Homily Tuesday Within Octave of Easter (2021) “Savor the Mystery”
Homily Tuesday Within Octave of Easter (2021) “Savor the Mystery”
The Catholic Church does not celebrate Easter Sunday and then move on to other considerations. The church spent forty days getting ready to commemorate Easter. What is wonderful is that the church has a fifty-day Easter season. It starts off the season by observing the Octave of Easter. For eight days we have Masses that are like solemnities. We say the Gloria each day as a sign of this. We continue proclaiming an extra hallelujah here and there for good measure. We conclude the octave with the liturgy for the Second Sunday of Easter.
We could say we are mean to savor the Easter event. In American culture we have what is known as fast food. We go through a drive thru and grab a hamburger and fries. We bolt down the food and we run on to our next activity. The goal is to fuel up and go on to what is more important. People in other cultures are probably horrified. Maybe that is why most fast-food chains are not successful in foreign countries.
On the two occasions I visited Italy I was struck by how Italians take their time eating. They have several courses. The meal is the event. It is not something to get out of the way so we can move on to other things. Hopefully, we experienced an Easter meal last Sunday with our family. I know I did with me. The meal lasted for two hours. The food was painstakingly prepared by my sister and brother-in-law. We sat on their screened in porch for over two hours and talked around the table telling family stories and sharing jokes. There was no rush.
We are meant to do that with the Easter story this week. We revisit the empty tomb today with Mary Magdalene. We see that she is bewildered by the empty tomb at first. Slowly she grows in understanding of what it all means. Each of us has to come to our own personal understanding of what the resurrection means. No amount of explaining by others can completely satisfy us in our search for faith. We need to wrestle with the mystery in prayer and meditation. We need to savor the wonder. Perhaps then we find the awe that this earth-shattering event can mean for our lives. Enjoy this Easter week and season.
- Is Easter already over for me? What might prolong the celebration?
- Do I take the time to savor things? If I don’t, does it make life less satisfying?
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Dear Parishioners,
This week we will be having a 6:30 a.m. Mass on Thursday and will be doing that for the rest of the school year. Seton School is starting all-day classes today for the first time since last March, so they will be having an 8:15 a.m. Mass on Thursdays. If you would like to go to that Mass, there will be some seating available. If not, please consider going to the earlier Mass. In a sense we will be gong back to the way things were before when we had a 6:30 a.m. Mass and an 8:30 Mass for the school on Thursdays before the pandemic.
I appreciate everyone’s patience with our shifting schedule. The numbers in the pandemic change every day. I want to have opportunities for as many people as possible to go to Mass, but I also want to keep people safe. We are not through with this virus yet. New variants are even more easy to transmit.
Let’s keep praying that the inoculation program will work.
May Our Lady and All the Angels and Saints watch over you today.
Fr. Mark