Mystagogical
Preaching: Easter Season 2008
Sacramental
Mystagogy that Leads to Communion and Mission
(Looking
back to Holy Week / Sunday commentary provided by Rev. Louis J. Cameli)
PDF Version
March 30,
2008 2nd Sunday of Easter
(Divine Mercy Sunday)
Scripture Text: #43 Acts 2:42-47;
Ps 118:2-4,13,15,22-24 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31
Sacramentals: Through the Season
the Paschal Candle is lighted & the Asperges is used.
Look back to Holy Week: The experience of Jesus and our dark human
experience as well: violence, betrayal,
hostile forces in institutional structures, injustice, deception, and
degradation. The sum of it is human
life diminished. With Easter Sunday,
the bonds have broken, and life is restored. This Sunday's gospel:
The risen Lord of life appears and shares his healing and forgiving Spirit as
gift and responsibility ("whose sins you shall forgive."). We are drawn into a life of communion
through the reconciliation that the Lord offers and through the responsibility
he entrusts to us to bring that to the world.
The touchstone in our lives today for all rests in the sacraments of
healing: Penance and the Anointing of
the Sick.
April 6,
2008 3rd Sunday of Easter
Scripture Text #46 Acts
2:14,22-33; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-11; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
Look back to Holy Week: The experience of the Last Supper, a time of
gathering, the moment to preserve memory, and the anticipation of God's eternal
banquet. Between the Last Supper and
Emmaus, there is the death and resurrection of the Lord. In communion with each other and with the
Lord, the events of dying and rising are understood. This Sunday's gospel: Today in the breaking
of the bread, we recognize him and our very selves caught up in the mystery we
have celebrated. With the disciples on
the way, we must return to Jerusalem.
It is our mission to share what we have come to know. Today the word and the broken bread, the
communion with the Lord and with each other, and the mission to tell what we
have heard and seen - all this is present in our Eucharist.
April 13,
2008 4th Sunday of Easter
(World Day of Prayer for Vocations - Good
Shepherd Sunday)
Called by Name Initiative - Vocations Office
Scripture Text #49 Acts
2:14a,36-41; Ps 23:1-6; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10
Look back to Holy Week: From the passion according to Matthew: Jesus said to them, 'Tonight your faith in
me will be shaken, for Scripture has it:
"I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be
dispersed."' The drama of Holy Week is
a drama of contrasts and divisions, very much like the experience we often bear
within ourselves. This
Sunday's gospel: The good shepherd is the very gate of his sheep,
gathering them in and bringing them home.
As the Lord of life he has the power to effect the communion that conquers
the division of sin and draws us into the unity which is our true destiny. This gathering and unifying mission of the
Lord continues now among us in sacramental ways, especially through the two
sacraments in service of communion:
Holy Orders and Marriage. Those
who live these sacraments are specially charged and empowered to carry on the
mission of communion.
Parishioners are invited
to encourage - by writing a name - individuals who would be potential priests,
men or women religious. This encouragement could be announced prior to the
homily or after the Petitions. The written names could be placed in the basket
with the Offertory.
April 20,
2008 5th Sunday of Easter
Look back to Holy Week: Imagine the gathering in the upper room,
recall the gatherings of the holy Triduum.
Consider the return to the upper room on Easter evening, a gathering in
a locked place prompted by fear which, in turn, is replaced by faith in the
presence of the Risen One. This
Sunday's gospel: The gospel words of Jesus give us a promise and a
responsibility: "I go to prepare a
place for you." Like that upper room,
like the assemblies of worship on earth but so far beyond them as well, I go to
prepare a place for you. In the
meanwhile, you remain. You remain
gathered imperfectly in the Church-in this time now-until you will come
together and be gathered in perfect communion in the place I go to prepare for
you. This is the time of the Church,
the gathering begun and yet to reach it consummated fulfillment in heaven. In the meanwhile, your mission is to draw
humanity into the communion that has begun.
April 27,
2008 6th Sunday of Easter
Scripture Text #55 Acts
8:5-8,14-17; Ps 66:1-7,16,20; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21
Look back to Holy Week: In John's version of the passion, he writes
that at the moment of his death, Jesus "gave up his spirit." From the cross, he breathes out his Spirit
upon the Church, upon humanity. And in
the sacred liturgy of the Easter Vigil, the Spirit is invoked, called upon,
asked to consecrate water and people. This
Sunday's gospel Today's gospel is the promise of the Paraclete, the
Holy Spirit, through whom we are drawn into the communion of the Father, Son,
and the Holy Spirit. We live this out
sacramentally when we are baptized in water and the Holy Spirit and so drawn
into the very Body of Christ, our communion and our hope. We live this out sacramentally when we are
confirmed in the Pentecost Spirit and are empowered for mission to the world.
May 4, 2008 Ascension
Scripture Text #58 Acts 1:1-11; Ps
47:2-3,6-9; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20
Look back to Holy Week: See Jesus lifted up on the Cross, and see
the Cross held high during the sacred liturgy of Good Friday. He says in John's Gospel: "If I be lifted up, I will draw all to
myself." The horizontal bar of the
cross stretches to an infinitely wide embrace to bring all who believe into
communion with God and each other. That
same cross, as St. Paul knew so well, was the source of mission, as it was
proclaimed to be the wisdom of God poised against every human expectation. This Sunday's gospel:
For us today, as we hear Jesus words at the end of Matthew's gospel-" Go and
proclaim the good news to the whole world.". We know our mission to be
Catholic, to be universal.
Reflection based on the liturgy for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, the Ascension of the Lord, that reflect the words taken from the numerous talks given by the Holy Father in Washington, D.C.
May
11, 2008 Pentecost
Catholic
Charities Collection; Mothers' Day
Look back to Holy Week: Remember the water with which Jesus washed
his disciples feet, the water that along with blood flowed from his side, the
water of baptismal regeneration of Holy Saturday. This Sunday's gospel: Today, the coming of
the Holy Spirit is celebrated as an abundant fountain of water that draws us
together in a living communion and empowers us to go forward in mission in our
world - all with the hope of coming to our promised inheritance. Today, this feast draws together all that we
have celebrated in these fifty days.
Reflection based on the liturgy for Pentecost that reflect the words taken from the numerous talks given by the Holy Father in Washington, D.C.
