3rd Sunday of Easter, Year A

"Were not our hearts burning inside us..."

The death of Pope John Paul II was a great loss for the Catholic church. We thank the Lord for the gift of his person not only to the Church but also to the world. Without his personal charisma and his extraordinary penchant for mission and the stress of holiness of life, we would be without a light to guide us in this beginning of the new millenium where everything is still dark and unknown.

The loss of John Paul II was not a total loss. He left to us a spiritual legacy which we will always remember. Even if he is physically not present with us anymore, the spirit that lives in his writings and in the memories of all peoples who know him shall continue to be present and alive in us.

Isn't the death of John Paul II similar to the death of Christ in today's gospel? Two disciples who experienced seeing the death of Christ were so dejected, so discouraged, and so disheartened that they left Jerusalem and went on their way to Emmaus. Along the way to Emmaus, they met Jesus, although they did not recognize Him. Jesus was upset that these two disciples of His did not understand all that He taught and what the scriptures foretold about His rising from the dead. And so He opened up their eyes by quoting from the Scriptures and from the breaking of the bread. The disciples were heartened once more and within them their hearts burned with inspiration from the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Life - the Spirit of Christ Himself who rose from the dead. It was this rekindling, so to speak, that sparked within them to not to continue on to Emmaus but to return to Jerusalem - back to the place where they experienced the death of Christ in order to tell the others that they have seen Jesus and that He is alive.

This gospel passage is a poignant reminder to all of us who have experienced some disheartening news, or who have felt a great loss of a loved one, or something that was so tragic that we want to leave the place where we experienced the loss. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we were so discouraged that we would not want to do with anything of that past again. However, when we experience the Lord in our lives and feel His presence in our life again, the rekindling of our original inspiration to serve Him returns. We feel a new surge of life. We feel a new inspiration to strive to follow Him again in the manner taught to us by the Church. Instead of going to the direction we are headed - which is a direction of loss, grief, death, disappointment, dejection, discouragement, disheartedness, and maybe even depression, we head back to were we came from: from the original inspiration to seek life and God Himself as peace, unity and love in all His fullness. The direction of the two disciples to Emmaus was negative. Jesus does not want any one of his sheep to get lost and so He appeared to them and told them what should be. They thus, redirected their direction, and went back to a positive way - believing in Christ and in the fact and reality that He is the resurrection and the life.

At certain times of our life, we may be directed towards something negative or morose or destructive because we of a great loss or tragedy in life. But when we suddenly by the gift of God's grace find Christ alive in our mind and heart again, we feel the fullness of life pulsating in our being again. Christ lives in us once more through His Spirit. Once we do, all we need to do is to continue nourishing ourselves with the gift of His Spirit through the sacraments - especially the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation and penance. By these two sacraments, we shall "always be redirected back to Jerusalem and not go to Emmaus." And when we indeed go back to Jerusalem, "our hearts will be burning within us with the fire of God's love".

2nd Sunday of Easter, Year A

"Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe!"
For us Christians following the life commitment of Christ, it is not always that we are tiptop in our faith. There are times when we feel we don't believe this or that - anything in relation to what He says in the Gospel or how the Catholic church interprets His teaching in our contemporary times. And not only that, even in our prayer life, there are times when He seems "dead" to our senses - "dead" to our feelings - as if His presence was not anymore with us.

If we look at the Gospel this Sunday, we see Thomas who learned about the rising again of Jesus from his fellow apostles. His fellow apostles actually saw the Risen Lord while Thomas did not because he was not present when the Lord manifested His Risen Self to them. For Thomas, Jesus had died. He may not have died in Thomas' memory or in Thomas' heart, but it is a fact and reality Thomas knows. Now that Jesus had risen and manifested Himself to his fellow apostles, He could not believe it because He does not believe unless He really sees what his fellow apostles had seen. For Thomas, "seeing is believing", is his truth. But, Jesus, who always loved His apostles and never wanted anyone of them to be lost from Him, took the initiative to make Thomas believe. He appeared again to the apostolic band and Thomas was now present among them. Jesus told Thomas to put his hand on his wounds. And Jesus said, "Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe". And Thomas not only believed but he expressed it openly by saying, "My Lord and my God!"

We are all like Thomas in a certain degree or in one way or another. But since the Lord loves us and does not want any of those who follow Him and truly love Him be lost in faith, He will take the initiative to tell us in many ways, "Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe". In times when we feel depressed or discouraged or bogged down with so many problems and difficulties in life, these are the times when our faith gets really tested. Sometimes we are tempted not to believe anymore that the Lord is really with us - that He lives in us and cares for us. But we only need to express ourself to others and the Lord in prayer that if only we can "spiritually" see Him again in our life, we shall have faith in Him again and follow Him committedly. And true to His word, that He will not let anyone of those the Father had given Him be lost, He will manifest His love and concern and care for us in ways we will recognize - through ordinary human experiences - through a gesture of friendship, through a welcoming smile, through the help of a co-worker, through the kindness of many people, and through the constant companionship of our spouse and our children. We are even blessed than Thomas because even if we don't physically see the Lord, we believe in Him and we hope and trust in Him with our whole life.

Now that we are strengthened by those experiences wherein we feel the Lord's presence in our life, we are then called, like the apostles, to make known to others too that the Lord Jesus cares for them and would wish them to live life in all its fullness through an openness to His Spirit. It is a gift we need to share with others too - the Easter gift of new life and renewal and rebirth and a renewed faith and trust in Christ.

Easter Sunday, Cycle A

"He saw and believed"
In the gospel, we find three persons who were involved in that first resurrection account: Mary Magdalene, Peter and the beloved disciple. Three persons, three responses and reactions. Mary was worried because she found out that the stone had been moved away and concluded that the body of Jesus was taken away. Peter and the beloved disciple heard the report from Mary and went to the tomb also. Peter's response was one of observation. He wanted to know what happened. The beloved disciple's response was one of faith. He saw and believed.

What would be our response if we place ourselves in that resurrection scene with Mary, Peter and the beloved disciple. We can use our sense imagination to enter into that gospel scene and examine what we may feel about the situation. Would we be anxious like Mary? Or observe carefully like Peter? or would we respond simply in faith like the beloved disciple?

Perhaps we can make a spiritual exercise by entering the scene ourselves and letting ourselves also get involved in what is happening in the gospel scene. And let us pray that whatever fruit we may derive by our meditation may deepen our knowledge of the mystery of Christ's resurrection and gain a deeper understanding of how much He has shown His love for us by dying on the cross so that we may turn away from our sinfulness.