Category Archives: resurrection

The Holy Face (Volto Santo) as spiritual remedy

21 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Christ, Christian living, life, life in Christ, resurrection

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The Volto Santo of Manoppello

The Volto Santo of Manoppello

What was that first moment of resurrection like for our Lord? What was that first sudden intake of breath like; which came from an up-to-then lifeless corpse – an intake of breath which cracked the silence of the enclosed tomb? Did our Lord gaze with wonder as he watched the return of color to his hands and feet and body (now marked with the signs of his crucifixion) as the pallor of death dissipated?

These thoughts have been in my prayer reflection now for a while and as they have remained I have discovered a needed remedy for my own spiritual well-being and, I think, for the well-being of our Church and world.

A little over a year ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Church of the Holy Face (Volto Santo) in Manoppello, Italy. This church houses what is claimed by some to be an image or imprint not made by human hands which captures the moment of our Lord’s resurrection. The image is found on a scarf size piece of very delicate and rare byssum fabric. One theory goes that the scarf was laid over the face of Jesus in an act of devotion as he was placed in the tomb and shrouded. The veil of Manoppello would then be akin to the Shroud of Turin in its witness and mystery. There is an ongoing debate about the authenticity of the veil and I do not wish to wade into those waters. I will leave that to those people with the appropriate academic and scientific credentials.

From an iconic point of view though what I do find intriguing about the image of the Volto Santo is that the eyes are opened and the lips are parted as if in an intake of breath. Is the image real? I do not know. Is the image a necessity for belief in the resurrection? No. Is the image worthy as an object of devotion? Personally, and here I stress “personally”, I say yes. Why? Because the Holy Face witnesses to the triumph of life over death and this is the needed spiritual remedy it offers.

We live in an age chasing after and fixated upon death. Despite all protestations to the contrary; the love of death is rampant in our day. Pope Francis has courageously noted that the economy has become the rule against which all human life and even creation itself is to be measured. To paraphrase the Holy Father; the market drops and the world is in a panic, people starve to death every day and no one notices. A world guided solely by the principles of the market is a world in love with death. Does the finance market have its place? Yes. Can the finance market achieve great good? Certainly. Should the finance market become the one rule over which all life is measured and judged? Definitely not. When it becomes the one measure we see the effects – baby’s body parts are sold to the highest bidder, euthanasia is promoted as efficient care, life becomes so stressed that social isolation increases and people (especially the elderly) are forgotten, the stranger, the person of different skin color and the immigrant are viewed solely in terms of threat, creation itself is disrespected and destroyed solely for profit and the list could continue.

Christians are not a people in love with death. We cannot be because we know that death has been conquered. There was that sudden intake of breath and the tomb has been emptied! But we are so surrounded by a culture in love with death, so inundated by it, that it is so easy to become cynical in order to just go along for the sake of going along. But we die when we do this and we are not true to what we know as Christians. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! The one who once was dead now lives!

The Holy Face (the Volto Santo) reminds us. Contemplating upon the Holy Face and those first moments of the resurrection enkindles our spirits again in the face of our world and its vain and often death-seeking pursuits! The Holy Face seen as an image capturing the moment of resurrection offers a remedy of hope that our hearts and our world need. Again, is any particular image of the Holy Face necessary? No. Is remembering the resurrection and living our lives according to the resurrection necessary? Absolutely.

We are Christians. We do not proclaim nor pursue death. We proclaim life.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “Something happened” (Third Sunday of Easter – B)

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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resurrectionWhen I was a college student at East Tennessee State University and just starting to come back to Church, I took a college class on the history of Christianity.  When we arrived at the subject of the resurrection I remember our professor stating (much to the chagrin of some of the students) that the secular academic discipline of history could not make a conclusive statement either for or against the resurrection.  But what the discipline of history could say is that “something happened” that enabled those first disciples to move from remaining behind locked doors in fear as we find in today’s gospel (Lk. 24:35-48); “But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.” to boldly proclaiming Christ as Messiah in the public square as we find Peter doing in today’s first reading (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19); “You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you … Repent, therefore, and be converted…” 

That class (and I would say specifically that statement “something happened”) was one of the key components that led to my returning to the Church and the active practice of the faith.  What was it that enabled Peter (the one who had denied knowing Jesus) and those first disciples (the ones who had run away) the ability to move from fear to being bold and public proclaimers of Christ and the resurrection?  Was it a hoax they cooked up in their minds to steal the body away and see how long they could ride the “Jesus as Messiah” train?  Hoaxes do not last so long (two thousand plus years) nor show such continued vitality and chronic vigor.  Was it that the “spirit” of Jesus had risen – his vision of the world and living together in harmony – while his body remained dead in the tomb?  But who willingly chooses martyrdom for an idea or the “spirit” of someone’s thought (as we see throughout history beginning with those first fearful disciples)?

In today’s gospel we are given some specifics about the resurrection that are worthy of note.  Jesus again appears to his disciples.  Again he greets them with, “Peace be with you.”  Knowing their fear and their uncertainty he then goes on to say,

“Why are you troubled?  And why do questions arise in your hearts?  Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones that you can see I have.”  And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”  They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.” 

Neither hoaxes nor ideas ask for a piece of fish to eat.

There are many ways to run from the scandal of the resurrection.  All sorts of people throughout history have proven to be quite adept at it.  One such way (often touted as being an “enlightened” approach) is to see the resurrection as a nice idea – Jesus’ spirit continuing to live on.  But today’s gospel is quite clear.  Jesus is not a ghost, not a vague idea.  Jesus is risen – body and soul!  He is the firstborn from the dead.  Jesus is risen and he has not risen in vain.

If we are to be Christian then we must be willing to encounter the fullness of the resurrection.  We must be willing to encounter that “something that happened” as my professor said so many years ago and in that encounter we must be willing to make a fundamental faith statement, “I believe”.   Only this will move us from fear to peace.

There is a saying that contends that you must have “skin in the game” in order to be truly committed to something.  When the Word became incarnate, when Christ suffered his passion and crucifixion, when the resurrected Christ shows his wounds which he still bears in glory, then God shows that he has “skin in the game” for our salvation.  If we want to know the peace and life of the gospel then we also must be willing to have “skin in the game”.  By our lives, our words, our choices and our actions we must profess, “I believe”.  Nothing less will do.

This encounter and the peace and courage it alone brings, continues today.  We can look at the successors to Peter himself as witnesses of this to our world.  These men do not have any military or economic might yet they continually stand before the powers of our world with nothing other than the word of the gospel.  Think of St. John Paul II confronting communism.  I remember when Pope Emeritus Benedict travelled to Mexico and Cuba during his pontificate.  In the face of the chaotic violence of the drug trade engulfing Mexico the eighty-five year old pontiff proclaimed firmly and resolutely that drug trafficking is a sin and it is wrong.  Then going on to Cuba at a Mass where the very Cuban government sat in the front rows, again this elderly soft-spoken man called for greater freedom.  Think of Pope Francis calling the Mafia out and all worldly powers that would de-humanize the person made in God’s image.  What enables these men to do this?  These men have encountered Christ risen and alive – not an idea of Christ, not just the spirit of Christ – but Jesus Christ himself and, from that encounter, each one has made his faith statement and has moved from fear to a bold peace.

This peace is there for us also if we also are willing to encounter Christ risen and if we are willing to profess him as Lord!

Easter Sunday – Mary, Peter and John ran!

05 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in discipleship, Easter, hope, joy, life in Christ, resurrection

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peter_and_john_running-dan-burr-mindreChildren like to run.  Have you ever noticed this?  Watch children at play – pure energy!  In children we see the body just needing to move – not weighed down, not encumbered by age or past hurts – pure life and pure joy!  Children run and in this running we find a witness to life and to joy!

The gospel (Jn. 20:1-9) today tells us that Mary of Magdala ran to the disciples once she saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb’s entrance.  The gospel then goes on to tell us that Peter and John ran to the tomb to investigate.  When you ask children at play, “Why do you run?” they probably will not be able to give an answer.  Maybe at best they will say, “Because we can!” or “We just want to!”  The running is just a witness to live within them.  Why did Mary run?  Why did Peter and John run?  Was it a conscious decision on their part or rather, like children, did the energy of a new life impel them?  I think it was the latter.  An unimaginable energy, an unheard of joy – the tomb was empty!  Death has been conquered!  They ran simply because they had to!

For too long history has wept before the tombs of our world.  How countless the number of men and women who have died by violence, hatred, war, famine, isolation and abandonment!  Even today it continues.  Before the tombs of our world our hearts are left heavy and we feel abandoned.  Before the tomb there is no joy, no desire to run because there seems to be no future – no hope.

Hope impelled Mary and the two disciples to run.  They ran because hope was born again in their hearts!  Not a hope born of this world that ends with the tomb but a hope born of heaven that empties the tomb from within!  In the resurrection of Christ the tomb is emptied from within!  Christ has entered even death itself – abandonment from God – and Christ has overcome death from within.  Death, sin and evil are swallowed up!  The tomb is emptied from within.  Death is robbed of its power!

The tombs of our world remain.  Sadly, too many people still weep before the tombs of violence, war, abandonment and isolation but the finality of the tomb has been broken.  Its power vanquished!

Where is the glory of the resurrection?  It is in the gospel that says there is a different way to live other than the logic of the tomb – a way that says “no” to violence, “no” to abandonment and to war, hatred and isolation.  The glory of the resurrection is found in the heart of the Christian who says “yes” to this different way of living – “yes” to friendship, “yes” to forgiveness and reconciliation, “yes” to peace and “yes” to the belief that death is not the final word!

And when we live this different way?  We run, we run so fast!  We run with Mary and Peter and John!  We run a new way with a new hope born of heaven!  Life itself impels us to run!

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Resurrection: Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

10 Sunday Nov 2013

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As we come to the end of the liturgical year the Church invites us to reflect on the end things – the second coming of Christ, life, death, resurrection and judgment.  The Old Testament itself only reached a degree of certainty about the resurrection quite late, as presented in the first reading from the Second Book of Maccabees (2 Mc 7:1-2, 9-14).  In the time of Jesus belief in the resurrection was hotly debated with the Sadducees being the main group opposed.  So, when the Sadducees approach Jesus in today’s gospel with their lengthy and convoluted question (Lk. 20:27-38) they are more interested in putting him in a verbal trap and proving their point than actually being open to the ever-new possibilities of grace.   

Jesus easily sidesteps their question and their narrative of reality and gives us a glimpse of the fullness that awaits us in the resurrection.  (It is helpful to note here that sometimes the wisdom of the Church in shown in what she chooses not to say just as much in what she explicitly teaches.)  Our belief in what comes after death and in the end things all come from the little glimpses we have been given through the Scriptures and what Christ himself has revealed (as seen in today’s gospel).  This wisdom is pastorally present in the Church’s celebration of funerals, I believe.  In the funeral, we commend the beloved to the mercy of God and that is as far as we can go.  God alone judges the human heart at the moment of his or her death and also God alone knows the time of the end things with their explicit details.  To speculate and then try to speak authoritatively on what we cannot know reveals more foolishness and hubris on our part than any sense of wisdom.   
Sometimes wisdom is also shown in knowing when to keep ones mouth shut.   
In today’s gospel our Lord says that the children of the resurrection will neither marry nor be given in marriage; that they will no longer die for they will be like angels and that God is God not of the dead but of the living, “for to him all are alive.”   
The reality of the resurrected life is a reality that we cannot fully understand because we are all hemmed in by death and this affects our view of everything, our pursuits as well as our relating one to another.  The opposite is true for the resurrected life because with the resurrection, life is continuous; it has neither beginning nor end; there is no further need of marriage for procreation, and death is no longer possible. It is a life full of loving communion with God and with one another, a life without tears, bitterness and sorrows.  This in no way denies but rather fulfills the reality of human existence and relationship.   
In his book on Jesus of Nazareth (the volume focusing on Holy Week) Pope Emeritus Benedict offers this thought in regards to the resurrection: 
Throughout the history of the living, the origins of anything new have always been small, practically invisible, and easily overlooked.  The Lord himself has told us that “heaven” in this world is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all the seeds (Mt. 13:31-32), yet contained within it are the infinite potentialities of God.  In terms of world history, Jesus’ Resurrection is improbable; it is the smallest mustard seed of history. 
To refer to the resurrection of Christ as the “smallest mustard seed of history” seems counterintuitive to say the least but Pope Emeritus Benedict is, in fact, making a profound statement.  From our perspective, from the perspective of those hemmed in by death, the resurrection is truly improbable and just plain impossible but not from God’s perspective.  God is not, nor has God ever been, hemmed in by death as we are.  This “smallest of all seeds” has indeed broken into our world and now all life and all of creation is being transformed!  Death is not the last word!  God is not God of the dead but of the living!   
We, ourselves, are already caught up in this newness of life which has this smallest of seeds as its origin!  In the Apostles Creed we do not profess belief in “life after death” rather; we profess belief in “life everlasting”.  The newness of life in the resurrection is not a “not yet” reality.  It is a reality that has already begun within us.  Today, through our baptisms, we are participating in life everlasting.  The transformation has already begun and is at work within us.  We have a hope which endures because the seed of the resurrection has broken through the dominance of death which had hemmed all humanity and all history in. 
In terms of world history, Jesus’ Resurrection is improbable; it is the smallest mustard seed of history. 
Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.  They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.”      

Peter accepts love: Third Sunday of Easter (C)

13 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by in Easter, grace, love, Peter, resurrection, sin

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“The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection” by Eugene Burnand

Recently I was asked to list some good books written by Catholic authors.  The names that immediately came to my mind were Georges Bernanos, Flannery O’Connor, Shusaku Endo and Graham Greene.  Each of these authors wrote fiction and each one in his or her own way courageously delved into the psychology of sin, grace and faith.  These authors did not seek to present faith in simplistic black and white categories and neither did they need to explain away the struggles and doubts of life.  Rather, each author was able to present the reality of grace found within the very struggles, doubts and even times of darkness that can comprise moments in life that we all experience. 

In many ways, their writings mirror the very gospel passage that we are given this third Sunday of Easter (Jn. 21:1-19).  In this resurrection appearance we are told that Peter and six other disciples went fishing on a boat in the Sea of Tiberias.  Seven disciples in a boat – a concise symbol of the Church.  It was night.  Christ has not yet appeared to them.  They were relying on their own self-sufficiency and their own ability to catch the fish but (we are told), they caught nothing.  When we rely solely on ourselves then we remain in the darkness of night and we catch nothing, the work is futile. 

When it was already dawn … Jesus was seen standing on the shore, yet not recognized.  Whenever Christ comes to us the darkness already begins to flee.  It is helpful to note that Christ does not need to consult our calendars.  Christ comes to us when he so chooses and it is in that moment that the dawn begins to break. 

Probably with a bit of a smile and fully aware of his disciples’ exercise in futility the risen Lord slyly asks, Children … have you caught anything to eat?  No, they admit and then upon his instruction they cast their nets again and make a great haul of fish. 

John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, is the first to realize it is the Lord.  John was the one who leaned his head on the breast of the Lord at the last supper, John was the one who stood by the cross of the Lord and did not run away.  John is the one whose heart is attuned and attentive to the beating heart of the risen Lord.  Yet, John did not hide within his realization, only to enjoy it for himself, rather he turned in respect to Peter – the “rock”, the one on whom the Lord said he would build his Church – and said, It is the Lord.

Peter, continually surprising – ancient, yet always surprising – in his eagerness and love for the Lord jumps out of the boat and into the water and swims to shore!  The Lord feeds his friends and then he has this wonderful exchange with Peter.  Three times, the Lord asks Peter; do you love me?  Three times Peter responds “yes” and the Lord instructs him to feed and tend his sheep. 

Why did the Lord give this command and why specifically did he entrust Peter with this task?  Peter had denied the Lord, Peter had run away and now the Lord is entrusting his very flock to this man?  What had changed?  What had changed is that now Peter had accepted love.  Where before he had relied on his own strength of faith – Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. (Lk. 22:33) – now Peter, after his denial, can only hold on to the love of the Lord.  Peter’s heart, healed by the light of Easter, had come to truly understand and grasp the words of that beautiful Lenten hymn; What wondrous love is this?  Peter had accepted the love of the risen Lord and now Christ says to him; feed my sheep. 

The Gospel does not need to explain away the weakness of the human heart nor the struggles and doubts of life.  Rather, the Gospel proclaims the amazing truth that grace has entered into our very human and limited and sinful reality.  The Lord is risen!  He does not deny our humanity, rather he fulfills it through love and friendship! 

Easter Sunday concluded … now what?

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in culture of fear., Easter Sunday, mission, resurrection

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It is now the quiet time…  The Triduum services are completed.  The Easter Vigil (the “mother” of all vigils) has been concluded for another year – to varying degrees of liturgical success in each individual parish I am sure.  The crowds that seem to magically appear and arrive for Easter Sunday Mass have come and gone.  Candidates and catechumens have been received into the Church.  Easter Egg hunts are wrapped up as well as family Easter gatherings.  Now what?

Is Easter Sunday, 2013 to now be shelved away as a nice memory testified to by photos posted on facebook?  An opportunity for people to dress up and have good family time?  Does the message of Easter end with the last Easter Sunday Mass?  Liturgically the Church says “no”.  We have the Easter Season – a needed time to reflect on the truth of the resurrection and to look to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  “Liturgical” here is important and it does certainly influence who we are but here I am specifically wondering about our day-to-day life outside the parish walls.  Does Easter affect and shape who we are or does it remain a beautiful annual ritual that is left behind in the crowded Easter Sunday church parking-lot?  Do we take Easter with us into the streets of our lives and of our world or do we keep it hidden away behind locked doors – doors of a private faith, spirituality and morality, doors of our resignations and sense of hopelessness in the face of the pain of our world, doors of our fear to offend the accepted norm. 

Easter cannot stay hidden away.  Easter demands that we go into the streets – no matter how uncomfortable it makes us or others. 

In Matthew’s account of the resurrection there is an interesting instruction that is given to the women who came to the tomb early that morning by the angel sitting on top of the rolled-away heavy stone that had been used to seal the tomb.  “…go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.” (Mt. 28:7) 

The resurrected Lord does not fear the world and its violence and sad resignation because he has overcome all the sin of the world through the love of the Father.  The resurrected Lord goes before you to Galilee.  He goes into the streets of the world and the expectation and instruction given by the angel of the resurrection is that the followers of Christ do the same! 

Easter, if it is to be authentic and be more than a nice memory, cannot stay hidden behind any locked door and neither will it allow us to remain hidden.

There is a culture of fear that continually whispers to us that nothing can change, that we cannot really do anything in the face of the injustice of our world, that we should look upon ourselves and our world with hopeless eyes.  The culture of fear is arrogant in its pride and thinks that it alone has words to speak.  The culture of fear lies.  The culture of fear would convince us that we are its children. 

We are not children of the culture of fear.  We are children of the resurrection!  We are sons and daughters of God!  We have nothing to fear and we have words, new words to speak to our world and to one another!  The angel announces that the risen Lord is going to Galilee and that there the disciples will see him.  The implication is more than apparent, the disciples are meant to go and meet the Lord who goes ahead of them.  (The Lord always goes ahead of us.)  They are meant to go out into the street and carry the truth of the resurrection into the world! 

It is not enough to stay behind locked doors, no matter how pretty and gilded those doors may be and no matter how many other people may also be content to remain there also.  If we do so then the culture of fear wins and our lives become exceedingly small, constrained and life-denying.  Joy is found only in following the risen Lord to wherever he might lead.

One further thought: there is no time to waste.  The angel instructs the women: go quickly.  We are each allotted only a certain number of Easters in our lives here on earth.  There is no time to lose, both for the work needing to be done in our own hearts as well as the work needing to be done in our world.  In the light of the resurrection we must make use of every moment given to us.  When all is said and done, we will each have to give an accounting of how we have lived the Easters we have been given in our lifetime. 

We are sons and daughters of the resurrection of our Lord!  The Easter mystery is placed in our hearts and entrusted to us and it cannot remain behind locked doors, it demands to be taken out to the streets of our world!                           
 

Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist: John’s birth

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in eternal life, hope, John the Baptist, resurrection

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August 29th is the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. 

In its calendar of saints, the Church commemorates the day of death. This is done to acknowledge the day of the saint’s “birth” into eternal life – when the saint passes from this world of pilgrimage to the full life of eternity in Christ. This reminds us of our belief as Christians that death is not the end (Christ’s resurrection has conquered death) and also encourages us while we are on pilgrimage to keep our eyes fixed on the full horizon that we are called to and meant for by God and to live our lives accordingly and in hopeful expectation!

Below is the homily of St. Bede the Venerable for this day:  

As forerunner of our Lord’s birth, preaching and death, the blessed John showed in his struggle a goodness worthy of the sight of heaven. In the words of Scripture: “Though in the sight of men he suffered torments, his hope is full of immortality.” We justly commemorate the day of his birth with a joyful celebration, a day which he himself made festive for us through his suffering and which he adorned with the crimson splendour of his own blood. We do rightly revere his memory with joyful hearts, for he stamped with the seal of martyrdom the testimony which he delivered on behalf of our Lord.

There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: I am the truth? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.

Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming birth, preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that Christ also would suffer.

Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment. He preached the freedom of heavenly peace, yet was thrown into irons by ungodly men; he was locked away in the darkness of prison, though he came bearing witness to the Light of life and deserved to be called a bright and shining lamp by that Light itself, which is Christ. John was baptized in his own blood, though he had been privileged to baptize the Redeemer of the world, to hear the voice of the Father above him, and to see the grace of the Holy Spirit descending upon him. But to endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden for such men as John; rather it was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew eternal joy would be his reward.

Since death was ever near at hand through the inescapable necessity of nature, such men considered it a blessing to embrace it and thus gain the reward of eternal life by acknowledging Christ’s name. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says: “You have been granted the privilege not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake.” He tells us why it is Christ’s gift that his chosen ones should suffer for him: The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.