Fr. Rick Spicer

On Holy Thursday, I asked the question, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” I then shared that this question, asked by a child, opens for those who have gathered for the Passover Seder a retelling of what God did to free his people from slavery. For Jews, the Passover gives them their identity.

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” is a question for us to ponder too (as we reflect on our own salvation history beginning with the story of creation recounted in the book of Genesis). What happened differs from any other night for that night Jesus rose from the dead. Had this not happened, we would not be here for the basis of our Christian faith is contingent on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict in his book, Jesus of Nazareth, observes, “If this were taken away, it would still be possible to piece together from the Christian tradition a series of interesting ideas about God and men, a kind of religious world view, but the Christian faith itself would be dead. Jesus would be a failed religious leader; who despite his failure remains great and can cause us to reflect. But he would then remain purely human and his authority would extend only so far as his message is of interest to us.”

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EasterRead More »

According to John, Jesus’ last words were, “It is finished.” Unlike what we hear in the other gospels, there is no sense of surrender or defeat being expressed here. Instead, what was finished in that final breath was the mission which had been entrusted to Jesus by his Father, a mission he carried out selflessly to the very end despite the high cost, death on the cross following a tortuous journey to the place of the skull.

Imagine Jesus and the archangel Gabriel having a conversation after his return to heaven. Even in heaven, Jesus bore the marks of his crucifixion. Gabriel exclaimed, “Lord, you must have suffered horribly! Do people know and appreciate how you love them and what you did for them?”

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Good FridayRead More »

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” With the evening Mass of the Lord ’s Supper, the curtain rises on Christianity’s greatest drama, the Easter Triduum. For the next three days, Catholics around the world will be immersed in a three act drama not even Shakespeare could surpass. Sad to say, however, that few of them see the events of these days as one ongoing story. Instead, they view them as separate and distinct liturgies. Worse yet, they see them through the lens of history as something from the ancient past that has little to do with 21st century America.

Since the readings tonight began with the Exodus account of the first Passover and the requisites of the ritual Seder meal, we might be wise to take a page from our Jewish ancestors when approaching our own sacred rites. They believe that in some mystical manner all Jews, past, present and future, are somehow present at this key event in their history. Everything is spoken in the present tense. God’s interaction with them is not something that took place in the distant past, but something that continues to take place here and now. How differently might we respond to the events we are recalling over the next 72 hours if we saw ourselves as being there and taking part in them? Changing our perspective could take time but we could try.

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Holy ThursdayRead More »

At the start of Lent, we hung a banner from the loft to remind us that this is “a season of reconciliation and forgiveness.”  It is a time for making peace not only with God but also with others in our lives, friends and enemies alike yet neither undertaking comes easy. Perhaps we are too proud to ask for or seek forgiveness, but Jesus wasn’t.

“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” This line more than any other catches my attention.  Having been scourged, whipped, and compelled to drag a heavy beam of wood to which he was nailed, he is now hanging from the cross nearly naked before those bent on seeing him die. In spite of how much he ached and struggled to breathe, Jesus thought first of those standing there, asking his Father to forgive them.

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Palm SundayRead More »

Many people struggle with the idea of devils, like the one we encounter in today’s Gospel. Do they really exist? However we feel about devils, we know that evil is real. We see it daily in the lost lives of innocent people killed in wars, acts of terrorism or murdered, in greedy people who abuse power, in the oppression of the poor. There’s evil with the big capital-E and there are the many little evils that lure us daily, in the form of temptations.

A shopkeeper, seeing a boy hanging about outside where there was a tempting display of various fruits, asked him, “What are you trying to do, young man? Steal my apples?” The boy replied,“No, sir, I’m trying not to!” That is the challenge we face daily.

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1st Sunday of LentRead More »