
original bodily knowing that is unitive experience. We cannot do all our
thinking with our minds! During times of stress, remembering how to come back
to our bodies can be tremendously beneficial. The following practice from
meditation teacher Lorin Roche helps us connect with each of our senses and
encounter something through each. Roche explains:
What happens is that your primary perceptions, unsocialized,
get a chance to come out without editing. This trains you to let yourself be
surprised by perception, to let new and fresh perceptions emerge.
This exercise also lets you practice giving speech to your
immediate perceptions. Since childhood, you may not have had a chance to speak
freely without editing first.
Set aside ten or so minutes to “play” with all your senses
following Roche’s simple guide:
1. Sit or
stand anywhere you like and let yourself get settled for a minute. Do any
settling-down movements you want. Stretch or yawn. Then notice the ebb and flow
of your breathing.
2. Begin to
speak softly saying, “Now I am aware of seeing. . . .” Continue by saying
whatever comes to mind that is visual, whether it is in the outer world or a
mental image. The sentence can be said very slowly. Go on like this for a
minute or so, just speaking the sentence, “Now I am aware of seeing. . . .”
3. When you
get to the word seeing, say whatever image your mind or eyes are on at that
exact moment. As in, “I am aware of seeing the rain.”
4. Switch to
another sensory mode, “Now I am aware of smelling . . .” and say whatever you
are smelling.
5. Continue this way, starting each
sentence with “Now I am aware of . . .” and then choosing another sense.
Improvise off your immediate perceptions. . . .
Move through
the senses in any order you wish:
Now I am
aware of seeing. . . .
Now I am
aware of smelling. . . .
Now I am
aware of hearing. . . .
Now I am
aware of tasting. . . .
Now I am
aware of touching. . . .
Now I am aware of moving (fast, slow, being still, etc.). .
. . [1]
[1] Lorin Roche, Meditation Made Easy (Harper Collins:
1998), 59-60. Roche offers this meditation in more detail at
Huge Stones And Locked Doors
This article is taken from the archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find this article and many others by clicking here
Soren Kierkegaard once wrote that the Gospel text he strongly identified with is the account of the disciples, after the death of Jesus, locking themselves into an upper room in fear and then experiencing Jesus coming through the locked doors to bestow peace on them. Kierkegaard wanted Jesus to do that for him, to come through his locked doors, his resistance, and breathe peace inside him.
That image of locked doors is one of two particularly interesting images inside the story of the first Easter. The other is the image of the “large stone” that entombed the buried Jesus. These images remind us of what often separates us from the grace of the resurrection. Sometimes for that grace to find us, someone must “roll away the stone” that entombs us and sometimes the resurrection must come to us “through locked doors”.
First, about the “stone”:
The Gospels tell us that early on Easter morning three women were on their way to the tomb of Jesus intending to embalm his body with spices but they were anxious about how they would remove the large stone that sealed the entrance of his tomb. They were asking each other: “Who will roll away the stone?”
Well, as we know, the stone had already been rolled away. How? We don’t know. Jesus’ resurrection happened with no one there. Nobody knows exactly how that stone was rolled away. But what Scripture does make clear is this: Jesus didn’t resurrect himself. God raised him. Jesus didn’t roll away the stone, though that’s what we generally assume. However, and for good reason, both scripture and Christian tradition strongly affirm that Jesus didn’t raise himself from the dead, his Father raised him. This might seem like unnecessary point to emphasize; after all, what difference does it make?
It makes a huge difference. Jesus didn’t raise himself from the dead and neither can we. That’s the point. For the power of the resurrection to enter us something from beyond us has to remove the huge, immovable rock of our resistance. This is not to deny that we, ourselves, have goodwill and personal strength; but these, though important, are more a precondition for receiving the grace of the resurrection than the power of the resurrection itself, which always comes to us from beyond. We never roll back the stone ourselves!
Who can roll back the stone? Perhaps that isn’t a question we’re particularly anxious about, but we should be. Jesus was entombed and helpless to raise himself up, all the more so for us. Like the women at that first Easter, we need to be anxious: “Who will roll back the stone?” We can’t open our own tombs.
Second, our “locked doors”:
It’s interesting how the believers at that first Easter experienced the resurrected Christ in their lives. The Gospels tell us that they were huddled in fear and paranoia behind locked doors, wanting only to protect themselves, when Christ came through their locked doors, the doors of their fear and self-protection, and breathed peace into them. Their huddling in fear wasn’t because of ill-will or bad faith. In their hearts they sincerely wished that they weren’t afraid, but that good will still didn’t unlock their doors. Christ entered and breathed peace into them in spite of their resistance, their fear, and their locked doors.
Things haven’t changed much in two thousand years. As a Christian community and as individuals we are still mostly huddling in fear, anxious about ourselves, distrustful, not at peace, our doors locked, even as our hearts desire peace and trust. Perhaps, like Kierkegaard, we might want to privilege that scripture passage where the resurrected Christ comes through the locked doors of human resistance and breathes out peace.
Moreover, this year, given this extraordinary time when the coronavirus, Covid 19, has our cities and communities locked down and we are inside our individual houses, dealing with the various combinations of frustration, impatience, fear, panic, and boredom that assail us there. Right now we need a little extra something to experience the resurrection, a stone needs to be rolled away so that resurrected life can come through our locked doors and breathe peace into us.
At the end of the day, these two images, “the stone that needs to be rolled away” and the “locked doors of our fear”, contain within themselves perhaps the most consoling truth in all religion because they reveal this about God’s grace: When we cannot help ourselves we can still be helped and when we are powerless to reach out, grace can still come through the walls of our resistance and breathe peace into us. We need to cling to this whenever we experience irretrievable brokenness in our lives, when we feel helpless inside our wounds and fears, when we feel spiritually inept, and when we grieve loved ones lost to addictions or suicide. The resurrected Christ can come through locked doors and roll back any stone that entombs us, no matter how hopeless the task is for us.
For A Time Such As This: Your Parish And The Covid-19 Crisis
Week 4: Fiscal Leadership
Week 4: Fiscal Leadership
This article is taken from the Blog posted by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timoneum, Baltimore. You can find the original blog by clicking here
This article is taken from the Blog posted by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Timoneum, Baltimore. You can find the original blog by clicking here
This post is the fourth in a series of resources dedicated to providing a potential road-map through the current COVID-19 crisis for your parish. We’ll be sharing with you what we’re doing, what’s working, and what isn’t. But honestly, we’re making it up as we go along, just like you. As always, our only credential is that, like you, we’re in the trenches figuring it out in real-time.
For Week 1 “Priorities” – click here
For Week 2 “Digital Communication” – click here
For Week 3 “Small Groups” – click here
The current COVID-19 crisis is proving to be a true ‘I’ve never been through this before’ moment for church leaders. For many I’ve heard from, this crisis has actually manifested itself as two smaller crises: loss of relevance and loss of income.
The first crisis is the loss of the literal and proverbial pulpit that comes with being a pastor, religious educator, or youth minister. The audience which we relied on for validation of our ministry has disappeared overnight. These are real problems that require solutions including digital services and online community, which I have discussed in previous blog posts (link).
The second crisis is money. With the collection baskets sitting idle, most parishes have been left with dwindling revenue streams. For pastors with lay staff members, the stress of avoiding furloughs and layoffs is especially acute. The problem is compounded by the fact that many church leaders, myself included, received little to no formal education in finances or development, so we come at the crisis ill equipped.
Here are a few ideas on how to approach raising money during this time:
1) Cast a Vision
It’s tempting to look at your shrinking bottom line and resort to the tired old approach of nagging. But people don’t give to neediness, they give to vision. Spend less time asking for money this Easter season and more time instilling a vision for your parish. Make sure people know your mission and the impact their giving can have on their community.
If you are a pastor and you’re live streaming or broadcasting, your homilies during this time are more important than ever. Use any free-time you might have to prepare for your weekend messages.
In your on line Mass, some request for giving is prudent. But make sure that it is during the proper time – the offertory portion of Mass or before Mass– and presented only once.
2) Cut Expenses for Physical Buildings/ Invest in Online
By now, you probably know where your parish stands financially. There are likely many places to save on expenses while your building is closed such as HVAC, electrical, and cleaning services.
But don’t forget that this is also a time for investment. While your building is closed, all of your ministry has shifted online – and your budget should reflect that. Invest in online streaming technology, software for staff communication, and social media graphics packages.
3) Ask a Select Few for a Few Select Projects
Rather than doing blanket appeals for funds, it might be more effective to design specific appeals for a select few of your top givers. Leverage your knowledge of the interests of your top givers to design appeals just for them. For example, someone might be very excited to help your church purchase video equipment for your transition to online services or to help cover the cost of online streaming providers. If you can instill a vision for where your parish is going during this time of uncertainty, people will see the impact and want to invest in the future of the church.
Make it your goal to stay financially healthy through the crisis and you will emerge stronger on the other side of it.
The Appearances Of The Risen Lord
Brian Purfield examines the Gospel accounts of the appearances of the risen Jesus. What do they tell us about the disciples’ experience of the Resurrection? What do they tell us about the early Christian communities for whom they were written? What do they tell us about the risen Jesus himself? Brian Purfield is Head of Theological Education at Mount Street Jesuit Centre.
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
The Resurrection of Christ is central to our faith as Christians. Paul proclaims: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). From Easter Sunday to Low Sunday, the readings at Mass present the accounts of the appearances of the risen Lord. This article looks at these accounts, in the hope that we may taste something of the experience of the resurrection that the early Christian followers of Christ had.
The Earlier Tradition: St. Paul
Paul offers one of the earliest formulations and says that he himself received it (probably in Damascus about the time of his conversion, three years after the death of Jesus). It is found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. Paul lists four essential elements: Jesus died, he was buried, he was raised, and he appeared to Cephas. Inseparable from the claim that Jesus was raised is the fact that he appeared to Simon Peter. This is the basic proclamation of the early Church and is also set out in Luke 24:34. Whether Peter (Cephas) was chronologically the first that Jesus appeared to or not, he is eventually given a symbolic primacy of place as the “rock” or foundation of Christian faith. Paul then lists appearances to others: to the Twelve, to more than 500, to James and all the apostles. He then says that Jesus appeared “last of all to me” (15:8). But he insists that the experience is essentially the same, for there is only one gospel because there is only one revelation.
Paul is the only one to give us a first-hand account of such an experience (Galatians 1:6-24). He does not describe the experience in physical terms. It probably involved some form of seeing or hearing, but Paul emphasises God’s activity. It was God who “was pleased to reveal his Son to me” (Galatians 1:16). He insists that the gospel he proclaims did not come to him through any human mediation but only “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11-12). It is this revelation that gave him the mission “so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles” (1:16).
Paul insists throughout his career that he too is an apostle because he too has seen Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:1). The one, unique revelation has produced the one gospel which is the same for all the apostles (Galatians 1:6-9; 2:1-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, 11). Thus, the “appearances” mean at the earliest and most basic level a revelation from God of the presence and significance of Jesus. This divine revelation calls for a response of faith which includes a being sent on mission to proclaim this good news. This is the apostolic foundation of the Church.
Paul’s writings give the basic claim of the early Church that Jesus was raised and appeared to all the apostles from Peter to Paul himself. There seems little doubt that there was a tradition of a number of appearances; yet these were in the past. Where and when did they occur? What happened during them? When did they stop? He does not say. This brings us to the later developments of the tradition, and especially to the stories of the appearances. The Gospel stories try to answer these questions but the answers vary from one Gospel to another.
Later Developments: The Gospels
Here we encounter the pastoral genius of the evangelists. Each wrote for a different audience, and in setting out Jesus’ public ministry each stressed aspects that spoke to the needs and circumstances of that particular audience. Consequently each draws something from the tradition of the appearances of the risen Jesus that ties in clearly with what had been written in the body of his Gospel. Thus the readers (hearers) of the Gospel could see how the Resurrection fitted consistently into the whole presentation of Jesus. Let us look briefly at each of the Gospels in the probable order in which they were written.
Mark
Paul knows that Jesus was buried, yet he never mentions the empty tomb. This first appears in Mark 16:1-8. Because of the brief, almost unfinished nature of that account, early Christians added other endings. The best known is 16:9-20. Thus we speak of two “Marcan” accounts of the Resurrection.
Mark 16:1-8 is basically the story of the empty tomb. A “young man” (an angel-like figure) announces to the women the basic proclamation: “He has been raised” (v.6). There is the promise of his appearance in Galilee to the other disciples and Peter, but it is never described and the story ends with the women leaving the tomb afraid and silent.
Throughout the Gospel Mark stresses how hard it was for Jesus’ followers to believe in him fully because they did not understand that suffering and rejection were an essential part of the identity of the Son of God. Only through suffering will the disciples reach fuller understanding. At Jesus’ passion the male disciples all fail and run away – an experience reflecting fear and shameful weakness. But their pain leads to light. After they have suffered and failed Jesus will appear to them in Galilee (Mark 14:27-28).
The female followers of Jesus, spared the Gethsemane trial where the disciples fell asleep and fled, looked on from afar at the Crucifixion. They too must experience the difficulty of faith; even after they are told of the Resurrection, they do not automatically proclaim Jesus’ victory. Instead they flee in silence and fear (Mark 16:8).
A salutary warning for Christians today? Our faith has come to us from others who have passed on the revelation of what God has done, but the fact that we have accepted that proclamation does not mean we have full Christian faith. Even after the Resurrection we may have to carry the cross and experience suffering and rejection before we reach a real understanding of the Jesus we say we believe in.
Of course Mark does not mean that the women were permanently silent and afraid. The added ending (Mark 16:9-20) recognises this by showing how, not only for the women but for others too, an encounter with the risen Jesus brought about faith. In each case the personal encounter accomplished what a message received from others could not. Faith comes from a personal understanding of the risen Lord.
We also hear how those whom Jesus upbraids for their lack of faith and hardheartedness are entrusted with preaching the gospel to the whole world. These messages are pertinent for us too. Hearing about Jesus never substitutes for a personal experience of him, and neither then nor now was the task of bringing others to Christ entrusted only to the saintly perfect. Mark’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus’ first disciples were, like us, struggling human beings.
Matthew
While drawing on Mark, Matthew is always the more skilled teacher, kinder to readers who do not always see implications. Mark 16:1-8 does not describe appearances of the risen Jesus, Matthew does. In 28:9 he tells of an appearance to the women after they left the tomb – an appearance (echoed in John and Mark 16:9) that may well represent ancient tradition even though it was never part of the official preaching (e.g. as in 1 Corinthians 15).
Even more dramatically, Matthew 27:62-66; 28:4, 11-15 tells us of a plan to frustrate the Resurrection by getting Pilate’s soldiers to guard Jesus’ tomb. One of the tragic aspects in Matthew’s experience, reflected throughout his Gospel, is a hostile relationship between synagogue authorities and Christian believers. At the start, Matthew portrays Herod, the chief priests and scribes plotting to destroy the newly born Messiah (2:3-5, 16-18, 20); but God frustrates their plans. At the end of the Gospel, he portrays the prefect Pilate, the chief priests and the Pharisees plotting against Jesus. Again God intervenes to frustrate their plans. Though the polemical attitude behind this story is not to be imitated, Matthew reminds us that proclaiming the gospel will not be without struggles.
Finally, Matthew describes what Mark only promised: the appearance of Jesus to the disciples (the Eleven) in Galilee. In Matthew’s opening of the public ministry in Galilee (chapters 5-7) Jesus delivers on a mountain a “sermon” giving the essentials of his new teaching about the Kingdom of God. In 10:6-7 Jesus sends his disciples to preach that kingdom “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then from Galilee the risen Jesus sends his disciples out to teach “all nations” making them disciples by baptising them.
Matthew’s community sees this shift from Jews to Gentiles in the focus of the ministry. Yet Matthew is careful to show that God’s plan for Jesus was consistent from beginning to end. Before his birth, Jesus is proclaimed as Emmanuel (“God with us” – 1:23); his last words are “I am with you all days to the end of time” (28:20).
Luke
Similarly, Luke follows Mark in the basic story of the empty tomb, but goes his own way in the appearances he reports. While Matthew reports an appearance of Jesus in Jerusalem to two women, Luke recounts at length (24:13-35) Jesus’ appearance to two male disciples on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. In the Acts of the Apostles (2:42, 46; 20:7, 11), written by Luke as a sequel to his Gospel, he will point to the role of “the breaking of the bread” in Christian community life. He prepares for that in the Emmaus story when the disciples recognise Jesus in the breaking of the bread. This is equally important for believers today since the Eucharistic breaking of the bread constitutes the presence of the risen Jesus – a unique presence different from all others.
Luke then turns to the risen Jesus’ appearance to the Eleven. More than Mark or Matthew, Luke stresses what was already implicit in the empty tomb: the reality of the body of the risen Jesus who was not simply a spirit (23:37-43). Particularly significant is that the risen Jesus teaches the Eleven about his death and resurrection by explaining the Scriptures, “All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms must be fulfilled” (24:44). For Luke the Resurrection fulfils the Scriptures.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus found their hearts burning when he opened to them the Scriptures. Again Luke’s emphasis is preparing the way for the Church life he will describe in Acts, where Peter, Stephen and Paul begin their preaching by emphasising that the Scriptures anticipate what happened to Jesus (Acts 2:14-21; 7:1-50; 13:16-22).
In Matthew the risen Jesus appears to the Eleven in Galilee. This region is an apt choice from the tradition for Matthew’s purpose. For Matthew, Galilee is the land of the Gentiles (4:15) and after his resurrection Jesus instructs his disciples to go and make disciples of the Gentiles (28:19). Luke, however, highlights Jerusalem as the setting for Jesus’ appearances and his ascension. This is an apt choice from the tradition for his purpose. Luke’s Gospel begins with the appearance of Gabriel to Zechariah in the Jerusalem Temple; it ends with Jesus’ disciples in the Temple blessing God.
At the start of Acts (1:3, 9-12) Jesus ascends into heaven from the Mount of Olives forty days after the resurrection. Yet at the end of the Gospel (24:50-51) Luke has him ascend into heaven from the same region on Easter Sunday night. In this we see Luke’s theological perceptivity. In one sense (dramatically portrayed in the Gospel) Jesus’ return to God was at the end of his earthly career, a career beginning and ending in Jerusalem and thus symbolically lived within the confines of Judaism. In another sense (dramatically portrayed in Acts) Jesus’ return to God begins the life of the Church that starts in Jerusalem (Judaism) and expands to Rome (the Gentile world).
John
John 20, like Luke and Mark 16:9-20, has Jesus’ appearances take place in Jerusalem. John 21 (only superficially linked to John 20), like Matthew and Mark 16:7, has Jesus’ appearance take place in Galilee. Each Chapter, in a different way, is appropriate to John’s thought. John’s Gospel gives us a number of encounters in which each character comes to meet Jesus and reacts to him. This continues in John 20 where one after another, Peter and the Beloved Disciple, Mary Magdalene, the disciples and Thomas encounter the risen Jesus.
The Beloved Disciple is the first to believe. In the tradition (1 Corinthians 15:5; Luke 24:34), Simon Peter was the first of Jesus’ male disciples to see the risen Jesus. John does not deny that but offers his own slant: in the second half of the Gospel the unnamed Beloved Disciple, the one particularly loved by Jesus, is closer than Peter to Jesus. In 20:3-10 Peter and the Beloved Disciple go to the tomb. Neither sees Jesus, but the Beloved Disciple comes to faith without an appearance of the Risen One.
As in Matthew and the added ending of Mark, Mary Magdalene is the first follower to see the risen Jesus. She does not recognise him by sight but when he calls her name, fulfilling the prediction of the Good Shepherd (10:3-5) that he would call by name the sheep that belong to him and they would follow him. Jesus speaks to her of “my Father and your Father” and calls the disciples his “brothers.” Thus to Mary Magdalene Jesus fulfils the promise in John’s Prologue (1:12): “All those who did accept him he empowered to become God’s children.” Consequently Mary Magdalene goes and announces, “I have seen the Lord.” If the Beloved Disciple was the first to believe, Mary Magdalene is the first to proclaim the Risen Lord.
Jesus then appears to the group of disciples (20:19-23), members of the Twelve. As in Genesis 2:7 the Lord God formed a human being from the dust of the earth by breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, so Jesus breathes on the disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit, re-creating them as God’s children with eternal life. This is the birth of the Spirit promised in John 3:5. Throughout the Gospel Jesus refers to himself as the one sent by God; the disciples are now sent to continue his work in the world with his power over evil and sin.
The Gospels mention doubt when Jesus appears to his followers after the Resurrection (Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:37-38; Mark 16:14). John dramatises that doubt in an individual (20:24-29). Paradoxically, the highest confession of faith in the Gospels comes from the lips of “doubting Thomas”: “My Lord and my God.” The Gospel began with the Prologue’s affirmation (1:1), “The Word was God.” Human beings have now come to recognise that.
John 21 moves the setting to Galilee and highlights two scenes related to Simon Peter. A miraculous catch of fish indicated by the risen Jesus is dragged ashore by Peter, a symbol of the missionary role he will have. But the symbolism abruptly shifts as Peter is commissioned to feed Jesus’ sheep. The shift reflects experience: the great missionary thrust in the first generations eventually gave way to pastoral care for those brought to Christ. John’s stress on Jesus as the unique “Good Shepherd” slowed the acceptance of human shepherds in the Johannine community; but when through the symbolism of Peter a shepherding role is authenticated, very Johannine conditions are attached. Peter must love Jesus and the sheep do not become his – they still belong to Jesus.
Yet Jesus’ last word is not about Peter but the Beloved Disciple. He is given no role of authority, but he retains a primacy in being loved, which is more important in this Gospel. It is to the Beloved Disciple that is held open the possibility of being there when Jesus returns. Symbolically that is the final fruit of the Resurrection: a believing community of Christian disciples that remains until the last days.
What do these accounts tell us?
It may appear that the deeper insight of the gospel stories over Paul’s account is to give us a description of the bodilyness of Jesus. Luke describes Jesus walking and talking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:13-27). Both Luke and John, in different ways, describe the risen Lord revealing himself to his disciples in the context of a meal (Luke 24:29-31, 41-43; John 21:10-14). Both give incidents where Jesus calls attention to his hands and feet, pointing out the place of the nails, the evidence of his crucifixion (Luke 24:39f; John 20:20, 25-27). All four gospels record the risen Christ giving explicit instructions to his disciples before his ascension.
It’s easy to conclude that the gospels try to give a picture of what the risen Christ looked like. But that misses the subtle ways the evangelists indicate that the appearances of the risen Lord defy the power of imagination. So each evangelist deliberately portrays the risen Christ as confusingly different and unrecognised. Mary Magdalene thinks Jesus is the gardener; she does not recognise him (John 20:15). Peter and several other disciples, having gone fishing, spot Jesus on the shore but do not realise who he is (John 21:4). The disciples journeying to Emmaus talk with Jesus along the way without knowing who he is, only recognising him in “the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:16, 30f). On another occasion, the disciples see Jesus but think they are seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37). Each story, in its own way, confirms what Mark said in a more generic, yet more exact, way. Jesus appeared “in another form” to two disciples “walking along the way to the country” (Mark 16:12). However manifest and tangible Jesus’ bodily form is, the evangelists witness to the fact that it is quite different; Jesus is not immediately recognisable.
Another, somewhat mystifying, aspect of Jesus’ bodily appearance is his ability to come and go at will. He appears in the upper room “though the doors were locked” (John 20:19). In breaking the bread, he simply vanishes from the disciples’ sight when they recognise him (Luke 24:30f). He appears apparently from nowhere while the Eleven were at table, only to rebuke them for their unbelief and hardheartedness (Mark 16:14). In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus takes final leave of the disciples (at the ascension) as mysteriously as he had first appeared. Clearly each writer tries to affirm that Jesus’ bodilyness had very different qualities to ours. These qualities made Jesus unrecognisable in the first moments of his appearances and allowed him the freedom to move easily through, in, and out of space and time without restriction.
Addressed by Jesus
Each evangelist affirms that the disciples do come to recognise the risen Lord in these appearances but only as Jesus addresses them in some way. John presents a bewildered Mary Magdalene coming to recognise Jesus precisely as he calls her by name (John 20:15-18). He describes Thomas moving from doubt to faith as Jesus speaks to him, inviting Thomas to recognise him as the crucified one by observing the place of the nails and the wound in his side (John 20:24-28). John says Peter and the disciples come to identify Jesus only after the Lord tells them to lower the nets again to have success after a frustrating night of fishing (John 21:4-7).
Luke stresses the significance of Jesus’ personal address to the disciples as the prelude to their recognising him. In telling the story of two disciples journeying to Emmaus, Luke emphasises that they came to recognise Jesus only as the Lord personally led them through the Scriptures and “broke bread” with them (24:13-35). The synoptic Gospels link the disciples’ recognition of the risen Lord to his “giving them a commission,” again a very personal word touching on their responsibilities to continue his ministry. The gospel stories show that the disciples’ ability to identify the risen Lord depends not only on Jesus’ appearance before them, but also on his speaking a personal word to them.
Conclusion
The gospel accounts carefully emphasise the final effect of the risen Lord’s appearances and words. His appearances lead the disciples to a richer and deeper faith in who he is. They express this deeper faith in Jesus by giving him, still recognised as the crucified one, a new name. Individually and together, they rejoice: “We have seen the Lord” (John 20:18, 25; 21:7), while Thomas even more explicitly confesses: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Like Paul writing to Philippi, the evangelists seek to highlight the fact that the disciples, as they see and hear the risen Christ, give Jesus the “name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9): Jesus is one with God; he is filled with God’s life: “Jesus is Lord.”
For Week 1 “Priorities” – click here
For Week 2 “Digital Communication” – click here
For Week 3 “Small Groups” – click here
The current COVID-19 crisis is proving to be a true ‘I’ve never been through this before’ moment for church leaders. For many I’ve heard from, this crisis has actually manifested itself as two smaller crises: loss of relevance and loss of income.
The first crisis is the loss of the literal and proverbial pulpit that comes with being a pastor, religious educator, or youth minister. The audience which we relied on for validation of our ministry has disappeared overnight. These are real problems that require solutions including digital services and online community, which I have discussed in previous blog posts (link).
The second crisis is money. With the collection baskets sitting idle, most parishes have been left with dwindling revenue streams. For pastors with lay staff members, the stress of avoiding furloughs and layoffs is especially acute. The problem is compounded by the fact that many church leaders, myself included, received little to no formal education in finances or development, so we come at the crisis ill equipped.
Here are a few ideas on how to approach raising money during this time:
1) Cast a Vision
It’s tempting to look at your shrinking bottom line and resort to the tired old approach of nagging. But people don’t give to neediness, they give to vision. Spend less time asking for money this Easter season and more time instilling a vision for your parish. Make sure people know your mission and the impact their giving can have on their community.
If you are a pastor and you’re live streaming or broadcasting, your homilies during this time are more important than ever. Use any free-time you might have to prepare for your weekend messages.
In your on line Mass, some request for giving is prudent. But make sure that it is during the proper time – the offertory portion of Mass or before Mass– and presented only once.
2) Cut Expenses for Physical Buildings/ Invest in Online
By now, you probably know where your parish stands financially. There are likely many places to save on expenses while your building is closed such as HVAC, electrical, and cleaning services.
But don’t forget that this is also a time for investment. While your building is closed, all of your ministry has shifted online – and your budget should reflect that. Invest in online streaming technology, software for staff communication, and social media graphics packages.
3) Ask a Select Few for a Few Select Projects
Rather than doing blanket appeals for funds, it might be more effective to design specific appeals for a select few of your top givers. Leverage your knowledge of the interests of your top givers to design appeals just for them. For example, someone might be very excited to help your church purchase video equipment for your transition to online services or to help cover the cost of online streaming providers. If you can instill a vision for where your parish is going during this time of uncertainty, people will see the impact and want to invest in the future of the church.
Make it your goal to stay financially healthy through the crisis and you will emerge stronger on the other side of it.
The Appearances Of The Risen Lord
Brian Purfield examines the Gospel accounts of the appearances of the risen Jesus. What do they tell us about the disciples’ experience of the Resurrection? What do they tell us about the early Christian communities for whom they were written? What do they tell us about the risen Jesus himself? Brian Purfield is Head of Theological Education at Mount Street Jesuit Centre.
This article is taken from the ThinkingFaith.org website where you can find a wide range of articles by clicking here
The Resurrection of Christ is central to our faith as Christians. Paul proclaims: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). From Easter Sunday to Low Sunday, the readings at Mass present the accounts of the appearances of the risen Lord. This article looks at these accounts, in the hope that we may taste something of the experience of the resurrection that the early Christian followers of Christ had.
The Earlier Tradition: St. Paul
Paul offers one of the earliest formulations and says that he himself received it (probably in Damascus about the time of his conversion, three years after the death of Jesus). It is found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. Paul lists four essential elements: Jesus died, he was buried, he was raised, and he appeared to Cephas. Inseparable from the claim that Jesus was raised is the fact that he appeared to Simon Peter. This is the basic proclamation of the early Church and is also set out in Luke 24:34. Whether Peter (Cephas) was chronologically the first that Jesus appeared to or not, he is eventually given a symbolic primacy of place as the “rock” or foundation of Christian faith. Paul then lists appearances to others: to the Twelve, to more than 500, to James and all the apostles. He then says that Jesus appeared “last of all to me” (15:8). But he insists that the experience is essentially the same, for there is only one gospel because there is only one revelation.
Paul is the only one to give us a first-hand account of such an experience (Galatians 1:6-24). He does not describe the experience in physical terms. It probably involved some form of seeing or hearing, but Paul emphasises God’s activity. It was God who “was pleased to reveal his Son to me” (Galatians 1:16). He insists that the gospel he proclaims did not come to him through any human mediation but only “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11-12). It is this revelation that gave him the mission “so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles” (1:16).
Paul insists throughout his career that he too is an apostle because he too has seen Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:1). The one, unique revelation has produced the one gospel which is the same for all the apostles (Galatians 1:6-9; 2:1-10; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, 11). Thus, the “appearances” mean at the earliest and most basic level a revelation from God of the presence and significance of Jesus. This divine revelation calls for a response of faith which includes a being sent on mission to proclaim this good news. This is the apostolic foundation of the Church.
Paul’s writings give the basic claim of the early Church that Jesus was raised and appeared to all the apostles from Peter to Paul himself. There seems little doubt that there was a tradition of a number of appearances; yet these were in the past. Where and when did they occur? What happened during them? When did they stop? He does not say. This brings us to the later developments of the tradition, and especially to the stories of the appearances. The Gospel stories try to answer these questions but the answers vary from one Gospel to another.
Later Developments: The Gospels
Here we encounter the pastoral genius of the evangelists. Each wrote for a different audience, and in setting out Jesus’ public ministry each stressed aspects that spoke to the needs and circumstances of that particular audience. Consequently each draws something from the tradition of the appearances of the risen Jesus that ties in clearly with what had been written in the body of his Gospel. Thus the readers (hearers) of the Gospel could see how the Resurrection fitted consistently into the whole presentation of Jesus. Let us look briefly at each of the Gospels in the probable order in which they were written.
Mark
Paul knows that Jesus was buried, yet he never mentions the empty tomb. This first appears in Mark 16:1-8. Because of the brief, almost unfinished nature of that account, early Christians added other endings. The best known is 16:9-20. Thus we speak of two “Marcan” accounts of the Resurrection.
Mark 16:1-8 is basically the story of the empty tomb. A “young man” (an angel-like figure) announces to the women the basic proclamation: “He has been raised” (v.6). There is the promise of his appearance in Galilee to the other disciples and Peter, but it is never described and the story ends with the women leaving the tomb afraid and silent.
Throughout the Gospel Mark stresses how hard it was for Jesus’ followers to believe in him fully because they did not understand that suffering and rejection were an essential part of the identity of the Son of God. Only through suffering will the disciples reach fuller understanding. At Jesus’ passion the male disciples all fail and run away – an experience reflecting fear and shameful weakness. But their pain leads to light. After they have suffered and failed Jesus will appear to them in Galilee (Mark 14:27-28).
The female followers of Jesus, spared the Gethsemane trial where the disciples fell asleep and fled, looked on from afar at the Crucifixion. They too must experience the difficulty of faith; even after they are told of the Resurrection, they do not automatically proclaim Jesus’ victory. Instead they flee in silence and fear (Mark 16:8).
A salutary warning for Christians today? Our faith has come to us from others who have passed on the revelation of what God has done, but the fact that we have accepted that proclamation does not mean we have full Christian faith. Even after the Resurrection we may have to carry the cross and experience suffering and rejection before we reach a real understanding of the Jesus we say we believe in.
Of course Mark does not mean that the women were permanently silent and afraid. The added ending (Mark 16:9-20) recognises this by showing how, not only for the women but for others too, an encounter with the risen Jesus brought about faith. In each case the personal encounter accomplished what a message received from others could not. Faith comes from a personal understanding of the risen Lord.
We also hear how those whom Jesus upbraids for their lack of faith and hardheartedness are entrusted with preaching the gospel to the whole world. These messages are pertinent for us too. Hearing about Jesus never substitutes for a personal experience of him, and neither then nor now was the task of bringing others to Christ entrusted only to the saintly perfect. Mark’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus’ first disciples were, like us, struggling human beings.
Matthew
While drawing on Mark, Matthew is always the more skilled teacher, kinder to readers who do not always see implications. Mark 16:1-8 does not describe appearances of the risen Jesus, Matthew does. In 28:9 he tells of an appearance to the women after they left the tomb – an appearance (echoed in John and Mark 16:9) that may well represent ancient tradition even though it was never part of the official preaching (e.g. as in 1 Corinthians 15).
Even more dramatically, Matthew 27:62-66; 28:4, 11-15 tells us of a plan to frustrate the Resurrection by getting Pilate’s soldiers to guard Jesus’ tomb. One of the tragic aspects in Matthew’s experience, reflected throughout his Gospel, is a hostile relationship between synagogue authorities and Christian believers. At the start, Matthew portrays Herod, the chief priests and scribes plotting to destroy the newly born Messiah (2:3-5, 16-18, 20); but God frustrates their plans. At the end of the Gospel, he portrays the prefect Pilate, the chief priests and the Pharisees plotting against Jesus. Again God intervenes to frustrate their plans. Though the polemical attitude behind this story is not to be imitated, Matthew reminds us that proclaiming the gospel will not be without struggles.
Finally, Matthew describes what Mark only promised: the appearance of Jesus to the disciples (the Eleven) in Galilee. In Matthew’s opening of the public ministry in Galilee (chapters 5-7) Jesus delivers on a mountain a “sermon” giving the essentials of his new teaching about the Kingdom of God. In 10:6-7 Jesus sends his disciples to preach that kingdom “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then from Galilee the risen Jesus sends his disciples out to teach “all nations” making them disciples by baptising them.
Matthew’s community sees this shift from Jews to Gentiles in the focus of the ministry. Yet Matthew is careful to show that God’s plan for Jesus was consistent from beginning to end. Before his birth, Jesus is proclaimed as Emmanuel (“God with us” – 1:23); his last words are “I am with you all days to the end of time” (28:20).
Luke
Similarly, Luke follows Mark in the basic story of the empty tomb, but goes his own way in the appearances he reports. While Matthew reports an appearance of Jesus in Jerusalem to two women, Luke recounts at length (24:13-35) Jesus’ appearance to two male disciples on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. In the Acts of the Apostles (2:42, 46; 20:7, 11), written by Luke as a sequel to his Gospel, he will point to the role of “the breaking of the bread” in Christian community life. He prepares for that in the Emmaus story when the disciples recognise Jesus in the breaking of the bread. This is equally important for believers today since the Eucharistic breaking of the bread constitutes the presence of the risen Jesus – a unique presence different from all others.
Luke then turns to the risen Jesus’ appearance to the Eleven. More than Mark or Matthew, Luke stresses what was already implicit in the empty tomb: the reality of the body of the risen Jesus who was not simply a spirit (23:37-43). Particularly significant is that the risen Jesus teaches the Eleven about his death and resurrection by explaining the Scriptures, “All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms must be fulfilled” (24:44). For Luke the Resurrection fulfils the Scriptures.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus found their hearts burning when he opened to them the Scriptures. Again Luke’s emphasis is preparing the way for the Church life he will describe in Acts, where Peter, Stephen and Paul begin their preaching by emphasising that the Scriptures anticipate what happened to Jesus (Acts 2:14-21; 7:1-50; 13:16-22).
In Matthew the risen Jesus appears to the Eleven in Galilee. This region is an apt choice from the tradition for Matthew’s purpose. For Matthew, Galilee is the land of the Gentiles (4:15) and after his resurrection Jesus instructs his disciples to go and make disciples of the Gentiles (28:19). Luke, however, highlights Jerusalem as the setting for Jesus’ appearances and his ascension. This is an apt choice from the tradition for his purpose. Luke’s Gospel begins with the appearance of Gabriel to Zechariah in the Jerusalem Temple; it ends with Jesus’ disciples in the Temple blessing God.
At the start of Acts (1:3, 9-12) Jesus ascends into heaven from the Mount of Olives forty days after the resurrection. Yet at the end of the Gospel (24:50-51) Luke has him ascend into heaven from the same region on Easter Sunday night. In this we see Luke’s theological perceptivity. In one sense (dramatically portrayed in the Gospel) Jesus’ return to God was at the end of his earthly career, a career beginning and ending in Jerusalem and thus symbolically lived within the confines of Judaism. In another sense (dramatically portrayed in Acts) Jesus’ return to God begins the life of the Church that starts in Jerusalem (Judaism) and expands to Rome (the Gentile world).
John
John 20, like Luke and Mark 16:9-20, has Jesus’ appearances take place in Jerusalem. John 21 (only superficially linked to John 20), like Matthew and Mark 16:7, has Jesus’ appearance take place in Galilee. Each Chapter, in a different way, is appropriate to John’s thought. John’s Gospel gives us a number of encounters in which each character comes to meet Jesus and reacts to him. This continues in John 20 where one after another, Peter and the Beloved Disciple, Mary Magdalene, the disciples and Thomas encounter the risen Jesus.
The Beloved Disciple is the first to believe. In the tradition (1 Corinthians 15:5; Luke 24:34), Simon Peter was the first of Jesus’ male disciples to see the risen Jesus. John does not deny that but offers his own slant: in the second half of the Gospel the unnamed Beloved Disciple, the one particularly loved by Jesus, is closer than Peter to Jesus. In 20:3-10 Peter and the Beloved Disciple go to the tomb. Neither sees Jesus, but the Beloved Disciple comes to faith without an appearance of the Risen One.
As in Matthew and the added ending of Mark, Mary Magdalene is the first follower to see the risen Jesus. She does not recognise him by sight but when he calls her name, fulfilling the prediction of the Good Shepherd (10:3-5) that he would call by name the sheep that belong to him and they would follow him. Jesus speaks to her of “my Father and your Father” and calls the disciples his “brothers.” Thus to Mary Magdalene Jesus fulfils the promise in John’s Prologue (1:12): “All those who did accept him he empowered to become God’s children.” Consequently Mary Magdalene goes and announces, “I have seen the Lord.” If the Beloved Disciple was the first to believe, Mary Magdalene is the first to proclaim the Risen Lord.
Jesus then appears to the group of disciples (20:19-23), members of the Twelve. As in Genesis 2:7 the Lord God formed a human being from the dust of the earth by breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, so Jesus breathes on the disciples and they receive the Holy Spirit, re-creating them as God’s children with eternal life. This is the birth of the Spirit promised in John 3:5. Throughout the Gospel Jesus refers to himself as the one sent by God; the disciples are now sent to continue his work in the world with his power over evil and sin.
The Gospels mention doubt when Jesus appears to his followers after the Resurrection (Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:37-38; Mark 16:14). John dramatises that doubt in an individual (20:24-29). Paradoxically, the highest confession of faith in the Gospels comes from the lips of “doubting Thomas”: “My Lord and my God.” The Gospel began with the Prologue’s affirmation (1:1), “The Word was God.” Human beings have now come to recognise that.
John 21 moves the setting to Galilee and highlights two scenes related to Simon Peter. A miraculous catch of fish indicated by the risen Jesus is dragged ashore by Peter, a symbol of the missionary role he will have. But the symbolism abruptly shifts as Peter is commissioned to feed Jesus’ sheep. The shift reflects experience: the great missionary thrust in the first generations eventually gave way to pastoral care for those brought to Christ. John’s stress on Jesus as the unique “Good Shepherd” slowed the acceptance of human shepherds in the Johannine community; but when through the symbolism of Peter a shepherding role is authenticated, very Johannine conditions are attached. Peter must love Jesus and the sheep do not become his – they still belong to Jesus.
Yet Jesus’ last word is not about Peter but the Beloved Disciple. He is given no role of authority, but he retains a primacy in being loved, which is more important in this Gospel. It is to the Beloved Disciple that is held open the possibility of being there when Jesus returns. Symbolically that is the final fruit of the Resurrection: a believing community of Christian disciples that remains until the last days.
What do these accounts tell us?
It may appear that the deeper insight of the gospel stories over Paul’s account is to give us a description of the bodilyness of Jesus. Luke describes Jesus walking and talking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:13-27). Both Luke and John, in different ways, describe the risen Lord revealing himself to his disciples in the context of a meal (Luke 24:29-31, 41-43; John 21:10-14). Both give incidents where Jesus calls attention to his hands and feet, pointing out the place of the nails, the evidence of his crucifixion (Luke 24:39f; John 20:20, 25-27). All four gospels record the risen Christ giving explicit instructions to his disciples before his ascension.
It’s easy to conclude that the gospels try to give a picture of what the risen Christ looked like. But that misses the subtle ways the evangelists indicate that the appearances of the risen Lord defy the power of imagination. So each evangelist deliberately portrays the risen Christ as confusingly different and unrecognised. Mary Magdalene thinks Jesus is the gardener; she does not recognise him (John 20:15). Peter and several other disciples, having gone fishing, spot Jesus on the shore but do not realise who he is (John 21:4). The disciples journeying to Emmaus talk with Jesus along the way without knowing who he is, only recognising him in “the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:16, 30f). On another occasion, the disciples see Jesus but think they are seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37). Each story, in its own way, confirms what Mark said in a more generic, yet more exact, way. Jesus appeared “in another form” to two disciples “walking along the way to the country” (Mark 16:12). However manifest and tangible Jesus’ bodily form is, the evangelists witness to the fact that it is quite different; Jesus is not immediately recognisable.
Another, somewhat mystifying, aspect of Jesus’ bodily appearance is his ability to come and go at will. He appears in the upper room “though the doors were locked” (John 20:19). In breaking the bread, he simply vanishes from the disciples’ sight when they recognise him (Luke 24:30f). He appears apparently from nowhere while the Eleven were at table, only to rebuke them for their unbelief and hardheartedness (Mark 16:14). In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus takes final leave of the disciples (at the ascension) as mysteriously as he had first appeared. Clearly each writer tries to affirm that Jesus’ bodilyness had very different qualities to ours. These qualities made Jesus unrecognisable in the first moments of his appearances and allowed him the freedom to move easily through, in, and out of space and time without restriction.
Addressed by Jesus
Each evangelist affirms that the disciples do come to recognise the risen Lord in these appearances but only as Jesus addresses them in some way. John presents a bewildered Mary Magdalene coming to recognise Jesus precisely as he calls her by name (John 20:15-18). He describes Thomas moving from doubt to faith as Jesus speaks to him, inviting Thomas to recognise him as the crucified one by observing the place of the nails and the wound in his side (John 20:24-28). John says Peter and the disciples come to identify Jesus only after the Lord tells them to lower the nets again to have success after a frustrating night of fishing (John 21:4-7).
Luke stresses the significance of Jesus’ personal address to the disciples as the prelude to their recognising him. In telling the story of two disciples journeying to Emmaus, Luke emphasises that they came to recognise Jesus only as the Lord personally led them through the Scriptures and “broke bread” with them (24:13-35). The synoptic Gospels link the disciples’ recognition of the risen Lord to his “giving them a commission,” again a very personal word touching on their responsibilities to continue his ministry. The gospel stories show that the disciples’ ability to identify the risen Lord depends not only on Jesus’ appearance before them, but also on his speaking a personal word to them.
Conclusion
The gospel accounts carefully emphasise the final effect of the risen Lord’s appearances and words. His appearances lead the disciples to a richer and deeper faith in who he is. They express this deeper faith in Jesus by giving him, still recognised as the crucified one, a new name. Individually and together, they rejoice: “We have seen the Lord” (John 20:18, 25; 21:7), while Thomas even more explicitly confesses: “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Like Paul writing to Philippi, the evangelists seek to highlight the fact that the disciples, as they see and hear the risen Christ, give Jesus the “name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9): Jesus is one with God; he is filled with God’s life: “Jesus is Lord.”
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