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For so the Lord has commanded us: “…I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.” Paul and Barnabas committed themselves to carrying out the command of the Lord above by preaching his Word to the people of Antioch in Pisidia. Many got converted. They also experienced rejection, persecution, jealousy and finally they were expelled. How did they react? The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. They applied the Psalm of today to their ministry: “Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness.” To serve the Lord, one must practice patience, self-control, perseverance, and be filled with the Holy Spirit who empowers a disciple to face opposition, suffering and persecution while trusting in the Lord.

Jesus appeared to seven of his disciples while they were fishing. Before Jesus appeared, they caught nothing. When he instructed them to throw their net into the water and they obeyed, they made a huge catch. This is to teach us that when we invite Jesus into our lives and plans, there is every chance of progress or positive development. The net represents the universal Church where there is room for all people of the world. The number 153 is to teach us that THERE IS ROOM FOR EVERYONE IN THE CHURCH. No one is to be excluded from the Church.

Dear brothers and sisters in our Risen Lord and Savior, since Easter, we have listened to the stories of the appearances of Jesus to the Apostles for the main reason of strengthening their faith ahead of their mission of bearing witness to him in the world. Today in the gospel he appeared to them and said, peace be with you. The deepest and purest peace in life is found in Christ the prince of peace. Dear friends, let us listen to Jesus and open our hearts to welcome and receive into the depths of our hearts the divine and eternal peace of our Risen Lord. In this appearance, Jesus breathed on the Apostles saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” There is a rich relation between the Peace of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The peace of Christ is given us by the Holy Spirit. We receive the MERCY AND FORGIVENESS OF GOD through the power of the Holy Spirit. Sin and Satan steal our peace or become an obstacle to the peace of Christ. We regain the gift of Divine Mercy and Peace of God through the Sacrament of Mercy/Confession/Reconciliation. So many have told me that they experience true and profound peace in the heart whenever they go to Confession. That’s true because each time you go to Confession, you encounter and receive the divine mercy and peace of Christ. From his Merciful heart Jesus shared his Peace with his Apostles. The Apostles were expected in turn to share the Peace of Christ with all they came into contact with. They were agents of the Peace of Christ to the world. You have received the peace of CHRIST, are you sharing this peace with others?

Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ our Savior has Risen from the dead! He is alive and the whole world is filled with great joy at this Good News. St. Peter in his testimony concerning the Resurrection said, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, this man GOD raised on the third day.” Based on this extraordinary event, the Psalmist invites us to rejoice: “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”

Dear brothers and sisters, on this most sacred night, we keep vigil in anticipation of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.” (Exsultet) St. Pope John Paul II, described this night in this way, “A singular Vigil of a singular night. A vigil, the mother of all vigils, during which the whole Church waits at the tomb of the Messiah, sacrificed on the Cross. The Church waits and prays, listening again to Scriptures that retrace the whole of salvation history. But on this night, it is not night that dominates but the blinding brightness of a sudden light that breaks through with stalling news of the Lord’s Resurrection. Our waiting and prayer then become a song of joy.”

Today, GOOD FRIDAY, marks the day our Lord Jesus freely submitted himself to suffer and die on the Cross for our salvation. Prophet Isaiah described the difficult experience of Jesus Christ. “He was spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity that he bore our sufferings that he endured.” The letter to the Hebrews also described the suffering of Christ in these words: “In the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death…Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”

THE SACRED PASHCAL TRIDUUM “Since Christ accomplished his work of human redemption and of the perfect glorification of GOD principally through his Pascal Mystery, in which by dying he has destroyed our death, and by his rising restored our life, the sacred Pascal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord shines forth as the high point of the entire liturgical year... The Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord begins with the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.” (Ordo p.103)

Today the Church, the holy body of Christ, marks the beginning of Holy Week, the most sacred days of our faith. Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem to complete the Pascal Mystery, his suffering, death and glorious Resurrection. It’s instructive that Jesus in obedience and trust of his Father embraced his Passion freely. The prophet Isaiah declared, “The Lord God is my help.” Jesus accepted this most difficult moment of his life and ministry out of love for you, for us.

The prophet Isaiah reminds the people of Israel how God delivered them from oppression and slavery in Egypt. That same God will deliver the people of Israel from exile in Babylon. In his words, “Remember not the events of the past…see, I am doing something new!... for I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink. The people whom I have formed for myself…” This is a very appropriate message because Lent is a time to forget our past failures and open our hearts for the Lord to wash us anew with the living water of his mercy and grace. Isaiah’s message is one of HOPE. Hope is also the central message of the second and the gospel readings.

In the first reading, the people of Israel celebrated the Passover, remembering how God, with signs, wonders and outstretched hands, delivered and liberated the people of Israel from slavery and bondage from Egypt. The Psalmist declared: “When the poor one called out, the Lord heard, and from all his distress he saved him. When the people of Israel called from Egypt, the Lord heard and saved them.”

The first reading of our liturgy presents us with the account of the call/vocation of Moses. God called and chose him to lead the people of Israel from slavery, oppression and suffering in Egypt to the promise Land. In the process, Moses experienced the great sign of the burning bush that was not consumed. God revealed his name to Moses as, “I am.” Jesus is considered the new Moses sent by God to come and deliver us/the world from the slavery, oppression of sin/Satan.

God took Abram outside and asked him to look up at the sky and promised him that his descendants shall be as many as the stars. Abram believed God. He had faith in God and it was credited to him as an act of righteousness. And the Lord made a covenant with Abram because he put his trust and faith in Him. We are children of Abram, like him we are called to have faith in God. Trust and have faith in the Lord who is our light, salvation, refuge and our helper.

Moses instructed the people to tell their story, “My father … went down to Egypt with a small household … But there he became a nation, great, strong, and numerous.” They were maltreated and oppressed. But God of their fathers with his powerful hand and outstretched arm, with signs and wonders brought them out into a country flowing with milk and honey: the promised land. (Forty days) He proved to be their true refuge and fortress able to deliver his people when they called upon him. As he promised in Psalm 91, “He shall call upon me and I will answer him; I will be with him in distress; I will deliver him and glorify him.”

Today, especially in our first reading, we are presented with a theme or topic that some or all us struggle with: speech/conversation. Our conversation or speech either edify and inspire good or bad like gossip, slander, character assassination. Several factors shape the kind of conversation we engage in. In the words of the author of the book of Sirach: “As the test of what a potter molds is in the furnace, so in his conversation is the test of a man. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had: so too does a man’s speech disclose the bent of his mind. Praise no man before he speaks, for it is then that men are tested.”

Jeremiah the prophet of God has a strong message for us. In his message he declared, “Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings… whose heart turns away from the Lord.” On the other hand, he says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters. It fears no heat or drought.”

Beloved brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ is today presented/dedicated to God in the temple. This practice is based on the regulation of the law. The purification and presentation of the first child is a Mosaic law “every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the child” (Ex 13:2). This ceremony is based on the understanding that a child is a gift from God. Prophet Micah had foretold the presentation of Jesus Christ. He said in our first reading: “I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek.”

“Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand. Standing at the end of the open place that was before the Water Gate, he read out the book from daybreak till midday, in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand: and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law… Ezra read plainly from the book of the Law of God, interpreting it so all could understand what was read.”

St. Paul says in our second reading that, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but all are given by the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service but given by the same Lord, different kinds of work given by the same God.” The Spirit distributes all these variety of spiritual gifts for service and for the building up of the church, the body of Christ. In the gospel, we see Jesus and Mary using their gifts to serve a couple and to save them from humiliation. Prophet Isaiah in our first reading says, “Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory.” The gospel concludes with the saying, “Jesus did this… and so revealed his glory and all his disciples began to believe in him.”

The prophecy of Isaiah is about John the Baptist. “A voice cries out in the desert prepare the way of the LORD Make straight …the highway for our God.” This John spoken about is given the privilege to baptize our LORD. According to the account of Luke, “…Jesus also had been baptized and was praying. Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son and with you I am well pleased.’”

“…. And on entering the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” On this holy day, we mark the Epiphany of our LORD, who is presented to us today as king, priest and Savior. The three wise men/magi led by a star initially went to Herod to inform him that they had seen the star of the new born king of the Jews and have come to do him homage/worship. These men fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah and the Psalm of today. “Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come…from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come bearing gold and frankincense.” Is 2:1-6 “They … shall offer him gifts…All kings shall pay him homage.” Ps 72