Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day

 

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

In our gospel for today, we hear the continuation of the Bread of Life Discourse from the Gospel of John, chapter six. In yesterday’s gospel we heard Jesus tell us, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:48). Today we hear that the Jews were amazed and probably disgusted, “How can this Man giveus his Flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). The Jews thought that he was teaching cannibalism. Instead, Jesus was speaking spiritually.

He was already intending to bring us his body and blood in the Eucharist at the Last Supper and to commission his disciples to continue to do so through each Holy Mass that has been celebrated since His ascension into Heaven. This teaching of His Body and Blood went beyond anything the Jews could possibility know or understand.  

At each Mass we, as Catholics, know and believe that the Bread and Wine, once the priest speaks the words of Consecration, are receiving the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Based on today’s gospel and the words of Jesus, we know and believe that the Host and Wine is more than just a symbol of the Body and Blood of Christ. It truly IS Christ.

Further, we believe the words of Jesus when he tells us, “Whoevereats my flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on thelast day.” (John 6:54) As a result of this belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we need and should go to confession often to be prepared to receive the Lord worthily. In the 1^st Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Paul tells us, “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 11:27). Paul believed in the Real Presence and as a result encouraged those who read his letters to be prepared to receive communion worthily.

As we approach the Lord for Holy Communion at each mass, let us silently pray these words, “My Lord and my God.” Then as we give thanks for this great gift of the Lord’s Body and Blood, let us pray for tall those among our family and friends, who may not believe as we do, that they may come to faith that Jesus Christ is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity at every mass.

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

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, administrator 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 today can be found at Third Sunday of Easter | USCCB

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

by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas © All Rights Reserved © April 22, 2023

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen! Alleluia! This is how Catholics of the Byzantine rite greet and respond to each other during the season of Easter. What a simple yet elegant way to proclaim the Good News! Maybe we Roman Catholics should borrow this greeting from the Christian East.

When I was studying for the sacred priesthood at St. Joseph’s Seminary (a.k.a. “Dunwoodie”) at Yonkers, New York, among the courses in Sacred Scripture that I took was a course on the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. One point that I remember is that these two books may be read together as one half leading to the other, namely Luke to Acts. As the Good News of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ in body and soul suffuses our liturgy, hopefully our greetings to each other (recall how I started above this missive to you), and further I hope, our daily lives, a theme of looking at recent and current events in the light of the Good News is evident in the first reading (Acts 2:14,22-33) and the Gospel reading (Lk 24:13-35) of today in the Ordinary Form.

Amidst the growing challenges for us Catholics to live openly and pass on the True Faith to future generations as well as to our neighbors, we may endure misunderstanding, scorn, rejection, and in various parts of the world, even worse afflictions out of loyalty to the Risen Christ, our Lord and Redeemer. We do so because “Lord, You will show us the path to life,” as we sing or proclaim in the Responsorial Psalm (cf. Psalm 16) of today in the Ordinary Form. Only if Our Lord truly is the one Savior for each and every human being and that His offer and teachings of salvation – which were vindicated by His resurrection and further by His ascension into Heaven – is applicable to each and every human being on Earth (cf. Dominus Iesus, 2000, Congregation for the Defense of the Faith, www.vatican.va), can therefore we be persuaded to follow Christ with perseverance in good times and adversity. Thus, with respect to all the saints, we extol the saints who were missionaries or martyrs for their even more extraordinary example in valuing, sharing, and sacrificing for our Catholic religion, which was founded by Jesus Christ Himself, as the way to holiness in this life and eternal life with God thereafter. Moreover, at our parish, we try to remember our brethren here on Earth who take great risks to live our common faith today, even to the point of resisting attempts to convert them to other religions or to adopt certain ideologies or philosophies in place of God and the True Faith as supreme in their lives.

In the second reading today in the Ordinary Form (1 Peter 1:17-21), St. Peter supplements the other readings with direction to his readers and listeners – including you and me at Mass – in the here and now. “Beloved: If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct…with the precious blood of Christ…so that your faith and hope are in God.” (cf. 1 Pt 1:17-21) This wisdom applies directly to our First Holy Communicants who will receive the Word-made-flesh at the morning Mass today at Presentation Church and to the gentleman who married his wife yesterday at the same church. At that Nuptial Mass, he made his First Holy Communion at age 47, alleluia!

To live as committed, consequential Catholics today is to allow our reception of the Eucharistic Christ to change our outlook on what is happening all around us as well as within us, to reorient our choices, priorities, and deeds in the direction that the Lord would have us take individually and as a community of the True Faith, to help each other to follow the Lord on the path to eternal life, and to show people around us that the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection is for them too. Alleluia! Christ is risen!

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found out Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter | USCCB

It give me comfort whenever I read this scripture from John 3:16. It reminds me that I am loved by God, so much so that God sent His son, Jesus Christ into the world so I can have eternal life.

Further, I'm not alone in this love of God. God loves all those in my life: my family and friends. Even those that I may not care too much for. God's love is for all people. 

John goes on to say, "Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." (John 3:17-18). We are all called to believe in God and to live in the light of his love by following his commandments and to accept that Jesus come into the world to die for our sins and to bring us back into relationship with the Father.

Let us this day turn to God the Father and be grateful for the love he has for each of us through the life, death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ. 

So the disciple Jesus loved said, “It is the Lord.”

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday in the Octave of Easter | USCCB

All week, during this Easter Octave, we hear of the Resurrection stories of the Lord. In today’s gospel we hear of Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, and the others attempting to go back to what they considered a normal life. During the night of fishing, they caught nothing. It was only when the Lord came to the shore and told them to cast the net over the right side that they caught the huge amount of fish. Realizing that it was the Lord, Peter couldn’t wait to get to the shore by boat, he just jumped into the water to swim to Jesus. He was so anxious to see Jesus that he just swam to the Lord.

The Lord had changed their life so much that they couldn’t imagine a life without him. Encountering the Risen Lord helped confirm their relationship with God and as a result, the world changed. They would end up going throughout the world to share the Good News of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus for the salvation of the world from sin.

There are times when we, like the disciples, may feel the Lord is not present in our lives. We attempt to do things that are part of our usual routine. It’s during these times when we don’t feel the Lord’s presence that he is just beyond our reach. He’s there by the shore of our lives telling us not to give up. He calls us each day to come to him and keep him in the center of who we are. We, like Peter, are called to rush to the Lord. The Lord is waiting for us to reach out to him in prayer and to reach out to him often in receiving him in Holy Communion.

During these joyful days in celebrating the Lord’s resurrection, let us always remember that he’s always there to give us comfort and peace in all our troubles.

The Lord is Risen. Indeed he is risen.

Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.

 

Scripture for this reflection can be found at Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion | USCCB

On this Palm Sunday we start what is the holiest week on the Church Calendar. Holy Week! Today we hear of the grand entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. We hear the crowds cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest.” They would go on to call him a prophet. “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

They have seen all the miracles Jesus performed over his three-year ministry. They see his healing power and the love he has for all. He is brining people that were away from God back into relationship with God.

In the reading from Philippians at today’s mass, we hear Paul say of Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, something to be grasped.” Paul would go on to say that Jesus emptied Himself and became like us, in all ways except in sin. Jesus came into a fallen world to bring salvation. His love for all of us was truly great: he became like us in order to bring us forgiveness of sins, and to help us develop that loving relationship with God that we all need.

The people on Palm Sunday saw this love of Jesus towards them, but soon, due to the jealously of the Scribes and Pharisees, turned away from Jesus within just a few short day. They were hoping for someone to free them from the Roman Occupation. Instead Jesus was not that political leader they were hoping for. Plus, the Scribes and Pharisees were fearful of losing their control over the people because of Jesus’ teaching on love of God and love of neighbor. As a result, the people were quickly disappointed in Jesus and by Good Friday morning, they were saying “Crucify Him.”

During this Holy Week, as we journey with Jesus towards the Last Supper on Holy Thursday and Golgotha on Good Friday, let us keep focused on the fact that on Easter Sunday morning, our Lord will concur death by rising from the dead. Through his suffering and death we have gained eternal life through his resurrection on Easter Morning.

Finally, during this Holy Week, let us pray for all our holy priests who bring us the Lord daily in Holy Communion.