My friends, one of the two Eucharistic Prayers that I use, speaks to the beauty of all creation, and names humankind as the pinnacle of all created life.  Not so long ago, one of you questioned whether we should have such a hierarchy of created life when really humankind is just a part of that. I found this comment most compelling to the point that now when I pray this Eucharistic Prayer, as I will today, I eliminate the hierarchy and pray our gratefulness for all of creation, in all its parts and forms, because together we share a symbioses that makes life “work” for all of creation. 

   As you all know, Robert and I were away these past two weeks cruising the Amazon River and into the Caribbean with Viking.  One of the things that they do really well is to bring historians, and other expert speakers on board to give “cruisers” a fuller picture of the people, land, culture and more, of the places visited. One such individual was an Englishman, Bernard Purrier.  He gave us much to think about in several presentations, but one example that I’d like to share, fits particularly well here, and makes the point that we humans shouldn’t hold ourselves in such high esteem as compared to the rest of creation.

   This was a presentation on whales and dolphins and their fine abilities to know where they are in the water as their eyesight isn’t that great. Because both are mammals, we could say, in a general way, that they are our sisters and brothers.  They also are very intelligent.  Bernard gave us a wonderful example showing their very keen intelligence and sense of caring typical of female dolphins. It apparently has been recorded that female dolphins can sense the heartbeat of a human fetus within its mother’s womb when the woman is in the water and will move to protect this human “sister” from harm.  So then, what does this have to do with Easter Sunday you might be thinking.

   Our brother Jesus came into history over 2,000 years ago to show us how to live, to love, to die, and one day—like him, to pass on—to rise to a new life.  And precisely here is the connection between what Jesus came to do and much of what we experienced on our trip—through speakers, local guides, and our own experiences visiting many new places in our beautiful world. We had a cruise director, Jenna who ended each of her daily presentations explaining the opportunities for the following day that we could choose from by saying, “Whatever you do, live your best life!” 

   Our loving God, my friends, wants the same for us, to live our lives well, striving to be our best, for ourselves and for others, thus sending our brother Jesus as a model for us to follow.  For too long, hundreds of years in fact, before “windows and doors were opened” at the Second Vatican Council, we Catholics were stuck, much like the Jews, in the time of Jesus, adhering to copious, crippling rules and regulations designed by “religious” men whose main concern, it would seem, was to keep people in line by frightening them into submission over the thought of one day meeting a vengeful God who would judge them. 

    The Second Vatican Council poured fresh air into our beloved Church reminding us of just how much our God, did, in fact LOVE us, and we came to know this through our brother Jesus who spoke of our God as a loving parent who welcomed the “prodigal” back, and about a shepherd who left the 99 in search of one that was lost.

   With Vatican Council II, gone was the old story of a mean-spirited God who sent Jesus to die for our sins—and this Council encouraged us all to break out, and away from of this tiny-boxed God, and begin to hear anew, through Jesus, how much each of us is loved.  What the story of Jesus is really all about is his encouragement to be our best selves—to grow beyond our human inclinations to think small, to be safe—to be like the status-quo, and to instead, become people who can see the wonder and the good in all people, all races, all genders, no genders, all religious expressions, and all human manifestations of love—one for another, without excluding and dividing, saying who is welcome, who is not. 

   I was again saddened to see our Bishop Barron’s take on the monumental work of the Second Vatican Council in basically denouncing Jesus’ call that, “we are all one,” by stating this type of inclusion is making our Church, “nicey-nice,” or that Pope Francis is, “dumbing down the Church” in doing the same. 

   We must remember my friends; Good Friday was really all about an attempt to silence someone (Jesus) for not remaining silent in the face of injustice in both Church and State.  We may look at the torture of crucifixion and think, how barbaric, but the same kind of torture can be done in more than physical ways for not being silent in the face of injustice. 

   Our bishop’s statement that, “he will not waste his time until we (AAO) come back to the Church,” is, in my mind, a “crucifixion” of the heart, and is against everything that our brother Jesus stands for. 

   So, my friends, my intent here was to move beyond a traditional Easter Sunday homily to basically say that the reason for our Alleluias today is because Jesus did break, “out of the box,” saying, what you are doing here is just not enough! Whenever you do not see me in any person you meet, when you fail to care for our world and all its creatures, when you basically place law above love, you have failed in being my follower. But the great thing with Jesus, with our God, is we can always have another chance.

   In conclusion then, my friends, I will talk more about the Easter Scriptures in the upcoming weeks, but for today, I wanted to uplift for us the beauty of the longer version of today’s Gospel from John. The key players, besides Jesus are John, Peter, and Mary Magdala. They each, on some level, knew that Jesus would “rise from the dead”—at least they had heard him say that he would.  They wanted to believe but they had no idea what “resurrection” meant. And it is only in this longer version that we basically learn that someone who has experienced resurrection will not appear the same.  In this longer version of the gospel, Mary Magdala did not know Jesus when she met him in the garden.  It was only when he said her name, “Mary” in the way that only he would say it, did she know him! —doing something that was familiar. 

   From this one example friends, we will know others, they will know us, and they will see Jesus, when they see us acting with love in our world, just as he did in his. Amen? Amen! Alleluia!

My friends, as I said in this week’s bulletin, two lines, especially, stood out for me—the 1^st from Ephesians, serving as our 2^nd reading today, “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to do the good things God created us to do…” The 2^nd one from 2 Chronicles, our 1^st reading today, comes from Cyrus, the leader of the Persians, who set the Israelites free after the Exile, with the words, “You can go home again.”

   Now, it won’t be any surprise to you that I am suggesting that each of us go deeper with these two lines.  For many of our combined years, “cradle-Catholics,” most of us, Lent has been a time, wherein we have nearly, “wallowed in,” “good ole Catholic guilt.”  The 1^st reading today from 2 Chronicles could add to the personal feelings that many of us may have had about our “worthlessness,” and feelings that we just can’t ever, “get it right”—mea culpa, mea culpa, striking our breasts, if it weren’t for the saving lines of Cyrus, that, “yes,” “we can go home again[!]”

   Again, this is why I always say, “go deeper” to unearth the message our loving God wants us to get.  Perhaps, we can look at this 1^st reading as an “attention-getter” to simply realize that in our humanity, we are imperfect and make mistakes, for any number of reasons; we are tired, ill, upset, selfish, lazy—whatever it may be, but for me, the greater part of this reading (going deeper) is the message of hope that Cyrus not only gives to the People of God coming out of exile, but to us today, is that we too, “can go home again!”

   John’s gospel selection for this Sunday lets us know, in Jesus’ words, that “God sent him into the world to save us,” (that good ole Catholic guilt) that I mentioned earlier, and told us that Jesus “needed” to die that horrible death on the cross, to save us as reparation for our sins.  Think of how that paints God in most of our minds!

   How about if we reframe this picture.  If as we read in the letter to the Ephesians, “we are God’s work of art,” wouldn’t it make more sense to think that God wanted to give us, “a little bit extra help” in living out our imperfect human lives, by sending us, “a northern star,” so to speak, in our brother Jesus, to show us the way to be our best selves –as opposed to a vindictive God who “needed” someone to suffer for the imperfections of humanity?

   I always have to wonder why our hierarchical Church fathers insist on holding up during Lent our “sinfulness” as opposed to our “merciful” God who “chases after us” all the days of our lives, as written so beautifully in the translation from The Message of the 23^rd Psalm.  The negative message does much to “enslave” us while the positive message is all about, “setting us free” to discover that indeed, “we are God’s work of art,” capable of so much good in our world. 

   And, as I look around our world, there seems to be so much that needs our love and care.  Yes, we may be “imperfect” creatures, but we aren’t incapable of making a difference in our world.  You all are aware that March is, Women’s History Month. February was, Black History Month.  Have you ever thought why we have these two month-long celebrations?  Or better yet, why we don’t have a Men’s History Month?

   Racism and sexism are two of our national sins, and when you think about it, we are only touching the “tip of the iceberg” in month-long celebrations of the wonderful accomplishments over time, of both groups, often made little of, or nothing at all.

   Friends, we live in a patriarchal world and Church, that second-guesses” the abilities of blacks and women that in the cases of whites and men, are uplifted.  If we want to talk about “sin” in our Church, here is one, where women are concerned! 

   So much my friends that is labeled, “undoable” in our world and Church is not about an “inability” to do the thing that is needed, but about “power and control” –think about it!

   Those with the power, for whatever reason, don’t want to share it, and how, we might ask, does that square with a God who created us, “works of art,” “to do the good things [that same God] “created us to do?”

   In the beginning of this homily, I spoke about the negative notion that we have often gotten concerning Lent—heavy on “repenting.”  It is good to consider that the word “return,” as in, “you can go home again,” and “repent” come from the same Greek word.  Perhaps we might concentrate in these last weeks of Lent more on “returning” to our loving God, if by our actions, we have “been away,” knowing that “we will find mercy,” to begin once again, to be our best selves, and be “enabled” to do all that we were created to do. Amen? Amen!

My friends, our lives as Christians, as followers of our brother Jesus, continually call us to face our daily lives with eyes and ears open to truly be able to see and hear all that is going on around us, especially wherein “justice for all is concerned,” because this is what Jesus was about in his life, thus showing us the way. 

   Our first reading today, you probably noticed, lays out for us the 10 Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai.  In a general way, we could say, these ten are about being good toward all.  Additionally, we hear that we should, “Let love and respect for others, ourselves and God be central in our lives” –it would seem then that all else that is good will follow. 

   I often tell you and remind myself as well, that Jesus came to show us “the way,” to live our one, wonderful life to the best of our ability—in other words, to become our best selves.  And why would God, in Jesus have decided to do this, we might ask?  Because of love, plain and simple.  Our God who is always watching over us, rejoicing with us in our joys, sorrowing with us in our sorrows, our down times, never interfering in what we choose to do within the gift of our free wills, saw that our free choices weren’t always the best for others or ourselves, and thus came to be one-with-us as a model that we could follow. 

   Paul, in the second reading from 1^st Corinthians says that he and his followers, “are preaching a messiah nailed to a cross,” that, “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. 

   Now if we were looking for a paradox, we wouldn’t have to go further than these statements, which we can’t read literally, because the true message lies deeper.  Again, we must realize that, as Father Richard Rohr has said, Jesus’ becoming one-with-us to die was never Plan A!  Jesus came to LIVE, and to LOVE, showing us the way—his death was the result of how he had lived! The powers-that-were in his time simply did not want the equality and justice for all that he was proclaiming, as it tapped into their power and control.  The same can be said for our Church hierarchy today in their refusal to accept the God-given calls of women to be ordained to the priesthood. At the end of the day, it is about losing their power and control over the message. Bishop Barron, here in Winona has said through his secretary, in a call we made asking to speak with him, “that he won’t waste his time talking with us unless we are willing to return to the Church!”

   Jesus’ actions in the Temple, recorded in John’s gospel today, signaled, as a colleague of mine said, “the end of business as usual for those who had eyes to see and ears to hear.”  Coming to the Temple on yearly pilgrimage, as ritual and praise of a God who had been faithful to them, had along the way lost its true purpose—those in power had made the “holy sight,” a market place and Jesus was calling them to task for it.  We can only imagine the anger these same religious officials felt toward Jesus’ actions, as in their heart of hearts, knowing he was speaking the truth!

   It seems that many times, Jesus’ message is lost on the powers-that-be, but he keeps trying to draw them in, to help them see that what they do at the Temple is only the starting point for their relationship with their God. They keep getting lost in “wanting a sign,” and when he gives them one, it is much easier for them to stay on the surface, as in the gospel today, rather than pondering a deeper meaning, choosing instead to ridicule him. 

   So, my friends, again if we truly want to follow our brother Jesus, we too may find that it will demand that we, like him, will have to disrupt the “easy-going” of some in the places of power in order that all others might have a fair shake at a basic, good life.

   Jesus “was aware of what was in their hearts,” the gospel said, and likewise, of what is in ours too. And with that knowledge, he is always calling us to go deeper, to see beyond our personal needs and wants, to what many others can only dream of in this world. 

   Jesus is always calling us back as two of our hymns speak of today, to as someone said, “the heart of the message,” or as I always say, to go deeper.  Paul in his letter to the Corinthians today takes us to that deeper place.  Paul begins with that paradoxical line, “We are preaching a Messiah nailed to a cross.”  To Jesus’ first followers and probably most of the Jewish people living when he did, who awaited a “messiah,” did not imagine the messiah that their brother Jesus became.  Their image was very literal—the Messiah they awaited would conquer their present-day enemies—the Romans, and set them humanly, free.  This reminds me of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.  The Jesus I know, if he came today, as a messiah to the Israelis would not be accepted as such by them either, as he would call them to peace, not conflict.

   With acceptance of this knowledge, Paul’s next words make more sense and bring understanding, “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.” For when did war and conflict ever bring permanent and lasting peace?  I am reminded of the words and sentiments of Angelo Roncalli, Good Pope John, who often throughout his short papacy prayed and advocated for peace.

   Paul continues, “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”  To many, Jesus’ first followers included, the cross seemed like “weakness,” but only time would show that not to be the case. 

   On Friday last, in Russia, a patriot, prophet, and truth-teller, in the person of Alexei Navalny was buried and his strong life for others celebrated.  No doubt, his murder, as that of our brother Jesus, was intended by the powers-that-be to silence both men, but the “foolishness” is that it didn’t for Jesus, nor will it for Navalny—the message will only grow. 

   The life of Francis of Assisi is often spoken of, as the “foolishness of God,” and his memory lives on strong and true 800+ years after his earthly life in countless followers, men, and women alike.  Which brings to mind once again the case for women’s ordination in our beloved Church. The powers-that-be have excommunicated all of us responding to what we know is God’s call for us, thinking it will end there, only to show once more the “foolishness” and ultimate strength of our God which is stronger than any human strength wanting to tear it down.

   So my friends, as we continue through Lent, let us open ears, eyes, hearts and minds, to hear and see and feel the love that our good God has for us, not in sending Jesus to die, but in sending him to live, to love, and to show us how to do the same, how to ultimately become our best selves. Lent is such a good time to ask if we are truly “tuned-in” to our radical Messiah! Amen? Amen!