Pastor’s Notes

 “Pax et cetera”

!Felices  Pascuas Floridas! Is my favorite Easter greeting in any language.  A lot of Easters and many flowers in bloom.  Notice that these Sundays are labeled Sundays “of” Easter, and not “after” Easter.” While each Sunday celebrates the Resurrection, these Sundays put special emphasis on the resurrection as they break open their implications and their hearts. This weekend, we get two morsels: shalom peace and wounded people.

I know the devotion of Pope St. John Paul to the mercy epiphanies of St. Faustina. “Lord Jesus, I trust you,” weaves itself into a lovely chaplet.  But with her permission, I‘d like to linger about the Apostle Saint Tom examining the wounds of Jesus in John’s resurrection story.   But the context of this year’s great pandemic takes me to the wounds and scars of the Fourth Gospel.   An old story makes that point.  A man died and stood at Heaven’s gate. The admitting angel asked, “Show me your wounds.” The man replied, “Wounds? I have no wounds.” The angel responded, “Did you never think that anything was worth fighting for?”  The readings of this 2^nd Easter Sunday invites us to be conscious of our wounds and of God’s lavish mercy. No one gets out of life without them.  That mercy cuts us “some slack” with our own personal sins and spiritual goals.  Cutting a bit more slack – giving a little more rope to others about us creates the possibility for others to respond in kind, to likewise take a step into merciful living.

Christ’s peace is the first gift to his apostles. Their self-loathing, shame and terror of exposure slipped away in the wake of His resurrection peace. The shalom of one they thought would curse their cowardice and fear.  The Acts of the Apostles paints an incredibly vibrant communion of shalom expressed through the breaking of bread. Their communal meals called “agape” sated physical hunger as well as the spiritual hunger, too.  We humans ache for intense communion with others, acceptance and a God in whom we can fully believe.

The story of Thomas’ doubts and dramatic belief remind us that we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, scarred by our wounds but bearing great healing power.  We are called to share the gifts we received and to us pour out our lives for others. Scared tissue seldom if ever breaks in the same place.  A scar is healed flesh stronger than the trauma that caused it.  It gives witness to our body’s natural healing mechanisms.  If Thomas were not plagued by doubting cynicism, we would not have heard his powerful confession of faith that most Catholics know by heart, “My Lord and My God.”

This Holy Week and Easter will never be forgotten. Greetings and gratitude from our friars and staff. There was a surprising peace in the midst of improvised Holy week liturgies and our continued outreach to the poor from our food pantry.  We have tasted a powerful mercy here in front of the COVID 19 pandemic.  In the coming months may we “Easter” the earth, “our common home,” and one another in the mercy we tasted together at St. Mary’s.

A gentle week,
Fr. Michael Weldon, OFM

Thanks to Celebration’s Mischa Geracoulisc, 2016 “Mercy is a Verb” and to CTU’s Franciscan Sister Dawn Wathwehr for a great story.