Year B

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Acts highlights two related aspects of the early Christian community. First, we are told that the community was “of one heart and mind,” living precisely as a community holding everything in common, rather than as a collection of individuals. The last sentence returns to this idea, emphasizing that everyone contributed to the common fund; no one among them went without. Between these two notices is the comment that the apostles “bore witness to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” Rather than disrupt the theme of the common life, this statement holds it together, suggesting that the impetus for this new social structure was the new life found in Christ. This itself called for a new way of living among those who would call themselves disciples.

In his First Letter, John explores the mutual relationships between Christ and God, between Christ and believers, and between believers and God, all of which inform each other in a complex “abiding,” one of John’s favorite words (4:13–21). Just before this reading, he has stated that “whoever loves God must also love his brother” (4:21). When we love God, we can love those whom God has begotten because, when we are begotten by God, we receive or are strengthened in our faith. Through faith in Christ, one is both begotten by God and enters a circle of love, in which we love God and through that love, love our neighbor and, in loving our neighbor, we thus fulfill God’s commandments, which is what it means to love God.

Eight days after his resurrection, Jesus returns to his disciples, who have hidden themselves away from the world out of fear. During his passion, death, and now even his resurrection, the most dominant trait of most of Jesus’ closest associates has been fear. Yet now, in his moment of victory, Jesus speaks not a word of reproach or condemnation. Instead, he twice speaks a word of peace and then shows that he still has faith in them. This faith is not grounded in their native abilities or in their spiritual strength, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. The essence of the mission is to proclaim forgiveness, which the apostles have now received. Both the experience of forgiveness and the power of the Spirit equip the apostles to go out into the world to proclaim Christ.

Jan 27 2025

Glimpses of Resurrection

My grandpa had a hard childhood. My aunt, with whom he lived in his last decade, said that he never said, “Thank you.” He was a good man, but not one who smiled often.

The day before my brother’s wedding in Los Angeles, our extended family went to Disneyland. My three-year-old daughter and my grandpa and I went to the merry-go-round. Grandpa said that he would stand next to my daughter, Maria. I got on the horse in front of them. An announcement came over the PA: no standing allowed. The music began to play. The horses started to move. I turned around to see how they were doing. My grandpa sat on the dappled gray, going up and down, his arm around that little girl. His face beamed with childlike joy.

A few days after my grandpa died, I was driving our van down a hill. For a brief flash, I sensed him jumping up and down, beaming with that same innocent joy and shouting, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, God!” It was totally unlike the somber grandpa I had known. Was that a glimpse of how heaven had healed him of his earthly sorrows and invigorated him with new life? I don’t know. But if so, how radiantly glorious is the Resurrection!

Mary of Magdala and Peter and John also told of what they had seen and heard. Did they understand exactly what had happened? No. But they saw and believed.

We can gaze at a newborn baby at Christmas. We can stare at the cross on Good Friday. But can we gaze on the Resurrection? It is too bright, like staring at the sun immediately after coming outside from a darkened room. But God gives us glimpses, flashes of resurrection in everyday life.

Consider/Discuss

One glimpse of the Resurrection is a greater jubilation than any earthly thing. Have you ever had glints or sparkles of the brightness of the Resurrection?
It takes a lifetime to learn to say, “I too will rise.” And though we do not fully understand it, each day we get closer. Throw your whole self into celebrating Easter today and let God work miracles in you. Hear the deafening alleluias of heaven! Jesus is risen!

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you lay in the darkness of the tomb. Sometimes it feels as though we live in a drab basement with only a nightlight by which to see. The darkness of death threatens to engulf us. But this day, you have taken upon yourself all the wounds of earth. You have risen from the dead! Like the apostles, we don’t really understand that. But today, you are alive! You give us hints of your glory, of the alleluias of heaven. The brilliance of your everlasting day surrounds us. Give us eyes to see! Give us voices to sing your praise!

Jan 27 2025

Scripture Study for

Peter’s speech is a response to the request of the Gentile Cornelius to meet with him. Peter himself has had a vision in which it has now become clear to him that the work God has done in Christ is meant to extend beyond the ethnic boundaries of Israel (10:9–17). The emphasis in the speech is on what Jesus did (“doing good and healing”) and on to Jesus’ fate, which is in stark contrast to the good he did. Yet the good Jesus was doing did not end with his death. Now those who knew him have been sent to continue “doing good and healing,” specifically by calling people to believe in Jesus as God’s Messiah and to receive the gift of forgiveness, of deliverance and release from evil forces.

Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians about clearing out the old yeast has a simple point: Things have changed for you, since you are now new people in Christ, so act like it. The metaphor of yeast is connected with the image of Christ as the Paschal (or Passover) Lamb. In preparation for Passover, all yeast and leavened bread is cleared out of the house; after the feast new leavened bread is prepared. The Corinthians have failed to do the necessary “house cleaning,” both in their own hearts and within their community, and are therefore not properly celebrating the Paschal feast, begun with the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb.

The report of the empty tomb proceeds in three stages that represent a progression of belief. First, Mary discovers that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb and assumes that Jesus’ body has been stolen. The second stage is the discovery by the Beloved Disciple, who enters the tomb and spies the burial cloths. The third stage is the entrance into the tomb by Peter, who not only sees the burial cloths but notes the detail that the head covering has been neatly rolled up and is separate from the others, an observation that suggests the body was not stolen, but rather that Jesus himself has removed them. We are told that the Beloved Disciple “saw and believed,” but that none of them yet understood that he had been raised from the dead. What the disciple believes at this point is that Jesus has conquered death. Only with the appearance of the risen Lord will he and the others come to believe in the Resurrection itself.

Jan 24 2025

Crumpled with Grief, Returned to Dust

The Passion story in Mark does not point to her. Was she among the crowd of women? As we zoom in to that group, we see a woman whose eyes never leave the cross. She pushes back her scarf to reveal a face red from weeping. Her eyes brim with love. We cannot see it from the outside, but what happens to the heart of a mother as she watches her son die?

She looks at his bleeding hands. Her heart beats faster. Within her chest, it feels as though the muscle of her heart has been pounded into mushy meat, and she remembers: she remembers his fingers caress her hair when he stood behind her as a little boy. Her chest hurts. As he flexes his feet to push his body upward so that he can breathe, she remembers. She remembers the tiny heel that kicked off his swaddling clothes. Her chest hurts so hard that, like him, she can hardly breathe.

A man runs up to offer Jesus a drink. Her son lifts his head. His eyes search for hers. Those eyes always so full of love are now wrenched with agony. Even beneath the pain, she can feel his deep tenderness for her. How can he be willing to do this? The crown of thorns slips lower onto his brow. A crown of thorns encircles her heart, a heart so engorged that the crown constricts and tightens, like a ring constricting a swollen finger: a lifetime of mutual love, given away.

He cries out. He breathes his last. A sharp stab pierces her heart. Her knees give way. She crumples to the ground. She cannot look as they take his body down from the cross. No words come from her mouth. It is finished.

Consider/Discuss

We might prefer to imagine Mary as the serene, tall woman of Michelangelo’s Pietà rather than a crumpled woman collapsed in grief on the ground. Either way, tears in prayer can be God’s gift for healing.
Antonín Dvořák wrote his choral piece Stabat Mater after the death of two of his children; listen to the full orchestral version online and allow yourself to be immersed in the deep sorrow of that father. Find a moment this week to weep with God over the death of Jesus and the struggles of this life.
In this final week of preparation for Easter, listen anew to the story of how Jesus suffered and died. Follow St. Ignatius’ way of interpreting the scriptures, reading and then putting yourself into the scene of the passion of Jesus. What do you see? What does it feel like to be there?

Living and Praying with Word

Jesus of the Cross, sometimes the sorrows of this life make our knees give way and we crumple to the ground. In the dirt, we can feel so heavy that we cannot look up. In the dirt with us, there are many mothers and fathers who have gazed upon the dying of their sons and daughters. On the cross, your body was weighed down when you took our pains upon yourself. We can feel so crumpled on Good Friday. We have not yet gotten to Easter. We cannot lift ourselves from the dirt. Have mercy on us, O Lord. We cannot do this on our own. And we pray for those who are crumpled in the dirt with us. Come and be with us this day.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The Servant of God in this passage from Isaiah has been equipped for the specific task of “speaking a word to the weary,” a work directed toward the well-being of God’s people, especially those who suffer. This word is not the Servant’s own, but the word of God, which the Servant seeks to hear “morning after morning.” Although in the hearing of the word the Servant knows speaking it will bring pain and rejection, he remains steadfast, not shirking his painful role, rebelling by refusing to speak. The strength required to carry out this thankless role comes from God alone, not from any inner strength or self-assurance possessed by the Servant himself.

In his Letter to the Philippians, Paul exhorts the contentious community to have in their relations with one another the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. The focus here is on the very fact of his existence in the human realm and the way he acted while on earth. This earthly presence was marked by profound, even unimaginable humility, in the very act of “emptying” himself, voluntarily depriving himself not only of his divine prerogative (not to suffer at all), but also of human dignity and security. This he did not have to do, but he did it out of willing obedience to a divine plan, which called for this sacrifice (for the good of God’s people).

The Markan account of Christ’s passion carries forward the theme of the first two readings, which is the willingness to forego human power to take on suffering. The repeated reference to Jesus as “the king of the Jews” or “the king of Israel” alludes to earthly power. Yet these expressions are uttered when he is completely powerless. It is at this moment that we hear the centurion proclaim Jesus Son of God. Mark tells us that the centurion came to this realization when he “saw how [Jesus] breathed his last,” yet what he has seen is Jesus crying out in pain and an apparent sense of being abandoned by God. Mysteriously, what the centurion sees in this dereliction, humiliation, and pain leads him to conclude that Jesus was in fact the Son of God.