Woman, why are you weeping?

“When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.” – John 20: 14&15

On Holy Thursday we are told in the Gospel of John that Jesus’ Passion began when he went to a garden in the east to pray. The garden the scripture speaks of is physically the Garden of Gethsemane. Spiritually it is the Garden of Eden.



On Easter Sunday Mary of Magdalene went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. She found an empty tomb and began to weep because she thought they had taken the body away. Mary was approached by our risen Lord and he asked why she was weeping.  Mary thought Jesus was the gardener.  

“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” – Genesis 2:15

Adam was the first gardener. God put Adam in charge of all creation and gave him the job of caring for it. Adam failed and death came into the world. Jesus’ glory undid the failings of Adam and restored life. His sacrifice unlocked paradise for all humanity who love him. Jesus has become the new Adam. As the new Adam he has also become the new gardener. Mary was not wrong when she thought she was speaking to the gardener. She was. With the veil removed Mary could see Jesus for who he truly is for the first time – the master of all creation.



Death came into the world through a garden when a woman selfishly took the fruit off of the tree of life for herself. Salvation came into the world through a garden when a woman selflessly took the fruit of her womb and placed it back upon the tree of life for all humanity.



My heart is full because the tomb is empty.

Home Churches

The first Christians were Jewish. They were considered a new Jewish sect that believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They worshipped in the temple in the way they were accustomed. Their insistence in preaching the risen Christ got them into trouble with the ruling class and they were eventually kicked out of the temple. Out of necessity they setup home churches so they could continue their worship of God.


After Constantine made Christianity legal in 312AD Christians no longer had to hide in the shadows. Private home churches and hidden worship in the catacombs could now be done in the public square. Church became the place you went for Sunday worship. As this became the norm home churches fell out of fashion and pretty much ceased to exist in the way they used to.


Fast forward two-thousand years. In the name of public safety, in order to combat the spread of the Corona virus, we have closed our churches to public worship. On one hand I fully understand and support this action. No one wants to see anyone get sick and no one wants anyone to die when they don’t have to. At the same time the theological side of my nature is going nuts. Before all of this began there were Catholics still holding their Masses in the “catacombs” because being Catholic in some parts of this world still will earn you a martyr’s crown. People face very real and possible torture and death when they gather to worship. Others are killed over nothing more than the suspicion they are Christian.


In other parts of the world, places that offer a Catholic Mass are few and far between. It is not unheard of for people to have to walk eight or ten miles, through all types of weather, facing dismemberment and death from both nature and man, just to give praise and worship to God. They do this even though the Eucharist many times cannot be present. You would think these people would be depressed or angry at having to endure this, yet, they are among the most joyful and joyous people in our faith.


Meanwhile, here in America we are hunkered down in our bunkers, sheltering in place, trying not to catch a virus that, at the moment, appears to be more hype than reality. Yes, it is a serious thing we need to take seriously but when I look to my fellow Catholics who are literally risking their lives just by being Catholic I feel more than just a little guilty. I know too many people who rejoice in having their Sunday obligation lifted for the time being. Prayer and worship have become an afterthought. It is like we have taken a vacation from Jesus during our most holy season. I know the devil is just laughing up a storm right now. Wow, is that all it takes to get people to walk away from Jesus and each other; the fear that they may get sick and possibly die however unlikely? So much for the oath we take to live our lives for Jesus and die for him if necessary every time we receive him in the Eucharist.


The Lord’s Prayer has a bit of a sting for me at the moment when I say the words, “And lead us not into temptation.” This passage means, “Do not lead me to the test.” What test? Do I deny Christ three times and run from him in the garden when danger presents itself or do I stand with him and face whatever trial comes my way? How many of us will listen to the Passion narratives this week and think to ourselves, “I would never abandon Jesus the way his apostles did,” while we are sheltering in the safety of our own homes?


The Church provides.


Many of our priests have used the current times to embrace technology as to bring Jesus to us in the only way they are permitted to do right now. Many parishes are live streaming their Masses. Eucharistic Adoration, Rosaries, and other devotions are available 24-7 from anywhere in the world with internet access. We now have drive-thru confessions that can be done from the safety of our cars. The Most Reverend David Malloy, Bishop of the Rockford Diocese, will be televising Easter Mass from the Cathedral this Easter Sunday. He will be doing so alone with only a cameraman present. My pastor, the Reverend Ervin Caliente, spent Palm Sunday going from house to house with the Blessed Sacrament and a statue of Our Lady of Fatima giving house blessings from a distance. Thanks be to God!


The first Christians started home churches out of necessity. Out of necessity we have returned to the home church. This time we can do so while staying connected to our parishes, Cathedrals, and Holy Church in Rome. We are deprived from receiving the body, blood, humanity and divinity of our Lord in the form of the Eucharist but that should fuel a growing hunger for him that is the Bread of Life. Oh what a joyous celebration that first Mass will be when we are allowed to gather as a people of God again.

It's the End of the World as We Know It

“Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped
Look at that low plane, fine, then
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group
But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed
Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light
Feeling pretty psyched

It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine”

R.E.M, 1987

I was talking to a fundamentalist friend the other day. He said, “It sure feels like the apocalypse but there are so many things that have to happen first.” Of course he was referring to the “prophecies” in the Book of Revelations in the Bible. It can’t really be the end of the world because the mighty horns have not blown, the seals have not been broken, and the horsemen have not yet appeared.


But many people are feeling this way right now. That has a lot to do with the fact that there has been nothing like this pandemic happening in living memory except with those who are the most aged. We have forgotten about the flu pandemic of 1968 that killed a million people worldwide. We have forgotten about the Asian flu pandemic of the late fifties that killed over two million people. Just one hundred years ago a flu pandemic killed between twenty to fifty million people. What we are experiencing today is nothing new; it is just new to us. We are frightened because we have never had to face this type of trial before.


But my friend’s words hit a chord in me. This can’t be the end because it clearly states in the Bible exactly what will happen and we don’t see it so it isn’t that. It made me think of my Jewish brethren. Truth be told, when it is all boiled down to the lowest common denominator the only thing that separates the Jewish people from the Catholics is one word – back. Jews are looking for the Messiah to come. Catholics are looking for the Messiah to come back.


Jews who fail to recognize Jesus as the promised one, the Messiah, do so solely because they have a hard set idea of exactly what the Messiah will look like and what he will do. He will come, re-establish the Kingdom of David as the head of the nations, and he will die. They still can’t eat shrimp. Because they have a preconceived notion of what this will look like they to refuse to see that Jesus did exactly that very thing. Christians would add to the Jewish expectation – and rise from the dead. And, oh, we can now eat shrimp.


There are so many ways that the Christians of our age have become like the Pharisees of old. We argue over the letter of the Law instead of living in the Spirit of the Law. We debate every jot and tittle according to our own perceptions, understandings, or beliefs regardless of whether they are in accord with the teaching of the only one to whom all authority has been given. We fail to see Christ in all creation because we have blinded ourselves to seeing Christ as only as he appears in those pictures hanging in our churches and homes.


Many of us read parts of our Bibles as if they are recipe books. This will happen, then that will happen, and then we will get XYZ. But we are not given prophecy so we can know the future. We are given prophecy so that when it happens we might believe. Prophecy is not an early warning system for pending doom. I need not worry about the state of my soul because I have not heard the first horn blast from heaven announcing the end days.


Despite the beliefs of our non-Catholic Christian friends we should always be worried about the state of our souls. The Bible assures us that no one can snatch us out of God’s hand. But that does not mean we cannot jump out on our own accord. God respects our free will and if we wish to jump from his loving embrace he won’t stop us. That is exactly what sin is; voluntarily separating ourselves from God. Once saved is not always saved on this side of heaven. If we choose to renounce our salvation and separate ourselves from God, God will respect our choice and be saddened by it.


Loving God with our whole heart, with our whole mind, with our whole strength, and with our entire being does not stop us from screwing up. We’re human after all. But this is why God has given us the Sacrament of Reconciliation and penance. We can say we are sorry for what we have done wrong, be forgiven for it, and make restitution for the damage we have done.


For a person living in a state of grace there is no need to fear a pandemic. There no need to fear any trial or hardship. There is no need to fear the end of the world as we know it. In fact it should be something we are in joyful anticipation of arriving. Christmas Eve is the destruction of this world and Christmas morning is walking with God in paradise. More appropriately, Good Friday is the death of this world and Easter Sunday is the resurrection as a glorified creation in heaven. Now that is something to hope for and not to be in dread of.