Praise be Jesus and Mary.
These days we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, and we see how Jesus, after his resurrection,
doesn't appear in a blaze of glory to everyone all at once. But first, he appears to the women,
to Mary Magdalene. Today we read that he appears to Cleopas and his companion,
and tomorrow we'll read how he appears to the apostles. And so our Lord is gradually
preparing his church, preparing the church for the mission. Thus it is written, and thus it
behooved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day.
And that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.
These are the words that Christ will say to his apostles and entrust them the mission of the
entire church, of proclaiming to the world his passion, death and resurrection,
for the forgiveness of sins, for the salvation of souls, to all of those who believe.
Now yesterday, during my trip back to the U.S., I had to pass through the security checks that
I think everybody is used to. And I saw a woman pushing a stroller with her baby in it. And yes,
the baby and the stroller had to pass through the check. And there was the security guard,
who waved his magic wand over the stroller and the baby. And I just thought to myself,
how ridiculous. You know, this is how far we've come, how far degenerated society has become.
And I remember one of our priests saying, well, we can thank Muhammad for this.
And, you know, really, I don't agree.
Rather, we can thank lukewarm and unfaithful Christians for this.
Because if every Christian lived his vocation and answered his call as a member of the body of Christ
to be a witness to these things, to the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord,
there would be no more Muslims.
But they,
in their human dignity and using their religious liberty would freely embrace the one true faith
and enter into the one true church outside of which there is no salvation because there is no
other name given to men by which we must be saved, but that of Jesus Christ.
And so we need to remember that this is an obligation
to us. And we need to remember that this is an obligation to us. And we need to remember that this is an obligation to us.
And we need to remember that this is an obligation to us. And we need to remember that this is an obligation to us.
We need to remember that this is an obligation to us. And we need to remember that this is an obligation to us.
to the faith are necessary for salvation.
Service of and witness
to the faith are necessary for salvation.
And these by the words of our Lord himself.
So everyone who acknowledges me
before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father
who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before
men, I also will deny before my Father
who is in heaven. And now, we don't
need to think that the only way of denying Christ
is by an explicit verbal denial.
But we can deny Christ by our
indifference. If I am indifferent
about spreading the faith and converting souls.
Or, if we don't speak
when we ought to speak, that's another way
of denying Christ.
And so, if we are Christians, if we are
members of the church, we share in the mission
of the church to bear witness
to these things.
The suffering
death and resurrection of our Lord.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.