Friday Coffin Break #24 Gated Communities and the Way the Truth and the Life

I missed last Friday’s Coffin Break email for Good Shepherd Sunday wherein Jesus refers to himself, before referring to himself as the Good Shepherd, as “the gate.” Let’s bring that into the fold as we look at the Gospel for the upcoming Fifth Sunday of Easter in the Light of the Grave:

The Gospel reading is John 14: 1-12 and can be found here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050326.cfm

Jesus tells us that he is “the Way the Truth and the Life,” and that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” The gate into the protected sheepfold is the Way the Truth and the Life. I used to have a thing gated communities and I guess, rightly or wrongly I still do. At least when they’re man-made, because all sorts of stuff gets fenced in there that we’d do better not to be around -- particularly our sin.

But, if we follow the Way the Truth and the Life through Himself into the perfect gated community, the one with many mansions and a place prepared for us, then that is a different community altogether; that is the Father’s house; that is Heaven. In order for it to be Heaven, no drop of sin can have snuck in. Won’t that be wonderful?

So, on this Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker (patron saint of a happy death) and First Friday, let’s repent of our sins and give to Jesus the joy of freeing us, that we may soon follow (through, with and in) Him into Paradise!

Friday Coffin Break #23 – Breaking Everything but the Bread

Happy Friday of the second week of Easter, Everybody! This Little Triduum, encompassing the upcoming third Sunday of Easter, offers us a great lens through which to see why we so often don’t see. The Gospel is Luke 24 13-35 and you can read it here:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041926.cfm

It tells the story of Jesus’ meeting two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples had been conversing and debating when he met up with them. This activity did not prepare their vision to recognize the Risen Lord. Even after he – Jesus Himself -- essentially ended their conversation and settled their debate, they did not recognize him.

It took Holy Communion.

In 2026, we are battered by “conversations” and “debates”— technologically tailored to our enduring, fallen, desire for gladiatorial blood sports, rather than a virtuous pursuit of the truth. But, unlike Cleopas and the unnamed disciple walking with him, we are not even participants in those conversations and debates! We are mere spectators! How in the world do we expect that anyone in such an environment might recognize, much less follow, Jesus?

He shows the disciples, and us, that he can only be known in worship. And that worship is fundamentally not about words, it is fundamentally about our Eucharistic Lord’s gift of Himself in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Today, this second Friday of Easter, is a great day to avert our eyes from the omnipresent spectacle of our imminent brokenness, within its high-definition disguise of conversation and debate, and allow the Eternal Word to bestow the peace-filled vision of Himself on us in the breaking of the bread.

Coffin Break #22 – Easter, Coming Soon

Happy Friday, Everybody. After months of putting in the practice of making every Friday a Little Triduum, here we are concluding the Lenten Season at the Big One. This Sunday is, of course, Easter. But today, Good Friday, the churches are desolate. So, from this desolation which is an unavoidable part of our pilgrimage through this Valley of Tears, let’s look at the upcoming Gospel in the Light of the Grave:

The Gospel is Matthew 28: 1-10 and can be read here:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040526.cfm

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were met by the angel of the Lord at Jesus’ tomb where they are told:

He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.

Let’s take the time this Good Friday, amidst the desolation, amidst whatever anxieties are plaguing us, to consider the words from the angel -- “just as he said.”

Our world is so full of words. Words in books, words on the news, words in podcasts, words on the street, words in our houses, words in our heads. We live amidst a torrent of words, but very few of them have any meaningful connection to The Word. The Word that was made flesh to suffer and die to save us from our sins.

The simplicity and certainty of the angel’s words, “just as he said,” strike me as a rebuke to our lack of faith or understanding. Surely our anxiety would be completely extinguished if we would hear and trust Jesus’ words as we ought to. But that rebuke from the angel, that subtle invitation to weigh and judge the strength of our own faith, does not stand alone.

Knowing our weakness, our sinfulness, our failure to break free from the doubts that plague so many of us so much of the time, the angel, as an ambassador of God’s mercy, invites the women to ‘come and see the place where he lay.’ To engage the physical evidence of that most marvelous of all historical events: Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead.

For us on this Good Friday, in a mysterious way, Jesus will be glimpsed still laying there, apparently crushed under the weight of our personal sins. Our willingness to soberly face this vision, and how we respond to it, plays a pivotal part in our passage to Easter joy - coming very soon – and serves as a template for how we will face Jesus, personally, at the end of our lives - coming sooner than we think.

Happy Easter Everybody, Jesus I trust in You