Today is the Fifth Sunday of Easter on which our Introit invites us to “sing a new song to the Lord” (Psalm 96). This is timely for me as I am starting my facilitation of my next online theology course, “Liturgical Music,” through Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life. https://mcgrath.nd.edu/online-courses/step/courses/liturgical-music-a-historical-musical-and-pastoral-survey/ A couple of members of our St. John Vianney choir are taking this course through which we will study the historical, musical, and pastoral aspects of liturgical music. In today’s Mass we hear as our Responsorial Psalm the last verses of Psalm 22, that very Psalm which Jesus began to recite as he gave up his life for us on the Cross. Today it is as if he finishes his hymn in and through us. How will you allow the Holy Spirit conform you to the Risen Christ, to lift up your voice and praise the Lord in the assembly of his people?
Our First Reading on this Fifth Sunday of Easter always concerns how the Gospel, the Good News of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is going beyond the initial Jerusalem Jewish community to begin to echo to the ends of the earth. In our pericope assigned for Year B we hear how Barnabas, whose name means “the encourager,” becomes a sponsor for St. Paul who will bring the Good News to the nations (the Gentiles). Next week we will hear St. Peter bring the Good News to still more Gentiles previously presumed to be outside the covenant. These two indispensable men, as Bishop Barron calls St. Peter and St. Paul in the episode he devotes to them in his Catholicism series, understood that the message of Jesus Christ, the voice of the Good Shepherd, was for all people. How are you bringing the Good News to others who might need you to invite them and sponsor them into this community of disciples?
In our Gospel for this Fifth Sunday of Easter we have Jesus describe himself as the true vine (see John 15:1-17) which we find as part of Jesus’ Last Supper Discourse. In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (which I discussed in last week’s installment), the True Vine forms the core of the Holy Communion retreat, a series of meditations done in preparation for Reconciliation and Penance, before the young people partake of Holy Communion. To remain on the True Vine, to allow the lifeblood or vital sap of Jesus Christ to flow in us, means to be grafted to him as a part of his Church, his very Mystical Body. His grace first breathed life into each of us and still more wondrously redeems us still. If we keep his commandment to love one another as he first loved us by willingly laying down his life then he remains in us and we remain in him. This is hard though! Especially when we have been wounded, when we have suffered at the hands of a loved one or even the Church this simple act of remaining can be a struggle. Jesus said these words to his disciples knowing Judas among his own company would that very night betray him. And yet it is only in being fed by Christ’s sacraments—allowing his Precious Blood to flow through us and clinging tenaciously to the risen Christ so as never cut ourselves off from the Church—by being fed on his love outpoured that we can bear much fruit, the fruit of love in our lives reborn in the Reborn Christ. As you prune your plants this week pay close attention to the sap, that natural connections Jesus is drawing out here for us. And then let us pray fervently for ourselves and one another to remain always on the True Vine.
In addition to memorial of St. Peter Chanel, whom I mentioned in last week’s installment and the Samoan celebration at Holy Cross, Tacoma this Sunday, this week’s sanctoral is replete with celebrations. On Monday, April 29, we keep the memorial of St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). Known as a prolific mystic theologian even in her own time and for her intervention which resulted in the restoration of a divided papacy in the fourteenth century to restored unity in Rome, St. Catherine of Siena was given the title Doctor of the Church in 1970 along with St. Teresa of Avila (making them the first two women Doctors of the Church). As a lay Dominican, St. Catherine of Siena’s phrase “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire” has inspired many to find their vocation and to unleash the Gospel. St. Catherine of Siena is the patroness of the St. Catherine of Siena Institute for forming intentional disciples. See https://siena.org/ for more information about their excellent Called and Gifted Workshops and other resources.
On Wednesday, May 1, the Church marks the relatively recently added memorial of St. Joseph the Worker as a counterpoint to the Communist International Workers of the World Day (May Day). The principal solemnity of St. Joseph is observed on March 19 as mentioned last month; however, May 1 accords us an opportunity to reflect not only on the tradesman St. Joseph who raised Jesus but also on the rights and dignity of workers, one of the key themes of Catholic Social Teaching. See https://tinyurl.com/3rbpe6ba for more information and familiarize yourself with these key themes. You might as a family take today to reflect to reflect on the dignity of all those who labor to make possible the lives we enjoy by perhaps learning the names or at least seeking out stories of those who drive your bus, pack your Amazon shipments, pick your berries, manufacture your iPhone, etc. How can you advocate for, that is be a voice for, these men and women who labor who are not able to raise their own voices? How can we stand in solidarity with the unemployed and uphold their right to work as part and parcel of their human dignity?
The subsequent day, Thursday, May 2, is the memorial of St. Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373), one of the principal early Church voices from Alexandria, one of those five principal sees (hubs) of Christianity which we looked at a few weeks back. St. Athanasius was an important theologian, countering the heresy of Arianism and is, therefore, often regarded as the greatest champion of Christian orthodoxy regarding the Incarnation at a time when the world was forcing changes on the newly legalized Christian Church. Saint Athanasius participated in several of the early ecumenical councils and, despite multiple exiles imposed by political rulers, is considered one the four Greek/Eastern Fathers of the Church. St. Athanasius’ Life of St. Antony the Great (251-356) also helped to spread desert monasticism and influenced the shape of the whole worldwide Church. I think it is also important that we not overlook that St. Athanasius in the East and St. Augustine in the West, both so influential in shaping Christianity in this seminal fourth century, similarly hailed from Africa.
Finally for this week on Friday, May 3, we keep the Feast of the Apostles, St. Philip and St. James. This is the so called “Little James” (Jacobus Minor) to be distinguished from “James the Greater” (Jacobus Major, James the Son of Zebedee, “Big James”) for whom our archdiocesan cathedral is named. This Feast of St. Philip and St. James on May 3 honors from the anniversary of the dedication of the minor Basilica of the Twelve Apostles (Santi Apostoli) in Rome on this date in the sixth century. The crypt of the basilica houses the relics of these two Apostles. Both St. Philip, who grew up in Bethsaida with St. Peter and St. Andrew, and St. James the Less are said to have taken their mission to Hierapolis in Phrygia (modern day Turkey) which reminds us of the multiethnic shape of the Christian Church from her very first days as the Holy Spirit lead the Apostles to share the Good News of the Risen Jesus Christ.
Throughout this Fifth Week of Easter I would commend to you once more, as mentioned in the Easter Sunday installment, to pray as a family the Stations of the Resurrection (Via Lucis). https://vialucis.org/images/pdf/Via-Lucis-Inglese-comunita.pdf This would also be a good time to ponder the Prefaces of Easter with Mauricio Perez https://tinyurl.com/c43hr3tv who points to these elegant and concise reflections on the Paschal Mystery. Mauricio has written for Northwest Catholic, Patheos, and is completing a liturgy degree at the Pontifical Academy of Liturgy. His son attends O’Dea and serves with our Campus Ministry team!
Lastly, as we enter into May, let us recall that this is a whole month set apart to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. In wider culture May Day has begun to recover much of its pre-communist focus on the fecundity of springtide as naturally corresponding to the virginal fertility of Mary. Next week I will offer some suggestions of ways to honor Mary in your home. But this Saturday, a day of the week set aside to honor Mary, you may want to organize a simple May Crowning https://tinyurl.com/2zcxyrhj by placing a crown of flowers on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in your home. And perhaps we want to conclude by praying, perhaps even singing a new song such as “The May Magnificat” by the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ:
May is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—
Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?
Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunist
And flowers finds soonest?
Ask of her, the mighty mother
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested
Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.
Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.
Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.
When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfèd cherry
And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—
This ecstacy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.
iCasad 