Allelujah!! Allelujah!! He is Risen!!
This is a re-publish with edits for the 2015 and 2018 Cycle B with a new image and a little new text, but here is the link sharing all of the ABC readings and poems and my notes from the Fr Dennis’ Easter homilies of yesteryear. It seems more Easterly to provide a bounty of poems!
Our readings for this Sunday, Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord are here. (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033124.cfm). The readings are ABC, meaning they are used every Easter Sunday when the Mass of the Day is celebrated (cf. the usual Sunday readings which tend to use one of the synoptic gospels (Saints Mark, Matt, and Luke throughout each of the liturgical years Cycle A, B, and C).
Again, these are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from a couple years. The Easters we are visiting are:
- April 1, 2018 Cycle B
- 8:30 Mass on April 5, 2015 Cycle B
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The poems Fr Dennis referenced are:
- “Easter Is Calling Me Back to the Church” by Margaret Renkl (NYT March 25, 2018), April 1, 2018 Cycle B
- Hoarfrost and Fog by Barton Sutter, 8:30 Mass on April 5, 2015 Cycle B
The following are notes from the earlier Easter celebrations — in 2018 I was often serving at other St Mary’s liturgies during the day and didn’t always get to hear the homilies associated with the poems and notes!
The 2018 essay by Margaret Renkl is her journey of faith in and out and in of the Catholic Church, but she practically begs for us to read Wendell Berry’s Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.
In 2015, we reflected on —
That Easter Sunday Mass is a bit of a letdown from the Vigil and other Triduum masses, a bit quieter and less detailed exaltation. But, in some ways, more easily joyful.
- It’s interesting to note that compared to his public ministry of healings and miracles prior to the Passion, Jesus “doesn’t do much” after the Resurrection. He could have done fantastic things. But other than the fish catch of 153 fish after a night of empty nets, there are no miracles. Even that is not on a par with those miracles before the crucifixion or the resurrection itself.
- It seems that all he wants to do is eat with his friends. He seems quite content to be ordinary.
- So … we’re going to rise, but we want to cherish what is happening all around us — food, eating, breathing, living.
- Breathing — the miracle and depth of it in any given moment. The Hoarfrost and Fog poem by Barton Sutter captures this beautifully. Perhaps imagine that first breath again for Jesus once Resurrected.
- We are all born again when we realize we have a God who became human so God could see things from our point of view; and he died and rose so that we could learn God’s point of view, i.e., God’s Love for us.
The image today is of the atrium in our parish in which we honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. Though we are officially Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception, we have a strong devotion to Nuestra Señora, the Mother of the Americas — as we are a multi-generational and international parish. We are also ministered by Jesuits. Over the years we have grown in our understanding of Ignatian Spirituality, the spiritual practices and techniques witnessed and recorded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
In the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, there are roughly four “Weeks” of spiritual journey, not seven day weeks literally, but four main periods of interior, spiritual movement. The “Fourth Week” is the section of spiritual journey in which someone walks with Jesus during the Resurrection. He offers a reflection, acknowledging that Scripture does not say this, but surely the first person Jesus must have visited once resurrected was his mother.
From Joseph Tetlow, SJ’s guide to the Exercises, he prompts the retreatant, the person reflecting on this exercise, to consider how
- he came to her
- what they said to each other, what did they do, and imagine them sharing with you their respective experiences of the moment
- how did Jesus console his mother, who surely must have been heartbroken and traumatized by what she saw happen to her son? how do we nowadays console surviving family members lost to state violence and terrorism?
- how did Jesus, Lord Savior of the Universe, manifest his divinity to his Mom, who knew him from his first moment as fully human.
- rl only — did they celebrate? how so?
The Surest Sign 