We Must Dare

“None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.”

Acts 5:13

Every Second Sunday of Easter we celebrate “Divine Mercy Sunday” since Pope St. John Paul II instituted it in the year 2000. The readings for this Sunday is always the account of Jesus appearing to the Apostles behind locked doors not once by twice and where Thomas doubts the Lord. Why did Thomas doubt? Did he really not believe that the Lord has risen and would need to see His wounds and touch His side in order to believe or was it a gut reaction that was not really thought out? In the Gospels we read in several places of Thomas’s inquisitiveness. For example, he asks Jesus since they [the Apostles] did not know where He was going, how they could know the way, to which Jesus responded “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (cf. Jn 14:4-6). So sometimes our doubt may not really by an expression of a lack of faith but maybe one of confusion. Regardless, Jesus takes the time to listen and explain to Thomas, and He does the same for us, if only we would take time to listen.

The mercy of God is as vast and boundless as the sea, and our sins are put away from us as the far as the east is from the west (cf. Psalm 103:12). We need not allow the weight of our sins to keep us from turning to Jesus. We need not allow our doubts to keep us from asking Jesus the questions that trouble our hearts. We need not allow our shame and guilt to keep us from communion with God and His Church. In the first reading we hear how the people did not dare to join them [the Apostles] although they “esteemed them.”

Brothers and sisters, if we truly are an Easter People, then we must not be afraid to shout from the rooftops that Jesus Christ is Risen and that He is Lord! We must not be afraid to show that we are the beloved sons and daughters of a Father who sent His only begotten Son into the world so that may might die no more. We must DARE to proclaim boldly in our speech and action and by the way we live that we are Christians! We must dare live in a manner that accepts, believes, and shares in the divine mercy with which God envelops us. It is not enough to know it in our minds and in our hearts — we must do. We must take time to listen to the Lord so that we may truly receive this love and mercy and in turn share them with those around us. We must be doers of the faith. We must not only esteem the Christians who go before us, but rather be the Christians the Lord’s death and resurrection has allowed us to become.

Blessed Divine Mercy Sunday!

Emptied Himself to Fill Us Up

“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness.”

Philippians 2:6-7

First published April 2, 2023 as Emptied to the End.

Every Palm Sunday we read the Passion Narrative, journeying with the Lord from the Last Supper in the Upper Room to the hill of Calvary where Jesus breathed His last. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week that leads up to the Paschal Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil), the three holiest days of the liturgical year. Today we are invited to walk with the Lord on this journey, a journey that begins with singing and praising and that ends with the Resurrection but not without first the pain and suffering of death. Will you walk with the Lord?

On Palm Sunday we commemorate the day Jesus entered into Jerusalem triumphantly, being treated as king, with the people waving palm branches and paving the road with their garments. Although the people were singing and smiling, Jesus knew deep down that this was the beginning of what would be the most painful and excruciating trip into the Holy City, a journey He had made plenty of times in His lifetime, but this time would be different.

Jesus loved us to the very end. For three years He taught and preached and performed numerous miracles while walking on this earth. Many believed but others wanted Him gone. Jesus’s love was the visible expression of the eternal love with which God has loved us. From the healings and miracles to the final sacrifice on the Cross, those were all expressions and manifestations of God’s unconditional love for us.

From the moment God became man to the moment Jesus breathed His last on the Cross, Jesus’s entire life was one of “kenosis” or self-emptying. God chose to empty Himself and condescended to earth leaving the glory of Heaven, being born in the most humble of states. God loves us so much that He was willing to assume our lowly human nature, experiencing all that we do as humans (but sin) so that He might truly understand us but at the same time so that we might dare taste the glory of His divinity. When God assumed our humanity, humanity was forever changed. But this was not enough.

Jesus willingly suffered threats, humiliation, scourging, ridicule, and crucifixion. On the Cross, Jesus was emptied of every last drop of blood and He breathed His last. In breathing His last and giving over His Spirit, Jesus breathed life into the Church. In dying, Jesus gave us life. In emptying Himself to the very end, Jesus fills us with new life.

Watch this week’s reflection below.

Go and Sin No More

“Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.’”

John 8:11

First published April 8, 2019 by Philip Cheung.

In the Gospel we are presented with the incident where a woman was caught in the very act of adultery, and the Pharisees have seized the woman and is about to carry out the consequence that such an act warranted: stoning. In an attempt to test Jesus, they asked Him what they should should do for the Law of Moses said to stone her. Jesus' initial response was silence.

I love this silence. Oftentimes it is the silence that speaks the loudest. Think about it. What could the Pharisees have been thinking: "why isn't He saying anything...?" Then Jesus bends down and begins to write something with his finger on the ground. Scripture doesn't tell us what He writes. The people couldn't deal with the silence so they asked the question again and Jesus said, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." What a statement. The people began to gradually disappear one after another. Soon, it was just Jesus and the woman. Jesus asked the woman where the people were and if anyone threw a stone at her in condemnation of her. She said "No one, sir." Then Jesus said these words of love and invitation to her: "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore."

In loving her, Jesus does not condemn her but affirms her belovedness. In challenging her, Jesus invites the woman to a new way of life. Every encounter with God is similar: we are always reminded of and affirmed in our belovedness - the Father says to us: "You are my beloved son/daughter" - and we are also challenged to be better, to live radically, to embrace the Truth, and to share this with others. When we feel shameful and guilty and embarrassed by our sinfulness and mistakes, God does not look at us in condemnation. Rather, he lowers Himself to us, meeting us where we are, telling us that He loves us, and then raises us up with Him. Today, God is saying the very same thing to you: "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore."

Let us ask the Father for the grace of trust in God's love for us and the courage to live an authentic life of freedom.