You're listening to From the Friars podcast, the community of Franciscan friars of the renewal headquartered in the Bronx, New York City. The Lord be with you. The reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went quickly, went away quickly from the tune, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news 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.
While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priest all that had happened. The chief priest assembled with the elders and took counsel. Then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers telling them, you are to say his disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep. And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed, and this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ. My brothers and sisters, may the Lord give you his peace.
Welcome. So here we are on Monday of the Octavistir. It is still Easter. It is still Easter.
You know we have the 40 days of Lent to prepare, and then Easter arrives. We've got the 50 days of the Easter season. So the 40 days in which our Lord was appearing and disappearing to the church, and the different stories of that. And then his ascension back to the right hand of the Father, from then he shall come to judge the living of the dead.
And then the nine days of prayer, the first of Novina, at the end of which was the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So 50 days, the word Pentecost meaning 50 days from Passover. So we need to get ready for another season. So what are you giving up for the season of Easter?
Oh no, we never asked that question, right? But once again, for those who are blessed to go to Mass every day, or to look at the readings and prayers every day, the church has done a marvelous job pulling all of it together for us. And I would like to offer a word of encouragement to everyone. If you have the opportunity to sit down with your Bible and take a look at the accounts of the resurrection stories in their entirety.
So you know what Mass? We're just getting snippets here and there, like yesterday from John 20 and then Tuesday tomorrow, we'll get a little more of it than this coming Sunday to Vine where she's Sunday. We'll get a little more of it. I would propose it's so good to take the time to sit with your Bible and actually read the accounts in their entirety.
You know, just to take it all in. And it's so good. And so here's the thing, it's a little theme for today, okay? The stories of the resurrection are messy.
They are messy. One of my favorite books, all about the resurrection. It's a big theological book by NT, right? Almost 900 pages all on the resurrection.
I read it three times and I read it some of it again today. And in there, he's going through the different stories from Matthew, the different stories from Mark, the different stories from Luke, and the different stories from John. And then a couple of mentions in the letters of Saint Paul. And you know what?
It's kind of messy. And there would be some people who would see that and they would say, oh, wait a minute, maybe this didn't happen. Maybe these stories are mythology or tales or made up or whatever. And so that is a challenge.
That is a challenge. And we accept that challenge. And in that book with NT Wright and the really scholarly approach, he uncovers some really interesting details, which I'd love to share with you. In that book, he's proposing that the messiness of the stories, not only do they not propose that these stories were made up, rather it's the opposite, the messiness of it all, bears witness that these stories are authentic and true.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John made a real effort to preserve the truth of what happened. And they did not make up these stories, nor did they make a big effort to clean it up. You know, had they done that? If everything was super neat and clean and fit together perfectly, then maybe somebody would have some ground to stand on.
Look at this. You know, maybe this is so truthful. Like this is a document from these early believers. They were trying to put together something to convince people of their religion.
And so maybe it's not so trustworthy. But what we actually see is something that really has the look and feel of authentic early eyewitness accounts. Now, the messiness of these stories, they never contradict one another. I'm not saying that.
And if you take the time to read through Matthew's version, then Mark's version, then Luke's version, then John's version, then Luke's version again, they compliment each other really beautifully. But there are differences there. And the evangelists made an effort to not edit and clean it up and make it like, oh, you know, like synthesize and, you know, what do you say, carpentry, you know, like sanding all that roughness out. They left it, which at the end of the day bears witness that these are trustworthy, truthful, authentic accounts.
And one of the biggest scandals of them all is the whole thing in the beginning, hinges on the testimony of women. And in that culture, that didn't mean a thing. No offense, it does now, but in that culture. You know, if you wanted to get a religion started and you wanted to like say, this is what happened in a way that would be convincing to your culture, you would not have the whole thing based off of the testimony of these, you know, super pious ladies, you know, and that culture, that didn't amount for anything.
And yet here we are. Again, another moment that bears witness to the truthfulness of the account, you know, if it was being made up, they wouldn't have done it that way. So maybe it wasn't made up. How beautiful.
And, you know, Mary Magdalene is called the apostle to the apostles. See, the word apostle means to be sent. And in today's gospel of Jesus sends her to the others. See, the 12 apostles, they weren't there.
So they get the word of Jesus' resurrection initially from the women. And these were the same ladies who were at the cross, actually. You know, and so to take away the rest of us today, first of all, if you're there, you'll get the grace. You know, there's something to be said.
So you are at church. It's not a Sunday. You don't have to be here, but you're here. So good to see all of you.
We'd like to see you hear more. But if you show up, if you're there, you will receive the grace. The Lord has an abundance of grace that he wants to give us. There's no limit on the grace the Lord wants to give us.
So why do some get some grace and others that ask for it? Show up, you know, it reminds me of a story which I love. The Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labarese in 1830 in France, right? The miraculous metal, you know, the story.
And she had a vision and Virgin Mary told her to have these metals made, according to this image. She sees these rings and from the rings in her hands, this is the media, the graces of grace, the graces are flowing. We see that in the statue of Arlating Grace, she's standing on the snake and she's got the graces coming out of her hands. And then there were some spots where there was no rays coming.
And Saint Catherine Labarese asked her, well, what is that? Why are there no graces? And Mother Mary says, those are the graces that nobody asks for. When I read that, now I got to the habit, like, I'll take all those graces that nobody's asking for.
You know, I'll take them. They're being asked for now. Ask and you shall receive. You know, go, show up, go to Mass, go to confession.
Say that rotary as Mary has asked and you will receive. You know, if you're not showing up and you're not doing it, then maybe you won't get as many graces. So praise the Lord for that. And then the second takeaway, and this is my favorite, just as the different stories are kind of messy.
Our lives are kind of messy. So we can be okay and we can be at peace with the messiness of things, right? That we look into the mirror and we see ourselves and we know that we are not perfect and those that we live with are not perfect and our families and our situations and our friends and the difficulties and we can feel temptations to frustration, all this imperfection. We find ourselves.
What does the prayer say, this valley of tears, you know? But one of my favorite prayers that I'd love to pray usually said partially sarcastically, Lord, bless this mess. This world is so messy. And but here we have the messiness of the situation that the Lord entered into.
And so we can be at peace with all the struggles and the difficulties and sometimes the failures and weaknesses. It's okay. It's okay. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
Amen. You've been listening to From the Friars podcast, the community of Francis and Friars, the renewal. Please visit us at francescanfriars.com or on social media, CFR underscore Franciskins.