Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 20 April 2025

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

He claimed he is the Son of God. They crucified him. He knew it was coming.

The Friday Gospel before Palm Sunday has stayed with me as I write this letter. They picked up rocks to stone Jesus. They were going to take care of this business themselves; Pilate was a last resort.

Jesus asks them what good works from his Father earned him this judgment? They replied that it wasn’t for good works that he deserved to die, but for blasphemy. “You, a man, are making yourself God.”

“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”’? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

“If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

The Apostles, on this day of resurrection, today, come to realize that what Jesus was saying was literally true. Is it possible that, knowing Jesus so well, that they wanted to believe this holy man but never really accepted the fact that he is the Son of God? I would imagine that came with a lot of hand wrenching and soul searching. It probably wasn’t just their persecutors whom they were hiding from in that upper room, it was from themselves.

Is this not the point to which we are confronted today? Do you really believe? Do we just take our parents’ word for it? Remember, God has no grandchildren. Or does it just seem to make more sense than all the other nonsense in the world, so we go with our best bet?

Do you really, deeply believe that Jesus is the Son of God and rose from the dead? He had raised others back to life, Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, Lazarus... these works might have been enough to bring people to faith. It would certainly be something no one had seen before. The Gospels and Epistles are filled with things that had never been seen or done before by men and women. Consider his transfiguration, for example.

Now we know his tomb is empty and he is again walking with us, appearing before us, eating meals with us. What part of this do we not believe?

It may seem I am belaboring this point, but if we truly, actually believed that Jesus is the Son of God, and that out of his unconditional love he has become one of us, and then offered himself in our place to the Father for the atonement of our sins – even if only we were partly able to grasp that this were true – would we not orient our every word, act, thought with Jesus at the center? Our study, activities, entertainments, occupations – wouldn’t they be led by this gratitude and joy because God has worked these wonders for us and for our salvation?

Jesus calls us to live faith authentically, with integrity. He is our life.

But, if I didn’t believe Jesus is the Son of God and I owe my life to him, it would make sense that the celebration of his resurrection on Sundays would be optional for me. I could choose the moments when I wanted to acknowledge him or not. I could lack generosity with my time, my talent and my treasure. I could live life some days as if he didn’t really matter to me, because maybe he doesn’t.

It was, after all, Jesus who said, “I came, not to be served, but to serve.” Imagine the difference Christianity could make in the world if it were used authentically, with integrity. To the people of Philippi Saint Paul writes:

Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Happy Easter!

The Lord be with you.