Veritas Vos Liberabit

This Sunday we celebrate the solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. Technically, the feast is on the fortieth day of Easter, which was this past Thursday, but the celebration is moved to Sunday to facilitate a greater participation of the faithful in the celebration. Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus commanded His apostles and disciples to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Ten days later the Holy Spirit descended on them at the feast of Pentecost.

There are many obstacles to remaining in the love of God. The world, the flesh, and the devil try to distract and discourage us in many ways, but by utilizing prayer, Scripture, and the Sacraments, we are able to persevere.

As we celebrate the feast of Divine Mercy we reflect on how God's Mercy comes to us through Christ's wounds and it enters us through our wounds, most importantly in the Sacrament of Confession as we open our wounds to Christ.

Palm Sunday confronts us with the fickleness of human nature. In one moment we are praising Jesus and in the next we are denying Him and crucifying Him with our sins. Jesus knows us. He loves us. He gave us Peter and the Church to strengthen us.

Christ’s radical call to forgiveness is one of his most difficult teachings, both because it is usually misunderstood and because when it is properly understood, it is painful. Many people think that forgiveness means forgetting a sin or pretending as though there was no sin. We are told to “live and let live” or “you’re okay and I’m okay”. We’re not okay. People really do wound each other, sometimes seriously, and we can’t pretend that we haven’t been wounded.

The reality of what forgiveness looks like is portrayed powerfully in the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” If you haven’t seen the movie, please watch it this Lent. The way Mel Gibson depicts the story of the adulterous woman shows what forgiveness really looks like. In the movie, Gibson identifies the adulterous woman with Mary Magdalene, who stays right by Mary's side as they accompany Jesus throughout his Passion.

The only reason we know that Mary Magdalene is the same person as the adulterous woman is because of a flashback that happens after the Flagellation scene. Mary and Mary Magdalene are in the flagellation courtyard after all the soldiers have left. They see Jesus' blood on the paving stones. Mary takes some clean white linens, kneels down, and starts to wipe up the blood. A moment later, Magdalene kneels down to help. But instead of using one of the clean linens, Magdalene actually removes her veil and uses that to wipe up Jesus' blood. This is a way of showing how personal this gesture is for her. And in a moment, we find out why. 

Throughout the Bible land is symbolic of God's love for His people. When they are living peacefully in the promised land, it means they are living rightly and receiving God's gifts, but when they are at war and especially when they are in exile it reveals that they have not been following His commands. In the parable of the two lost sons neither understands why their father gives them his land. The younger thinks it's so that he can do whatever he wants and the older thinks it's because his father wants him to be a slave. The land is God's love for us. It is a love that provides for us and sustains us. 

The Transfiguration shows us the structure of the spiritual life. We are made to climb mountains; however, most people settle for less than the mountain of the Lord. How do we climb the Lord's mountain?

As we prepare for Lent, it's important to reflect on how we are doing as disciples of Christ and what type of fruits we are bearing. St. Paul gives us a helpful list of good and bad fruits in his letter to the Galatians what will help us to examine our conscience, root out rotten fruit, and cultivate good fruit during Lent through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

We are told by the world today that we must be "tolerant". The language of tolerance, however, is actually the language of hatred. We tolerate ice storms and headaches. We don't tolerate perfect sunny days or amazing home cooked meals. Jesus doesn't want want us to simply "tolerate" our enemies. He wants us to love them, but what does that mean?

It's through the cross that we are made happy. 

The Church is Peter's boat, but it is holy because Christ chose to stay with Peter in that boat despite the sinners, the storms, and days when there are no fish. We don't make the Church holy. We must be docile to Christ so that He will make us and our particular parishes holy.

Driven by envy, the people of Nazareth tried to kill Jesus following His first sermon. What is envy, and how do we overcome it's allure?

Jesus marks the true return from exile. He offers us reconciliation. See how the books of Ezra and Nehemiah show us the structure of how Jesus wants to bring us out of exile.

The wedding feast at Cana is a sign pointing ahead to Christ's crucifixion and the Mass.

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord marks the end of the Christmas Season and the beginning of Ordinary Time. However, don't let the title Ordinary Time fool you. This is not a liturgically empty period between Christmas and Lent. It is, in fact, the time "Post Epiphany". Begin the journey with Jesus at the Jordan River, and learn what it means to be His disciple as He prepares us for His eventual walk to Jerusalem.

The story of the magi coming to find Jesus encapsulates the story of salvation history. 

The Holy Family teaches us the right ordering of the family. Every aspect of our life must be directed to the Father in heaven. 

Elizabeth recognizes the Divinity present within the womb of Mary. Mary is the model for how we should receive Communion. The use of the word "fruit" calls to mind the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden when they tried to claim divinity for themselves. How do we prepare to receive Communion following the model of Mary rather than Eve?