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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). The Catholic Church has consistently taught from Apostolic times that during a valid celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the bread and wine are truly changed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is what is meant by the “True Presence” or “Real Presence” of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist. Although the elements still have the appearance of bread and wine, they have – through the power of the Holy Spirit – actually changed into Jesus’ Body and Blood, just as they did at the Last Supper.

Today we celebrate one of the most fundamental beliefs of Christianity: the Most Holy Trinity – three distinct, coequal Persons in one God. For the Church, the Trinity is considered a mystery. There are aspects of the Trinity that we will never fully grasp while we are this side of Heaven. But it is something we hold as revealed truth. We may never comprehend its totality, but we experience its presence and accept its reality. Today’s Scripture Readings touch on the distinctions, as well as the linkages, between and among the Persons of the Trinity.

In the Scripture Readings for today’s Mass, we hear two accounts of the Pentecost. The more dramatic of the two occurs in our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-11) where the Holy Spirit descends upon the Apostles, empowering them to speak in different tongues so that the Jews from different lands who had gathered in Jerusalem could hear the message of Jesus proclaimed in their own language. The second, and perhaps less dramatic account is found in today’s Gospel (John 20:19-23) where the Risen Jesus, himself, appears to the Apostles on Easter Sunday, breathes the Holy Spirit upon them, empowers them to forgive sins in his name, and commissions them to go forth and continue the mission of announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God.

With hindsight and the benefit of the Bible, as well as 2000 years of Church teaching, we are able to understand the progression from Resurrection to Ascension to Pentecost. This understanding was not so easy for the early disciples of Jesus as they experienced these events.

How many of us have wished, in moments of indecision, that God would send us a clear sign about what we are called to do at that moment? At times like these, when we are surrounded by turmoil and indecision, it can be easy to feel as though God has abandoned us and left us alone to fend for ourselves. But the Scripture Readings for today’s Mass, as we get ever closer to the great Feast of Pentecost, are reassuring. We are not alone, but have God, the Church, and the people around us to give us guidance and support when we need it – as long as we are open to the different ways in which the Holy Spirit operates in our daily lives.

Everyone, believers and nonbelievers alike, is familiar with the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In other words, treat others in the way that you, yourself, would like to be treated. We can all agree that this is very reasonable and practical, and makes good sense. Even Jesus seems to endorse it! But as we hear in today’s Gospel (John 13:31-33a, 34-35), Jesus is never one for simply minimums or convenient half-measures. He always calls us to a higher standard or way of thinking – one that exceeds human expectations and aligns itself with the ways of God.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is commonly referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” No matter which liturgical cycle we are in, the Gospel will always be about Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and the accompanying readings relate to this as well. So great is our Good Shepherd that he knows each of us by name and gives us eternal life.

I would imagine that most of us have had at least one experience in which we were deeply hurt by another person – perhaps by someone we cared for very much. Our emotions can be very powerful at such a time and we can be consumed with feelings of hostility and resentment. If the hurt is deep enough, we may be tempted to give up on the relationship and avoid that person altogether, stubbornly refusing even the slightest move toward reconciliation, and speaking badly about the person to anyone else who will listen.

Today we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. It is a Feast Day formally established by Pope St. John Paul II. According to private revelations that she recorded in her diary, St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun, reported that Jesus had appeared to her on several occasions. He called for a Feast of Mercy to be observed on the Second Sunday of Easter and said that this Feast of Mercy would be a very special day when “all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened” (St. Faustina’s Diary, 699). Our Lord made a great promise to all those souls who would go to Confession and then receive Him in Holy Communion on the Feast of His Mercy, now called Divine Mercy Sunday, throughout the Catholic Church. Jesus promised that “The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain the complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.” (St. Faustina’s Diary, 699)

Christ is Risen! Indeed He has Risen! This proclamation, spoken since the first Easter, reminds us of what this day – the Feast of the Resurrection – is truly all about. In our modern world, Easter is often seen as a one-day event of bunnies, candy, pastel colored eggs, and a sumptuous family meal. But these things alone really miss the significance that this day truly holds.

Holy Week begins today and we should enter this week with reverence, enthusiastically embracing the rituals associated with it. To celebrate Holy Week is, after all, to celebrate who we have become through Christ’s Paschal Mystery. I hope that throughout the season of Lent you have prayed, fasted, and performed works of charity. Lent ends with the beginning of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday.

Like the prophets who preceded him, Jesus’ life and ministry was tied to the Temple in Jerusalem. It was there that he was presented by Mary and Joseph as an infant. It was there that he held the priests and scribes spellbound at the age of twelve. It was there, as an adult, that his ministry was centered, especially during the week leading up to his passion.

Today’s Gospel (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) contains the parable of the prodigal son, and it highlights the essential elements of what true forgiveness and reconciliation is all about. In the parable, a man has two sons. One decides to ask for his inheritance, leave home, and have a great time. When all has been spent and he has nothing left, he decides to go back home and beg for forgiveness. The twist in the story is that his father welcomes him back instantly, not caring about what or how he lost everything. In fact, he does not even wait for the son to get back into the house; he goes out to him, welcomes him back, and celebrates his return.

Each of us is familiar with at least one – if not several – what we might call “God moments” in which God reveals himself in Sacred Scripture. We find one of those profound “God moments” in today’s First Reading from Exodus 3:1- 8a, 13-15. Here we read of Moses’ encounter with God speaking to him from a burning bush that was not being consumed by the flames! Wouldn’t we give anything to witness such a profound “God moment”?

In today’s Gospel (Luke 9:28b-36), Jesus wants to bring some focus to Peter, James, and John by having them witness the Transfiguration. The Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent always includes the Transfiguration. Jesus begins by leading the three Apostles up a mountain – the traditional place to which one went to encounter God. Once there, Jesus is transfigured before their eyes. “…his clothing became dazzling white…”.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 4:1-13), Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days of prayer. Prayer was Christ’s usual practice to discern and obey the will of the Father, and to prepare himself for whatever momentous event was ahead of him. Sustained by only grace and prayer, Christ encounters the devil. Imagine the audacity of the devil as he tries to put God himself to the test!

Wednesday of this week is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. There are some people who seem to have a mistaken understanding of the reception of ashes and assign more importance to receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday than they do to attending Sunday Mass. Do not be misled. The ashes are NOT a Sacrament. They are what is called a “sacramental” and are no different than blessing yourself with Holy Water when you enter or leave the church. What is exceptional about the reception of ashes is that it normally occurs only one day a year (on Ash Wednesday), and that it is an outward sign – a public declaration, if you will – that one is a sinner and is in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. If we receive the ashes and then do not follow it up with a Sacramental Confession at some point during Lent, we have done nothing but condemn ourselves as hypocrites.

As Christians, we worship a God who loves us so much that he became human for our sake and went the extra mile of love, dying an excruciating and humiliating death on a cross. St. Paul assures us in today’s Second Reading (1 Corinthians 15:45-49) that as we are human and in the likeness of Adam – complete with sin – so we will also take on the likeness of Jesus, the heavenly one.

How does God guide us? Listen to the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading from the Gospel according to Luke (Luke 6:17, 20-26). This is a great place to start. The Beatitudes are at the very heart of Jesus’ preaching. They expand upon Jesus’ command that we are to love our enemies and love our neighbor. The Beatitudes are contained in what is called the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, though in Luke’s Gospel this is called the Sermon on the Plain because it is described as taking place on level ground rather than on a sloping hillside. At the core of the sermon is Jesus’ teaching on love.

Looking back at our life, we may recognize a particular person or a specific experience that caused us to make a significant change or to go in a different direction than we would have otherwise. Hopefully, the change was good, enabling us to think bigger, do better things, and use our talents in a way that we had not considered before. This is what happens in today’s readings. Isaiah is called by God to be his prophet (Isaiah 6:1-8). In the beginning, Isaiah does not feel worthy of this call, but by the end of today’s First Reading, he is responding with “Here I am, send me!”