“Little Girl, I Say To You, Arise!”

Coming Back To Life: Christ the Healer

It should come as no big surprise that Jesus raising the little daughter of Jairus from death is an absolutely astonishing Gospel passage.

Back then, people died and they were buried, that was it. There was no belief in raising up of the dead. Elijah and Elisha, the great prophets, were said to have raised people from the dead in three instances, but that was a the best part of a thousand years ago!

The last time I was in the holy land, back in 2019, we were visiting the famous Church of the Beatitudes on top of Mount Erebus overlooking the Sea of Galilee. I noticed that our tour guide, Gabriel, was on his cell phone and had a worried look on his face. One of these storms or squalls was blowing up through the Jordan River Valley and bringing with itself some severe weather: the said it was it a “hurricane,” but really it was in fact one of these violent, localized lake micro-bursts, as we would call it. We had to quickly rearrange our schedule, as it was impossible for us to go out on the lake in a boat that evening.

Join Our Knights of Columbus as they help support Foster Kids in Arizona! Donate needed items with the “Tools 4 Success School Supply Drive!” Drop your donations to the table outside of the Parish Office from: Sat, Jun 15–Mon, Jul 15.

“A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand” (Mark 3:24).

We see it in politics and also see it in today’s gospel reading from St. Mark: “And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” Jesus is quoted as saying this in three of the gospels (in Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

In the gospel for today, we see the scribes looking upon Jesus as Satan and attributing His powers to the Prince of Darkness.

I have spoken at our Tuesday Miraculous Medal Novena of the story of conversion of Claude Newman, an African-American death-row prisoner in 1943. During a series of reported apparitions of “The Lady,” the Blessed Mother, to Claude in a prison block in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he related how:
“The Lady told me that in Communion, I will only see what looks like a piece of bread. But she told me that It is really and truly her Son, and that He will be with me just as He was with her before He was born in Bethlehem.

The Family of Love: The Holy Trinity is God ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’

Returning to Ordinary Time after the Season of Easter, the Church celebrates the unity of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son on the first Sunday after Pentecost.

At The Baptism of the Lord and also at The Transfiguration of The Lord, we witness through the scriptures the presence of the Holy Trinity in the world: God the Father revealing and declaring to the world His Beloved Son.

God’s New Creation is Perfected in Pentecost.

Of all the Old Testament festivals, two have become major solemnities in the Church. The first is Passover (Pascha or Easter) and the second is Pentecost (Shavuot, meaning Weeks and is the Festival of The Law, The Torah) established when God gave Moses the Law at Mt. Sinai and celebrated 50 days (7x7).

We celebrate today the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension. After Jesus resurrected from the dead, He appeared to the disciples in His glorified body with His precious wounds in His hands, feet and side. Jesus proved that He was not a ghost by having them put their hands into the nail marks and into the wound in His side and He ate in their presence. As the Apostles Creed says:
“He ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead...”

God desires that we give Him all of our love and adoration.

In the first reading, there is something most impressive about St. Peter as reflected by how he has clearly grasped what Christ meant when He instructed His followers to “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Jesus did not say “I love you as a mother loves a child,” and He did not say, “I love you the way a husband loves his wife.” If we know Jesus, we understand that He is filled with wisdom, truth, holiness, devotion, sacrifice, power and many other traits. Yet, He chooses to summarize it for us quite simply by saying, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.”

Jesus said: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”

Thanks to our Deacons for preaching last weekend, Good Shepherd Sunday. We heard that in our Catholic faith we must be “all-in.”

The Fifth Sunday of Easter refers to the role of Jesus Christ in our lives in relation to the Church. The Gospel of John Chapter 15 tells of Jesus as the True Vine and is really and truly the day of Evangelization Awareness.

Every Fourth Sunday of Easter is called Good Shepherd Sunday and is one of the traditional days of Vocations awareness. This classic image of Jesus Christ as The Good Shepherd is the enduring and shows God’s care and love for all of us. Not surprisingly, no one wants to be called a sheep. 1t has some strange connotations. However, in the eyes of God, we are these most profoundly gentle and pastoral creatures. The idea of the good shepherd is as ancient as the Bible. Yet we see how little has changed over thousands of years: we still need good leadership in our world and in our Church. Indeed it was St. John the Baptist who pointed Jesus out as “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the World.”

Why Did They Recognize Jesus Just Then?

I think it was because they saw His hands... That is, when they saw the marks of the nails on the hands of the Risen Lord. That was the final proof they needed. Last week, it was St. Thomas who He told “Bring your hand and put it INTO my side.” In other words: “Thomas, Touch My Heart.” Imagine how Thomas felt as he touched Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and the wound that lance made. Thomas’ heart must have burned with joy as he declared: “My Lord and My God.” This week, we recall how, then and now, our hearts burn within us as we wish the Lord to stay with us and as we reflect on how we can stay with the Lord in the prayerful intimacy of Eucharistic Adoration.

On Divine Mercy Sunday of 2016, I was in prayer in the small chapel in Williams, AZ, very early in the morning, quietly preparing for Divine Mercy Sunday Masses.

It is such a special day in the Easter season. I wished to give the people something special. Praying at the tabernacle, I asked Jesus: “Could You help me out a little here, Lord? I’d like to have something different to tell the people today, Divine Mercy Sunday. Please, Lord, could you let a thought, a word, a scrap fall from your table for me to meditate on?” I immediately heard an inner voice say to me:

“Just Read The Words....”