What is Faith?

My second oldest daughter loves riddles. She recently asked me this one…

“You can’t see me,

You can’t hear me,

You can’t feel me,

But you know I’m here around you.

What am I?”

The answer is air. It made me stop and think “hmmm” Yes you can’t see, hear or touch air yet we breathe without thinking about proving that it is real. We have faith that air is always there to sustain us and keep us alive. We just trust it is there, and don’t ask for the scientific explanation of how air works. You just have faith that the air will fill your lungs and continue about your day.

Faith. What is faith? The dictionary says it is the complete trust and confidence in someone or something. What does the bible say faith is? Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So to say you have faith that air will fill your lungs is true in both the secular and biblical definitions. In this upcoming week’s gospel, Thomas does not have faith. When Jesus visits the other disciples, Thomas says he will not believe until he can touch the nail marks in Jesus’s hands. When Jesus visits the disciples a second time, he tells Thomas to touch his wounds. Jesus then says, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." Which brings me back to air. Do you not believe in air because you cannot see it? Or do you faithfully inhale and exhale all the days of your life?

Why would believing in Jesus be any different? We cannot see God, touch God, but we can feel God. I feel him all the time. During Easter Mass Father Bob spoke about God moments. I bet you have had one, they happen all the time. My most profound God moment is a true miracle. After fighting off a very rare, aggressive and fast moving cancer, I was told that I would need IVF to successfully have another child. To understand what this diagnosis meant to me is to understand that the cancer I had was formed from a miscarriage. We hoped to have our sixth child. Having four daughters, and the youngest was a son, I yearned for a brother for my son. Accepting that another child was not in the cards for us, I was so surprised when I discovered I was pregnant… and with a boy! But really should I have been surprised? I prayed devoutly for the chance to have a son. When we told our children the news, one of my daughters leaped up and announced she had been praying for a brother. I was told it wouldn’t happen and it did. And it was the son I prayed over and over for daily. But God wasn’t done yet letting me know my prayers were heard. When I went to the doctor’s office, I was told my due date was Easter. If that wasn’t a clear sign then I’m not sure what else could be.

Some God moments are not always so big as the birth of a long awaited child. Many are little moments we may not even recognize. While speaking with a group of teens on their confirmation retreat, we spoke about God moments. Something as little as the right song just happened to come on the radio exactly when you needed those lyrics to speak to you… God moment. When I told the teens that, they perked up. Sometimes you just need to have faith and believe in what you cannot see. You need to trust fall into God’s arms. And sometimes, you need to be reminded that you can feel God around you. There is scientific proof of God, just as there is for air, but we need to believe and have completely trust in God just as we do in air. Rest assured that every time you breathe that God is with you.

God Bless and Be Faithful,

Kate Federico 

Fear does not define us!

As I sit in my office on a rainy marathon Monday reflecting on the readings of Holy Week and Easter, my mind keeps wandering to the last time I was in Boston for the Marathon, April 15, 2013 and all the similarities between how many people felt that day and how the Apostles must have felt when Jesus was killed. 

I was there with a group of friends when tragedy struck.  We were overcome with emotions – fear, sadness, anger.  We ran to the closest apartment and locked ourselves inside, afraid for what might happen next.  We cried, we comforted each other, we reached out to love ones to see if they were ok or to let them know that we were ok.  We were glued to the television as reporters and authorities tried to make sense of what had happened.  We didn’t move for hours.  Time felt like it was both racing and standing still at the same time.  In some ways those hours felt like days as we waited to hear back from loved ones, but it also felt like minutes as we prayed for those who died and were fearful of what was next. 

Today I realized how similar those feelings and reactions were to how the Apostles felt.  Their Lord, the man they had been following for the last 3 years was just arrested, flogged and killed.  The Apostles were afraid and ran to the upper room and locked themselves inside, fearful of what might happen next.  Were they in danger too?  Were they about to suffer and die? I can only imagine the conversations in the room had to be similar to the conversations my friends and I had that day.  How could this happen?  Who would do such a thing?  Why would God let this happen?  Are we safe?  The time the Apostles spent in the upper room had to feel like an eternity. 

The amazing thing about both stories is that neither one ends with people being locked away in a room, paralyzed by fear, defeated by evil, conquered by death.  Both stories have a triumphant ending.  Christ conquered sin and death through his Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  Good had conquered evil.  Sin and death could not defeat God.  We are stronger because of it.  The Apostles are stronger because of it.  The Church is stronger because of it.  Through the Resurrection, the Apostles had the strength to go out and face evil and sin head on and spread the message of Jesus Christ and build His Church.

The people of Boston also grew stronger in the face of the evil and tragedy that happened 6 years ago.  Boston came together as a town and as a people and said we will not give into fear and death.  We will carry on.  We will be better.  We will be stronger.  In the face of fear and evil, the following year, the marathon grew in number of runners and fans.  Many athletes who were injured in the bombing came back and competed, some even in wheelchairs or with prosthetic limbs.  Sin and death could not defeat Christ and it could not defeat the city of Boston.

I am a Midwestern boy, through and through, but in the aftermath of that tragic day, I was proud to consider myself (even if only temporarily) a Bostonian.   Tragedy has a way of bringing people together.  It brought the Apostles and the early Church together and it brought the people of Boston together.

No matter what you are going through in life right now, no matter how dark or low it may be, take strength in knowing that through the Cross, Jesus conquered sin and death forever.  There is light at the end of the tunnel and you will be stronger in the end.

I pray that you and your families have a very Blessed Holy Week and a Happy Easter!

Christ is Risen! Christ is Truly Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia!

Reflection by Matthew Bensman

Who are you in the Passion Story?

Where do we begin to reflect on the Passion that is proclaimed this Sunday at Mass?  I love Holy week and one of the reasons is that each year I am drawn into the drama of the story of Jesus, Passion, Death and Resurrection.  When we read the Passion, I can imagine myself there and observing all that occurred.  I find that different years I identify with different people in the story!   This year Barabbas caught my imagination.  Imagine what it was like to be him.  He was set free and Jesus died instead!  What would that feel like to be Barabbas?  Did he have any idea what was going on or what was happening to him?

How did he feel when he heard the crowd shout “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us.” Luke 23:18.    We know now that Easter brings New Life to each of us.  What did Barabbas do with his New Life?  What do we do with ours?

I read several reflections throughout Lent as a way to be immerse myself in the story, and I was caught by this reflection about Barabbas by Alice Camille and thought that I would share it!

“Of all the sideline characters inhabiting the Passion story, Barabbas is among the most obscure.  History fills in details beyond the Bible accounts about powerful men like King Herod and Pontius Pilate…. Barabbas is a bit player, a common criminal in an age of oppression that fostered lots of violent men just like him.  We know his given name is a nickname: Barabbas: Bar Abbas means “son of the father.”  Like Jesus, then, Barabbas was his father’s son, possibly born to the criminal class, this death sentence no surprise to anyone who knew him.

And then, the unexpected happens: on a technicality involving another case entirely, Barabbas is released into the sunlight and goes free.

What happens to a man like that?  Sweedish Author Par Lagerkvist, a Nobel Prize winner, wrote a novel about Barabbas’ fate.  In it, the freed man faces a choice: to return to his old ways or to redeem himself.  There is of course, a third option: Barabbas might allow himself to be redeemed by the man put to death in his place.  What makes this story so gripping is that it’s not just Barabbas who must make the decision.  We are all Barabbas, purchased by an innocent man’s blood.”

This week, I am left to consider that Jesus died for me.  I am Barabbas.  What decision will I make?  How will I live for Jesus because he died for me? 

Reflection by Jeanne Cregan

The Fingers of God

Last night when my two year old granddaughter was getting ready for bed after a long day of playing and running around outside, I asked her if she had a kiss for me before going to bed.  She replied in a grouchy voice “go away Nana!  I realized that she was worn out from her busy day and that she didn’t really mean what she had said to me, but I looked back at her with an extra sad face.  Right away she looked at me and on the verge of tears she said “I’m sorry Nana” she touched my face with her delicate little finger and gave me a great big kiss, and all was forgiven.

A week or so ago I began reading through the three readings for this Sunday, 4/7 the Fifth Sunday of Lent.  Each time as I reflected on the readings certain words and phrases kept surfacing. In all three of the readings we hear of God’s power of forgiveness and reconciliation. “Thus says the LORD, remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!” (Reading 1  IS 43:16-21), “Just one thing:  forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Jesus Christ.” (PHIL 3: 14), and from the Gospel reading (JN 8:1-11) John tells the story of the woman caught in adultery.

I’ve noticed that throughout the Bible God’s fingers are referenced many times.  It appears in Exodus 8:15 during the plaques in Egypt “this is the finger of God” and in Exodus 31:18 where the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments are “inscribed by the finger of God” and in today’s Gospel reading (JN 8:1-11) where John tells us that “Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger”.  The finger of God being used as a symbol of God’s power, his infinite power to forgive and to heal.  He extends His finger, His hand, His mercy and His forgiveness to each of us as we go to him sinful, with a sincere heart seeking to repair our damaged friendship with him through repentance and reconciliation. 

Today in Mass we recited both the Verse before the Gospel (JL 2:12-13) “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart; for I am gracious and merciful.” Each time we pray The Lord’s Prayer we ask God to forgive us our trespasses and lead us not in to temptation but deliver us from evil.  We desire God’s mercy and he desires for us to have it despite our concupiscence.

So as we journey through the final few weeks of Lent seeking to grow in our relationship with God and striving to become a reflection of Christ in the world, we continue to try or best, forgiving others who have hurt us and creating one holy moment at a time bringing encouragement and joy to those who God places in our path each day. 

Reflection by Colleen Larose