Happy Easter.
On the night before Jesus died, when He inaugurated the
Sacred Priesthood and instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Last
Supper, He opened His heart to His closest Apostles and spoke tenderly and intimately
to them. Most especially, as a father to a son, Jesus spoke to Peter.
Simon … I have prayed for you … et tu aliquando conversus confirma
fratres tuos. And when you also have turned, strengthen the brethren (Luke
22:32).
I have prayed for
you.
Many years ago, I had the pleasure of serving at the
altar with Cardinal Burke. After Holy Mass, we were greeted by two of my
friends. I introduced them to the Cardinal, “This is my friend Shelly and her
husband Steve.” We didn’t have much time with the Cardinal, all of just a
minute after Holy Mass. And at the end, my friends asked the Cardinal to pray
for them. He promised that he would.
Nearly three years after that brief encounter, I was
again serving Mass with Cardinal Burke. And again after Holy Mass, my friends
came up to me and the Cardinal. But this time, I didn’t have time to introduce
them. Cardinal Burke extended his hand and said, “Oh Steve and Shelly! It is so
good to see you again!”
We were all floored. How did he remember their names? He
had only met them once, years ago, and for only a minute.
Many seminarians and priests think that Cardinal Burke
has a photographic memory. I think there is some truth to that. But I think it’s
more than that. I think it is because he kept his promise. He prayed for them.
Jesus said to Peter, “I have prayed for you.”
Steve and Shelly felt like a million bucks because a
Cardinal remembered them. What must have Peter felt, knowing that the Messiah,
the King of Kings and his closest friend, had been praying for him?
I would like to think that, years later, after Jesus had
ascended into heaven and Peter was walking through the streets of Rome,
struggling mightily to do the Lord’s will, and even facing many set-backs and
disappointments – I would like to think that Peter remembered Jesus’ words on
that First Communion night: “Simon, I have prayed for you.”
Those words are meant for you. Jesus has prayed for you.
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And then He says to Peter, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”
Jesus’ petition to the Father is specific. He asks that
every grace be given us so that, when we face the crucifixion and the darkness
that is inevitable in this life, that we will continue to see and walk in the
light, that we will keep the faith and not fall away. I don’t know about you,
but this is supremely comforting. When I am in times of difficulty and
darkness, it is good to remember that Jesus has prayed for me that my faith may
not fail. I can bank on the heavenly Father answering generously to His Son.
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Then Jesus adds, “Et tu aliquando conversus confirma
fratres tuos. And when you also have turned, strengthen the brothers (Luke
22:32).
I want to hone in on these lines.
One of the things I have noticed in my years as a
Catholic and as a priest is that we are really good at Lent, but we are really
bad at Easter. We know that we are to do penance and fast and go to confession
during Lent, but what are we supposed to do during the days of the Easter Season
– besides smoke cigars, drink beer, watch playoff hockey, and attend
graduations? First:
Et tu aliquando conversus. And
when you also have turned.
I think firstly we have to realize that Peter does not convert during Lent. He
converts during Easter. We think that Lent is the season of conversion. It’s
actually Easter.
When Our Lord Jesus was betrayed, arrested, imprisoned,
scourged, crowned, spat upon, crucified, died, and pierced with a lance – I
think it is safe to say they were traumatized. They had so much faith in Jesus;
they loved Him, left everything for Him, had days and night sitting at His feet
and in the boat and sharing meals and seeing His miracles. And in a heartbeat,
it was all extinguished.
And not only that, it was one of their own – not a random
disciple, but one of the Twelve – that had caused the tragedy. The emotional
rollercoaster of those seventy-two hours, from Last Supper to Easter morn, was
intense.
The forty days, therefore, were the days that Jesus spent
in communion with His Apostles, telling them and showing them why it all happened.
They had to learn that the Resurrection wasn’t just a spontaneous event;
rather, the Resurrection was the definitive sign of the Father’s loving heart.
The Father loved His Son back to life and glorified Him and the sacrifices He
had made. The Apostles needed to learn that everything fell within the
providence of a good Father and that, because of the Good Father, everything –
truly everything – works to the good of those who love the Lord.
In short, Jesus spent the forty days resurrecting the
Apostles faith.
But that resurrection was not enough.
Thomas needed to touch. And Peter and John – we find them
back in Galilee, having gone back to their old lives, pre-Lent. They go back to
being fishermen instead of fishers of men. Jesus is risen, yes, and their faith
in Him is new and deepened, but what now? In a way, they are aimless.
This is when Jesus meets them on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee, makes them breakfast, and then gives Peter to chance to amend his
three-fold denial with a three-fold affirmation: Peter, do you love me?
Yes, Lord, you know I love you.
That is the moment that Peter
turns.
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Et tu aliquando
conversus confirma fratres tuos. And when you also have turned, strengthen the brothers.
Jesus tells Peter, Feed
my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.
Peter has a mission now. And the first ones that he needs
to feed are his brothers. None of the brothers are yet building the Church;
they have scattered on gone back to their old ways. Peter needs to gather them
and bring them back to Jerusalem and to the Upper Room. There, they will receive
the promised Holy Spirit who will set them on fire and send them to the ends of
the earth.
Listen to how the Catechism of the Catholic Church
talks about this.
“…
[God the Father and the Son] invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his
adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.
So
that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the
apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of
the age.” Strengthened by this
mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while
the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended
it. (CCC 1-2)
The Apostles were strengthened by this mission. Notice. It doesn’t say they were strengthened for this mission. They were strengthened
by it.
What does this mean?
Have you ever been around someone who has lost their
purpose, their direction in life? Ever been in a corporation or a community
that has lost sight of its mission. It can happen to any of us at any time –
the man who has lost his job; the man who has grown old and the kids have left
the house; the man who can no longer do the things that he used to do in the
past and wonders, what now? …
When God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit send the
Apostles out from the Upper Room – the same Upper Room where the first
Eucharist was offered, the same place where Jesus gave them the power to
forgive sins, the same place where they ordained a man, Matthias, for the first
time, the same place where Thomas touched the heart of Jesus (yes, all of this
happened there in the Upper Room) – when they are sent out from there, they are
strengthened by the fact that they have something to do. Their future is full
of hope
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Strengthen the
brothers, Peter.
One of the things that we as men can struggle with is
hopelessness. I don’t think I need to speak much on this point, because I think
that temptation is quite clear. We get disappointed by something or we are not
appreciated by those around us whom we wanted to be the first to see the good
things we do. And we start to wonder whether what we do is worth it. Hopelessness
can really affect our drive to do what we are supposed to do. It can even blind
us to the great things we can do, even when great things come by way of
accumulation of the small, hidden, Joseph-like acts.
The other thing that we as men can struggle with is acedia.
This is commonly called laziness. But it’s more than just that. Acedia is a spiritual
sadness. It’s not depression, although depression can be a relative. Acedia can
be born from a hurt in our heart, caused perhaps by a relative, a dad, a
father-figure, a priest, a wife … but a hurt in our heart that thinks that we are
no longer delighted in. I’m sad that I can’t bring anybody joy.
Acedia can enter a death spiral when it is accompanied by
comparisons, or by doom scrolling, or when we seek to control things that are
really outside of our control. We spend our precious time and energy on things
that further harm our souls and we shut down. We not only forget our mission as
men, but we also lack the strength to see it through. That’s why acedia is
often thought to be laziness, when it reality it is deeper than that.
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Simon, I have
prayed for you…. when you have turned, strengthen the brothers.
Some of you here are more spiritually stronger than the
other men. Some of you are weaker. This is fine, either way.
But all of us need to remember what our mission as men
is.
First, you and I are called to image the heavenly Father.
He resurrects the Son. He delights in His children. He works, but He also
rests. He instructs, but He also extends mercy – one may say even foolishly so.
He is so patient. And you and I get
to image Him. The one who holds heaven and earth and everything in His hand. Not
only children, but everyone can be so affected by what we say and do and don’t
do.
Second, you and I have a mission to serve beauty.
Starting with the woman, we are to rejoice in her and open doors for her and
remind her who made her beautiful. The woman’s beauty can wound us. This is a
strange reality; seeing something so beautiful can be painful. Jesus agonizes
over the fact that He wants to love His bride the Church, but that there is a
certain hour that He is called to do so in a particular way. The world tempts
us to medicate this pain by trying to grasp and control beauty through lust,
pornography, perversion, and so on. Our mission is to fight that demon in the
garden and serve beauty.
Finally, when you have turned, strengthen the brothers.
Remind each other why we are here. Our mission is intense and grueling, but is
there anything more rewarding in life? If we succeed, we will have brought our
families and our community to heaven. This is our hope and our joy, the
antidote to acedia and hopelessness.
Strengthened by this
mission, the apostles
"went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and
confirmed the message by the signs that attended it.
The Lord worked with them. You are not alone brothers.
Our Lord is working with you and He is doing great things through you. Believe
this – this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Happy Easter.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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