Thursday in the Third Week of Easter, April 30, 2020

John 6:44-51

Jesus said to the crowds: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: 

“They shall all be taught by God.”

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

In the preceding verses, Jesus has spoken of the desire of the Father for the salvation of the human race, and of the Jews in particular.  In saying that, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him”, Jesus asserts that a person receives this salvation as a personal call from God.  We might rewrite this verse in this way: Everyone who comes to me is drawn by the Father.  First Jesus arouses the crowd’s hunger for the Bread that “comes down from heaven” and “gives life to the world”, and then he says that the person who comes to this Bread, to Jesus, is drawn to It by the Father.  The “hunger”, then, comes from the Father, just as the satisfaction for that hunger, Jesus, comes from heaven, from the Father.  Jesus is not offering himself as a mere teacher in the way the Pharisees did or even as John the Baptist had.  The crowd knows this, and many become restless.  To show them how much more he is, the Lord adds, “And I will raise him on the last day.”

I think that Jesus must have paused here before continuing, letting the people absorb what he has told them.  When he resumes, he elaborates on what he has already told them about those who come to him.  John tells us that he said, “It is written in the prophets: They shall all be taught by God.”  Evidently Jesus is quoting Isaiah 54, 13, in which the Prophet says, literally, as I translate it, “All your sons the taught of the Lord”.  There is no verb in the verse, as is often the case in Hebrew sentences.  Since the prophet is speaking of a future time in the context, the verb to-be in the future tense could be understood here.  It isn’t merely that the sons will be taught but that they will have been educated — they would have accepted the teaching and would then be “disciples”.  It would be worthwhile at this point to read Isaiah 54.  The Lord may have quoted the whole of it to the crowd, and John gives us the shorthand version, assuming his first readers knew the reference.  Isaiah 54 is in the last part of the book and it describes the time of the Messiah and the time of the judgment of the nations.  What Jesus is saying here in quoting these words, is that the time of the Messiah has indeed come, and that those who follow him are the “taught of God”.  He reiterates with, “Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.”  We might rewrite this sentence as, “He who does not come to me does not listen to my Father.”  Jesus speaks of the Father as his own, not as “our” Father, but as “my” Father.  To show what he means when he says this, he explains, “Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.”  God is his Father in a significantly distinct way than he is their Father.  Later, at the time of the Resurrection, he will tell Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brethren and say to them: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God” (John 20, 17).  God is our Father as our Creator, and by adoption, in baptism; but Jesus is his natural Son, co-eternal from all the ages.

Because he is the Son of God who has seen the Father, he is able to solemnly declare to the crowd, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes [in me] has eternal life.  Knowing that the people before him are struggling with the immensity of what he is telling them and demanding from them, the Lord reminds them of the miracle of the loaves and fishes in which they participated and he goes back over what he has already explained about the manna of Moses: “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the Bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.”  I have always imagined that at the point where Jesus says, “This is the Bread of heaven” that he pounded his chest or grabbed his arm in order to ensure that the people knew that the “this” was himself.  

He says, as a sort of summary, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven”, which he had already said before.  But then he adds this: “Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”  Now, he had said a little earlier that, “I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall not hunger.”  But there was no mention of “eating”, let alone of him giving this flesh of his for the life of the world.  The people had listened to him, had tried to follow him, had tried to reconcile his claims and miracles with his ordinary human appearance.  We see this in their earlier words, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say: I came down from heaven?” (John 6, 42, inexplicably left out of this reading). This, however, is too much, and they will object, argue, ridicule, and many will walk away.  The Lord could not be more clear in what he was telling them, and the crowd knew very well what he was saying.  If they thought he was speaking symbolically or in parables, or even in the prophetic mode, they would not have been outraged as they were.

 “The Bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”  He has said that the manna preserved the Hebrews in the wilderness; he has said that his Flesh will confer eternal life; now he says that his Flesh will be offered up as a Sacrifice.  His Flesh will be eaten in the way that the sacrifices in the temple were eaten, once they were offered to God.  It was this sacrificed Flesh that would be eaten.  What is said would certainly be outrageous if the One who said it had not shown that he was God himself.

Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter, April 29, 2020

The Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

John 6:35-40

Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the Bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

Jesus said to the crowds, “I am the Bread of life.”  In verses 32-34 of his sixth chapter, John quotes the Lord as saying, “Amen, amen, I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true Bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  And then he quoted the crowd as responding, “Lord, give us always this bread.”  Jesus uses the phrase “Amen, amen” four times in this particular encounter.  Like “manna”, of which we spoke yesterday, this is a Hebrew word, and it is as difficult to satisfactorily translate.  “Amen” here means something like “truly” or “indeed”, but with greater force.  The word is repeated in the phrase because this was how one applied extra emphasis in the Hebrew language, such as the title “The Song of Songs” means “the greatest song”.  Jesus uses this phrase in order to pronounce sacred doctrine.  In the present case, he declares that it was the Father giving the manna to the people through Moses.  Jesus says, “Moses gave you not bread from heaven”, that is, the ancestors of the people to whom he was speaking (for to the ancient Semitic     Mind, you yourself are your ancestors and your your descendants); and then he says, “My Father gives you [note the change to the present tense] the true Bread from heaven.”  Jesus again puts himself in the place of the revered Moses, who mediated between God and the Hebrews.  Jesus then makes clear what this new Manna, which will come through this new Moses, will do: “For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  As the first manna, given through the first Moses, provided nourishment for their ancestors in the otherwise barren wilderness, so this new Manna, given through Jesus, the new Moses, will confer eternal life.  The crowd sees what Jesus is doing and, with the recent miracle of power of the loaves and fishes in mind, they respond, “Lord, give us always this bread.”

It is at this point that the Lord says, “I am the Bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”  Jesus is claiming to be much more than a new Moses.  If Moses was the waiter, then Jesus is both the waiter and the meal besides!  And the meal he promises is more than that which will sustain life in the wilderness of this world, but will offer eternal life in heaven.  This evidently gave the crowd pause.  John does not record their words to what the Lord has just said, or whether a considerable silence ensued, in which the members of the crowd each considered if he had heard right.  We get the sense of their reactions from what the Lord says next: “But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe.”  This sounds a bit odd in the context, almost as if it is the answer to an objection someone makes that John does not write down.  But the gist is, “You have seen the many works I have performed, including how I fed you with a few fish and loaves, and so you should believe what I tell you for their sake, but you do not.  I have established my credentials for you with these signs, but you balk at accepting the teaching I give.  What more can I do?”

The Lord then speaks of how greatly the Father desires all people to be saved. “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me.”  This is not a  mere statement.  It is a heart-felt plea.  It is a plea that echoed through the ages, delivered by the Patriarchs, Moses, the Judges, and the Prophets, and finally by the Son.  It is a plea that rings out to us from the Tabernacle and the Altar: Come to me!  How do we do this? “That everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.”  We see him vividly in our faith and believe in him with all of our heart, and carry out his loving commandments with gratitude for having them.   

Tuesday in the Third Week of Easter, April 27, 2020

John 6:30-35

The crowd said to Jesus: “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to Jesus, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”   

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass ought to be compared to the account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, which John describes in  his Gospel, in 4, 5-42.  The two accounts are strikingly similar, and I think John is careful to highlight their similarities.  In the first case, the Lord speaks of water to the woman, and in the second he speaks of bread to a crowd.  The Lord begins with the human need for water or for bread.  The woman and the crowd express their desire for the water or bread of which the Lord speaks, which he promises them will be completely satisfying.  The Lord then teaches that the water and bread of this world, which we must have in order to live, are but signs of the heavenly water and heavenly bread which confer eternal life.  Jesus insists and clarifies so that no doubt can remain for either the woman or the crowd as to what he means.  The Samaritan woman responds by rejoicing and running to tell the people of her town about Jesus.  The crowd of the Jews walks no more with him.  The outcast Samaritan believes;  the children of Israel lose their initial faith.  

In the reading before us, the Jews demand a sign so that they may believe.  This, although they have just received (and eaten) a splendid sign.  Realizing that Jesus has just made clear that he considers himself greater than Moses, the crowd brings up the sign of the Manna that came down from heaven for their ancestors to eat while they wandered in the wilderness.  It is as though they are saying, You indeed fed us a little while ago, but so did Moses feed our ancestors: you may possibly be as great as Moses, but you are not so much greater that you can tell us to believe in you.  Jesus then tells them that he himself is the true Manna that came down from heaven.

In his recounting, John, writing in Greek, gives us the Hebrew word “manna” that Jesus used on this occasion.  He does not try to translate this word into Greek.  He shows his wisdom in not doing this because “manna” does not mean “bread” or “food” or anything like that.  “Manna” is actually a question.  Translated from the Hebrew, the word means “What is it”.   It is actually not a description or a label but a question.  And the Hebrews who first saw and ate it did not know what it was, either (cf. Exodus 16, 15).  It was beyond their realm of experience.  Jesus, identifying himself as the bread that comes down from heaven, answers the question, What is it? The manna itself was a sign for the reality that would come in due time.  Moses and the manna, as great as they were, served as signs for the Lord Jesus.  (Matthew, in his Gospel, is particularly insistent on Jesus as the true Moses).  The sign, then, that the Jews seek from Jesus was given long ago, and what Jesus does is to show the Jews that the time for signs has come to an end, that a new and final age has arrived.  The majority of the Jews rejected his claims and the proofs of his claims, no matter how great.  But the Gentiles, signified by the Samaritan woman, received him with joy.  

We see how precious the gift of faith is, and how the simplest faith can lead a person to the waters of baptism, and to the Food of eternal life.  The woman, who was still thirsty when she hurriedly left the well,, received faith.  The Jews, with their full bellies, rejected it.

Monday in the Third .week of Easter, April 27, 2020

John 6:22-29

[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.] The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

The answer Jesus gave to the crowd here is not what they could have anticipated.  “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” is an ancient question.  People had crossed vast distances to ask this of the ancient oracles which spoke on behalf of the gods.  Among the ancient Jews, the Hebrews had gone to their Judges and Prophets, appointed by God, to know how to serve him in the particular circumstances of their lives.  With the coming of Moses and the Law, anyone could learn what it was that God required.  But when Jesus says to the crowd which he has taken possession of by feeding it, “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,” he is telling them that the law of Moses does not suffice or anything more than for living on “the earth”.  That is to say, it can only be a preparation for eternal life — important in this way, but still nothing more than that.  Jesus announces that the food “that endures for eternal life” is given by himself alone.  He is making a staggering statement.  He is declaring that he is greater than Moses, and the law he teaches surpasses the holy Mosaic law.  He has already done this in sign for them: Jesus took the woefully insufficient food available from the unnamed young man, and from this provided a superabundance of food, such that when the remnants were collected, even they greatly exceeded the original amount.  Jesus, in effect, took the old law which took care of the earthly needs of the Jewish people and transformed it, by his blessing and power, into a “quantity” so great that it could be shared with all others (the meaning of the collected remnants) and of a quality which filled not just the Hewish belly but indeed the human soul.  This is accomplished by Jesus alone, and distributed to the members of the crowd only by his Apostles.  When Jesus commands them now not to work for the food “that perishes”

“but for the food that endures for eternal life”, he instructs the people that he will provide the work that leads to the food, and the work that he gives them is no more or less than this, “That you believe in the one he sent”, namely, in him.  In showing himself as the perfection, the fulfillment, of the old law he makes a staggering claim: that he is greater than Moses and the old law at least to the extent that the food he provided for five thousand men (and more besides) exceeded the original amount pointed out by Andrew his Apostle.  Jesus goes further than any pronouncement of Moses, for Moses had said of the law, “Do this and you will live,” but never said, Believe in me.  Jesus explicitly tells the people, Believe in me.  Believe in whom, though?  In the carpenter from Nazareth (not even from Judah, the home of the “real” Jews)?  Throughout the course of chapter six of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus insists on this and reveals that he is the Manna that came down out of heaven from the Father.  

The Lord puts his commandment in very simple terms and very few words, almost as though he is presenting a plain and simple meal of a few fish and loaves of bread.  But what he demands is momentous and would yield more than any of the folks assembled that day were able to imagine.  Jesus offers tremendous proofs of his claims, from raising a dead man to life, to raising himself to life after a most destructive death.  For many, no proof could ever be enough.  For others, leaving all behind — the Jewish law, their families, their livelihoods — it was and is the beginning of life without end.

The Third Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2020

Luke 24:13–35

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

Several of the early disciples of the Lord Jesus were members of his family.  We read, for instance, of James, “the brother of the Lord”.  Jude, in his Epistle, calls himself the brother of James, and an early tradition counts James the son of Alphaeus, Jude, and Simon the Zealot as related to the Lord.  In one of the lists of the Lord’s women followers, we read, “There stood by the Cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (John 19, 25).  Now, since the Greek manuscripts did not use punctuation, we could think that “his mother’s sister” is a distinct, anonymous, person from Mary of Clopas (or Cleopas, as Luke spells the name), but the Fathers understand that Mary of Clopas was this “sister” of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Furthermore, the early Christian Hegesippus (110-180 A.D.) preserves the tradition that this Cleopas was the brother of none other than St. Joseph, the foster father of our Lord.  The words “of Cleopas” indicate that this Mary was either the daughter or the wife of Cleopas.  Tradition tells us that she was his wife.  We also learn that James the son of Alphaeus, who ruled as the first bishop of Jerusalem, was succeeded by a man named Simon, who was the son of Cleopas.  Thus, the first two bishops of Jerusalem were our Lord’s kinsmen.  The feast day of Mary of Cleopas, as found in the Roman Martyrology, is April 24; that of Cleopas is on September 25. 

Learning about the historical roots of the Lord Jesus helps us to see him more fully as one who walked among us.  Passages such as the following are precious to us for this reason: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and Jude, and Simon? are not also his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6, 3).  The Lord came from a human family, according to his human nature, and was surrounded by people who had known him a long time before he began his public life of preaching and performing miracles.  Cleopas, of course, would have been one of these.  As brother of Joseph, he was our Lord’s uncle, according to the flesh.  Luke names Cleopas as one of the two disciples with whom Jesus walked on the road of Emmaus, a town near Jerusalem.  This man Cleopas knew Jesus, had watched him grow up, had seen him perform miracles, had listened intently to his words.  And while evidently much of his family rejected his claims (as per John 7, 3-5) had become his disciple.  Even after the crucifixion, at which his wife Mary had been present together with her sister-in-law, the Blessed Virgin, he has not given up.  He is shaken, for “we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel”, but he holds onto the faint glimmer of hope brought to the disciples by “some women from our group”, who said that Jesus was alive.  Among these women may have been his wife, “the other Mary” (Matthew 28, 1).

We Christians who strive to do the will of God are truly the brothers and sisters and even mother of Jesus: “Behold my mother and my brethren.  For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”  The Lord says, “Behold”, for so he will introduce us to the angels at the Last Judgment.

Friday of the Second Week after Easter, April 24, 2020

John 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, “Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.” So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

I hope you and your families are well!  The priests in the rectory at Blessed Sacrament are doing okay.  Each of us has our work to do.  We meet over the internet with couples preparing for marriage, sometimes we do spiritual direction that way, too.  We hear confessions in the church, offer our Masses, pray the breviary, and visit the hospital for last rites.  I answer questions and offer counsel through email (feel free to contact me: my address is mfcaime@cs.com).  I visit local monasteries and convents to hear the confessions of religious sisters.  These days I am also translating a document in Latin from Rome for a chancery office here, something I am asked to do occasionally.  Please pray that I don’t mess this up!

“When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?’ He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.”  This strikes one as curious.  What does it mean that Jesus was “testing” Philip?  Was he hearing him?  It is an impossible question, after all.  But why would Jesus test Philip if he knew what Philip would answer?  And no matter what Philip answered, Jesus already knew what he was going to do, so why ask in the first place?  Is Jesus showing contempt for Philip?

Now, this word “testing” does not mean here that there is a right or wrong answer.  This is not a school exercise.  The ancient idea of “testing” had to do with finding out what was inside of something, usually by heating it.  It also could mean the process by which impurities were driven out of a thing, as in the case of metals.  Jesus, then, is “testing” Philip so that Philip might learn about himself.  Here is Philip’s answer: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.”  Philip answers with a practical observation, and, as far as it goes, it is a good one.  But it is the Lord who is asking, and the answer does not go far enough.  What Jesus is seeking here from Philip is an act of faith.  After his Resurrection, the Lord will test Peter regarding his love to the point of exasperation, and Peter will say, “Lord, you know all things, you know well that I love you!” (John 21, 17).  Philip, at this point in his faith, is not ready to make this kind of act, to say, “Lord, you know all things.  You know what you will do.”

When we are presented with a mundane problem, do we first try to understand it in a mundane way?  Most of the time we do, and then we try to solve the problem in a mundane way.  That is the way of a worldly person for whom God is not relevant, even if there is one.  The Christian approaches a problem very differently.  The Christian tries to see God’s will in the decisions he or she has to make, and then calls upon the Lord for guidance and the graces and virtues necessary to know what to do and to carry it out the actions that are required, prepared to adjust as needed in light of further discernment.  What the Christian does not do is to look at a situation from a selfish point of few (“What can I get out of it?”).  The Christian also does not adopt a utilitarian point of view (“The greatest good for the greatest number.”).  We try to take up a supernatural point of view, to put on the spiritual mind, as St. Paul would say, and to proceed to do God’s will as best as we understand it with our best effort.

Later, St. Philip will follow the Lord Jesus in the fullness of faith and love to his own cross, in Hierapolis, in Asia Minor.  He would have looked back at the simple beginnings of his faith in the Lord and marveled how it had grown.  Seeing this in himself would have enabled him to sympathize with the converts he made.  We ought also to see how our faith in Jesus has grown over the years, and to consider whether it is strong enough that we might also die for the Lord, if called upon.

Wednesday of the Second Week in Easter, April 22, 2020

John 3:16-21

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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 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. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

The night before last I was called in to the hospital to administer Last Rites for a man who was dying of cancer and who had also become infected with the COVID virus.  The COVID patients are secluded in a particular ward of the hospital and the sliding glass doors to their rooms are kept shut.  It is a bit of business for me as a priest to get into the hospital.  Family members of the sick are usually not allowed in at all.  The hallways are empty, the wards are very quiet.  Doctors, nurses, and staff all wear masks and gloves.  In order to enter the hospital, my credentials had to be checked, a special bar code adhesive ID badge was printed up for me, and a nurse took my temperature.  This all took place in the emergency room, which has been practically deserted except for staff during my visits over the last month.  

I stood outside the room in which lay the man I came to see, and looked at him through the glass door.  Only the nurses and doctors can enter.  He seemed unconscious.  The person receiving Last Rites does not need to be conscious, and, in my experience, seldom is.  The essence of Last Rites is the Apostolic Pardon, which not only absolves a person from sin, but releases him or her from all punishments due to sin in this life or the next.  Here is an English translation: “May our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave to his blessed Apostle Peter the power of binding and loosing, mercifully accept your confession and restore your baptismal garment.  And I, by the power given me by the Apostolic See, grant you a full pardon and remission of all your sins.  In the Name of the Father, + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Through the holy mysteries of the restoration of mankind, may almighty God remit all your punishments of the present and future life, may he open to you the gates of Paradise, and lead you to eternal joys.  Amen.”  The Scriptural basis for the power of binding and loosing of sin is found in John 21, 23.

The words of the Pardon may be said quietly, but they have the powerful effect of making the soul of a human being ready for the flight to heaven.  At the reception of the Pardon, all of heaven rejoices, and all of hell shudders.  The person’s guardian angel cries out with joy.  

Our God so desperately desires us to believe in him and to love him so as to live with him eternally.  Let us believe with all our hearts so that we may love with all our hearts.

The Second Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2020

John 20:19–31

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” 

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 

Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” 

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

St. John tells us that when Jesus appeared to him and the other Apostles in their locked house on the day he rose from the dead, “he showed them his hands and his side”.  He did this for two reasons.  The first was to prove to the Apostles that it was truly him.  Indeed, he showed them his side.  This was not just a man who had been crucified, but the Lord himself.  John carefully wrote during his account of the Lord’s Death how one of the guards on Golgotha had pierced his side with his lance.  Probably he had done this to see if Jesus was dead, since men usually lasted several hours and even a few days on the cross, and Jesus had only suffered for three hours.  John, who had been with Jesus on Golgotha, would have recounted this detail to his fellow Apostles.  This mutilation, this open wound in his side, was, then, the mark of identification that this was Jesus in fact.

The second reason Jesus showed them his hands and side was “that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”  That is, Jesus shows them that he has redeemed them.  His wounds are trophies which he triumphantly bears back from death.  He holds up before their eyes the keys to heaven.  They look upon him and see that death is conquered — that their death is conquered.

This is the loving mercy of the Son of God, to die a terrible Death of heartbreak and agony for us, and then to come to us to show us how much he loves us.  He stands before us with his hands and his side as though offering us his embrace.  May we respond as St. Thomas did, saying with him, with love and wonder, “My Lord and my God!” and enter that embrace.

Easter Saturday, April 18, 2020

Acts 4:13–21

Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus. Then when they saw the man who had been cured standing there with them, they could say nothing in reply. So they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, and conferred with one another, saying, “What are we to do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem knows that a remarkable sign was done through them, and we cannot deny it. But so that it may not be spread any further among the people, let us give them a stern warning never again to speak to anyone in this name.” 

So they called them back and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Peter and John, however, said to them in reply, “Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.” After threatening them further, they released them, finding no way to punish them, on account of the people who were all praising God for what had happened.

Let’s look at today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  One way of considering this book as a whole is as an explanation to the gentile Christians for why they should follow the teachings of a man rejected by his own people, particularly by their leaders.  In the reading today, we see the leaders of the Jews — “the leaders, elders, and scribes” — wondering what to do with these followers of Jesus.  The Sanhedrin had not thought enough of these men to take them into account in their plan to kill Jesus.  Indeed, looking at them here, they saw only “uneducated, ordinary men”.  The Greek word translated here as “uneducated” also means “unlettered” or “illiterate”, that is, they had not studied the law of Moses.  The Greek word translated here as “ordinary” is the source for our English word “idiot”.  This word has the connotation of “bumpkin” or “yokel”, a person conspicuous for being unimpressive either in appearance, knowledge, or speech.  Furthermore, they spoke with the Galilean accent.  And because they originated in Galilee, the descendants of the tribe of Judah did not consider them on a par with themselves.  

And yet, these learned members of the Sanhedrin stood speechless and helpless before them.  They looked at the man who had been lame, and then at these undistinguished Galileans.  Their Leader had been outspoken, had possessed the sort of character that drew crowds of people to follow him.  They had felt threatened by him, enough to kill him.  But these followers were nobodies.  Still, they did preach in the name of their Leader and in some way might appeal to the crowd.  The members of the Sanhedrin found themselves presented with a dilemma.  They needed to put these men out of their way, but they could not act too harshly because that would convey to the crowd that they were worthy of serious attention.  A few years later the Christian community grew large enough so that the Jewish leaders unleashed a terrible persecution against it, but for the present, they simply hoped the followers of Jesus would just melt back into Galilee.

Peter and John said to them, “It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”  The earnest faith of the Apostles who have transmitted what they saw and heard through their Gospels and Letters has brought the Lord Jesus to us.  They were neither theologians nor orators.  They were witnesses.  You and I do not need to be theologians or orators, but our faith ought to urge us to be relentless witnesses to what we have seen and heard in the Gospels, and in our own lives.  Let us not hold back.

Easter Friday, April 17, 2020

John 21:1–14

Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way. Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish. When they climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.” So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they realized it was the Lord. Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and in like manner the fish. This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead.

I was not able to post a reflection yesterday.  I am dealing with an infection this week.  I am doing better today and it is clearing up.

Many details present themselves for serious reflection in today’s Gospel.  First, the list of the Apostles given at the beginning.  Since we are told that they are going fishing, and that at least three of the named Apostles are fishermen, we might infer that the others, among them Thomas and Nathanael (Bartholomew), were also fishermen.  Of the two others not named, one must have been Andrew, Peter’s brother.  Perhaps the remaining four Apostles, including the former tax collector Matthew, remained on shore, as they were not fishermen by trade.  Or, the boat may not have had the capacity for eleven grown men and a reasonable catch of fish.  A typical fishing boat of the time and place would have been about twenty feet long, if that.

John says that Jesus called out to him around dawn, which is when they would have been packing up and coming to shore.  This reminds us of how the Lord called at least four of his future Apostles three years before, promising to make them “fishers of men”.  More so, it reminds us of how Jesus had gotten into a boat with Peter after preaching to the people, and ordered him to go out for a catch.  Peter replied that he and his brother had caught nothing that night, but put out anyway.  At the subsequent miraculous haul of fish, Peter had turned to him, fell on his knees, and said. “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Jesus answered him with, “Do not fear.  From now on, you will catch men.”  The whole story is told in Luke 5, 1-11.  The similarities between these two events strike us, and must have struck Peter, for whatever sins he was conscious of on the first occasion, here he carried the fierce burden of his denial of Christ at the time of his Lord’s Passion.  Indeed, he could have said again, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man”, and he would not have faulted Jesus for doing so.  But what Peter does is to leap into the water and hurry to Jesus as fast as he can.  Did he arrive first?  Did he speak to the Lord before the others came?  That seems to have been his intention.

The matter of the number of fish has not been solved to anyone’s satisfaction.  John very specifically notes the number as “153”.  It seems strange that he would list a number like this unless there was a deeper meaning, but the Church Fathers, with all their power of discernment, did not find one.  Jerome offered that the number represented the total number of species of fish, which could be spiritually understood as the number of nations in the world, but his source does not list the fish, and, at any rate, no other writer of the time mentions such a number.  Perhaps John gives the number of fish as “153” merely because that was the number of fish caught.  After all, he gives the specific names of various locations where Jesus taught and performed miracles when there seems no special reason for doing so.  On the other hand, John is very concerned with impressing on his audience that his is the testimony of an eyewitness, and many of his descriptions of Jerusalem before 70 A.D. have been borne out by archaeology. 

Peter knew himself to be “a sinful man”, but his love of Jesus drove him to his side.  May we also have the insight and courage to know and to confess so as to draw nearer to our Savior.

Easter Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Luke 24:13–35

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

“One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” 

We tend to take for granted that everyone who lived in the holy land during the lifetime of Jesus had at least heard of him, if they had not heard him preach or seen him perform miracles.  The fact is that many had not.  Saul of Tarsus, who was trained by the Pharisees, had not heard about him during his lifetime, as he admits in 1 Corinthians 15, 8.  This has caused many scholars to scratch their heads — how could Saul have missed him?  In order to understand this, we must gain perspective.

First, in answer to the question Cleopas poses, Jerusalem at the time our Lord walked within it, contained perhaps 80,000 souls.  Certainly, this was not the metropolis that Rome or Athens was, but this is still a large number of people, of all classes.  Each was engaged in his own work with his own family affairs to look after.  The work waxed and waned; family members became sick, recovered, married, gave birth, and died.  Most folks did not leave their quarter of the city except on special occasions to visit the temple, a vast, sprawling plant with plazas, courtyards, and buildings.  Unless they encountered Jesus there, or he entered one’s own neighborhood in the city, probably only a relative few folks saw and heard him.  Even the Passion and Death of the Lord would have been largely unknown.  He was arrested at night, tried in the wee hours of the morning, condemned by Pilate around nine in the morning, as people would have been opening their shops and going to market.  At noon he was crucified, by three o’clock he was dead, and his Body was buried soon afterwards.  All this occurred during the especially busy days of the Passover.  Most of the city’s inhabitants would not have known of it.  Even the Resurrection went largely unnoticed.  It happened very quietly and without fanfare.  The soldiers guarding the tomb were not eager to tell what they saw — they were at risk for arrest and execution for dereliction of duty.  The women who saw the risen Christ went to the house where the Apostles had taken refuge, and to no one else.  Of the Apostles, only Peter and John seem to have gone out to investigate. It is not for days that they feel safe enough to emerge, precisely because the news of the Lord’s Passion and Death have faded even from the minds of the Jewish leaders.  For Cleopas, Jesus was “the one to redeem Israel”, but there had been others before him who made claims about themselves.  The Pharisee Gamaliel names some of them in Acts 5, 36-37.  Cleopas phrases his question the way he does because of the central position of Jesus in His own life, and this does him credit.  

This helps us to understand that for us Christians, Jesus has the central place in our lives and we may simply think this is true for those around us, but very many people do not think about Jesus at all or know anything about what he taught, accept in a very vague and distorted way.  Our recognition of this state of affairs ought to make us think about how we can spread the Gospel to them.  How do we start from scratch to speak of Jesus?  Even St. Paul struggled with this, as we see when he dressed the men of Athens.  Careful thought and the exercise of prudence will allow us to do so efficaciously, but it is the grace of God that is at work.  Let us pray for the virtues and the grace we need to preach Jesus to the nonbelievers around us so that we might one day all believe in him.

Easter Tuesday, April 14, 2020

John 20, 11-18

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her.

When our Lord appeared to his followers after his Resurrection, they often failed to recognize him, as when he walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24, 13-35).  Theologians through the ages have speculated as to why this was.  Some have suggested that the reason has to do with the Lord’s spiritualized Body.  Others, that grief prevented them from knowing him when he appeared.  Perhaps this was the case with Mary Magdalene, her eyes blurred with tears and her mind anxious that her Lord’s Body has been stolen away, that the One she loved was not allowed peace even after his death.  We should try to try to appreciate the love Mary Magdalene had for the Lord Jesus.  We know from St. Mark that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her; we see her name in the lists of the women disciples provided by the Evangelists, so she served the Lord out of her own resources; we see her beneath the Cross, which shows her courage and her love.  

We see a hint of the Lord’s love for her when he addresses her in the Gospel reading today.  He looks at her and says one simple word, her name: “Mary!”  And at once she knew that it was Jesus.  He only uttered her name and she knew him.  She calls him, in Aramaic, “My teacher!”  And then she embraces him.  St, Matthew tells us that she and the “other Mary” who was with her “came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him” (Matthew 28, 11).  John does not tell us directly that she embraced him or in what way.  He simply tells us that Jesus next tells her to stop clinging to him, “For I have not yet ascended to the Father.”  That is, his earthly mission is now done.  We can only embrace him from now on in heaven, when we have completed our own work for him in this world.  But it was this one word, her name, that told Mary who this was before her.  It would have seemed strange to her if the gardener, whom she thought he was at first, knew her name, and so she might have wondered at this.  But there was something about the way that Jesus spoke her name, some characteristic way that he had spoken her name while he was with his disciples, that she recognized.  She heard her name spoken with such profound and deep and knowing love that it could not have been anyone else.  And at the moment she heard it, she threw herself at his feet for joy.

The Lord speaks our names.  He spoke our name at the moment of our creation, at the moment of our baptism and confirmation.  Each time, in fact that we receive a sacrament, he speaks our names.  He calls us, too, just as he called his disciples by name.  He calls us to speak to him in prayer, he calls us as we discern our vocations, he calls us in consolation when we have suffered for him.  He will call us at the end of our life on earth if we have proven ourselves worthy servants, and he will summon us by name to heaven at the final judgment. Each time, he fills the sound of our name with a tremendous love for us.  Let us throw ourselves before him in adoration in response to the love that is stronger than death.

Easter Monday, April 13, 2020

Matthew 28:8–15

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” 

While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day.

The following is taken from my translation of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary of the Gospel of Matthew, in which the saint talks of the angels who assisted at the Resurrection:

The Evangelist speaks of the angel’s work: And coming,  rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.  According to the literal meaning, he did this in order to throw open the way for the women, for, in truth, Christ had already risen.  For, just as he went out from an intact womb, so from a sealed tomb.  This was done to make plain the Resurrection to the women.  Thus, the angel “rolled back” the stone, that is, he rolled it again, to signify the glory of the One who rose.  This “rolling back” signified the manifestation of the law, which was written on stone tablets.  Next, the Evangelist describes his position: first, as to his posture; second, as to his appearance; third, as to his clothing.  As to his posture, he was sitting, though not as fatigued, to signify that he was the teacher of the divine Resurrection.  Also, sitting is for those who rest, and this signifies the rest Christ had in glory from the Resurrection.  Romans 6, 9: Christ, rising again from the dead, dies now no more. Death shall no more have dominion over him.  Likewise, sitting is for one who rules.  Psalm 109, 1: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my tight hand.  The angel “sat” upon the stone, that is, the devil, to signify that Christ already ruled over both death and the devil.  And his countenance was as lightning.  Here, the Evangelist describes the angel in terms of his appearance, and on this occasion he makes clear that he appeared in an assumed body.  But why “as lightning”?  Because angels have knowledge just as lightning has brightness.  Daniel 10, 6: His face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as a burning lamp.  But Christ is he who enlightens every one coming into the world (John 1, 9).  Lightning causes terror, too, as does the face of an angel.  Thus, in Luke 1, 9, it is written that Zechariah was terrified at the voice of the angel.  In addition, the angel is described in terms of his clothing: Hs raiment white as snow, which denotes the brilliance of the just.  Mystically, it signifies the glory of resurrection.  Revelation 3, 5: He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments.  Also, purity of life.  Ecclesiastes 9, 8: At all times let your garments be always white.  Also note that he says that, “His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow” because The Lord shall be terrifying to the wicked, and he shall soothe the good.  John 16, 22: I shall see you, and your heart shall rejoice.  The Evangelist continues, And for fear of him the guards trembled.  Here he presents the effect of the appearance: it brought forth fear in their hearts, and deservedly so, for they observed him with their wicked conscience.  Wisdom 17, 10:  For wickedness is a cowardly thing . . . distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated the difficulties.  The Evangelist says, They became like dead men, who wanted to keep him back as much as was in their power.  Isaiah 33, 3: At the voice of the angel, the people fled.  The Evangelist continues: But the angel said to the women: Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here.  

     Here follows the announcement of the Resurrection.  First, the angel comforts the women.  Second, he commends their zeal.  Third, he gives them joy.  Fourth, he enjoins on the women the office of announcing the Resurrection.  The Evangelist says, And the angel, answering, said to the women.  But to what is he answering?  To the thoughts of the women.  We do not hear that they said anything, for they were afraid.  It is ever thus, that a human is thrown into turmoil by the appearance of an angel, no matter whether it is a good or wicked angel who appears, for human nature is fragile.  But just as St. Antony says, if the angel is good, he always sends a person away consoled, as is clear in the angelic appearances to Zechariah and the Virgin Mary, to each of whom it was said, Do not fear (cf. Luke 1, 30).  And in the same way this angel comforted these women.  But if an angel should send a man away forsaken, it stands that this was not a good angel.  Therefore, he says here, Do not be afraid, as if to say, You do not have to fear, for you love Christ.  Romans 8, 15: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.  The angel did not comfort the guards because they were not worthy.  

     Next, he commends their zeal: I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.  Did the angel know their thoughts?  It seems that he did not.  Jeremiah 17, 9: The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?  I am the Lord who search the mind, and prove the heart.  The angel did not know their thoughts unless by a divine revelation, or through a sign, for evidence of the will is frequently found in the gestures of the body.  

     You seek Jesus.  He names him in order to show that it is the same man.  Likewise, crucified, and in this he notes their little faith, for they sought him in the place of the dead, and they believed that he could be held by death.  

     Then he announces the Resurrection: He is risen, namely, by his own power.  Psalm 3, 5: I have slept and have taken my rest: and I have risen up, because the Lord has protected me.  And he proves this by appealing to their memory of the word of God: As he said, for he had said, in Matthew 20, 19: And on the third day he will rise again, for the word of The Lord cannot fail.  He also proves it to them through their vision: Come, and see the place where The Lord was laid.  Thus, they saw the stone rolled back but they did not seek Christ, for he had risen from the closed tomb.  And then the angel appointed them to the office of announcing the Resurrection: And going quickly, tell his disciples that he is risen.  He gives them three duties: to announce the Resurrection, to name the location, and to promise the disciples that they would see him again.  And just as the first woman spoke in the beginning to the devil, so here the first woman spoke with the good angel, that all things might be restored.  He tells the women the place they are to tell the disciples: He will go before you into Galilee.  

     Why first in Galilee?  The Lord was not seen in Galilee before he was seen in Jerusalem.  So why does the angel rather name Galilee?  To signify that he was the same One who had formerly lived in Galilee.  Likewise, to free them from fear, for they lived more securely in Galilee than in Judea.  Or, mystically, “Galilee” is interpreted “passing over”, and this can signify the passing of the Gospel to the Gentiles.  Thus, There you shall see him, that is, You shall announce my name to the nations.  But they would not do this unless he should precede them.  

     There you shall see him.  Lo, I have foretold it to you.  Thus, the word of The Lord is so powerful that it could not be otherwise.