Friends, if we are taking a careful look at the events of this Easter Season, which, by the way, are the same during each season of Easter; we have to notice that the Resurrection of our brother Jesus, leads us right back into action.  So, what do I mean by that?

   The Scriptures for today give us a clear explanation of what I am saying.   The reading from Acts finds the apostles proclaiming “the truth” as they know it to be—Jesus of Nazareth, came, taught about the best ways to live, and paid the civil price in his time for speaking against the State. 

   For those without faith, his death was the “end of the story.”  For those with faith, he rose to a new life that continued his life and goodness in the same ways that he first demonstrated in his own humanity, but now that “goodness” would continue through the lives of his followers should they, should we, choose to continue his work. 

   In the reading from Acts, Peter clearly states the choice that he and the other apostles have made: “Better to obey God than people.”  I often talk about laws and rules that we humans come up with as “head stuff” that causes us then to propose “black and white” answers to complex world problems that show themselves in more “gray” ways.   In other words, the solutions aren’t always clear.  

    John’s gospel selection today gets at the problem we all must face as we live out our Christian lives.  Recalling the apostle Peter’s life with regard to his following in Jesus’ footsteps, we remember that when “push came to shove” during Jesus’ passion, Peter was identified by others three times as Jesus’ follower, to which we know that Peter denied three times to even knowing him. 

   Today’s gospel gets at this seeming discrepancy. Jesus isn’t reprimanding Peter for his denial, but is clearly showing him a better, truer way to go.  By asking Peter three times of his love for his master, Jesus lovingly and without anger or malice shows Peter just what “love” means—the words aren’t enough, Jesus says, there must be action too. 

   And as Peter and the others will find out, “feeding and tending the sheep” won’t always be easy—and will probably even be “messy” at times, as Robert and I have been discovering of late in trying “to launch” our Honduran family on a path that will lead to success for them in their new country. 

   I think the “messiness” in any endeavor where we start from a seemingly apparent place of love, comes especially when a group of people such as that working with our Honduran family, bring with them all the baggage of their own personal lives and somehow try to work out all that “baggage” by doing “good” for others.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes our basic humanity gets in the way of the good we would do.  Peter learned that, but moved past it in order to do the good that his brother was calling him to. 

   My friends, most of us have experienced some measure of suffering in our own lives and hopefully our personal suffering has made us more attentive to the suffering that others in our world experience, which many times, if we are truthful, is far worse than our own. 

   The Easter story, which our Church in wisdom dedicates six weeks to, does each of us a good turn.  Why so?  As we initially rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, as is displayed in the readings from Revelations, our brother and savior, Jesus, calls us through the other readings to our new, and continual work in the world.  Jesus’ physical presence won’t be there, except in us, in the ways we now choose to “touch” our world, but his spiritual presence will be, supporting and inspiring us “to feed” and otherwise care for our sisters and brothers as he did. 

   And I would be remiss if I didn’t say—to remember ourselves in the equation—we can’t share out of “an empty cup,” anymore than should we keep all the contents for ourselves—it’s a balancing act. 

   I just finished a very good book by Fiona Hill, who came to our country’s attention during the first impeachment of Donald Trump.  Her book, entitled, There is Nothing for You Here, is her personal story of growing up in poverty in Northeastern England and of how she was eventually able to make a success of her life through many others giving her a needed, helping hand. 

   Over her lifetime that began in 1965, she tells of how she made connections with others who believed that people basically wanted to succeed in life, but that many times, the “doors” just weren’t open to do so.  She makes many like comparisons to her second country and its people, the United States of America, with regard to what people need to make their way in life.  She quotes a philanthropic friend who wisely said, “We don’t try to make things easy for people, but to make things possible for them.”

   In reflecting on my work as a Christian in general and specifically in my present, daily life, the above quote seems to give that balance that not only looks out for others but for ourselves.  Amen? Amen!  Alleluia!

My friends, each Church Year, we are taken scripturally through the life, death and resurrection of our brother, Jesus.  During Lent especially, we are called to ponder just who this God-human-person was.  During Holy Week we are encouraged to spend time with our human brother, trying to understand as fully as we can, why he came among us, for what purpose, what his death and resurrection meant for him and for us—but even more so, what his life meant. 

   Now for me, growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, before the 2^nd Vatican Council, the message was always clear— “Jesus came, died for our sins, so that we could go to heaven one day and be happy with him, there forever.”  That sounds good on the surface, but I feel that Jesus’ coming was much simpler, much more loving than that. 

   I believe for many people, it is easier to get our “heads” around the fact that “God needed to come and clean up the mess we humans made, taking our failings, placing that guilt upon Jesus’ shoulders and “wha-la,” all is good!”

   But you see my friends, the above is much more of a human outlook than that of the Loving God, that Jesus, in his life presented to us.  Jesus was always more about applying the “heart” than the “head” in any situation. 

   In our Catholic church today, just as in the Jewish faith of Jesus’ time, men ran the show and we would all probably agree that setting up a list of dos and don’ts (the Jews had over 600 and Christians, a good many too) and a storyline that neatly answers all the questions is much easier than suggesting, as Jesus often did, that we simply do, the most loving thing!  Granted, doing the most “loving thing” is a lot messier! 

   Throughout history, the virtues of goodness, kindness, mercy, long-suffering, and so on have been looked at as the “gentler” virtues and relegated to the “gentler, weaker sex”—that of women.  But make no mistake, my friends, doing the “most loving thing” in any situation is far harder than following a set of narrow rules and regulations as Jesus proved throughout his life.  We must always remember that Jesus’ one, beautiful human life was taken because he relentlessly chose to do, not what the law said, but what “love” said—the two, as we know, are often not the same.  And for any of us who have ever followed his lead, we know that it is not easy, nor a weak action. 

    The Scriptures chosen for us to hear in the days and weeks after the Resurrection show the apostles sometimes in the same situation as Jesus in his life—people were attracted to him many times because of the physical cures that he was able to do.  The same was true for the apostles, after his death.  But for Jesus and the apostles, as we read today in Acts— “through [their] hands, many signs and wonders occurred among the people—women and men, in great numbers were continually added to their number.” 

   Given the above words, we can only imagine that there were many others, for Jesus and the apostles, who experienced what Jesus was really after in them, “a change of heart.” Those who were just after a messiah who would vanquish their physical enemies or cure their physical bodies, didn’t discover the “messiah” who Jesus ultimately was. 

   In the simplest of terms, Jesus came out of the loving heart of God who wants only good for us, not bad.  Such a God would never ask for reparation for the failings that were part of the humanity given us.  But such a God would give us chance, after chance, after chance, to get it right.

   Look at our Scriptures today:  The Revelations’ reading is about things not understood, except for our God’s words, “Don’t be afraid”—the piece understood, but not said is— “I will be with you.”  In the gospel reading from John we read times two— “Peace be with you—just as the Creator sent me, I [am] sending you”—to do, like me, the most loving thing! This gospel selection also lets us know that we will have great powers—the power to forgive and many other loving things, if we so choose. 

   Eastertime my friends, is all about gratitude for a God who has loved us so much in Jesus as well as a great time of grace to choose a “change of heart” –big enough to follow him, doing always what is most loving, in our world, that today, as we all know is in need of, just that!  Amen? Amen!