The Weekly Bulletin of the Catholic Community at The Family Foundation School
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Number 20 – April 11, 2010
The word RESURRECTION comes from a Greek word that means to get back on your feet. And so Jesus, like a great wrestler, has gone to the mat to fight for all of us – to get us back – to reclaim us – from the grasp of every dark and deadly thing. It looked as if he were the loser – defeated and pinned. And then in the last and most wearying and terrifying round, he returned – back on his feet – a victor – full of new life!
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This Sunday goes by a couple of names. It is the 8th day in the Easter Octave. It is also called LOW SUNDAY (by contrast with last Sunday). It is sometimes called THOMAS SUNDAY. And in our own time it is also called MERCY SUNDAY. Believing in Easter, there is no room for guilt. Did we hear the words of the Easter Exsultet last Saturday night? The priest sang praises to the great candle: symbol of Christ-Risen:
The power of this holy night
dispels all evil, washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.
All human sin is lost in an abyss of Divine Mercy! Jesus carries the guilt away from us – freeing us for love and union with God.
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Saint John of the Ladder writes: “When the spirit is darkened by unclean thoughts, put the enemy to flight by the name of Jesus repeated frequently. A more powerful and effective weapon than this you will not find, in heaven or on earth.”
St. Gregory of Sinai teaches: “Know this, that no one can control his mind by himself and, therefore, at a time of unclean thoughts call upon the name of Jesus Christ often and at frequent intervals, and the thoughts will quiet down.”
Tom P. Jr. “If you get caught in a resentment or sex fantasy, or something scares the pants off you, then at least you might remember to ask God’s help. In such situations or just in the ordinary course of events, the Jesus Prayer can transform the quality of your daily life inside and out.”
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The plants around the altar are lilies, hyacinths and tulips. If we dug in the soil we’d find that these plants all grow from bulbs which look dried and lifeless. Who would think that plants so fragrant and lovely would grow out of these? But maybe you are asking that question about yourself: “Who would think that I’d be going to Mass?” “Who would think that I’d be going to the Holy Triduum and undertaking a Lenten fast?” Easter says, “Look, we can change!”
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And so a gift has been made to Smile Train, translating the Sugar Fast into a surgery to repair the cleft palette of a third world child. Isn’t that wonderful? It wasn’t easy at times. The fast required honesty and perseverance. We live in a culture that never seems to say “no” to itself. And so there is a place for fasting – a simple doing without as a reminder that God alone fills what is empty and lacking within us.
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Here is the second verse to an Easter hymn: Come ye faithful, raise the strain. We’ll understand.
‘Tis the spring of souls today,
Christ hath burst his prison,
And from three days’ sleep in death
As a sun has risen:
All the winter of our sin,
Long and dark is flying
From his light to whom we give
Laud and praise undying.
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Did you notice how many people commented on the marvelous bells we heard ringing at the end of Easter Mass – the bells from the monastery of Chevetogne? And that more than a few of us lingered afterwards to listen to the monks singing? Doesn’t this tell us something about music – and how attractive it can be when it’s more than a vibrating base line – but which lifts us upward to a higher place?
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Did Jesus rise from the dead corporeally? Historically? Or is the Resurrection just a metaphor? Well, let me put it to you this way. In the ancient world a woman’s testimony was never allowable in court. The surest way to NOT be taken seriously would be to invoke the testimony of a woman. And yet, in each of the four gospels the first witnesses to the risen Christ are all women! There’s simply no way that the early Church would have invented the story of Christ rising from the dead and then to prove it, written in that the witnesses were women. THAT story would not have been given any credibility.
