Burying the Dead as a Corporal Work of Mercy

Transcription

1 March 2016 Vol.12 I. Our Church Burying the Dead as a Corporal Work of Mercy By David Deane, Ph. D. B urying the dead, the seventh corporal work of mercy, rests uneasily alongside the others. There are two main reasons for this. First, the six other corporal works are all highlighted by Jesus in Matthew 25: as acts that shape our relationship with God while burying the dead is not. Second, we think of mercy as being kind to someone in need, or perhaps forgiving someone s transgressions. The temptation is to think of the grateful face of those we re showing mercy to. But how are the dead in need? What do they care where, how, or even if, they re buried? How does our mercy actually help them? This, slightly impersonal, aspect makes burying the dead a more Contents include: I. Our Church II. From the Desk of the Archbishop III. Our Journey of Transformation IV. Our People, Our Parishes V. Our Faith: Quo Vadis and The Word VI. Vocations VII. Youth / Young Adult difficult work of mercy to understand than the others. It is not clearly relational, and it clearly doesn t help the person who benefits from it. Such difficulties, however, invite us to reflect on it further and, in so doing, learn more, not only about burying the dead but about the theological imagination that produced the corporal works of mercy as a whole. In this overview I will first touch on a core aspect of the theological imagination that produced the corporal works of mercy and then offer a brief account of burying the dead in light of this. The moral life for pre-modern Christians For many modern Christians, the belief is that our good actions win God s favour. In such a model we do things, and God, who is in heaven, judges us as good on the basis of these actions. Within such a perspective moral actions, such as feeding the hungry or visiting the sick, are understood primarily as acts that win us the favour of God. For other modern Christians, actions don t matter that much as God loves and forgives us anyway. From this perspective people are loved by God no matter what but act in good ways because they are inclined to do so by virtue of their conscience.

2 These two perspectives tend to represent the two sides of the modern theological coin. Neither are completely off the mark but neither get at the heart of how the moral life was understood for most of Christian history. For early Christians moral acts do not earn God s love but despite this they are vital to relationship with God. While this is faithful to the words of Jesus, who stresses God s unearned love for us but also tells us that we will be judged for our actions. This is still difficult for us to understand. The Catholic position is that God loves us and God forgives us, always forever. This is not going to change. Our actions do not change God s love for us. God gives Himself to us in a loving, forgiving relationship. This self giving is understood for most of human history in a very dramatic way. The Father gives himself as the Son through the Holy Spirit, moving out from God and into us. Crucially, however, this self giving by God is something we can either accept or reject. It is a loving relationship and God does not annihilate our personhood and freedom in forcing Himself on us. He gives himself to us and we, in our embodied actions, are free to accept God s self giving and, in a sense, either consummate the relationship, or reject God s self giving. This is the context in which corporal works of mercy function. We accept God s self giving in moral actions such as the corporal works of mercy. The corporal works of mercy don t gain God s love. In partaking in the works of mercy we accept God s love. Performing corporal works of mercy don t win relationship with God, they are a sign of our acceptance of a relationship with God. This can sound like up in the air theology but we should try to imagine it if we are to understand the moral life in a properly Catholic way. Let me use a very limited and inadequate image which I ll unpack in the next paragraph. Let s say you have a desire to get a tan. You walk out into the sun and lie in it. Over time your skin darkens. You want a tan, you act in order to be in relationship with the sun and, due to the operation of the sun you get a tan. There are three stages here (1) desire (2) action (3) relationship that brings fruits. Gate of Heaven Cemetery Mass Now, if you have a want a relationship with God in Christ this stems from the presence of the Holy Spirit within you. Accepting the action, gifts, and presence of the Holy Spirit is the basis for your desire to act. In many ways Jesus Christ is an unlikely candidate for God. He is an uneducated (by Roman reckoning) country bumpkin, a friend of tax collectors and prostitutes. What would you think of a man hanging out with them, eating with them? What would it take for you to see such a man as God? For Catholics, it takes the miracle of faith, a gift of the Holy Spirit, to see Christ for who He is. It takes the presence of the Holy Spirit inside your body, directing your eyes to Christ in faith, moving you to accept God s gift of Himself to you in Jesus Christ. Second, jn the example above, when you desire a tan you are motivated to go out into the sun to get a tan. When you are motivated to know God you are moved with faith through the Holy Spirit, to move toward God. God, in Jesus Christ reveals Himself in the poor, the hungry, and the needy. God binds Himself to these people in Christ. To move toward God is to move toward them. Third, the result of this movement, towards the sun if you are tanning or towards God because of faith, is relationship that changes us in a very real embodied way. As the sun changes our skin tone so too we are changed by accepting God more fully into ourselves. We go out because of the presence of the Spirit in us. We encounter Christ in the poor and needy, moving from oneness with the Holy Spirit to oneness with the Son. And as the Son and the Father are one we come, through the Son, Page 2

3 to glimpse the fullness of relationship with the Father for which we are made and be further infused by God. We are nonetheless changed, altered by God through the Triune (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) relationship we participate in via the corporal works of mercy. This is how they work as a response to the presence of the Holy Spirit they are an embodied acceptance of union with Christ through whom we come into the oneness with God eternally and incessantly offered by the Father. Burying the Dead The moral life, then, is neither about actions that win God s love, nor are our actions irrelevant to our relationship with God. Actions such as works of mercy represent our participation in God s triune life. They happen because the Holy Spirit is already active in us, in our bodies. They proceed because we, with our minds, hearts, and wills, serve Christ and accept union with Him through serving those in need. And through this we come to know, and be transformed by, the Father whom we encounter through the Son. The desire to bury the dead is a desire that comes from God, it comes from our being made as humans in the image and likeness of God and stems from what Aquinas calls prevenient grace, the basic human relationship with God which prepares us for further saturation by God. Despite being in the image and likeness of God, we are also infinitely different from God. When we do good we often yearn for recognition, for kudos, for return. Our actions of mercy often involve the other person being in debt to us, even if that debt is only a debt of gratitude. God alone has no need of anything and alone gives for no return. But when we bury the dead we act towards them with no hope of return, not even gratitude. We mourn them because we love life, glimpsing God s love of life. We come to know through a glass darkly, as God alone knows fully, the brevity of life and the transience of matter. Driven by the Spirit we may see the face of the Holy Mother in the grieving family of the deceased. We may feel drawn to them with a compassion that is Christ s when he looked down and gave the care of his grieving Mother to John. As such we move to bury the dead driven by the Spirit and enter into a oneness with Christ through the action itself. It doesn t change the deceased, it changes us. It is, most properly, not our mercy toward the departed but our acceptance of and participation in God s merciful love of all. This is how powerful and significant the corporal works of mercy are. Burying the dead represents an acceptance of God s self giving to us and, through this acceptance, it represents a participation in God s life. It changes us and accepts that union with God for which we are made. Dr. David Deane moved to Halifax in 2007 to take up a position at Atlantic School of Theology, where he is now Associate Professor of Systematic Theology. He is also the director of the MA program and the new Diploma program in the New Evangelization. Dr. Deane received his Ph.D. in Theology from Trinity College, University of Dublin. His writings include Nietzsche and Theology and numerous articles on a wide range of theological themes. Page 3

4 II. From Desk of the Archbishop Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples: I have seen the Lord! (John 20: 18) Dear Friends, A s we prepare to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, I wish everyone a truly joyful Easter, but what would make your experience of Easter a truly joyful moment? We associate joy with the Resurrection of Christ and because we recall this event, every year and celebrate it in the Eucharist every Sunday and sometimes every day, it can easily become a ritual expression, even a common wish offered, simply because it has become custom. I would like for us to experience the full impact of what we say and celebrate. On my own journey as a priest and bishop, the power of the Resurrection made itself felt when I was in deep state of sadness, struggling with questions about my future as a man, and as a priest. It was a time of personal emptiness, loss of meaning and no clear way forward. Reflecting back on this time, I relate it to some of the experiences of Christ s friends, like the disciples arguing on their way to Emmaus, or like Mary Magdalene, crying in the garden where Christ was buried. When Christ dies in our lives; when he is buried in whatever tomb of human undertaking it is all of us, who die as well. The experience of the Resurrection is the overwhelming encounter with the person, the fact and reality that Christ is Christ because he does not stay dead. The joy of realizing that Christ is alive, even if we are not, can turn everything around and even upside down. In my story, that moment came when I accepted the fact that God had called Tony to be in his service, with all the faults and failings that make up who I am, along with whatever gifts and talents I might also have. This was the grace of mercy to accept the fact that I am accepted in spite of my unacceptability. This was also the Resurrection moment, which allowed me to say I have seen the Lord. Page 4

5 To experience the joy of Easter is to have such an experience of seeing the Lord. This was essential for the apostles, the closest friends of Jesus and for everyone of us since, who wish to be followers of Christ. I believe that in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, the opportunity is made available for many to encounter the Lord; to let the Lord appear to each one of us, in our personal circumstances, whatever they may be and the outcome of such a transformative experience, is not only the discovery that Christ is not dead, but that we are, or can be, fully alive. This is the source of Easter joy and the reason to go out to others with the proclamation: I have seen the Lord. The Lord is risen, Alleluia. To him be glory and power for all the ages of eternity. (Luke 24:34; Rev. 1:6) Anthony Mancini Archbishop of Halifax-Yarmouth «Marie-Madeleine s en va donc annoncer aux disciples : J ai vu le Seigneur!» (Jean 20, 18) Chers amis, A lors que nous nous préparons à fêter la résurrection du Seigneur, je souhaite à chacun de célébrer de vraies joyeuses Pâques. Cependant, j ajoute aussitôt : qu est-ce qui pourrait rendre votre expérience de Pâques un moment vraiment joyeux? Nous associons facilement la joie avec la résurrection du Christ. Et parce que nous rappelons cet événement chaque année, et que nous le célébrons dans l Eucharistie chaque dimanche, et même chaque jour, ce phénomène peut facilement devenir une expression rituelle, même un souhait commun offert, tout simplement parce qu il est devenu une coutume ou une tradition. Je voudrais que nous expérimentions le plein impact de ce que nous disons et célébrons : une rencontrechoc. Dans ma propre vie comme prêtre et évêque, le pouvoir de la résurrection s est fait sentir quand j étais dans un profond état de tristesse, me débattant avec des questions au sujet de mon avenir comme homme et comme prêtre. C étaient des temps de vide personnel, de perte de signification, et de perspective nulle d avenir. En jetant un regard en arrière et en réfléchissant à ces temps difficiles, je les relie à quelques-unes des expériences des amis de Jésus, par exemple les disciples qui discutaient sur le chemin d Emmaüs, ou à Marie- Madeleine pleurant dans le jardin où le Christ avait été enseveli. Quand le Christ meurt dans notre vie, quand il est enseveli dans n importe quelle tombe humaine c'est tous nous autres qui mourons également. L expérience de la résurrection est la rencontre bouleversante avec la personne, le fait et la réalité que le Christ est Christ, parce qu il ne demeure pas dans la mort. La joie de réaliser que le Christ est vivant, même si nous ne le sommes pas, peut renverser n importe quoi et tourner toutes choses à l envers. Dans mon histoire personnelle, ce moment précis est arrivé quand j ai accepté le fait que Dieu m a appelé, moi Tony, à son service, avec tous les manques et les défauts qui font ce que je suis, et avec les quelconques dons et talents que je puisse également avoir. Page 5

6 Ceci fut la grâce de la miséricorde de consentir que je sois accueilli en dépit du fait de ma nonacceptabilité. Ce fut aussi mon moment de résurrection qui m a permis de dire : j ai vu le Seigneur. Expérimenter la joie de Pâques est justement d avoir une telle expérience de voir le Seigneur. Cela fut essentiel pour les apôtres, les plus proches amis de Jésus. Cela est également essentiel pour chacun de nous, étant donné que nous voulons nous mettre à la suite du Christ. Je crois qu en cette Jubilé de la Miséricorde l opportunité se présente à plusieurs de rencontrer le Seigneur, de laisser le Seigneur apparaitre à chacun de nous dans notre vie personnelle. Quelles que soient ces circonstances et quel que soit le résultat de cette expérience de transformation, ce n est pas seulement de découvrir que le Christ ne soit pas mort, mais que nous-mêmes sommes ou pouvons être pleinement vivants. Cette expérience est la source de la joie pascale et la raison d aller vers les autres avec la proclamation suivante : J ai vu le Seigneur. Le Seigneur est ressuscité, alléluia! À lui gloire et puissance pour les siècles des siècles. (Luc 24, 34; Apoc 1, 6) Anthony Mancini Archevêque d Halifax-Yarmouth Page 6

7 III. Our Journey of Transformation I n 2014, Archbishop Anthony Mancini cast a vision for a renewed and transformed Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth. He did so through his pastoral letter, Quo Vadis Dominie?/ Lord Where are you Going?. In the letter he proposed a five year diocesan wide pastoral planning process for all our parishes. Parishes across our region have taken up this invitation and are discerning the actions and steps necessary to help their community of faith follow where the Lord is leading. The Archdiocese is also looking closely at the ways it can best serve the people of the local church of Halifax-Yarmouth. Below are the changes to our diocesan collections. Living the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan through our Diocesan Collections Archbishop Mancini proposed an Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan in 2014 to renew our local Church in Halifax-Yarmouth. On a diocesan level this has called us to re-focus our activities to be more mission oriented. In 2016, we will have changed our diocesan collections to more closely mirror this plan. Currently we have five national collections and had five collections for diocesan purposes. The five diocesan collections are changed to three and these focus on our pastoral themes of: Mission, Community and Formation. This change effectively enables us to help one another better understand and engage in our Catholic mission and values. The three new collections are spread throughout the year as follows: Date February 28, 2016 June 5, 2016 October 16 and November 20, 2016 Pastoral Theme Formation Mission Community The three collections will be tied together with a common theme. Within that common focus, each collection highlights one of the afore mentioned pastoral themes. To support these efforts on the ground in the parishes, the Archdiocese will provide promotional material to each parish to emphasize the purpose and importance of each collection. Promotional material will include collection envelopes, donation cards, and print material such as posters and brochures. A direct mail package containing the above mentioned material will be sent to the home addresses of parishioners available to the archdiocese, as is currently done with the Annual Archbishop s Appeal. In an effort to more intentionally provide financial support to our parishes and the good work they do, all these collections will have a parish sharing component. That is, a percentage of the funds collected will be directed back to the parish. As with the diocesan funds, the parish funds are meant to be spent on the collection priority. Monthly donations through pre-authorized payments will be encouraged in the case of each collection. We begin this shift in our diocesan collections structure this year with an emphasis on the pastoral theme of Formation. This diocesan collection happened on the weekend of February 27-28, 2016 and focused on raising the funds Page 7

8 necessary to develop training, programs, workshops, etc. that will allow us to grow and mature in faith; funds that support our ability to Make Disciples! Form Leaders! Call Servants! Donations to the formation collection will be used in particular for adult faith formation, theological education, and vocations promotion. The second of our three diocesan collections will focus on our pastoral theme of Mission and will take place on June 5, Attention will be placed on our diocesan efforts in the area of mission for the New Evangelization and the Evangelization of the Nations. The collection will support the important work of on-going evangelization in our parishes, regions and the Archdiocese by providing the resources to build skills for us to share the Good News with God s people and experience Jesus Christ through new methods and expressions. Finally, the third diocesan collection will center on our pastoral theme of Community. This collection will take place on October 16 and November 20. The aim for the funds collected center on enriching our parish and diocesan community through programs and services within parishes but also focus on reaching beyond our parish. We all know of the continual need to provide care for all members of our community: our youth and elders, our retired and infirmed clergy, those suffering with health issues, and those struggling with other challenges of daily life. In many ways this third diocesan collection is not new. It is the collection has traditionally been called: The Annual Archbishop s Appeal and it will, at this point, retain this name. This is a major change in the organization of one aspect of our common finances. It requires a shift in our thinking. The same type of shift that we are all invited to imagine as we say our yes to follow where the Lord is leading the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth. The hope is that this re-focusing of diocesan collections will match and support more directly our key pastoral themes of mission, community, formation. On-going updates regarding diocesan collections will be provided through the weekly Halifax-Yarmouth News Service and other usual means of communication. Page 8

9 IV. Our People, Our Parishes Welcome Home : An Update on Refugee Sponsorship W hat does the word home mean to you? What images, feelings, associations, come to mind when you think of home? What kind of things do you have in your home? What can you see when you look out the windows? Who shares your home with you, and who do you invite into your home? Now consider for a moment what would you do if you lost this home, if it was taken away and you were unsure if you would ever be able to return to it? What would you bring with you if you had 10 minutes to pack and leave? Imagine if you had to flee your home not just a house, but a place, a city, a province, a country. Look at a map of the world and ask yourself: if I had to leave Canada today forever, where would I go? Where would I be welcome? What if the country I want to go to is already overwhelmed with other people like me and my family, running away from some situation at home? We don t ask ourselves such questions because that is not our reality. However, these are the questions thousands of refugees are asking as they are forced to find a new life in a new country due to the violence and destruction happening in their homeland. The world has been asked to help. As a community of faith, Roman Catholics worldwide, have answered that plea. In September 2015, Pope Francis issued a challenge to the parishes of Europe in response to the growing crisis in the Middle East and the climbing number of refugees streaming into Europe. Locally, in the church of Halifax-Yarmouth, Archbishop Mancini asked us to take up this same challenge, with the goal to sponsor 100 refugees through the parishes of our Archdiocese. Five months down the road, we are getting very close to reaching this goal. Canada has a refugee sponsorship program that is unique in the world. Our government resettles refugees from places of conflict and brings them to Canada, as many other countries do. But in Canada individuals and groups have the opportunity to name individual refugees they want to sponsor, to raise money to support them, and then to bring these families to Canada and support them as they get used to their new lives here. Our parishes have been doing this for decades, and with the new attention on refugee needs, many parishes have agreed to engage in this process again. A Whole New World The questions do not end when a refugee family has found out they have been accepted into a new country. For those who come to Canada, they are facing a country, a way of life, so different from the one they once knew. Will I understand the language? Will I be able to learn a new one quickly enough, and if I can t, how will I ask questions about the things I need to know? Will I be allowed to work, and will I be able to find a job? How am I going to provide for my family? What happens if I get sick and need medical care? What are the laws in this new place, and what will happen if I break one of them? What is the food like there? How does the money work? How do I get a bank account and borrow money? Will my children be able to go to school and do so safely? Will they make friends? Will they be able to adapt, to learn the language and the culture and to fit in? Will they forget about our culture? What about our parents, brother, sister, older child, cousin, aunt, I had to leave behind? Are they safe? To help newcomers adjust to their new home, sponsoring parishes and groups try their best to take away the stress and anxiety by preparing funds, housing and support in advance of the refugee families arrival. However, as sponsors these groups are also responsible to provide a level of care and support once the families arrive. Every day things like language, banking, school, shopping, that we take for granted can be scary for new arrivals. But with the hands on help of their sponsors, refugees families can make a smoother transition. Within the Archdiocese, there are 19 parishes in various stages of the sponsorship process. Our parishes have committed so far to sponsoring a Page 9

10 total of 93 refugees. Thirty-one of the refugees have arrived in Nova Scotia, and another 62 are in various stages of their journey here. They come from all different walks of life, with some coming from farming and labour backgrounds, and others having run their own businesses or worked as professionals in their home country. Many of them are children, with the largest family consisting of eight members. The Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth has an agreement with the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada), which allows us to partner with groups to sponsor refugees to come to Canada. Because of this agreement, we were also able to partner with parishes in the Diocese of Antigonish and several dioceses in New Brunswick who wanted to bring refugees to the Atlantic Provinces. When we look at all of these together, there are 31 parish groups, sponsoring a grand total of 184 Syrian refugees. We all have stressors in our lives, questions that keep us up at night, worrying and wondering about the future, about our loved ones. Luckily, most of us don t have to ask ourselves as many questions as many of the refugee families we have welcomed. We are blessed to live in a country where we can enjoy a certain level of freedom and security. We know that because we are blessed, it s our responsibility to share these blessings with as many other people as we can, be they the poor and homeless already in Canada, those in thirdworld countries, or those fleeing from violence as refugees. Those refugees who are resettled in Canada become permanent residents of Canada once they reach our shores. They are no longer considered refugees, because they have been removed from a place of uncertainty and violence to a country which will become their new home. In this Year of Mercy we have been encouraged to meditate on and to put into practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and the project of assisting refugees is one very practical way that we take these works seriously. By taking in those who have had to flee their homes, we are feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, assisting the sick, freeing people from situations of imprisonment, and helping them to bury the dead the people and places and memories they have had to leave behind and mourn. Thank you for your hard work and support of this project, and may we all continue to provide a warm welcome to those who have had to leave behind everything they know; let us help them to call Nova Scotia a new home. Page 10

11 V. Our Faith: Quo Vadis Why would you want to be Catholic? T he Rite of Election. While it sounds more like an event dealing with matters of political nature verses affairs of the Church it is an opportunity to recognize those who are choosing to become full members of the Catholic Church, specifically on Holy Saturday at the Easter Vigil. The Rite of Election is a special Liturgy of the Word celebrated during Lent with the bishop of a diocese. Annually in the Archdiocese of Halifax- Yarmouth, Archbishop Anthony Mancini has been gathering on the first Sunday of Lent with members of the elect. On first glance it is simply a Liturgy of the Word, a time of prayer and reflection. Upon closer inspection it has become a time where our Archbishop is able to get up close and personal with the soon to be new members of his flock. In today s world less and less people seem to choose Church, yet the Rite of Election singles out those who have chosen Church. One might ask: why? Archbishop Mancini poses that very question to the people gathered. He asks in his direct, yet pastoral way: Why would you want to be Catholic? The usual immediate effect is silence. It s not everyday that an archbishop asks you something so personal. It s not what the average Catholic, let alone someone who has yet to become Catholic, expects during the part of the liturgy where traditionally the presider offers his answers not questions. Once the initial shock subsides some of the responses that come forward include: To be able to participate more fully in the life of the Church particularly in the Eucharist. I ve always gone to Mass with my husband/ wife who is Catholic and felt I was missing out on something when they went forward to receive the Eucharist and I couldn t. Because I have come to know that the Jesus is the Messiah, my Saviour, and my Lord. Because without Jesus, I wouldn t be alive right now. As I attended Church more I saw a sense of family and community that I wanted to be part of. The various answers can be summed up under two themes: personal encounter with Christ and community. Personal Encounter What does a personal encounter with Christ mean exactly? Simply put, it is the moment, or moments, one comes to know Jesus, rather than know about a man named Jesus. How do we know Jesus? Some ways can include: seeking him through prayer, reflecting on Scripture, reading what others have said about Jesus s impact on their lives, and encountering people who witness to the encounters) they have had with Christ. How many times in scripture do we hear of someone healed or made whole after meeting Jesus and even when told not to say and anything they can t help but tell someone anyone! In short a personal encounter is the moment of saying yes to being a disciple of Christ wanting to follow him, learn from him, and share his message and mission of love with others. When we encounter Christ, truly, we cannot help but react the same way many in scripture have we need to tell others. As we continue to encounter Christ and allow such moments to transform us we discover our uniqueness, our need to be in relationship with the One who created us and loves us like no other - and always will. Who wouldn t want to know this person, this God, more? Getting to know someone requires working on the relationship. Our God seeks relationship with us and when we encounter Christ in a personal way our minds and hearts can be opened to the transformative love that God gives us through the example of His Son and through the power of the Holy Spirit. The gift of this relationship is personal, but it is not private. Community Our faith is practiced in community. From our prayer, to our worship, to our sacraments to our ministry - these are celebrated in their fullness when they happen in the midst of a community of disciples. God made us to be in relationship with Him directly and indirectly through those who believe in Him. Some of the elect speak of the impact a community of believers has had on their decision to become Catholic. That is, someone in Page 11

12 John and Peter Running to the Empty Tomb, by Eugène Burnard, hangs in the D Orsay Museum in Paris, France. the community of faith from which the person comes from made an impact on life the elect, built a relationship with them, and witnessed to them the love of Jesus Christ. Thus it is in community that these catechumens (those seeking the Sacraments of Initiation) and candidates (those seeking to complete the Sacraments of Initiation) can grow and mature with other disciples who are also growing in their faith. For Catholics, it is in community that we are formed, trained, supported to become disciples of Christ. And it is from within that community that we are sent out on mission to make disciples of others. Those gathered at the Rite of Election are examples of that action of going out. Becoming a disciple of Christ, a missionary disciple, is a life long journey not meant to be taken alone but with companions for that journey. Throughout scripture we hear of Christ s disciples companioning one another in their mission to make disciples, baptize, and teach the Gospel; in short to evangelize! Because the Resurrection was a part of their living memory their passion, conviction, and excitement of their personal encounter with Christ is very much alive and compelled them to make certain choices and steps to continue the task left to them. A painting by Eugène Burnard at the D Orsay Museum in Paris captures the wonderment of the apostles, Peter and John as they run to the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. Over 2000 years later are we as Christ s current disciples running to the empty tomb in awe & wonder? Are we sharing the impact of our own encounter(s) with Christ? Are we creating the space for others to have their hearts touched by Christ? Are we providing opportunities in our communities of faith for that impact to grow and be shared? If our Archbishop asked you: Why would you want to be Catholic? what would your answer be? On Holy Saturday, the elect, catechumens and candidates across our archdiocese, will be welcomed into our Church, and will experience the Resurrection in a new and different way. They have given their yes and taken the next step in the journey of faith. They join all of us, the baptized, who are called to witness how sharing our personal encounter with Christ can create space for others to encounter Him and recognize that entering into an ever evolving relationship with Christ can transform our hearts and our Church. Page 12

13 The Word The Resurrection of the Lord By Trevor Scott, sj Easter Sunday March 27, 2016 First Reading: Acts 10.34a, Second Reading: Colossians Gospel: John A quality that is noticeable with the seasons that we celebrate in our church year is the colour. Each season has a colour. We notice this especially during our Eucharistic celebrations with the colours of the banners hanging from our church s ceilings and upon its walls, the colours of the vestments that the priests and deacons wear, and of the cloths placed upon the altar. Advent and Christmas, as well as Lent and Easter, are particular times in our church year that stand out for this quality. It is their colours that contribute to the setting of the tone of these seasons - in addition to the liturgical music of these times of course. In these seasons we are bathed in the preparatory and penitential shades of Purple and Violent during Advent and Lent, to be restored by the purity and triumphant joy of White and Gold for Christmas and the Easter resurrection. In these transformations of seasonal colours, from the tone of preparation and solemness to one of arrival and triumph, there is a striking contrast - we awaken into entirely different and changed worlds on Christmas and Easter mornings. This Easter resurrection morning is an entirely distinct and changed season from the Lenten and mournful season we were in the midst of last evening. Everything around us this morning reveals it, signifies it. the music, the colours, the very tone of this morning. What is different about this morning? What has changed since yesterday? Yesterday Christ, our Saviour, was lying in a dark, blackened tomb - dead. This morning he is not. Mary stood weeping outside the tomb where the body of Jesus had been lying. Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. It is Easter morning. Mary is surrounded by the early morning light. But all she sees, all that faces her, is a dark, empty, black tomb. Every Easter morning of our lives as Fra Angelico, The Resurrection of Christ (1442) Christians this is the darkness that we must face, the pitch black of the empty tomb where Christ was laid to rest; the struggle to believe in the deepest mystery of our faith the resurrection of the one we profess to believe in, who was sacrificed upon the cross before our eyes and laid to rest. Every Easter morning this darkened empty tomb - the death of Christ - is always present. Though its blackness is not evident in the colours of our Easter celebrations, the emptiness and incomprehension it signifies - the very mystery of it - is still present on this morning. Our gospel reading reminds us of this space of bewilderment and incomprehension - sometimes even doubt? - within our faith, a space we must confront and reckon with, like Mary herself and come to perceive through the light of our faith. In every Easter image of this scene of discovery this black and empty tomb of mystery and incomprehensibility is always present always before us. The question we are asked to ponder on this Easter morning is: will we be consumed with this darkened emptiness, as the disciples on the Road to Emmaus nearly were, or be drawn towards the reality of the resurrection it invites us into? Will we allow the empty tomb and its incomprehensible darkness to weaken and darken our faith in Christ and all he foretold of himself? Or can we come to recognize the resurrected presence of Christ in our midst - here, in this place, on this morning? Page 13

14 Georgia O Keefe, Two Calla Lilies Together, 1923 In the 1st reading of Acts we hear that Jesus was put to death, but that God raised him on the third day allowing him to appear not to everyone - but to those who were chosen by him, to those who ate and drank with him. On this day Christ showed himself - in his true light - to his friends and companions, to those who strove to see and believe in him, as difficult as it could be at times. To perceive and believe in the mystery of the uncertain and fragile is not easy. We need help in perceiving Christ s resurrected presence in our midst. We need God s grace on this morning to fully live the gift of Easter we need the gift of faith, for the deep interior capacity of faith in Christ s continuing presence with us in our lives. We need the gift of sight to see Christ in our midst on this morning. To see and hear what resides deeply in our world, what resides within and around us, takes a disposition and awareness of faith it takes openness and reception. The American artist Georgia O Keefe observed that to see takes time. This may seem an obvious observation to all of us, but through years of experience observing the world around her as a visual artist, particularly everyday flowers, she knew that fully seeing was challenging, and even troublesome. In a way, nobody sees a flower, really it is so small, we haven t time - to see takes time, like having a friend takes time. It is to his friends, to those who took the time to look at and observe him, that Christ revealed himself on this morning. In Fra Angelico s The Resurrection of Christ Mary and the other women are focused downwards, focused on the absence of Jesus s body from the tomb, in addition to the loss of his life from their own. Immersed in their grief at these losses they have experienced over these past days they can only perceive an overwhelming sense of void in their lives, unaware of anything else. But in finding new life in Christ Paul says in his letter to the Colossians to set our minds on what is above us. Paul is saying to us look around, look beyond ourselves, look beyond our losses, suffering and disappointments that we have been experiencing in our lives. Do not let the darkness that comes with these experiences consume and blind us. But as so many of us know, this is not so easy. Focusing beyond the pain of loss is so often hopeless and inconceivable in the midst of the dark and black moods we find ourselves in. This is the very mood Mary finds herself in that took on greater intensity in the very early hours of this morning upon discovering the empty tomb: They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. In this moment Mary is immersed in the deepest grief. How does she move out of it, from the emotional pain of Good Friday and Holy Saturday into the promise of Easter Sunday? How does she perceive and take joy in the promise and mystery of this Sunday? Through the grace of Christ through being called by him Mary. Though Mary is in the depths of despair and misery at this moment, her years of Page 14

15 Fra Angelico, Noli me Tangere, companionship and faith in Jesus has disposed her to hear his voice calling to her, has disposed herself towards his presence; her years of companionship and faith in him, her deep yearning to see and believe in him compelled him through his compassion to call out to her to say that he is present with her. In Fra Angelico s Noli me Tangere, depicting this moment of encounter between Mary and the resurrected Christ, we can see that upon hearing and recognizing his voice Mary is turned away from the darkness of the tomb. In reaching out to him, towards his luminous and pure presence, she is no longer focused upon the dark pain and emptiness that the tomb signifies. Our Easter meditations and awareness should lead us to further reflect on how we are present with others in their own darkness, on how we are called to give witness to the presence of the resurrected Christ in our world today. This really is the meaning of Easter, the ever-lasting presence of Christ in our midst through his Church - through its members, through us. When persons around you see you, and hear your voice calling out to them, what would they see, what would they hear? It is through each of us that this presence of Christ that Mary experienced on this Easter morning can also be shared and experienced by others today. This experience of the Resurrection of Christ is not meant to be limited to Mary and his disciples, or to the season of Easter itself - from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. The Easter experience should be our experience of our Church throughout the year - the experience of the living Christ through each of us. In this Jubilee Year of Mercy we are called to be especially prayerfully mindful of how we give witness to the compassionate and merciful Father through Christ through each of us who call ourselves Christian. In this year of mercy Pope Francis is hoping we will all experience a true moment of encounter with the mercy of God that the Jubilee (of mercy) be a living experience of the closeness of the Father, whose tenderness is almost tangible, so that the faith of every believer may be strengthened. Francis is calling us to be more pastorally aware of others to create a more pastorally welcoming environment to grow in awareness of people s life experience and to learn to see the reality of the people around us. The way we are being called into a more Christ-like presence in this Year of Mercy is by taking on more fully the witness of the resurrected Christ that we are experiencing on this morning - the very presence that helped turn Mary s attention and focus from the darkness of the empty tomb in her life towards a greater awareness of the light of her faith in Christ. Blessings to each of you this Easter Season. Fr. Trevor Scott, sj Fr. Trevor is a recently ordained priest with the Society of Jesus. He completed his theological studies at Regis College in Toronto, ON. Currently he serves pastorally in Halifax and works with the Jesuit Centre of Spirituality creating and conducting Ignatian retreats and spirituality workshops for the Maritime region of Canada. His particular emphasis is upon coming to appreciate our religious faith in more contemporary and imaginative ways. Page 15

16 VI. Vocations Page 16

17 Page 17

18 VII. Youth and Young Adult Over 400 high school students across Atlantic Canada have registered for Steubenville Atlantic. Don t miss out on the best weekend of summer register today! Page 18

19 Page 19

20 Back issues can be found on the archdiocesan website