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Father Schenck gives us a quick overview of this special day.

We don't celebrate motherhood and we don't affirm motherhood in our culture as motherhood deserves to be affirmed. Let's always keep in mind that the image that we have and the language given to us of the Church is not masculine and is not paternal. It is feminine and maternal language. We speak of the Church as "she" and "her." We have the feminine image of the Church and we have the maternal image of the Church given to us. And we speak of the first Disciple, the first Church, embodied in Mary, who is called the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, the Mother of us all. We can't lose sight of that.

There is a wildness to God's mercy. We like to think of religion as peaceful and calm and gentle. But that's not always the way of the Lord. There's a wildness to the mercy of Jesus, and if we let Him loose in our lives, He will tear our lives apart because, as the Good Shepherd, He will stop at nothing to get rid of those things that harm us, those things that endanger us, those things that will imperil our immortal soul.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The image of the shepherd, think about it: that profound connection that Jesus has with you and me as people of the flock. That deep bonding that Jesus has with all of us. That's what we celebrate tonight.

How do we know what Jesus commands? How do we know what to obey? For almost 2000 years the Rule of Faith initiated and confirmed by Peter and the other Apostles has formed and guided Catholic belief and practice. Above all the other voices trying to get our attention for the many issues inundating our world, we are called to listen to the teachings that flow from the Petrine Office. When the voice of the 2000-year-old Church instructs us, warns us, and seeks to guide us, it is living out this calling Jesus initiated with Peter: Feed my sheep. DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

The question I've been asking myself all through the week is, how can we fight evil, but not let evil limit the power of love? How can we overcome evil, and not let the anger that is created by evil, to limit the light of love? And that's the challenge. Because the problem is when anger begets anger, when hate begets hate, then evil wins. It's part of our human mind to feel angry in the face of tragedy, to feel angry in the face of injustice. We have a challenge.

It wasn't the glory of the Risen Christ that he showed them at his first appearance, or any other. It was the wounded Christ who stood before them. It was not a resurrected body free of wounds, but it was the pierced body of the one who suffered he showed them as he offered them, "Peace."It isn't in the removal of all of our wounds that we find the peace that Jesus offers. It is precisely in the wounds of Christ that we find healing and peace.

Has it occurred to you, as it has to me, to ask, why did Christianity ever catch on? Think of it for a moment. An obscure Jewish rabbi from a dusty corner of the globe, who didn't attend a rabbinical college and did not attain formal ordination, who was rejected by the religious authorities, repeatedly investigated by the politicians, and who died a condemned criminal, how is it that he became the most noted personality in human history--at least one of the three most influential persons ever?

The burial cloth that was used to cover Jesus was now rolled up. Does that tell us anything? It simply reminds all of us, now speaking metaphorically, that the cloth of pain and death that sometimes weighs us down, the fear of sickness that sometimes weighs us down, the pain of broken marriage, the pain of divorce, that sometimes has weighed us down, the pain of dysfunctional family relationships that sometimes weighs on us so heavily ... in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, that burial cloth is now rolled up. And that's the faith we have in the Resurrection. And so what we celebrate this morning is not really that hopeful joy that, yes, we shall live eternally, but that, because He lives, we can face tomorrow. 

Homily for the Vigil of Easter:Every one of us, at one point or another in life, has to say, "Yes, Lord, I trust." And then we see the power of God, as if through Moses--fighting on our behalf, turning away the armies that would hold us back, dividing the waters that seem so treacherous for us. God--who has called you, created you for a purpose, given you a mission in life--says "I will fight to see that this mission is accomplished and nothing holds you back, nothing keeps you from the love I have for you, nothing keeps you from my arms, which will hold you tight"--and in whose presence you will find perfect love. 

Father Eseke considers three of the things that escaped destruction in the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. First,"The crown of thorns is a beautiful symbol of the paradox of the Passion of Christ Jesus-- in one object, you have thorns, and it's also a crown. It's a contradiction. Yet it reminds us of the true essence of what we celebrate tonight."

Tonight is unlike all other nights in that it is, using the words from our liturgy, the Lord's Passover, and it is the inauguration of the priesthood of the New Covenant, and it is the institution of the Eucharist, the representation of the sacrifice of Christ and the highest prayer the Church as to offer. That all of this was done at the Passover Seder is no coincidence at all. 

The crowds who cheered Jesus as He entered Jerusalem, or cheered Him on to the cross only a few days later, were fans, not disciples. They may have watched what He did, admired Him, spoke of Him, but never came to know Him or to learn from Him. Which are you?DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT

Our Lord promises us that our past might be healed. Israel had a long and sad past. We read of it in the first reading today: “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new,” God said to Israel. Israel had this frightful history of profound loss, and trauma, and that long, dark shadow cast over their generations kept them from appreciating the good that God had done for them. Saint Paul gives us the remedy in the second reading for today: “Forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”

Do you think--like Jesse and Samuel, right now as we listen--we do not have our own cultural scripts, things that unconsciously have shaped the way we relate with each other and sometimes impede how we see God in each other? Once upon a time, the Earth rotated around the Sun. Today, the Earth rotates around me. That's a cultural mindset. 

In the languages of the Bible, there is no definite article, 'the' Holy Spirit. In Hebrew and Greek, we say 'Holy Spirit'. I think using the definite article distances us from the personality of the Spirit of God. And Saint Paul tells us that Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God. And when we have that love within us, we can see the 'other' as gift of God to us.

We can wander anywhere in life, except apart from the embrace of God. It will always be there. It will never leave us. We tend to make religion too complicated; we tend to fill our prayers with too much "stuff." But only one thing matters, and that is the confidence that comes with a deep relationship with God.

Goodness is the awareness you have of God when you are moved to pray and serve and give. Goodness is the awareness of God that comes when you are tempted and know you need to turn away. Goodness is even the awareness of God that is there when you have disobeyed and you sense that inner voice to turn and put things right. Wherever we go, we’re the child of a wandering Aramean who learned to trust God.Download Transcript

Confronting sin is not easy; it's not pleasant. It's painful. And we have to name the sin. Sometimes people don't name the sin as sin. The other aspect of dealing with a sin, once we are aware of the sin is, we need to accept a paradox. The paradox is, that there is God's grace in us, and we are always open to God's grace. But at the same time, there is a sinful inclination in us. So these two poles are always in us.

How does the love of God affect me? If it does not affect me, then the love of God is just an abstract, so it doesn't become personal. If the love of God is personal--He loves me deeply--then also He wants a response from me. So how do I respond to His love? The response to love is love.