A few months ago our Oblate community watched a documentary about the French national pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady in Lourdes. The film didn’t seek any cheap sensationalism. Instead in plain but profound way captured the reality of suffering of the pilgrims making their way to the shrine as well as their hopes. The few stories selected for the documentary differed significantly as the suffering people differed. However what all stories had in common was their realisation of the suffering which was beyond their control and their hope for … A bystander could think that the hope of the sick was to be healed. However listening to their insights I was struck that they were searching for God rather then for healing. Most of the people interviewed there came to Lourdes many times. They did so because every time they came they found this mysterious something which we call grace. Grace is Divine life which abundantly overflows from the Trinity. This grace, this abundant Divine life allows Christians ‘to take up their cross and follow Jesus.’
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Movies like the one I have just told you about are not the easiest to watch. They don’t aim at entertaining us. Instead they confront us with realities which touch something deep in us. We are invited into the world of another human being, the world which is secret and sacred. It is the world where God’s hand is at work. Our Blessed Lord spoke about that in the Gospel passage for this Sunday: ‘For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from housetops.’ Those words, which Jesus said to his Twelve Apostles upon sending them on their first mission, captures something awesome about being a missionary. A missionary is sent forth with his or her secret and sacred world where the hand of God is at work. Such a missionary is not a propagandist of success but a brother or sister of the other to whom he or she reveals how God works in the midst of human physical, spiritual, emotional or moral fragility. This is what the Apostles Peter and John said to the Jewish leaders who ordered them to keep quite: ‘We cannot stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard.’ This is what the people in the movie about Lourdes did as well. They bore witness about Jesus whom they saw and heard in their own life so profoundly marked by suffering. If you can I encourage you to watch it. The movie title is Lourdes. It was directed by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai.
If you are not into movies I encourage you to read chapter 7 of the Letter to the Romans. There you will have an insight into the secret and sacred world of St Paul the Apostle. He wrote about his own suffering: ‘I do not understand my own behaviour; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things that I hate… the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want – that is what I do… what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? God – thanks be to him – through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ I believe that each one of us can benefit greatly from St Paul letting us into his secret and sacred world. His personal world marked by sin but the world which was also touched by God’s hand. Each one of us could accept these word and his or her.
I believe that meditating on these words we can transform our participation in the Sacrament of Reconciliation when we open up before the priest, who is in fact our fellow brother in Christ. Then we show him, our fellow brother in Christ, this secret and sacred world of ours marked by sin but where the hand of God is at work. The priest’s outstretched hand brings upon us God’s merciful love is reassuring us that we are not imagining that God is at work in our life. He is.

            Recently it has been reported that a buried hidden treasure in the Rocky Mountains in the US has been found. The chest was filled with gold nuggets, coins, sapphires, diamonds and other items worth $2 million. Today on this Solemnity of Corpus Christi we want to announce to everyone that we, Christians, have found our treasure. Our treasure is the Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The worth of our treasure is ‘eternal life.’
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The Solemnity of Corpus Christi is associated with Eucharistic processions. The Blessed Sacrament is carried outside our churches and we follow. In some places it is done with an extraordinary splendour. This year in most places, where it is permitted to have a procession, it will be conducted very low-key. It is beyond our control. We have been subjected to these restrictions like many other people and communities in our society.
It may take some time before all of us can return to regular churchgoing. However I encourage you all to turn this waiting into your Advent. I know that we’ve just completed Eastertide and that the liturgical Advent is months away. However Advent is about active waiting. How can you be actively waiting through these Covid-19 restrictions? Be telling people around you, believers and unbelievers alike, that the Eucharist is essential to us. The Eucharist is not a feast we can postpone. The Eucharist is our daily bread. We ‘draw life from Jesus.’ We must therefore eat his Body and drink his Blood. Jesus said: ‘Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever… Anyone who does eat my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day… He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.’ Our absenting from Mass hurts us and drains us of vital spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical support. Therefore the current restrictions can be our mission field where we evangelise by telling people that we are starving, that we are longing for receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord.
I mentioned before that this year Corpus Christi processions will be low-key or even cancelled. However when I thought about that I remembered a situation from the life of St Philip Neri, who is called the Second Apostle of Rome. One day fr Philip observed a man who left the Church right after receiving Holy Communion. Philip Neri sent two altar servers with candles to follow the man. You can imagine how surprised the man was when in the busy streets of Rome there were two boys in liturgical vestments with candles walking on his right and left. When the man returned to the church and asked fr Philip what it was all about he heard: ‘We have to pay proper respect to Our Lord, whom you are carrying away with you. Since you neglect to adore Him, I sent two servers to take your place.’ This year, I believe, we are being challenged to reflect on those Masses we attended in the past. Did we behave like the man from the story? Did we walk away from Mass aware that it was our Corpus Christi procession, not just a yearly event but weekly or even daily? We were carrying Jesus Christ in us.
When a priest invokes the Holy Spirit to turn the bread and wine into Jesus’ Body and Blood it is so that we, by receiving this heavenly food, could be transformed into the Lord whom we receive. That’s why we call the Eucharist our treasure. Its worth is ‘eternal life.’ How could you explain to a unbeliever that the Eucharist is ‘eternal life’? You could simply say that it is a matter of life and death. By saying this you can spread your hunger for Eucharist onto another person. Do you know what would be the most beautiful return to attending Masses in the post-Covid-19 era?  If each one of us could bring to church another person in whom we planted our faith and love for the Eucharist. This is our advent season, the season of active waiting to return to our churches.

            Last Sunday I said that ‘the love of the Father and the Son is not a feeling. Their mutual love is the person of the Holy Spirit.’ I also asked you: ‘Do you think that it is confusing and hard to understand? Just wait a week. Next Sunday we will have the Solemnity of the most Holy Trinity. That what leaves us speechless.’ Thank to God’s mercy we have lived through another week and have come to celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Should we keep quiet today then? Well, if you want to use mathematics today you better stay quite. How can mathematics solve the mystery of three who are one? That’s what we celebrate today. There is One God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Is it hard to understand? It is not the only thing hard to understand in our life. Do you think that it is easy to understand a person who being imprisoned unjustly for three years can still say: ‘I don’t have any ill feelings for those responsible for the injustice done to me.’ When the imprisonment was being prolonged he added: ‘There isn’t any harm that cannot be forgiven.’ These are the words of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, Archbishop of Warsaw in Poland, who in 1953 was detained by the socialist government and kept a prisoner until 1956. The secret of his attitude was revealed when he said: ‘I believe that I remain in love, that I am still a Christian and a child of my Church who taught me to love all people. It was the Church who taught me that those who declare themselves my enemies I can turn into my brothers in my heart.’ Such attitude is hard to understand, isn’t it? Should we put it aside or ignore it then?
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The mystery of the Holy Trinity is hard to understand. The mystery of Cardinal Wyszynski’s attitude is hard to understand. However both mysteries have something else in common, not just that they are hard to understand, they are about life.
Let us listen again to what Jesus said to Nicodemus because it is the life giving word for us too: ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’ These words Jesus spoke at the beginning of the Gospel. At the end of the Gospel we will see Nicodemus again. He will go to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. He will place the crucified Body in his own grave.
Nicodemus’ grave reminds us of our own dying. This is a reminder of all things we don’t have control over, things we don’t understand.
Nicodemus’ gesture of giving his grave to Jesus reminds us to invite Jesus into those aspects of our life we don’t have control over or don’t understand and which look more like dying with no hope on the horizon. Nicodemus during the conversation with Jesus, which we have just heard, couldn’t understand many things either. However those words Jesus spoke, and which were hard to understand, were also seeds of eternal life sown in Nicodemus’ soul. Before Jesus’ body was placed in Nicodemus’ grave Jesus’ words found home in Nicodemus’ soul.
On Easter Sunday morning Jesus was raised from Nicodemus’ grave. On Easter Sunday morning it was confirmed that Nicodemus didn’t put his hope in Jesus in vain. In light of the Resurrection St John wrote later: ‘Life was made visible, we saw it and we are giving our testimony, declaring eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us. We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.’
My Dear fellow believers! Gather with faith the words you hear here, like Nicodemus did when Jesus spoke to him that night when he heard from the Saviour: ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’
My Dear fellow believers! Treasure in your heart, and among yourselves, these words, these seeds of eternal life, like Nicodemus did in the days and nights which followed his night encounter with Jesus. Then you will also witness the eruption of eternal life in you, in your family and in your Church community. Christ Jesus will turn your grave: your helplessness and your hopelessness into the Resurrection morning. Then Jesus’ prayer from the Last Supper will be fulfilled in you and in our Church: ‘Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.’ Knowing is about living with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In order to reassure yourself, and believe me you need such reassurance, make sure that EVERY time when you make the sign of the cross that your forehead can feel your hand, that your chest can feel your hand and that your shoulders can feel your hand. In this way you immerse your whole being: your mind, your heart and your will in the life of the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

            At the end of the Eastertide, which was dominated by the white colour, the colour of this celebration is red. Can you remember when we had the red colour last? It was on Good Friday when our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shed his blood for us. The red colour for Good Friday was powerfully reminding us his precious blood. Why do we use red today? Is there any blood involved in Pentecost? If not, maybe we’ve got a wrong colour for today? Maybe red isn’t the best colour for Pentecost?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Both days, Good Friday and Pentecost, are about outpouring. On Good Friday it was the most precious blood of Jesus. On Pentecost it was the Holy Spirit. However the essence of both outpourings was love. Jesus blood was poured out for us out of love. That’s what the red colour proclaimed on Good Friday. The Holy Spirit was poured out for us out of love. That’s what the red colour proclaims today. Both days are celebrations of love, love poured out for us.
St Augustin preached that the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son. The love of the Father and the Son is not a feeling. Their mutual love is the person of the Holy Spirit. Do you think that it is confusing and hard to understand? Just wait a week. Next Sunday we will have the Solemnity of the most Holy Trinity. That what leaves us speechless. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit we are speechless at the mystery of the Holy Trinity out of amazement and awe, that we fragile and sinful creatures are invited to participate in the joy and happiness of the Trinity. Without the Holy Spirit we are left speechless at the mystery of the Holy Trinity because we are perplexed and superficial not seeing ourselves invited to participate in the joy and happiness of the Trinity.
            My Dear Fellow believers! We begin participating in the joy and happiness of the Trinity here and now. St Paul wrote in the Letter to the Romans: ‘God’s love has been poured out.’ A few words which succinctly summarise what happened in our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles about the Descent of the Holy Spirit: ‘God’s love has been poured out.’ But this love poured out didn’t mix with the air. St Paul proclaimed with joy and happiness: ‘God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.’ What the two disciples going to Emmaus experienced after meeting Jesus, when they said that ‘their hearts were burning within them,’ was given to the disciples on Pentecost and to all disciples, like us, who were to be baptised in the Spirit ‘to make one body’ where Jesus Christ is the head.
            St Luke, who wrote both a Gospel account, which we now call the Gospel of Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles, has given us an insight into two events which were hidden from outsiders. Both events were outpourings of the Holy Spirt.
At the beginning of the Gospel which St Luke wrote there is the Annunciation with the words of the Archangel to the Virgin Mary: ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you… and so the child with be holy and will be called Son of God.’
At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles which St Luke wrote there is the Pentecost with the Apostles and disciples gathered in one room when amidst ‘a powerful wind from heaven’ and ‘tongues of fire’ ‘they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.’
            What followed both events, the Annunciation and the Pentecost, is an action. Mary went quickly to Elizabeth. The Apostles went to the streets of Jerusalem. It means that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation and Pentecost didn’t finish with Mary and the Apostles. Where they went to there was a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. After meeting Mary ‘Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit’ as the Gospel tells us. After hearing Peter and the other Apostles preaching in the streets of Jerusalem three thousand people ‘were cut to heart,’ ‘were baptised’ and ‘received the Holy Spirit.’
            Today is a red day. Today is a love day. Today is a new day to pray so that we may become new outpourings of the Holy Spirit when we go back home. It maybe a scary idea for some. It may be a challenging idea for those who live their faith as ‘me, my Jesus and a big fence protecting our religious privacy.’ However there is still hope for all of us. The hope is the Holy Spirit filling us so generously that we overflow.
‘Sent forth your spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth.’  Please Lord, start with us. Renew us first.

            The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord concludes, or better to say completes, the period of the forty days which passed from the Day of the Resurrection. It was the span of time which was marked by appearances of the Risen Lord. He was coming to his disciples. He spoke to them. He ate with them. He consoled them. What wouldn’t we give for being there! What wouldn’t we give for such appearances today! We may think, or hope, that it would heal our doubt, that it would increase our faith. How strange it may sound that we prayed at the beginning of this Mass: ‘Gladden us with holy joys, almighty God, and make us rejoice with devout thanksgiving.’ Why should we be gladdened with holy joys or rejoice with devout thanksgiving at Jesus’ ‘departure’? If we love someone we don’t want the person to leave us, do we? If they do we are sad. On the contrary we are happy when people whom we dislike leave us, aren’t we? How does Jesus’ Ascension fit into this?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The Ascension of the Lord moves our focus. First it moves our focus from our own issues to the mystery of heaven. We are like those disciples from the Acts ‘staring into the sky.’ There are lots of happenings in our life, happy or sad, which can cloud our vision, which can overpower our attention. The mystery of the Ascension faces us with a new horizon. Of course the sky above our heads is not the limit but the beginning of searching for something deeper and more profound. This is the explanation for our joy at Jesus’ ‘departure’: ‘for the Ascension of Christ… is our exaltation.’
Secondly the Ascension of the Lord after having focused us on the mystery of heaven moves us back to the mystery of our own life. Can you remember where the disciples saw the angels after ‘a cloud took Jesus from their sight’? The angles ‘were standing near them.’ The Gospel of Matthew, of which the final verses we have just heard, begins with the announcement to Joseph that the Son of his fiancée Mary will be Emmanuel which means God-is-with-us. The final words Matthew wrote in his Gospel are the words of Jesus who said: ‘Know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’ He is not just in our thoughts. He is with us because he is in heaven. Because Jesus loves us to the end he is with us to the end. He is with us along all the way to the end. He has drawn the Holy Spirit into this presence as well. The Holy Spirit who fills him fills us as well. We become ‘his witnesses… to the ends of the earth.’ Look what is happening here: We don’t want to keep Jesus for our benefit but we give ourselves to Jesus and for the benefit of his mission. Do you have weak faith? Don’t despair! Look at the disciples from the Gospel for today. When they met Jesus on the mountain, just before his Ascension ‘some hesitated.’ It means they had doubts. How did Jesus deal with that? He gave them a mission, or to be more precise he had included them in his mission of saving people. He said: ‘As you go, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.’ The disciples of the mountain of the Ascension were given a mission not because they were ready and strong. They were given a mission as a remedy to their doubts. Participating in the mission of Jesus was to heal them of their doubts. Participating in the mission of Jesus was to increase their faith.
This is the remedy Jesus offers us. If you find in yourself doubts and little faith ask yourself very concrete question: What can I do to help other people to grow in faith? How can I be a witness of Jesus to the people around me? If you dare to ask yourself these questions and if you dare to answer these questions you will find that your faith grows. This is what St John Paul II reminded all believers: ‘Faith is strengthened when it is given to others.’

Tomorrow, May 18, marks the birth centenary of St John Paul II. I would like to open this homily with a prayer which the little Karol Wojtyla was given by his father. It happened when as a nine year old boy he became an altar server in his parish church. However the little boy wasn’t very focused on his duties. He was rather unsettled. It was understandable as his mother had just died. His father watching him said: ‘You are not a good altar server. You need to pray to the Holy Spirit.’ Then he taught him a prayer which became a daily prayer of the little boy. In fact he prayed it daily as a high school student, as a university student, a seminarian, a priest, a bishop and Pope. In 1979 John Paul II shared this prayer with some young people. Please listen to the prayer which was so dear to the Pope:
Holy Spirit, I ask you for the gift of wisdom to come to know You and Your divine perfections better.
I ask you for the gift of understanding for a better grasp of the spirit of the mysteries of the Holy Faith.
I ask you for the gift of knowledge so that I could follow the principles of this Faith in my life.
I ask you for the gift of counsel, so that in all things I will seek counsel from you and will always find it in you.
I ask you for the gift of fortitude so that no anxiety or earthly motivations could take me away from you.
I ask you for the gift of piety, so that I could always serve your majesty with filial love.
I ask you for the gift of the fear of God so that I could always dread the sin that offends You, O God.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Today I have said this prayer because the prayer itself and the life situation which marked the future Pope learning it echo the Gospel reading for this sixth Sunday of Easter.
The Disciples from the Gospel were also facing a departure of someone they loved, someone who was their consoler, comforter and helper. For the Disciples it was Jesus Christ, whose arrest was imminent. However in that unsettling situation Jesus made a promise: ‘I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth.’ When St John the Apostle wrote the Gospel he used the word: Paraclete which in Latin and many modern European languages was translated as Advocate. Both words focus on someone who is called or sent to assist another in their need, someone who makes the right judgment-call because he is close enough to the situation. This closeness was demonstrated when Jesus became Emmanuel, God-is-with-us. He is our Paraclete, our Advocate. This was what the Disciples enjoyed when they followed him.
When the time of Jesus’ passion and death was approaching he revealed that the Holy Spirit who descended upon him during his baptism had the same sentiments for the Disciples. Last Sunday we heard Jesus assuring that: ‘To have seen me is to have seen the Father.’ Every word Jesus spoke, every gesture he made, was that of his Father. The comfort, forgiveness, patience, support the Disciples found in Jesus were also expressions of the sentiments of the Heavenly Father for them.
When Jesus was about to be taken from the Disciples he revealed to them, and to us as well, that the Father, he and the Holy Spirit are on our side. In these days of Eastertide leading to the Solemnity of Pentecost I encourage you to hold fast onto faith that we are not orphans in this world.
In the course of our life we may farewell many people who were close to us. In the course of our life we may say a goodbye to many of our dreams and plans. In the course of our life we may even send off the positive image of ourselves, which we have tried to build over years. However the promised Paraclete, the promised Advocate will be with us forever. He will be with us forever in all those situations as our Paraclete, as our Advocate. The loses we experience are the spaces to be filled by him.
To finish this homily I would like to pass onto you the prayer which Karol Wojtyla Senior passed onto his nine-year-old son. From Thursday we will begin the ancient novena of Pentecost. This Novena was first held by the Disciples and Mary when they waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Cenacle. I encourage you to hold the 2020 Pentecost Novena by praying the prayer, which was a daily prayer of St John Paul II, from this Thursday until Pentecost. I also hope that you may come to love this prayer so much that it will become your daily prayer too.

       It has been a month since we celebrated Easter Sunday. However the Gospel for today takes us to the day, or rather the night, when Jesus had the Last Supper with his disciples. Then Our Blessed Lord gave the Church the sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders as well as the commandment of love. This Sunday we witness a conversation from the Last Supper, between Jesus and two of his disciples: Thomas and Philip. Should we block our ears in order not to eavesdrop on them?
            My Dear fellow disciples! Don’t block your ears bur rather pay a close attention to every word of this conversation. It is not a private conversation, though it is a personal conversation. It is as personal as the Eucharist is personal. It is personal because it makes us who we are as Christians. So let us gather the words of the conversation from the Holy Thursday night, which we have just heard.
            Answering Thomas Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.’  These are mysterious words, however their mystery reveals God to us and draws us into God.
The beginning of the sentence brings us into the moment when Moses saw a burning bush in the desert from which God revealed his name to him: ‘I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.’ In the Cenacle there was no burning bush but there was the Son of God burning with love to save people.
            This Son of God burning with love to save people reveals himself: ‘I am the Way.’ He is the Way with a clear direction. He is the Way to the Father. This Chapter 14 of St John’s Gospel, which is the second chapter about the Last Supper, is filled with the language drawn from the family reality. It will be the language used by Jesus for the rest of the Last Supper. ‘I am the Way’ reveals to us that Jesus is going to the Father as the Son. ‘I am the Way’ reveals to us that this is our Way too to the Father, that this is the only Way to the Father. We can only go to the Father as his sons and daughters in Jesus Christ who is ‘the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.’ Jesus saves women and men by making them his brothers and sisters and thus bringing them to his Father as Father’s daughters and sons.
            This Son of God burning with love to save women and men by making them his sisters and brothers reveals himself: ‘I am the Truth.’ The following day, on Good Friday, Pilate asked Jesus: ‘Truth? What is that?’ He didn’t wait for Jesus’ answer. However soon he faced the answer when after having Jesus scourged he brought him out for everyone to see. Then Pilate said: ‘Here is the man.’ This man bitten and humiliated was the answer to Pilate’s question. St Albert Chmielowski, who was close to the heart of St John Paul II, produced a painting which captures that scene. The painting shows that the saint recognised what Pilate missed. The scarlet robe forms the shape of a heart because St Albert is his contemplation of the Gospel was struck by the insight that the bitten and humiliated Jesus was the revelation of God’s love. Jesus is the Truth. He reveals to us God’s love for us. The Truth is that God loves us. I invite you to spend some time before this image. I hope it can be engraved on your soul too. Accept the Father and Jesus’ love for you.
            This Son of God burning with love to save women and men by making them his sisters and brothers reveals himself: ‘I am the Life.’ Three days later, on Easter Sunday, He was the Life resurrected. He was the Life coming to his sisters and brothers to reassure them that nothing could kill God’s love for them. Neither Pilate nor their sins.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! We have listened attentively to words of Jesus from the Last Supper. They are personal words. They are personal for Jesus. They are personal for us. Can it be otherwise? They reveal that He is ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life.’ They reveal also who we are so that with faith, hope and love we can say after St John: ‘We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.’ This love has the name and the face of Jesus.

            Three weeks ago, on Holy Saturday, the Shroud of Turin, was displayed for veneration to bring comfort to the humanity suffering from coronavirus. Although the pilgrims were prevented from visiting the church the livestream connected the venerable Italian shrine preserving this precious relic with houses, apartments, hospitals, nursing homes and many other places to which people were confined due to the pandemic. We could say that the words of Jesus: ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me’ were fulfilled. In our Christian imagination we saw our Blessed Lord, whose suffering is made visible in the Shroud, appearing in the midst  of the multitude of suffering women and men to invite them to follow him in suffering and death.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The Shroud of Turin reveals to us the extent of Jesus’ suffering. The scientists who have studies the Shroud have been able to identify nearly every single wound and scratch imprinted on the Body of our Saviour. I don’t want to focus on these studies today. Instead I want to focus on what still leaves the scientists dumbfounded: how the Body was removed from the Shroud and how the image was imprinted on this long piece of linen. It looks that the Body somehow rather evaporated.
Here St Peter comes to our help with his announcement made at Pentecost: ‘God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.’ What was Peter saying that Jesus was made Lord and Christ? Did he say that God gave a posthumous award to Jesus who was crucified? Let us listen to another sentence from that announcement of St Peter: ‘God raised this man Jesus to life, and all of us are witnesses to that.’ God didn’t give Jesus a posthumous award. God raised Jesus to life so that as Lord and Christ he could appear after his Resurrection. That’s what Peter and his fellow Apostles announced at Pentecost. That’s what the Shroud of Turin silently bears witness to. Jesus Christ is risen. He is not an inspiring episode in the history of humankind. He is not a tragic figure caught in unjust political and religious polemics of antiquity. He is risen. He is life giving. Therefore after 2000 years after those saving events of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday we, like so many generations of Christians before us, say in response to his Resurrection: ‘The Lord is my shepherd... Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit. He guides me along the right path; he is true to his name.’ The words which for centuries were a prayer and a faith profession of the People of Israel when they turned their thoughts and hearts to God we, Christians, have made our own prayer and faith profession which arises from our thoughts and hearts filled with the power of our Lord’s Resurrection.
The sheep follow a shepherd not a thought or an idea of a shepherd.
We follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, not a thought or an idea of someone kind and nice from 2000 years ago.
That’s why ‘walking in the valley of darkness’ which we experience these days we can say with faith and confidence: ‘no evil would I fear. You, my Risen Lord and Christ, are there with your crook and your staff, with these you give me comfort.’
My Dear fellow believers!
If you are a visualizer I encourage you to find an image of the Shroud of Turin. Absorb the gentle and life giving glow of the Resurrection radiating from it.
If you are an audile I encourage you to read aloud the words of St Peter from the Acts of the Apostles 2: 22-41. Be infused with joyous and firm testimony of those disciples who saw Jesus after his Resurrection, who ate and drank with him and who also witnessed his Ascension.
When three weeks ago the Shroud of Turin was displayed it was a manifestation of the Resurrection in the midst of our suffering. This manifestation was not a odds  with the reality of our suffering but in a merciful way invited us to unite our suffering with Jesus’ so that we could also experience his Resurrection.

            Recently I read an article about some wealthy people who at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic evacuated themselves to New Zealand, which they perceived as a safe haven, to survive the dangerous times. I thought about the article after I read the Gospel for this Third Sunday of Easter. Cleopas and his companion reminded me of those most recent escapees. The two disciples were moving away from Jerusalem, the dangerous place where their Master was captured and crucified. As soon as it was possible they left Jerusalem. Why should they stay there if the fate of Jesus could become theirs? Why should they stay there if every building, street, square and tree was reminding them of their lost hope? Cleopas and his companion, like those travellers to New Zealand, were responding to a powerful instinct of self-preservation, both on the physical and psychological level.
            Where is Emmaus? Rather precise description of St Luke hasn’t helped to pinpoint the place on the map of the Holy Land. In fact a number of towns claim to be the biblical Emmaus. It looks as if God allowed the place to disappear, despite it being the location of the second Eucharist celebrated by Jesus. Does it mean that the place has vanished off the face of the earth then? Not really. Emmaus is everywhere where we think we could be better off than where we are at the moment. For the people I mentioned at the beginning New Zealand has become a modern version of Emmaus. Any crisis we face, any situation which reveals our fragility and vulnerability triggers in us a powerful instinct of self-preservation which begins searching for a safe haven where we can escape to, our own Emmaus.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The current coronavirus crisis is not the first and not the last crisis the humankind has faced. Many people, on different levels, are working hard to address it right now. I have confidence in God that it will be solved. However overcoming this crisis will not eradicate many other crises which individuals and communities have been experiencing and will be experiencing. Such eradication hasn’t been promised by God. What God has promised, and has fulfilled, is ‘the resurrection of the Christ.’
Why did Cleopas and his companion were devastated? Because they placed their hope in Christ. They were convinced that Christ brought divine into human. They were convinced that by following Christ they were to participate in it. Good Friday had crushed it all, at least in their heads. The vivid images of Jesus’ crucifixion, an possibility of them ending the same way, had created a bubble in which they breathed hopelessness, fear, despair and sadness. We meet them today walking in such a bubble. We may want to shout at the top of our lungs: ‘Disciples of Jesus what are you doing?!!! It is Easter Sunday!!! The Lord has truly risen!!! There is the Kingdom of God growing in this world!!! You can be part of the Kingdom!!! The Risen Lord is with you!!!’
My Dear Friends! If you feel shouting these messages to Cleopas and his companion think of situations when you felt your world was collapsing, think about the moments when you thought that God had abandoned you. Maybe you didn’t feel like praying then. Maybe coming to Mass felt like wasting time. Maybe your Bible looked to you like unnecessary requisite. It is important to acknowledge such feelings. Don’t deny them. However this time let me shout some messages for you: ‘Disciples of Jesus!!! It is Easter Sunday!!! Can’t you see Jesus walking by you side?!!! These feelings, these sentiments it is him hitting the bubble you have created around yourselves!!!’
My Dear Emmaus Searchers! When prayer and the Bible are hard and dry it is a sign that Jesus is speaking to you at last, not just you speaking some captivating thoughts in your head. Let him speak to you. He will make ‘your hearts burn within you’ like the bush which Moses saw once in the desert. It is the purifying fire for eternity which Jesus desired to kindle on earth and which he did ignite by his redeeming death and Resurrection.
When the Eucharist is like endless boredom it is a sign that Jesus is breaking bread for you, not just you looking for some emotional entertainment. He, the Risen Lord, wants you to recognise him. St Augustin when speaking to newly baptised said: ‘Recognise in the bread what hung on the cross; in the cup what flowed from his side.’ Therefore our ultimate Emmaus is not the place. It is the Risen Lord Jesus Christ who ‘walks by our side’ fulfilling his promise to be ‘with us until the end of time.’ He is not taking us away from our crises, because he didn’t take himself away from the great crisis of the crucifixion either. However he reinstates us to our calling and dignity of his disciples who by sharing in his passion enter his Resurrection for the glory of his Father in heaven and to be witnesses to the new heaven and new earth to people on earth.

            ‘Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.’ This is the faith filled exclamation which the Church places on our lips on this Sunday concluding the Easter Octave. This year like in no other year we may struggle to join the Psalmist to sing of the goodness of the Lord. Some politicians and commentators are talking now about a looming recession, some of them are even talking about a new great depression we need to prepare ourselves for once the coronavirus is over. It is hard to stay positive or optimistic after listening to the reports and news. How much we look like those disciples in the Upper Room from today’s Gospel who closed firmly the doors ‘for fear’ of what could happen to them after Jesus was arrested and crucified. However ‘fear’ is not the final image of this Gospel. In the very next verse we find the disciples ‘filled with joy.’ That’s the final image of this Gospel. Joy.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! What happened that the disciples moved from fear to joy. Did they look through the windows and discovered that the world had changed, that they were safe now? It wasn’t an improved situation outside which gave the disciples a reason to be ‘filled with joy.’ The fear was replaced by joy because ‘Jesus came and stood among them.’ It was Jesus’ presence, the presence of the Risen Lord, in their midst that caused their ‘metanoia,’ the conversion of their minds, hearts and souls, the conversion from fear to joy. You may find it strange to talk about conversion during Eastertide. The topic seems to be more fitting for Lent, doesn’t it? However the conversion, metanoia, which we focus on today reveals to us that the change in the disciples was of God’s making. It wasn’t what they did for God, how they changed themselves for God, but how the Risen Lord Jesus changed them. How he moved them from fear to joy.
            When I read and meditated on this Gospel I thought of another passage when the disciples found themselves battling a storm on the lake of Gennesaret. When they were so terrified and exhausted they saw Jesus walking on the water. Can you remember what happened to Peter that night? Jesus told Peter to come to him across the rough lake. The rough lake was separating Peter, and the other disciples, from Jesus. Peter started walking but when he focused on big waves he lost sight of Jesus and began to sink. However when he was going down he did one thing right. He cried out: ‘Lord save me.’ Jesus, whose name means ‘God saves’ saved Peter. The Gospel we have heard today happened a long way from the Lake of Gennesaret but the rough situation the disciples found themselves in resembled the rough lake they travelled across some time earlier. Moreover the both events were filled with the saving presence of Jesus. The saving event from today’s Gospel announces also that with the Resurrection of Jesus a new reality is happening in the midst of the world. The Apostles who first closed firmly the doors were witnessing now, and became part of, what Jesus said before: ‘Behold the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.’ It is the new reality we are also drawn to by our faith in the Risen Lord.
            My Dear fellow believers! We can join in the song of today’s Psalmist: ‘Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end’ with the heart filled with joy despite what is happening outside because the Risen Lord appears in our midst too. He stands, he the Risen Lord, in our midst like he stood in the midst of his disciples in the Upper Room.
            Twenty years ago when we held the Great Jubilee marking 2000 years from the birth of Christ, at the end of the Easter Octave, Pope John Paul II announced that this Sunday was to be called and treasured as Divine Mercy Sunday. At the same Mass the Pope also canonised Sister Faustina and spoke of the great joy filling his heart ‘in presenting the life and witness of Sr Faustina Kowalska to the whole Church as a gift of God for our time.’ St Faustina was the first person canonised in 2000. Thus at the threshold of the third millennium of Christianity appeared a simple nun who once heard from Jesus: ‘I am sending you with my mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching humankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to my merciful Heart.’
            St John Paul II in 2000 pointed out to this woman as an Apostle of Divine Mercy. Like those women from the Gospel who came from the empty sepulchre to the disciples to announce to them that Jesus was risen St Faustina comes to us the disciples living in fear too. She comes to us carrying the message of mercy imprinted on the Divine Mercy Image. There our Risen Lord is seen against a dark background which means the darkness we experience these days too. We don’t know how long this darkness will surround us. However looking at Jesus Christ shining with the glory of the Resurrection we find faith and confidence to repeat after Thomas: ‘My Lord and my God. I trust in you.’