“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

My first job after graduating from college was working as a residential counselor in a community-based rehabilitation program run by Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Scranton, PA. The program was designed to provide supportive care for both chronically mentally ill homeless as well as drug and alcohol offenders. They needed a supportive environment to become clean and sober. Their hope was of securing not only their sobriety but also gainful employment and an independent living situation and become productive members of the community upon discharge from the program.

The earliest reported news of the Risen Christ was from Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who ran to announce the news to Jesus’ disciples. They were “fearful and overjoyed.” Meanwhile, the chief priests cooked up a cover-up story saying that the disciples stole Jesus’ body while the Roman guards were asleep.

We can only wonder what was left of the apostles and disciples’ faith during that longest of Sabbaths. Nature seemed to have run its course. Mary of Magdala was there at his place of burial on the first day of the week, still in grief and shock.

One of my favorite readings of the year is in today's Office of Readings. It's from an ancient homily on Holy Saturday. Centuries ago, an unknown homilist perfectly captured the mood of this day: "Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep."

On this day of the cross, Christians all over the world are invited to observe and listen to the Passion of Jesus through the eyes of the beloved disciple. Jesus does not suffer the passion because of his fragile human nature but through the violence perpetrated against him by concrete human beings. The crucified Jesus is the image of the suffering caused by the violence of human beings against other human beings. This violence is carried by Jesus upon himself, responding to it not with more violence but with radical love. His attitude and gestures give us clues on how to deal with violence and hatred.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus “came to serve, not to be served.” Nothing exemplifies this better than the washing of the feet that we both hear in the Gospel reading today and we celebrate during the Holy Thursday Mass. Jesus says, “You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow…”

Spy Wednesday refers to today’s Gospel of Matt. 26:14-25 in which we and the twelve disciples learn of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. Matthew turns the transaction into a dialogue. Judas bargains away his Messiah with the chief priests. He agrees to hand him over for thirty pieces of silver. Judas provides the catalyst for the plot to go into action.

Lent is a season of preparation for Easter, for the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But before the resurrection, comes the passion and death of Jesus. We’re in the last week of Lent and Jesus is telling us that things are going to ramp up quickly with a betrayal.

Memphis, TN Today’s reading is a story that tells us how Judas and Mary experienced same encounter with Jesus and had different perception of the event. This reading reminds us that our actions and behavior have different effects with our relationships. We are a creature of habits, and our thinking also follows a pattern. That pattern was influence by our upbringing, environment, culture, and information we learned as we get older. Its greatest influence is how much we appreciate ourselves in terms of the blessings we had. The more we appreciate ourselves the less judgmental we become. As sinners, we are all, at times we think that others also think the way we are thinking. Where is his/her common sense? As Judas said that the oil can be sold and given to the poor. Remember every action has an intention. Our intention is most important in the eyes of our Lord. He knows what we are trying to prove. We must be cognizant of our intentions that it is not self-serving or self-gratifying to show off. Virtue of humility, we have to practice.  We practice humility to improve our relationships. We must work on being a better person of ourselves one day at a time. Better than yesterday.

Today we welcome and hail Jesus as he enters Jerusalem; on Thursday evening, we will dine with him one final time; on Friday we will nail him to a tree, lifting him up for the world to see; and on Saturday night, he will repay us by walking out of the tomb, destroying our death along with his own…

We hear a lot in today’s readings about land, nation, and inheritance. GOD revealed to the prophet Ezekiel His plan to restore the people of Israel to their land as one nation with one prince over them all. If we read this only literally, we will miss the prophecy of Christ and the purpose of His death and resurrection to open the gates of heaven to all.

Jeremiah hears his countrymen, even his friends, plan to denounce him for "treason". Jesus sees his countrymen pick up stones to kill Him for "blasphemy". Both threats pass for now, but both come to pass in due time.

In the first reading, God describes the covenant He has made with Abram: he will have a long line of children and land that is their own. The reading ends with a somewhat ominous expectation that God expects the newly renamed Abraham and his descendants to be faithful to this covenant.

Jesus is teaching in the temple and being misunderstood once again by the Jews. What he says is for us as much as for them and so we believe him when he says, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

At this late point in Lent, it's likely that whatever Lenten practices we had prepared for we have either failed, or we are desperately looking forward to Easter so we can go back to the way things were. It seems to be part of our human nature that we struggle with real and enduring change. Sure, we can pray a rosary a day - for a while, we can promise to be on time - for a bit, we can give up cursing, complaining, and gossip - till we can't. It's almost as though these kinds of changes require grace. We can't do it on our own.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is an important part of the Lenten season, as we contemplate our sins that led Jesus to the Cross. In today's reading, Susanna demonstrated to us how a clean heart can enable God to do great things for us.  The devil attempted to accuse her using wicked men as false witnesses.  Sound familiar? Has this ever happened to you? The devil often holds our sins up in judgement before our God. He points his nasty finger at us, spewing his false lies through wisps of smoke and glass circus mirrors, distorting truth. "Aren't you terrible? God doesn't love you," he lies.  We stand daily in his court, waiting for our sentence like Susanna.

Temple Guards Become Preachers Temple guards were among the many Jews listening to Jesus Christ that day. These guards were good men, men of prayer who hungered and thirsted for God. Their usual place to pray was the temple where they served. Today, God himself was speaking back to them. They were being fed the Word of God straight from Jesus’ lips. The Lord, the Living Water himself, satiated their thirst. They listened, and were convinced, that Jesus was the prophet and that he very well could be the long-awaited Messiah.

Today the Scriptures reveal a paradox that just and good people in society and the church can be persecuted for doing good. They are perceived as a threat by those who don’t want to change. We read, ‘Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us.’ In the Gospel the people say of Jesus, ‘Is this not the one they want to kill? They say this because he healed a man on the sabbath and violated strict Jewish law. Jesus puts the dignity of the human person over the Law.