Ultimate Destiny
Holy Saturday
Readings: Gen 1:1-2:2 or 1:1, 26-31a; Gen 22:1-18 or 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Ex 14:15-15:1; Is 54: 5-14; Is 55:1-11; Bar 3:9-15, 32-4:4; Ezek 36: 16-17a, 18-28; Rom 6: 3-11; Mk 16:1-7.
“… so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too, might live a new life.” Rom 6:4
The Easter Vigil, with its nine readings and eight responsorial psalms, traces the story of God’s continuing faithfulness to His fatherhood from the creation of the world to the Resurrection of Christ, even though His children repeatedly turn away from Him.
But this story of God’s mercy doesn’t really end with the Resurrection. For it is God’s plan that, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too, might live a new life” Rom 6:4.
What’s this “new life”? It’s a sharing in the life of God, body and soul. When Christ was raised from the dead, the Father introduced His Son’s humanity, including His now glorified body, into the Trinity” (CCC #648).
This is is also your ultimate destiny in the Father’s plan. By entering into communion with Christ, you receive divine sonship. Thus, after you die, the Father will raise you up as He did Jesus and, in your now glorified body, you will be embraced into the life of the Trinity itself (see CCC #460).
This is good news. And it gets better! We don’t have to wait until we die. Eternal life doesn’t just mean that, after we die, we live again forever. It means we live in and with God. And we can start living this new life right away, for “even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity” (CCC # 260).
How do we respond to this call? By our love and obedience (cf CCC # 460), and, most especially, by entering into communion with Christ in the Eucharist. As Our Lord explained to St. Faustina, “Eternal life must begin already here on earth through Holy Communion. Each Holy Communion makes you more capable of communing with God throughout eternity” (Diary, 1811).
Thank you, Father, for this awesome gift of eternal life. Help me to enter into it now by uniting myself with You more and more with each reception of Holy Communion.
Vinny Flynn
Up Close and Personal
Good Friday.
Readings: Is 52:13-53:12; Heb 4:14-16;5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42
“One of the soldiers ran a lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.” Jn 19:34
In his encyclical letter “Rich in Mercy,” Pope John Paul II wrote that the cross of Christ “speaks and never ceases to speak of God the Father, who is absolutely faithful to his eternal love. …Believing in the crucified Son means seeing the Father” (#7).
Jesus is on the cross as the Son of the Father, loving us in complete union with the Father, offering his life in fulfillment of the Father’s plan of mercy for all. “The desire to embrace his Father’s plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life” (CCC, #607).
But this love of the Father, this love that Jesus shares and reveals on the cross, is not just “for all” in some general, abstract way. It’s “for each” in an intimately personal way — the “one-on-one” love of a perfect Father for each child.
This, explained Pope John Paul II, is the message of Divine Mercy, “a message about the value of every human being. Each person is precious in God’s eyes; Christ gave his life for each one; to everyone the Father gives his Spirit and offers intimacy” (Rome, April 30, 2000).
What does this mean for you, personally? It means that Christ who, as God, is not subject to time, looked out from the cross and saw you. He saw everything about you: all the details of your life, all your thoughts and actions, all your sin. And He loved you. And then He reached across 2000 years of time and space, grabbed all your sin, and pulled it into His own body, so that when His body died, your sin was all destroyed with it. “By his wounds, you have been healed” (1 Pet 2:24).
So, when you approach Jesus in the confessional, don’t go as if trying to wring out forgiveness from a reluctant God. Go in humble gratitude to receive the forgiveness and healing He already won for you on the cross.
Thank you, Father for loving me in spite of my sin and for sending Jesus to die for me. Help me to receive Your mercy with gratitude and learn to love as You do.
Vinny Flynn
Pass it on!
Holy Thursday
Readings: Chrism Mass: Is 61:1-3a, 6a, 8b-9; Rv 1:5-8; When 4:16-21
Mass of the Lord’s Supper: Ex 12:1-8, 11-14; 1 Cor 11:23-26; Jn 13:1-15
“As I have done, so you must do.” Jn 13:15
On Holy Thursday we celebrate Christ’s institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.
But the main reading is from the Gospel of John, the only one of the four Gospels that doesn’t mention the Institution of the Eucharist. Instead, it shows us Christ washing the feet of His disciples.
Why? Because John wants us to understand what Eucharist really means. Who is this Christ we receive in the Eucharist? What is He all about? Why did He come? Why did He choose to remain with us in this Sacrament? What kind of response does He want from us?
Christ was sent by God the Father on a mission of mercy (see Is 61:1). His whole purpose is to bring us the Father’s love. He doesn’t come to us in the Eucharist so that we can enjoy a few warm, fuzzy spiritual moments and then go back to life as usual. He comes to free us, heal us, and transform us so that we can become like Him and participate with Him in bringing the Father’s merciful love to others.
As Pope John Paul II explains, “The Eucharist is a mode of being, which passes from Jesus into each Christian, through whose testimony it is meant to spread throughout society and culture”(“Mane Nobiscum Domine,” 25). As we receive, we are supposed to enter into communion with Christ, adopting His attitudes, His values, His love, His desires, His entire way of being, and then “pass it on” to others.
“It is not by chance,” John Paul continues, “that the Gospel of John contains no account of the institution of the Eucharist, but instead relates the ‘washing of feet.’… By bending down to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus explains the meaning of the Eucharist” (28).
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for inviting me to share in Your divine life through the Eucharist. Fill me more and more with the desire to bring Your message of mercy to others.
Yes or No?
Wednesday of Holy Week
Readings: Is 50:4-9; Mt 26:14-25
“Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.” Mt 26:24
We’re back at the Last Supper, this time from the Gospel of Matthew, who prefaces his account of the meal with the scene where Judas agrees to hand Jesus over to the high priests for thirty pieces of silver.
In Monday’s Gospel we saw how Mary of Bethany chose to humble herself to take on the service of a slave, lovingly washing the feet of her Master, not with water but with ointment worth three hundred pieces of silver.
Now we see Judas choosing to sell his Master for a mere thirty pieces of silver — the price of a slave. What a huge difference in these two responses to God!
Mary shows us the Yes that flows from a loving heart centered on Jesus. Judas shows us “the No stemming from greed and lust, from vainglory which refuses to accept God” (Pope Benedict XVI).
At the banquet in Bethany, Christ prophesied about Mary, “Wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mk 14:6, 9). But here, at the Last Supper, he says about Judas, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. Better for him if he had never been born” (Mt 26:24). Our choices have consequences!
Even after hearing this dire warning, Judas could have repented and thrown himself on God’s mercy. God loves each of us with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3), and it is no part of His plan that any one of us will be lost (see Mt 18:14). He is always willing to forgive, no matter how great our sin. But He will never force salvation on us. He created us free, and we have the power to accept or refuse His mercy. At every intersection of our lives, we choose Yes or No, and our choices determine our destiny.
Thank You, Lord, for creating me free and loving me with an everlasting love. Help me to say Yes to You with my whole heart, now and at every moment of decision. Help me to always choose You, Lord.
Vinny Flynn
Deliver us from Evil
Tuesday of Holy Week
Readings: Is 49:1-6; Jn 13:21-33, 36-38
“Immediately after, Satan entered his heart.” Jn 13:27
Once again we find ourselves reclining at table with Jesus, and once again John’s Gospel provides us with contrasting characters, focusing this time on Judas and Peter at the Last Supper.
The passage begins with Jesus suddenly announcing to His disciples that one of them will betray Him (We know that means Judas, but the disciples don’t); and it ends with His prophecy that Peter will deny Him three times. Wow! What a way to ruin a good meal. Two betrayals!
But wait a minute. Jesus didn’t say, “Two of you will betray Me.” He said, “One of you will betray Me.” What’s the difference?
To really understand, we need to recognize another character who shows up at this meal: Satan. When John asks who the traitor is, Jesus answers, “The one to whom I give the bit of food I dip in the dish.” He then dips a morsel of food and gives it to Judas. “Immediately after,” the Gospel tells us, “Satan entered his heart.”
We saw in yesterday’s Gospel that Judas has a heart problem. He hasn’t been storing up spiritual treasures; he’s been stealing from the common purse and lusting after wealth. So his heart is weak and divided. He hasn’t paid close enough attention to Christ’s warning that “no one can serve two masters. …You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24).
When Judas, knowing that Jesus is aware of his treachery, accepts the morsel from Jesus, as if in friendship, his deceit is complete, and he enters into communion, not with Jesus but with “the father of lies” — Satan himself (see Jn 8:44).
Peter has no intention of abandoning Jesus. His denial comes as a surprise to him and is not the result of malice or evil intent, but rather of human weakness. Like many of us, he’s just trying to do too much on his own. As Christ said to St. Faustina, “The cause of your falls is that you rely too much upon yourself and too little on Me” (Diary, 1488).
Lord, Jesus, help me to remember that Satan is real and that without You I will not be able to resist his lies. Strengthen me, Lord, so that I will not enter into temptation, and deliver me from evil.
Vinny Flynn
An Undivided Heart
Monday of Holy Week
Readings: Is 42:1-7; Jn 12:1-11
“… and the house was filled with the ointment’s fragrance.” Jn 12:3
So much in the Gospels comes to us in the context of a meal, and nowhere is this more true or more significant than in Holy Week.
Today’s Gospel brings us to a banquet given for Jesus in the little village of Bethany, where He had raised His friend Lazarus from the dead.
Lazarus is there, along with his sisters Martha and Mary, whom we see in the same roles as in Luke’s portrait of them: Martha as the busy hostess serving the meal, and Mary completely attentive to Jesus (see Lk 10:38).
Here again, Mary seems to have “chosen the better part” (Lk 10:42). Taking a pound of expensive ointment (the value of a year’s wages for a laborer), she anoints the feet of Jesus and dries them with her hair, “and the house was filled with the ointment’s fragrance” (Jn 12:3).
On a spiritual level, what fills the house is the fragrance of Mary’s complete devotion to Jesus, her generous living out of His teaching that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be” (Lk 12:34). Christ’s presence is a priceless treasure to Mary. The ointment has not been wasted; it has been used to express the humble and reverent worship of an undivided heart.
The heart of Judas, on the other hand, has been been drawn to the values of the world. Filled by the desire for wealth and personal gain, he sees only the value of the ointment: “Why was this perfume not sold? It could have brought three hundred silver pieces” (Jn 12:5).
This contrast between Mary and Judas provides us with a great measuring stick to help us examine our own hearts as we enter Holy Week. Does my heart belong completely to God, or have I allowed it to become too attached to things of the world?
Lord Jesus, I invite You to send Your Spirit into my heart to reconsecrate it to You. Purify my desires, Lord and free me from anything that is not of You.
Vinny Flynn
The Bond of Love
“I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator …” (Apostles Creed)
Ever notice that in this prayer God is referred to first of all as “Father” and only then as “creator”? There’s a whole teaching here. Pope John Paul II, in Rich in Mercy, explains that God is not just the creator, but “He is also Father,” and He is linked to us “by a bond still more intimate than that of creation. It is love, which not only creates the good but also grants participation in the very life of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For he who loves desires to give himself” (#7).
God doesn’t create as an all-powerful but distant artisan with no real interest in His creations. He “fathers-forth” from His heart, not just creating beings, but begetting children who are to be His own. Lovingly and tenderly he forms each of us in our mothers’ wombs, fashioning us in His own image and likeness, and breathing His Spirit into us, so that one day we may return to Him “holy and spotless” to live like Him and with Him forever. For “such is the ‘plan of his loving kindness,’ conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #257).
What should our response be to such a gift? To simply live as His children, trusting that His love never changes, His fathering never ends. In the midst of life’s busyness, we can rest in His heart, trusting and rejoicing and giving thanks, letting our daily lives form an endless song of praise.
“He fathers-forth whose beauty is beyond change. Praise Him”
(Hopkins, Pied Beauty).
Vinny Flynn
7 Secrets of the Eucharist
Greetings & blessings!
December 8 has always been a special day to me; first because it’s the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and also because it’s my birthday. This year, Our Lady gave me a surprise birthday gift: my new book, 7 SECRETS OF THE EUCHARIST arrived from the printer several days ahead of schedule.
So, in this post, I’d like to share with you a short excerpt from the book.
THE EUCHARIST IS ALIVE
“When I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, my hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul, but souls do not even pay attention to me. They leave me to myself and busy themselves with other things. … They treat me as a dead object” (St. Faustina, Diary, 1385).
The Eucharist is alive. If a stranger who knew nothing about the Eucharist were to watch the way we receive, would he know this? When you and I approach the Eucharist, does it look like we believe we are about to take into our bodies the living person, Jesus Christ, true God and true man?
How many times, Lord, have I forgotten that the Eucharist is alive! As I wait in line to receive you each day, am I thinking about how much you want to unite yourself with me? Am I seeing your hands filled with graces you want to give me? Am I filled with awe and gratitude that you love me so much as to actually want to come to me in this incredibly intimate way?
Or am I distracted, busy with other thoughts, preoccupied with myself and my agendas for the day? How many times, Jesus, have I made you sad, mindlessly receiving you into my body, into my heart, with no love and no recognition of your love? How many times have I treated you as a dead object?
The Host that we receive is not a thing! It’s not a wafer! It’s not bread! It’s a person – and He’s alive!
… This is not the dead Christ locked in a moment of time on the cross. This is the complete and eternal Christ, the Christ who was born of the Virgin, who came into our midst, suffered, died, was raised from the dead, and is now fully alive in heaven, where He reigns in glory.
“The flesh of the Son of Man, given as food,” explains Pope John Paul II, “is his body in its glorious state after the resurrection” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, #18).
… And the Catechism of the Catholic
Church adds: “Under the consecrated species of bread and wine, Christ himself, living and glorious, is present in a true, real, and substantial manner” (#1415).
It is this living and glorious Christ who complains to St. Faustina:
“Oh, how painful it is to me that souls so seldom unite themselves to me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls and they are indifferent toward me. I love them tenderly and sincerely and they distrust me. I want to lavish my graces on them and they do not want to accept them. They treat me as a dead object, whereas my heart is full of love and mercy” (St. Faustina,, Diary, 1447).
The Eucharist is not a thing. It is not a dead object. It is Christ, and He is fully alive. Receiving Him with this awareness, we become more fully alive, so that we can say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20 RSV).
“I am the living bread. … Whoever eats this bread will live forever.
…
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6: 51, 57).
“My heart is drawn there where my God is hiding. It is my living God though a veil hides Him” (St. Faustina, Diary, 1591).
I hope you enjoyed this little excerpt and that our “hidden” Lord will Lead you closer and closer to His Eucharistic Heart during this Advent and Christmas season.
