Easter Sunday (year C)- Luke 24: 1-12

  This year, the Gospel is Luke 24:1-12. The account is similar to other reports, but Luke has a unique way of telling the story. He simply says "they" came to the tomb and does not say who these women were until verse 10. The women find the tomb open with Jesus' body missing, and they are perplexed. This perplexity turns to amazement when two angelic beings tell them that Jesus has risen from the dead as He predicted. The women accept this message and return to share it with the eleven apostles and others. However, the men hesitate to believe the women's report. Peter has to go see for himself, and even then, his initial response to the empty tomb is merely wonder.

Luke's account highlights two points about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. First, the events of Holy Week had traumatized the disciples. They had not really understood or appreciated the divine plan for salvation in Jesus Christ. Although they loved Him, they had not really listened. They had not expected His crucifixion or His resurrection. They were shocked and depressed, and they were slow to understand the meaning of the empty tomb.

Secondly, as this passage starts to show and other accounts develop, Christ's disciples did slowly come to believe firmly in His resurrection. If anything, the initial discouragement, perplexity, and surprise of the disciples make their later witness to the resurrection more powerful. The disciples were not confident plotters trying to mislead others. They were humble people transformed by divine revelation and miraculous grace. Let us pray that the same divine revelation and grace may transform us into witnesses for the risen Lord Jesus!

Palm Sunday-Lent 6 (year C)- Philippians 2

 Many people know this Sunday as Palm Sunday from the Gospel accounts of Jesus entering Jerusalem on this day.  Many also expect the reading of a long account of Christ's Passion. Although the events are distinctive, the two readings from the Gospel tell us what happened this week. Jesus our Lord was glorified and then rejected and horribly killed.  As human beings, we may have some difficulty keeping these two aspects of Holy Week together in our thoughts. Yet, they belong together, and in the Epistle from Philippians 2, the Apostle Paul ties the themes together in a beautiful way. 

Philippians 2: 5 -11 reads: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This passage from Philippians may be an early Christian creedal hymn, and the words can be applied to many commemorations of the Christian faith. As we look at them on Palm Sunday, the words are very appropriate at the beginning of Holy Week. Their devotional significance is to draw us closer to the "mind" or attitude of Christ (2:5). The divine and unique Son of God deserves praise as the King of Israel and the King of all creation. Yet, He comes in humility in order to redeem human beings.

We see this humble acceptance of the human condition at His birth and throughout His earthly ministry, but it culminates in Holy Week and Good Friday: "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). These words summarize the details of the Passion Gospels. Christ voluntarily humbled Himself. The divine Son became the servant so that He could accomplish the ultimate obedience to holy principles, obedience unto death which had no rightful dominion over Him. Furthermore, the death He accepted was not just any death but death upon the cross. He accepted crucifixion, one of the most degrading and horrifying means of torture and execution devised by cruel men. Our Lord expresses His glory through the humility of the cross!