Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Matthew 28: 1-10

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning
and his clothing was white as snow.
The guards were shaken with fear of him
and became like dead men.
Then the angel said to the women in reply,
“Do not be afraid!
I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.
He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
‘He has been raised from the dead,
and he is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him.’
Behold, I have told you.”
Then they went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce this to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee,
and there they will see me.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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On my desk where I pray each morning is a small prayer card with a picture of the empty tomb on the front. On the back of that card is a Mass intention I wrote in black ink eleven years ago: For the repose of the soul of Vicki Lois Ward, my mother.

Mom died from cancer less than a year before. As an act of faith, and as a way to process my grief, I made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where Jesus died and rose. There, I had the incredible opportunity of spending the night inside the Holy Sepulcher. 

The Holy Sepulcher is the massive fourth-century church that houses both the site of the crucifixion and the empty tomb. It’s, perhaps, the holiest site in Christianity because that is where Easter began.

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Walking into the church can be dizzying, as it immediately excites your senses. 

The rich, spicy aroma of incense wafts into your nose while the sound of priests chanting loudly in Greek, Armenian, and Latin echoes off of the ancient walls. Flames from beeswax candles flicker and dance, dimly lighting the expansive church.

Pilgrims kneel, pray, and weep in silence when given the chance to touch the rock of Calvary where Jesus died or the marble slab covering the empty tomb where he was raised.

It’s hard to believe this ornately decorated church was once a cemetery, just outside the city walls. This is the place, Saint Matthew tells us, where Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” once crept in the darkness looking for Jesus locked inside his rock-hewn tomb.

This is where the stone was rolled away, where an angel sat enthroned on top. This is where the guards shook in fear. This is where the darkness and grief of Good Friday first turned into Easter joy. This is where I needed to experience the same.

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I find it to be a fascinating truth that the two most important events in our history – the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis and the redemption of the world at Easter – both take place under the cover of darkness, with no eyewitness other than God himself.

What we do have at Easter is the testimony of holy women, one being Mary Magdalene.

She loved Jesus even after his death. She went to the cemetery early that Easter morning to grieve, her heart still clinging to him. She was rewarded unexpectedly with being the first to see the Risen Christ because of her love and fidelity.

Unlike his disciples, who abandoned Jesus, and were hiding somewhere in Jerusalem, Mary went to the tomb. 

There, Jesus appeared to her – not only to console her – but also to send her out on mission. “Do not be afraid,” he said. “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Just as some women have the unique honor of bearing life in their womb, so the Lord entrusted the life-giving truth of his resurrection to Mary Magdalene, who carried it joyfully to the disciples, telling them to meet Jesus back in Galilee where it all began.

There they too, would see him. They, too, would be filled with Easter faith.

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Mary’s message was good news for two reasons. Most importantly, the Lord had been raised from the dead! As Saint Paul later writes, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

Secondly, Mary reported to the disciples that Jesus referred to them as his “brothers.” In spite of their denial, their cowardice, their spiritual indifference, their blaming and cursing, they were still his “brothers,” indissoluble members of God’s family.

Jesus assured his disciples before seeing them that there was nothing they could do – nor is there anything we can do – to weaken his love for us, or to break the divine bond given to us in baptism.

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Perhaps this is Christ’s Easter message for us today.

In spite of how successful or unsuccessful our Lenten journey has been; in spite of our doubt, past failures, or missteps in faith, we are still brothers and sisters of the Risen Lord! Nothing can separate us from his love or his promise of eternal life.

Because of Easter, the early Christians came to see the grave as a type of second womb. Although it claims our mortal bodies, it also promises resurrection.

This belief is also what drove me to visit – and to kiss – the empty tomb. The incense, the chant, the candles prayerfully lit all pointed to a mysterious truth – Christ has been raised from the dead!  

And because of him, so shall we be. Alleluia!

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Image credits: (1) The Holy Sepulcher, Danny the Digger (2) The Irish Times (3) Christ Risen from the Tomb, Bergognone

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Gospel: John 19:1-42

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,
and clothed him in a purple cloak,
and they came to him and said,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
And they struck him repeatedly.
Once more Pilate went out and said to them,
“Look, I am bringing him out to you,
so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
So Jesus came out,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out,
“Crucify him, crucify him!”
Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves and crucify him.
I find no guilt in him.”
The Jews answered,
“We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God.”
Now when Pilate heard this statement,
he became even more afraid,
and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus,
“Where are you from?”
Jesus did not answer him.
So Pilate said to him,
“Do you not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have power to release you
and I have power to crucify you?”
Jesus answered him,
“You would have no power over me
if it had not been given to you from above.
For this reason the one who handed me over to you
has the greater sin.”
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,
“If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out
and seated him on the judge’s bench
in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
And he said to the Jews,
“Behold, your king!”
They cried out,
“Take him away, take him away!  Crucify him!”
Pilate said to them,
“Shall I crucify your king?”
The chief priests answered,
“We have no king but Caesar.”
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself,
he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,
in Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they crucified him, and with him two others,
one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.
It read,
“Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
Now many of the Jews read this inscription,
because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;
and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
 “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.”
Pilate answered,
“What I have written, I have written.”

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
they took his clothes and divided them into four shares,
a share for each soldier.
They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top down.
So they said to one another,
“Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “
in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:
They divided my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
This is what the soldiers did.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
“It is finished.”
And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

Here all kneel and pause for a short time.

Now since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
and that they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
he knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may come to believe.
For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
Not a bone of it will be broken.
And again another passage says:
They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea,
secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,
also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes
weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus
and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,
according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for the tomb was close by.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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There’s an incredible true story of a man who freely accepted death during World War Two, which has haunted me all week, reminding me of the sacrifice of Jesus.

Josef Schulz was barely of age when he was drafted into the German army. Early one morning, his commanding officer ordered him and seven other soldiers to grab their rifles and follow him outside of their camp. 

Suddenly, Josef found himself standing on the top of a hill. Looking down, he saw a row of villagers – men, women, and children – standing blindfolded, arms locked, visibly shaking, terrified of what they suspected would be their fate. And rightly so. 

Josef’s commanding officer ordered him and the seven other soldiers to raise their rifles.

But Josef refused.

Putting his rifle down, he walked to the bottom of the hill, and turned and faced his brothers as he locked arms with one of the blindfolded villagers. 

Still, his commanding officer issued the order:

“FIRE!”

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Found inside Josef’s bloodied coat pocket was a verse from Saint Paul:

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (even execution by firing squad). Love never fails.”

What is often recited at weddings made its way into the pocket of a young man, who gave his life for that belief.

“Love never fails.”

Love is why Josef disobeyed military orders, preferring to die in solidarity with total strangers rather than to execute them. One can only imagine the shock and pain of his parents when they first heard the news.

But, as time passed, I’m sure they admired their son’s courage and conviction, as he willingly died like his Lord, leaning into a faith they likely taught him.

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Throughout his own life, Jesus gave himself away. He healed, forgave, and served the needy. As a final act of freedom, he turned and faced his brothers, locking arms with the “villagers.”

On Calvary, Jesus died for all, even Judas Iscariot, the crowds who shouted for his death, the unrepentant thief who scoffed at him, the unlucky soldier who drove nails into his flesh, and certainly for his disciples, even as they abandoned him.

Jesus died for Mary and John who stood at the Cross and watched in horror. He died for young men like Josef who have been killed in the fog of war. He died for all of us who would come to believe in him, honoring his sacrifice today.

While Good Friday is about betrayal, darkness, death, and unthinkable tragedy, it is above all about the love that swallows that darkness whole.

Love is what made Jesus victorious. The hatred and the violence stopped with him. 

And it continues to stop with every Christian who, like Josef Schulz, refuses to retaliate, to follow immoral orders, or to operate by that ancient punitive law, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

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While the loss of any human life is tragic, today we remember there is one thing stronger than death – love.

Divine love. A love, which Saint Paul says, “has been poured into our hearts.”

Such love “does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (even death by a firing squad or a bloody cross on a Friday afternoon). Love never fails.”

May it live on in you and me.

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Image credits: (1) Christ Crucified, Goya (2) Reddit (3) Hymnal Library

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Gospel: John 13: 1-15

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
            for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’  and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Kneeling down to wash someone’s feet seems odd to us today. But not in first century Palestine. It was an act of service, often done by servants or slaves.

In the ancient world, people didn’t travel in cars or on well-paved roads. Many walked barefoot along dry and dusty paths. Even those with sandals would occasionally brush their foot against a rock or catch a pebble in their toes, cutting and bruising their feet. 

We can imagine the disciples arriving for dinner on Holy Thursday with dusty, calloused feet. Someone should’ve done the washing – just not Jesus. But the Master is teaching his disciples a lesson, once again.

Peter senses something significant is happening, which is why he says, “Master, wash not only my feet, but my hands and head as well!”

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So, what is the meaning of this divine act of service?

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It was an act of love and a gesture of forgiveness; the Lord was washing not only his disciples’ feet, but also seeking to purify their hearts.

And, some would say, it was the moment of priestly ordination when these twelve imperfect men became the foundation of the Church. Consider some of their stories.

There was Judas, who, while he was having his feet washed, was plotting the final details of Christ’s betrayal. There were James and John, who will fall asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane as Jesus is praying.

There was Peter, who will curse and cry as he denies knowing Jesus three times. And, with the exception of John, there’s the rest of the lot who will abandon Jesus as he’s being crucified.

They were all in need of cleansing.

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Perhaps this image of washing feet is also an appropriate image for our own lives. We’re all journeying on different paths which are often strewn with pebbles, gashing our hearts, and callousing our feet.

So, what’s the pebble caught in my own sandal? What life experience has left its mark on me? Or, like the disciples, where do I need the Lord’s forgiveness?

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Tomorrow, the Lord will stoop even lower than he does tonight; Jesus will do much more than wash our feet. He’ll offer his very own Body and Blood for us on the Cross.

As Saint Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” To me, that is why the Church – why this church – is so beautiful.

Here Jesus welcomes us. Here he washes our feet. Here he speaks to us through the scriptures. Here he feeds us with a sacred meal – no, not with bread and wine, but with his very own Self.

Where else can we find such healing for our hearts and nourishment for our souls? 

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While removing the dust from our feet is no longer necessary – we aren’t walking in first-century Palestine – we still have our share of cuts and bruises from journeying along the road of life.

The Lord sees our pain and, tonight, he kneels down to cleanse us.

If this is so, then, “Master, wash not only my feet, but my hands and head as well!”

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Image credits: (1) Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet, Ford Maddox Brown (2) Christadelphian Tidings (3) The First Eucharist, Wentworth Wooden Puzzles