Everything needed for evil to conquer was overthrown on Easter morning; of that there is no doubt. But every individual must live that conflict in themselves, even now. Matt 28: 8-15 tells us something about the power of a garden. The women emerged amazed from the tomb and started to run to tell the disciples [...]
Jesus retaining his wounds teaches us that the wounds we endure are not condemnations from a shameful past, but are the means by which God brings us to heaven. “Wait… his hand is in him!?” cried the boy. Kids were screaming, markers were flying, little girls were pretending to faint, all at the sight of this [...]
St Mary Magdalen came very early to the tomb on Easter Morning. There is something crucial in the timing: it was still dark. Mary at this point was still going through a trial that had started with Jesus' arrest. She had very little to sustain her, knowing only the destruction of her Master's body on the [...]
Christ descended into hell to deliver His loved ones from their exile. He came to reward those who, from our first father, Adam, to His own foster-father, St. Joseph, had fought the good fight and had finished the race. The second reading from the Office of Readings for Holy Saturday is taken from an ancient homily on Christ’s [...]
Not only did Jesus manifest Himself as the Logos so long desired in the pagan West on that Friday afternoon, but He also manifested Himself as the Christ, the true and eternal king. In some mysterious way, it was the death on Friday that revealed all of this, not the resurrection on Sunday. As Jesus [...]
I went with Peter to make the arrangements for the Passover supper. When we arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus had told us to look for a man carrying a pitcher of water. We were to follow him into the house he entered, ask to speak to the owner, and say: “The master asks you where is [...]
Our faith tells us, and we believe, that the Presence of the Lord is not just a thing of the past. He is with us now, in the present. Once again, our faith has brought us here to mark what Jesus did on that first Holy Thursday. We solemnly remember that night in the upper [...]
It started in a garden—man’s first sin, our fall. It began beneath a tree with fruit that was good and pleasing to the eyes (Gen 3:6). Although we tend to place the blame on the apple based on a Latin pun, some traditions point to the fig tree, whose leaves Adam and Eve used to cover themselves. [...]
Unlike the mute stones surrounding Jesus during that great procession of the first Holy Week, let us hail his arrival with shouts. As Jesus approaches our stony hearts, let us cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:40). As our Lord [...]
When we listen to the cross, we hear the call of His love to rise above the misery of our current condition. And from the heights of the cross, we can see into the distant country of our eternal home. John 8: 21-30 sees Jesus in teaching mode but now with the Jewish crowd at [...]
Our prayers, works, sufferings and joys are not independent sacrifices looking for their own justification before the throne of God. What brings them to life is the sacrifice of Jesus, His eternal yes. Mark 12: 28b-34 sees another of those dialogues between Jesus and a private individual – in this case, one of the scribes. Which is the [...]
It is not easy to die on the Cross under whatever guise it comes to us this day (stresses, strains, losses, pains). But if we think of it as dying in His arms—His arms outstretched caressingly—then maybe, like Mary our model, we can say yes. Luke 9:22-25 offers us one of Jesus’ starker prophecies: the [...]
Lent is a great time to take stock of all the good things that God has given us and to realize our utter dependence on God, while also realizing he is with us every step of the way. In my time in ministry, first as a diocesan seminarian and now as a Dominican student brother, [...]
The madness of our self-sufficiency comes to the fore in the discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper. There, we see that our path of perfection is in point of fact a path towards union. Not only does Jesus promise to dwell with the Father in those who love Him, He also affirms that we [...]