“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter | USCCB

In our gospel for today, our Lord is asking us to place all our lives into His loving hands. He’s there for us in all our cares and concerns to bring us comfort and peace. He’s there for us when things are going well and he’s there for us when things seem to be out of control in our lives. We just need to trust that He’s present to us in all our needs.

Jesus is asking us to have faith in God the Father and in Him no matter what the circumstances may be in our lives. Our lives at times can be very challenging. But trust in God’s presence in every situation in our lives is what we are called to do as Christians.

As we journey through our lives we need to know and trust that Christ is with us no matter what. The Lord is promising us that at the end of our lives He will have a special place for us. The Lord promises that where He is, we also may be. This is a promise we can trust.

When Jesus says, “Where I am going you know the way,” Thomas, always ready with his questions, asks, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Thanks to Doubting Thomas, we hear Jesus tell us, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

These words are most comforting for us as followers of Jesus Christ. There are many ways to live out our lives in this crazy world. But we, as Catholic Christians, know that the only true way to live is by following Jesus Christ: the Way, the Truth, and the Life. As we live out our lives as followers of Jesus Christ, let us always be prayerful people with Christ as the center of who we are and to remain faithful followers of Him who died on Good Friday and rose for us on Easter Sunday. Then when our time on earth is finished, Jesus will lead us to the place prepared for us in heaven. As we live out each day of our lives, let us pray, “Jesus, I trust in you.”

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Third Week of Easter | USCCB

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we hear of Saul continuing his attacks on the followers of Jesus Christ. Saul was a very devoted Jew and thought that he was doing the Will of God by persecuting the followers of the Lord and putting them to death. He thought that they were heretics and, in his zeal for the love of God and of God’s law, he pursued the early Christians to put a stop to their following, what he thought, was a false messiah.

Then something wonderful happens: Saul encounters the risen Lord with a bright light and the words, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Jesus was intervening in Saul’s quest to stop his followers. Further, Jesus had other plans for Saul. Jesus had chosen Saul to be his voice to the Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. Saul would go from being a persecutor of those followers of Jesus Christ to being one of the greatest preachers of this new way of life in relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Saul would go on to be known as Paul and is a great example of how we are to live our own lives. Once Paul came to know that Jesus Christ was Messiah, he proudly went throughout the world bringing the good news of salvation to all people that he met. He traveled far and wide to teach that Jesus Christ was Lord and Savior and that there is no salvation outside of knowing the Lord.

In our reading for today from Acts we hear that Saul, “began at once to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” We, too, are called in our Christian vocation to proclaim this Good News that Jesus Christ is the Son of God to all those in our lives. We can do so by talking about our faith and letting people know of the love Jesus has for each one of them. Further, we are called to show love and respect for everyone as people made in the image of God. Jesus in the Gospels calls us to love God with our whole mind, heart, and soul, and to love others as we love ourselves. This is how we, like Paul, are to preach that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Alleluia!

 

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

Scripture readings for this blog can be found at Third Sunday of Easter | USCCB

Submission to Blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for III Sunday of Easter By Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas © All Rights Reserved Personally by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, April 10, 2024 © Alleluia! 

Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Alleluia! 

The gleeful message of Eastertide of the resurrection of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ in body and soul amplifies and does not muffle the Lord’s call to conversion, repentance, and sanctification to the world, as demonstrated by the readings of today in the Ordinary Form. The first and second readings quote Ss. Peter and John directly as their message is conveyed not only to their direct addressees but via the power of the Mass today to you and me. This message is meant to reach us and go through us to the society in which we live. In Luke 24, the source of our Gospel reading today, Our Lord appears in His glorified body to the early Church to reiterate that the message – the complete message of His resurrection as the vindication of Christ’s authority to call mankind to conversion, repentance, and sanctification – to “be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Lk 24:47. Moreover, since we Catholics hold that the Sacred Scriptures proclaimed or chanted at Mass are directed to us over time and space as well as to their original audience, therefore not only the Apostles and first disciples but you and I are called to be “witnesses of these things.” Lk 24:48. This month, we anticipate the joy of accompanying a number of our beloved children in their First Holy Communion at a number of Sunday or Vigil Masses. For these children to reflect the light and love of God for them and through them to the world (“Lord, let Your face shine on us.” – Ps 4), they need and deserve not only the prayerfully and practically lived faith of our parents and families but also of the larger parish household of God within our churches and as we encounter each other in the town of Esopus and vicinity. The lively eyes of our dear First Holy Communicants will record whether or not the adults in their lives take seriously the greatness of their first encounter with the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, regardless whether we are in a state of grace to receive Holy Communion ourselves. If it is not possible at present for a parishioner to receive Holy Communion worthily, please know that with fidelity to the teachings of the Church, as your pastor and spiritual father I am ready and willing to help you to do so pursuant to the readings of today from Sacred Scripture. The call to bring others to Christ, starting with ourselves, is not limited to the sacraments nor to the walls of our churches and homes, as fundamental as these measures and places are to the Christian life. As persons and as peoples, we disciples of Christ are called to move society in the direction of Gospel values, whether or not these values are now popular. Proof abounds that many forces are pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable and normal in society (sociologically known as the “Overton Window”) in directions hostile to God and our very humanity. Instead of fatalism or “going along with the flow,” however, which changes us for the worse instead of the better, may the prayers and example of Ss. Peter, John, and the early Christians as well as the precious faith of our First Holy Communicants strengthen our resolve to demonstrate the courage of our convictions as Catholics, which arise from the Risen Christ’s call to you and me to “be witnesses of these things.” Lk 24:48.

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and the whole world.

 

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org

Submission to the blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for the III Sunday of Easter

by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas © All Rights Reserved Personally by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, April 3, 2024 ©

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Second Sunday of Easter | USCCB

For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and the whole world.

What a contrast from the humble, penitential attitude of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and its associated Novena which concludes today (Divine Mercy Sunday) to the arrogant, blasphemous decree from the White House attempting to push aside the importance of Easter Sunday a week ago by inserting on the same day “Transgender Visibility Day,” a celebration of a certified mental disorder (cf. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association) as an event effectively equal in importance. Maybe not, however, because I understand that at the Easter egg hunt at the official residence of the President of the United States, religiously themed Easter eggs were forbidden. Truly our country has become a post-Christian country when the President of the United States, one who is said to be Catholic, changes the ongoing practice since 1878 at the White House firstly to imply an equivalence between the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ, the Truth incarnate, with a great lie about human nature, and then to banish any sign of Christianity on the Easter eggs. Thus, Christianity is to be made invisible so that a big lie about the image and nature of mankind, to cite a technique used by a totalitarian party in western Europe in the 20th century, may become more visible and acceptable to society. As attributed to the pagan Tacitus, a Roman historian and politician of the first century A.D., “If you know who controls, you see who you may not criticize.”

In light of this outrage, the recent description of the same President by Wilton Cardinal Gregory of Washington, D.C. as a “cafeteria Catholic” who shies away from challenging aspects of our faith fits well with the end of the second reading of today. “The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth.” 1 John 5:1-6. Moreover, the recent observations of Gerhard Cardinal Muller may lead us to recall the line in the first reading, “With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,” Acts 4:33a. Just as important, however, is that ordinary Catholics in every state of life give witness – even in something simple as a greeting as Byzantine Catholics do in Easter – to Whom gives meaning to Easter Sunday and the Easter season and to the hope for us and all mankind from the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ in body and soul. With prayer, such as the Chaplet and Novena of Divine Mercy, with our lived faith at home and every sphere of life, our defense of the true, the good, and the beautiful, with sacrifice, and with acts of charity (which include the correction of each other and the high and mighty), you and I may help each other and others “come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His name.” Jn 20:31 (the end of today’s Gospel).

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Alleluia!

The disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday in the Octave of Easter | USCCB. 

In our gospel for today, we see another revelation of the risen Jesus appearing to the disciples. After a week of seeing their Lord brutally killed on Good Friday, and then not being able to find Him in the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, they weren’t sure what to make of things in their lives. So, they were attempting to try to get back to what they considered “normal.”

Peter invites the others to do what they have done for years before meeting Jesus: they went fishing. Something they considered to be normal activity and hopefully something that would help them to get back to the way things were before the disappointment and disaster of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Then Jesus appears on the shore, and still no one recognizes Him for who He was until He tells them to cast the net over the right side and they make a large catch of fish. John, the disciple Jesus loved, realizes it is the risen Lord, and Peter, in his anxiousness, swims to shore to see Jesus just so he can get there before anyone else. The sorrow from the previous week is turned into joy as Peter and the others encounter the risen Jesus on the shore doing something very ordinary: Jesus was preparing breakfast for them!!

We can learn from this encounter with the Risen Lord. The apostles were attempting to do what they were accustomed to do without realizing that Jesus was there, present to them. In our day-to-day activity, when things seem ordinary or we seem to not feel the Lord’s presence to us in these ordinary circumstances of our lives, the Risen Lord is truly present to us. He is there waiting for us to pray to him and to be grateful that he died and rose for us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning.

As we go through our days beyond church and prayer, let us be grateful for the Lord’s presence to us in good times and bad times. Jesus is present to us ready to always feed us spiritually. All we have to say, when we realize He is present, is, “It is the Lord!”

Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her.

 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Tuesday in the Octave of Easter | USCCB.

In our gospel for today, we see Mary, full of grief, weeping before the tomb of the Lord. She first encounters the angels who ask why she is weeping. She tells them of her concern that she's unable to find the body of the Lord. Then something wonderful happens: she encounters the Risen Lord. At first, she doesn't recognize Jesus. Then he calls her by name: "Mary!" She then recognized the Lord. She's overwhelmed with joy and Jesus asks her to share the good news of his resurrection with the disciples.

 We all have that encounter with the Lord during our times of prayer, but most importantly when we attend Mass. We encounter Jesus each time the priest holds up the Host and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world." It's at this point of Mass that Jesus is calling each one of us by our names, inviting us to go forward to Holy Communion. Then we encounter Jesus in a most profound way by receiving Him in Holy Communion. As Mary embraced Jesus when she encountered him at the tomb, we are embracing Him in a very special way when the priest or deacon raises the host to us and says, "The Body of Christ!"  As we consume Christ in Holy Communion, we are embracing him in a very intimate way. He enters into us in a very special way since we're receiving Him Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

At the end of Mass, after the dismissal, we, too, are called to bring Christ to those others in our lives. We are to tell everyone we meet, "I have seen the Lord." We, like Mary, are to bring the good news of Christ's resurrection to all those we meet. The good news of the Resurrection of the Lord is meant for everyone. So, be not afraid to proclaim to anyone, "I have seen the Lord!"

You, a man, are making yourself God.

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent | USCCB

In our gospel today from St. John we continue to hear the friction between Jesus and the Jews. The Jews believed that Jesus was nothing more than a man and thought he was blaspheming when he attempted to teach that he was indeed God.

In our gospel from yesterday, we hear Jesus tell the Jews, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (John 8:58) The Jews, who knew scripture well, recalled from Exodus, chapter 3:14, when God revealed himself to Moses and said, “I AM WHO AM.” The Jews questioning Jesus knew the context of the phrase “I AM” and immediately thought Jesus was committing blasphemy.

Even with all the miracles that Jesus performed, between feeding a multitude of people to healing the sick, they were unable to see beyond his physical appearance to have faith that he was indeed the Messiah.

All this was meant to happen so that Jesus would be turned over to the authorities and to be crucified on Good Friday and rise on Easter Sunday for the forgiveness of our sins.

In our own time, we have people who find it hard to believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. They have trouble believing that he rose on Easter Sunday. Many today feel he was only a prophet or just a holy man that upset those in authority and died as a result. They fail to know and to believe in his resurrection.

We are called to pray for those in our lives who may lack the faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By our constant prayer for those we love who lack faith in Jesus, the Lord can work in their hearts to perform that miracle of faith that they need to have in order to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

During this Holy week, from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday, pray for your loved ones for their conversion and for their intentions. Then when the time is right, God will answer your prayers on their behalf to bring them to faith in the Lord Jesus.