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FROM PASSOVER TO PENTECOST MY DA I LY J O U R N E Y TH RO U G H TH E E A STE R S E A S O N

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AUTHOR n Rev. Frank P. DeSiano, CSP Fr. Frank DeSiano, CSP, a noted speaker and author, is President of Paulist Evangelization Ministries. A number of his books, including Why Not Consider Becoming a Catholic?, are available at www.pemdc. org.

GENERAL EDITOR n Rev. Kenneth Boyack, CSP EDITOR n Ms. Paula Minaert DESIGN AND LAYOUT n Abstract Orange COVER IMAGE n Copyright © www.StainedGlassInc.com Nihil Obstat: Rev. Christopher Begg, S.T.D., Ph.D., Censor Deputatus.

Imprimatur: Most Rev. Barry C. Knestout, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Archdiocese of Washington, November 30, 2015.

The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free from doctrinal or moral error. There is no implication that those who have granted the nihil obstat and the imprimatur agree with the content, opinions or statements expressed therein.

Copyright © 2016 by Paulist Evangelization Ministries. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner.

Scripture references for Sunday Mass are taken from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Other Scripture references are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Published by Paulist Evangelization Ministries 3031 Fourth Street, NE, Washington, DC 20017 www.pemdc.org

JANUARY 2016 PRINTING

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From Passover to Pentecost MY DAILY JOURNEY THROUGH THE EASTER SEASON

REV. FRANK P. DESIANO, CSP

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Introduction It’s very easy for Catholics to miss a lot of the drama of Easter.

We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with splendor and song on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Our church attendance has swelled.

We happily sing “Alleluia” once again. And then we go on with our lives, as if everything that follows next were anticlimactic.

Yet the drama of Easter is just starting! The central mystery of our Christian faith—the Paschal Mystery—will reach its climax with the feast of Pentecost. Jesus rises from the dead to bestow upon his followers the Spirit, by which we become his disciples. At this time of year, we are witnessing a wonderful transfer of power: from the risen Jesus to those who follow in his steps. The Holy Spirit empowers us to continue Jesus’ mission.

As we reflect on From Passover to Pentecost in the Easter season, we see the elements of our Christian lives unfold. We primarily read from two scriptural sources, the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel according to John. These particularly show the work of the Holy Spirit in two spheres of Christian life: the life of the Church and the life of each believer.

We follow the expansion of the Church in the scenes from the Acts of the Apostles as the first followers experience the Holy Spirit. Their preaching, prayer, community-building and wondrous signs reveal the amazing dynamic of the Word of God: lives are changed, the Church is born.

In the Gospel according to John, we hear passages that show the identity that we have in Jesus and the abiding presence of God in our lives through the Holy Spirit. We see our Christian lives as 2

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transformation and sanctification because of the presence of the Risen Christ, and the Holy Spirit, in our lives. Of course, what God does within each believer directly relates to what God is doing in the growth of the Church; they go hand-in hand.

As we go through this Easter season, attending to the upcoming readings on Sunday and the celebration of Christ’s presence at the Eucharist, we have an opportunity to realize the work of God in a fuller way. For the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, Spirit—shows the breadth and depth of God’s actions in Jesus, and, in the Spirit, throughout the world. We celebrate Christ—risen in his body, and rising ever in the life of his Church.

You can participate more fully in Sunday Mass during the Easter season by reading and praying over the lectionary readings before you come to Mass. We provide a list of these readings each Friday in this booklet. For example, the readings for the Second Sunday of Easter listed on Friday on page 13 look like this:

READINGS FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts of the Apostles 5:12-16; Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31 PSALM RESPONSE: Give thanks to the Lord for he is

good, his love is everlasting.

Plan to read and pray over these readings sometime during the week as you prepare for Sunday Mass. Many Catholics have adopted this practice as part of their weekly spiritual exercises, and find that it nourishes their souls. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you make this practice a habit of the heart for you.

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Easter Monday We’ve barely begun to sing our “Alleluia” at Jesus’ resurrection from the dead when the Church gives us the gospel passage about “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas says to his fellow Apostles: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” ( John 20:25). What’s up with this?

REFLECTION “I’m from Missouri, you’ve got to show me,” is an expression that goes back for generations. And there’s a part of us that really likes this idea. No-nonsense, straightforward, black and white: that’s how we think life is. So when Thomas does not accept the words of the other Apostles—amazing words that scarcely seem believable—there’s a part of us that applauds him. Who wants to be gullible? How can a man murdered in such a terrible way come back from the dead?

Of course, when Thomas actually sees Jesus, the last thing he thinks of doing is putting his finger into Jesus’ nailmarks. All he can do is fall to his knees and say, “My Lord and my God!” Because, when we think about it, we all see things every day with our eyes and we are not persuaded just by looking. We see photos and wonder if they are doctored. Eyewitnesses give very different versions of the same event. People tell us things to our face and yet the message doesn’t get through.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29). Isn’t Jesus telling us that we always have to get beyond the external, beyond what our eyeballs register, to reach the heart

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of things, which often lies under the surface? Why is it we can be with people for months or even years, but one day we see that they are truly friends—deep friends whom we love? It just took us a while to get to the reality, to see what was real.

Jesus gives Thomas time, but Thomas doesn’t need it. He gets to the reality very quickly, that this Jesus, risen from the dead, is far more than a fantasy or a revived body. He comes to see not with his eyeballs, but with Easter eyes of faith. Jesus gives us time as well, to sharpen our vision with the eyes of Easter.

QUESTION What makes you doubt the presence of the Risen Christ in your own life?

ACT Decide on one extra thing you will do during the Easter season to affirm your belief in the Risen Christ: a prayer, a few moments of quiet, contemplation of something beautiful. . . .

PRAYER O Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief! Help me see you present through the moods and moments of my everyday life. Open my eyes to your risen presence. Amen.

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Easter Tuesday Among the astonishing things that happened in the early Church was how people flocked to the Apostles. They were happy if just the shadow of Peter fell upon the sick people who were brought to him (Acts 5:15). Healing seems to be a part of Easter.

REFLECTION When Jesus rises from the dead, it breaks apart the usual categories we have for thinking about things. If God can do this in Jesus, what then can God do in our own lives? We read the stories of healing that seem to dominate the lives of the first Christians, and then we ask ourselves: so what happened?

We have gotten very scientific about healing. But maybe this has made it hard for us to see the layers of healing that are part of life, particularly lives of faith. Of course, we have unexplained healings; we call them miracles. Even though we think they are rare, probably most people can think of someone who made a recovery that no one expected. But we have lots of other kinds of healings as well.

Almost every day parents engage with children who have a variety of ills. Is it the Band-aid that brings the healing, or is it Mommy’s attention? People visit friends in the hospital. It seems like there is hardly any conversation because the patient is so sick; but just the presence of a close friend starts to turn things around.

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Husbands and wives see things differently, share angry words, run to different parts of the house. But something brings them together, gets them talking again. In the end, we see them embracing with a greater tenderness than even before the spat began. Grandparents, too, seem to have more energy when they see their grandchildren playing. It’s like the child pumps life into the ailing and aging body.

We may not heal people by casting our shadows upon them. But Peter can help us see that healing abounds, all the more because the Risen Christ now fills everything with his life, and pours the Holy Spirit upon us and all humankind. This kind of healing may not be definable in terms of hospitals and health policy, but, if we look, we probably can see it everywhere.

QUESTION In what ways have you experienced healing—of one kind or another—in recent years?

ACT Think of someone in your circle who is struggling with illness.

Decide on a way to contact that person to show your support and presence to them.

PRAYER Lord, Father, from you all healing comes. Your Son, Jesus, used healing as a sign of the Kingdom you will to bring about.

Make me an instrument of this Kingdom by the healing I bring to the lives of others. I pray this in the name of Jesus, our Risen Lord. Amen.

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Easter Wednesday “Do not be afraid” is probably the most used phrase in the entire Bible. Jesus says it to St. John on the island called Patmos at the beginning of the Book of Revelation (1:17). Why is it that we so easily resort to fear, but that seems to be the one thing God wants to address?

REFLECTION The opening of the Book of Revelation churns our imaginations.

The whole book is filled with images that stun us, and it starts right in the first chapter. Lampstands, angels, a voice like a trumpet. Obviously, these images stunned St. John on the island of Patmos, so much that he fell down “as though dead.”

We are afraid of things that threaten us, things that can shame us, but also of things that make us quake in wonder. Inside each of us there’s a comfort zone, a feeling of “ordinary” that we count on for our daily life. We expect things to be a certain way, and it’s a good thing that we do; otherwise the world would be pretty chaotic.

But Easter is asking us if there’s a downside to this, a way in which we frame our lives so that we end up making them smaller. Because if frightening things can upend our comfort zone, so can things of stunning beauty and goodness. And if threats make us want to run away, beauty and goodness should do exactly the opposite.

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Perhaps it’s hard for us to think of the first generation of believers and realize just how frightening the idea of Easter was. No one had ever experienced anything like this. Certainly if we saw someone we had just buried sitting on our sofa, we’d shake our heads in disbelief—and fear. “Do not be afraid,” says Jesus. It may take a while to get used to the beauty of resurrection, the joy of hope, the shock of being knocked out of our comfort zone. It may take a while before the wonder of redeemed creation begins to dawn on us.

Maybe that’s one of the purposes of the strange and brilliant images we see in the Book of Revelation: they help us get out of our fear and more accustomed to the grandeur God wants us to see.

QUESTION What makes you most afraid at this point in your life? Why?

ACT Spend time in prayer, bringing to the Risen Jesus the fears that keep you back in life. Hand them to Christ and see what happens.

PRAYER Lord Jesus, fill me with the kind of courage that helps me to face my fears, not run away from them. Help me to see your resurrection as the decisive victory over all evil and sin, bringing your strength into my life. Amen.

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Easter T hursday The Church has practiced rites of healing from the beginning.

One of the most famous passages about this comes from the Letter of James (5:13-15). Among the many ways that healing comes through faith, the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick has a special place.

REFLECTION There is not a priest in the Catholic Church who, after ministering the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, has not been struck by the power of this sacrament. Holy anointing is a special manifestation of the whole ministry of healing, which Jesus leaves the Church as one of his Easter gifts—a gift to be exercised in different ways by all believers, but particularly by priests.

Popular media still stereotypes this sacrament as the “Last Rites,” undoubtedly because of the drama of seeing a priest rushing in as someone is dying. However, the use of the Anointing of the Sick as a final sacrament is rather late in the Church’s experience.

For most of the Church’s life, anointing has been celebrated as a rite of healing, praying for the return of the sick person to his or her full life. The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, then, is primarily in service to the living, praying for healthier life, and is not primarily a sacrament for the dying.

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In this sacrament, the priest anoints the patient with the oil of the sick, oil usually blessed on Holy Thursday by the bishop.

In ancient times, oil was used as a salve for wounds and as a protection for the skin; this is why oil is the basic material used in holy anointing. The actual application of the oil takes place within an entire rite that calls on the power of God, through the Holy Spirit, to bring healing for the ill and those who serve them.

Amazing things happen when the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is celebrated. It’s one of the most profound ways we celebrate the effects of Easter.

QUESTION How have you noticed the Church using oil in your own experience?

ACT Talk to a priest about his experience celebrating the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

PRAYER Lord, I bring to you the names of all those who are ill. [Mention the names you wish.] I know you will them the fullness of their lives. I trust you to bring them the healing that is in accord with your will. Amen.

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Easter Friday One of the wonders of Easter is how so many florists manage to get so many pots of lilies to bloom at the same time. People come to church to a dazzling array of lilies emitting gentle perfumed whiffs. But that glory begins to fade quickly as the blossoms turn brown and wither.

REFLECTION It doesn’t take long for the bloom to fade from Easter’s flowers.

Sacristans and volunteers pour water into the flower pots, and maintenance personnel try to keep the church building from getting hot. No matter; in a few days the white of the lilies starts showing specks of brown and withering begins soon after.

Flower by flower, the withered blossoms disappear, until only the hardiest are left.

We might wonder why we use such frail symbols for the enduring feast of Easter. After all, Easter tells us that Jesus has now vanquished death, that corruption no longer can beset his risen body. The last thing that Jesus represents is a withering flower.

He is the one who conquers death and is seated, as we say in our creed, “at the right hand of God the Father.”

But perhaps the lily represents not so much Christ as ourselves— the frailty with which we hold our Easter faith. The bloom of Easter can vanish quite quickly in our own lives and faith. After the smiles and fancy clothes, how quickly we return to business as usual in our daily lives, the quibbles and peeves that structure so much of our thinking. How quickly we act, not out of hope and life but out of cynical calculation, living as if we believed everything depended on how much we acquire here, and how 12

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important others think we are. How quickly we operate out of the greed, envy, anger, and lust that shape so much of human life.

Lilies will fade; their glory is frail. Our Easter glory, however, is only potentially frail. The Risen Christ assures us of his love and bestows his Holy Spirit upon us—who protects us precisely from those factors in our lives that diminish Easter’s power. We don’t have volunteers trying to prop us up like the lilies; we have the Risen Christ, with all his power, dwelling in our hearts.

QUESTION What is your favorite symbol of Easter?

ACT Offer to do a little gardening around the parish or for a neighbor who is getting frail.

PRAYER Lord Jesus, your resurrection is the wonderful liberation from many things that I fear. Teach me to be strong when I am tempted to doubt your power. Help me live as I believe, trusting in your risen presence in my life and in the world. Amen.

READINGS FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts of the Apostles 5:12-16; Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31 PSALM RESPONSE: Give thanks to the Lord for he is

good, his love is everlasting.

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