2nd Sunday of Easter & Divine Mercy Sunday - 2023

Joh 20:19-31  
Acts 2:42-47  
1 Pet 1:3-9

focus:  The Risen Christ is our Lord and God.

function:  The Easter Season is meant to help us believe in the resurrection.

We have celebrated Easter; and the feast continues for fifty days!  On Easter Sunday after the vigil, I was energized and full of joy:  the light of the Easter candle was multiplied and this chapel was beautifully illuminated by many little lights that we had lit from the Easter candle and carried with us.  The wonderful Easter Proclamation, the Exsultet followed;   then the many Alleluias and the renewal of our baptismal vows.

Everyday life with its ups and downs goes on after Easter Sunday, however, and we live in this same world. The purpose of the Easter Season, of us celebrating 50 days of Easter, is to train our eyes, so they become as it were Easter eyes, so they learn to see the new reality of the Resurrection more and more in our own lives and in our world.

In both the gospels of Easter Sunday and of today the Resurrection Event is surrounded by contrasts:  a sense of great loss //  and great joy;    doubt  //  and belief.  Today’s gospel begins by pointing out  that the disciples were gathered behind locked doors “for fear.”

Jesus’ death had driven them into hiding.  Then the Risen One stands in their midst and suddenly, as they see Him, they are full of joy.

What caused their Easter joy?  Certainly, Jesus’ presence, Jesus’ being alive.  And then also Jesus’ message.  He speaks words of peace and forgiveness.  Peace (Greek eirene) here doesn’t mean only the absence of war.  Behind it we can hear the Hebrew concept of shalom, which means universal well-being and wholeness.

A prerequisite of this shalom’s, this peace’ full reception is the forgiveness of sins:  the disciples need to receive forgiveness from God, and they are called upon to extend forgiveness to other people.  Peace and forgiveness together open up new spaciousness, the space of salvation, shattering the confines of locked doors and doubt.

Thomas, who was absent during this first encounter with the risen Lord, doesn’t believe the witness of the other disciples.  Like us, he wants tangible evidence.  Before he actually touches Jesus though Thomas only utters a profound profession of faith: “My Lord and my God!”  His encounter with the risen Lord replaces the need for to touch and opens up space for faith and for salvation.  Thomas experienced the peace and the forgiveness that Jesus, the Risen One, offers!

Dear sisters and brothers in faith, The Risen Christ is our Lord and God.  The Easter Season is meant to help us believe in the Resurrection.  We also can experience Christ’s presence and in concrete ways see him and touch him!  The report about the life in the early Jerusalem Christian community in today’s first reading gives us pointers as to how this can happen.  It describes various elements of the early Christian’s life together.

The center is the Eucharist, the “breaking of the bread.”  In the Eucharist, Jesus shows us, as it were, his hands and his side.  We commemorate his passion and death. At the Eucharist, he bestows the Holy Spirit upon us.  In the Epiclesis, we call down the Holy Spirit upon bread and wine.  After the consecration, at Communion, we touch Him, we eat him into ourselves, so that he can transform us, so that our hearts become more and more like his.

Then there is the teaching of the apostles.  During the Easter Season, the Lectionary presents us with sections from the Acts of the Apostles; We hear how, in spite of rejection and persecution, the message about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus spreads over the whole world  known at this time. The teaching of the apostles came so evidently from God!  Humans were not able to destroy it.

Finally, there is the communal life.  We encounter the Risen Christ in each other.  Our ability to forgive a person who has hurt us is a gift of the Risen One; we receive it if we ask him for it.  Our ability to share our possessions with those who are in need—according to the example of the early Christians in Jerusalem—is a gift of the Risen Lord, too, and evidence of His presence within us and around us.

Certainly, it would be nice to trade places with Thomas and to share in this first, overwhelming experience of Christ’s resurrection.  If we, however, in a prayerful attitude, see and hear, note and perceive, especially during the next six weeks, we will, despite and in the midst of all that worries us and tries our faith, get in touch ever more fully with this new reality; indeed, we, too, will encounter and touch the Risen One.    

 Amen.  Shalom!

3rd Sunday of Lent - 2023

Dear Sisters and Brothers,
 
Today the readings are talking about water. Water is an element and symbol of life. In Israel except for the area around the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan Valley, the land of the Jews is arid, dry, and has lifeless salt deserts at the Dead Sea. From their experience of seeking water, people know that water means life, being without water is deadly.
 
The theme of "water" runs through the whole Gospel of John. In the beginning, in Cana, water is turned into wine. Then there is talk of the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. In baptism, the washing and pouring of water is the visible sign that brings about humans sanctification and incorporation into Christ. At the pool of Bethesda, Jesus heals a man who has been sick for 38 years and who could never climb into the water by himself. At the Shiloach pond, Jesus gives sight to a blind man. On the cross, blood and water flow from Jesus' heart. Water and blood were understood from the beginning as symbols for the Eucharist and baptism.
 
In today's Gospel, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman in Samaria. There was the Jakob’s well, which the progenitor Jakob had given to his son Josef. Because Jesus was tired, he sat down at the edge of the well. He's thirsty too. He speaks to the woman who drew water and asks her for water. The woman was amazed because the Jews avoided meeting the Samaritans. The Jews of Judea and Galilee viewed the Samaritans as "half heathen."
 
In our story, the conversation about water takes a different direction. Jesus tells her, "If you knew what the gift of God is and who it is that says to you, 'Give me a drink! then you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman misunderstands Jesus. She cannot pick up the new content of the conversation. She replies that wouldn't work, he didn't have a jar and the well was very deep. Jesus sticks to his suggestion. However, the living water does not mean to quench the body's thirst. Jesus answered her: “Whoever drinks of this water will get thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again; Rather, the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water, the water of which gives eternal life.” Then the woman said to him: “Lord, give me this water so that I won't be thirsty anymore and won't come here anymore must to draw water."
 
The woman hasn't understood yet, she's still thinking about the tiresome task of drawing water. But Jesus' spirit slowly begins to open the depths of her searching heart. She suspects that it is about her thirst for life, acceptance and love. A merciful love flows from Jesus himself and fills her.
 
The Samaritan woman had her experiences in life. Instead of the happiness she was looking for, disappointments came. She never found true love with any of the five men she had. Maybe she wasn't capable of it either. Jesus accepts it. She finds God's mercy and grace. She is filled with his spirit, she drinks the water of the merciful God.
 
And look how close Jesus and the woman are! How Jesus leads the conversation until she understood. We find that closeness in several parts of the gospel. For instant when Jesus talks to Peter, to Thomas. Very private, very close until they understand.
 
We humans all thirst for love. We often have to see through false promises of happiness that arise from our desire to have. We need time to learn and mature. It is a grace when we recognize and align ourselves accordingly that true love gives itself away and first seeks the happiness of the other. A person who discovers this source of love is already drinking from God's grace and mercy. The Samaritan woman ran into the city and confessed Jesus as the Messiah.
 
May the encounter with the true depths of love become an encounter with God, which we continue to proclaim. Let's not keep the water to ourselves. We can and should become witnesses of the hope of the Gospel through the celebration of Lent.

    ~Prior, Fr. Anastasius Reiser, OSB

2nd Sunday of Lent - 2023

Mt 17:1-9 
Gen 12:1-4a  2
Tim 1:8b-10

focus: Our life is a process of transformation.
function: Holy Scripture and the memories of “our Tabor experiences” can help us.

The wood carvings made by the Makonde people in Tanzania, East Africa, continue to be an attraction for our visitors and guests at St. Benedict Centerand, across the road, at the monastery. Some draw more attention nowin our new displays. Creating art out of wood is an essential element of the Makonde people’s traditional culture. Most often they work with the black ebony.  It’s amazing how these artists are able to handle this very hard kind of wood with their primitive tools, with knives, and perhaps a ripping chisel. Usually the carver looks at a block of wood; and in his imagination he sees in the wood the motif he wants to carve. Then he starts to shape the material;  it can take months or even years to complete the work of art.

This process of transformation, which happens with ebony under the skilled hands of the Makonde carvers, is an image of the transformation process that takes place in our own lives.

Today’s gospel is the story of Jesus’ transfiguration. Jesus takes three of the apostles with him. He leads them up a high mountain and they have an unforgettable experience. In Holy Scripture, mountains are places of encounter with God  and of God’s revelation. The disciples view Jesus transfigured into Divine light. They see him together with the greatest personages of God’s people in the Old Testament: with Moses who was the lawgiver; he was supremely the one who brought God’s law to the people.  And Elijah appears who was considered Israel’s eminent prophet. In him the voice of God spoke to the people with unique directness.

It’s interesting to pay attention to the details in the Evangelist Matthew’s version of the story.  In Matthew, the heavenly voice from the cloud says: “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.” This is a combination of three quotes from the Old Testament. Jesus is God’s Son.  He is the one who speaks in Psalm 2: “The LORD said to me: You are my son!”

Jesus is the successor of Moses.  He brings the Law of Mount Sinai to fulfillment: “A prophet like me,” Moses says in the book of Deuteronomy, “will the Lord, your God, raise up for you … to him you shall listen” (Dtn 18:15).

And in Jesus the prophecy about the Suffering Servant of God comes true about whom we read in the book of Isaiah, “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am well pleased” (Is 42:1). Thus, into this one sentence, the evangelist wove three quotes, which represent the whole Old Testament: the Law (Deuteronomy), the prophets (Isaiah), and the Writings (the Psalms). Jesus is the fulfillment the Old Covenant in its totality!

In all three gospels, which report the event of the transfiguration,  this story marks a turning point: Jesus starts to announce his upcoming suffering.   The “vision” that Peter, James and John see on Mt. Tabor prepares and strengthens the disciples for the hard reality of Jesus’ suffering and death.

We, too, are Jesus’ followers.  “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God,” St. Paul writes to Timothy;  his word is spoken also to us.

Dear sisters and brothers, our life is a process of transformation. In the midst of the processes in which God works on us and forms us a bit similar to the way a Makonde artist carves a wooden block into a beautiful piece of art, as we experience this being formed and transformed, which sometimes is painful, today’s gospel tells us that there are two things that can help us:

One help is the word of Holy Scripture, which is fulfilled in Jesus’ teaching and in his person and which is available to us at all times, in good times and in difficult ones.  When the carving and the forming is happening with us, it’s especially important to listen to God’s Word, which first and foremost wants to tell us not what we ought to do, but rather that God is Love and that we, like Jesus, are God’s beloved sons and daughters.

Another help for us are our own smaller and greater “Tabor experiences,”our “God moments!” When and where did we see God’s grace at work in our lives? It’s good to look back time and again and to recall people through whom God guided us and moments when we understood important things more deeply, when we got glimpses of God’s glory, of the eternal behind the transitory.

Perhaps we can agree with a man named Fra Giovanni who wrote in 1513, “The gloom of the world is but a shadow.  Behind it, yet within reach, there is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see. And to see, we only have to look.  I beseech you to look.”      Amen.

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