Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord

April 20, 2025

GOSPEL MEDITATION

When I was a young boy, my parents told me about their wedding. Then a few years later, they showed me my mother’s wedding dress and my dad’s suit. It was  astonishing to see and touch garments that connected me to the event that led to my existence. Of course, I already believed they were married based on their word.  But these holy garments made the event real and tangible for me.

Something like this is at play when St. John reports encountering in Jesus’ tomb, “the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a  separate place” (John 20:7). Those two separate cloths, for his head and for his body respectively, meant a great deal to St. John and to the early Christians. Some years after the resurrection, there surfaced reports of two cloths with unusual characteristics, one bearing the image of a crucified man’s body, another smaller one with the image of a wounded man’s face. Some call them the Shroud of Turin and the Veil of Manoppello; they both can be seen today.

These two cloths have a long and complicated history, and scholars debate aspects of them. If you’re curious, I encourage you to read about them. To be clear, I believe  in the resurrection of Jesus because of the testimony of eyewitnesses and the gift of faith in the Church. Nevertheless, seeing these two mysterious cloths have made the life-giving event of Jesus’ resurrection more real and tangible for me. Maybe they will for you, too.

–Father John Muir

 

EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP

He is risen! He is truly risen! This is what the celebration of Easter is all about – the truth that Jesus was crucified for our sins and three days later rose from the dead, conquering death once and for all. We proclaim this truth every Sunday in the  Nicene Creed: “For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures.” Amazing!

We know it’s true, but this Easter Sunday, let’s ask ourselves if we live as if it’s true. Do we simply recite this portion of our Creed week after week, or do we live as witnesses to this glorious reality? And how are we, as Christian stewards, to live as a ‘witness’ all these years later without firsthand knowledge? We may have to look a little more closely to ‘bear witness’, but if we try then we can have just as real an experience of the empty tomb and the redeeming power of the Resurrection.

We become witnesses of His glory when we: prayerfully read the Scriptures knowing they are a living love letter from God with a message to each one of us, each time we receive the precious Body and Blood of our Lord in the Eucharist, when we  experience His personal and healing power in our hearts during Reconciliation, and when we pour out our lives in loving service to those around us and experience the deep satisfaction that only comes when we are imitating our Savior. This Easter, don’t just recite the Creed – resolve to live as if it’s true. Experience Jesus for yourself every day from now on. You will be a powerful witness to the truth that He is risen! He is truly risen!

2025 Catholic Stewardship Consultants

 

PRACTICING CATHOLIC – RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS

Mini Reflection: Everybody’s trying to find God. They may not admit it. They may not even know it. But the search defines them, and it defines us.

The Search:  Everybody’s trying to find God. They may not admit it. They may not even know it. They may talk around it, shy away from saying the name, both to others and to themselves: God. But I know for a fact that every person who was ever  born into this world spent their lives searching for Him – somewhere, somehow, even if the only place they thought to look was in money or drugs. It’s a comforting fact, really — a reminder of how alike we all are. Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, atheist,  rich, poor, Black, white. When it comes right down to it, the history of humanity is a never-ending Easter morning scene that plays in perpetuity. The sorrow, the shock, the confusion. Again and again, as each newborn baby opens his eyes, the  search begins anew. Where did he go? What has happened? Where can I find him?

Catechesis isn’t enough. Even those who learn about Jesus Christ, who accept his word, hang hesitantly outside the tomb, afraid to go in. Jesus’ best friend — the disciple whom he loved — ran faster than Peter, so desperate he was to find his Lord.  But when he got to the tomb and saw it empty, he got spooked. He froze. Sometimes, we expect God to be right where we left Him — in a certain parish, with a certain priest, in a certain relationship, at a certain job. We show up, and we’re  heartbroken to see that our expectations have been turned upside down. He’s left us, we think dejectedly, but we’re wrong.

There is no one who has been abandoned by God. There are only those who stop looking for Him. Don’t let the empty tombs define you. It’s the search that defines you.

– Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman