This Sunday concludes the Octave of Easter. An octave is a celebration of eight days in the Church and each day is honored liturgically in the same way as the day in which the octave began, in this case Easter Sunday. Following the reforms of Vatican II, only two octaves remain in the ordinary form of the Churches liturgical calendar: Easter and Christmas. While the octave may be finishing, the joy of the Easter Season continues on. This was a Triduum unlike any other. The liturgies were beautiful and I am grateful for the comments that we received from folks via social media. While they were beautiful, they were lacking in that you were not able to be there and that subdued the joy that naturally comes from the celebration of Easter. I wish to thank our own Mark Gifford for providing us with the beauty of the organ during our celebrations, thank you to Andrew Hansen and Michael Hoerner from the Catholic Pastoral Center for filming/streaming our celebrations, and thank you to my confreres in the clergy and our seminarians for helping to make the liturgies happen.

The Gospel for the Second of Sunday of Easter is popularly known as the Gospel of Doubting Thomas. Here our Lord appears to Thomas, and the other ten Apostles, and invites Thomas to see and probe his wounds so that Thomas might believe that the Lord is truly risen and that he is who he says he is. While the Lord’s body has been changed and glorified, the wounds from his crucifixion remain. Theologians have marveled over this reality for 2,000 years and posed various reasons as to why. As in the case of St. Thomas the Apostle, the wounds identify the Lord for who is but they also tell us what death is no longer; death is no longer an eternal reality for those who live and die in God’s friendship. The marks of the Lord’s death remain but, but death has no power over him, and through him neither over us. St. Leo the great says it more eloquently in a homily on the Lord’s Passion:

He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity.

As we continue our journey through this Easter Season, let us turn to the risen Lord to draw newness of life from him, remembering that the wounds of our present lives, painful as they may be, are only things of the here and now; in the Resurrection on the last day, when Christ makes us new, those things will be no more.

Father Christopher House is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, namely Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

It looks like many of us will be spending more time at home for a few weeks, whether for selfquarantine, lockdown, or social distancing. What can we do to keep ourselves spiritually engaged and even grow during this time, rather than stagnate or fall away from our spiritual disciplines? Here are a few suggestions.

Why Has God Given You This Time?
Your initial impulse might be to get more yard work done or to tackle certain home improvement projects. Maybe you are excited about catching up on some television shows, movies or novels.

But what does God want from you with this time? One of the most consistent themes of spiritual writings is that all things are ordained for our holiness. For example, in her fantastic work The Spiritual Life and Prayer, Cécile Bruyerè observes:

“All God’s designs over us in this world are intended to bring about our supernatural perfection.”

Begin and end each day asking God what he wants from you during this time. Pay attention to what’s happening in your life. How is God using this disruption to direct your attention to what he’s trying to accomplish in you? You may have numerous plans for what you want to accomplish. But to what do you see God calling your attention? Maybe the Lord wants you to slow down, spend more time in leisure. Or maybe he wants you to devote more time to prayer. Or maybe he’s asking you to trust him and stop relying on yourself so much. Come back to the question of what this time is for repeatedly. The Lord is calling you to grow!

Jesus, I Trust in You!
There are many things to fret about at this time. Even if you are not worried about getting seriously ill, you can worry about friends and family members getting ill. Or you can worry about your job, the economy, and your retirement account. If your mind is like mine, there will be numerous moments throughout the day when it takes a hard turn toward worryville. When you start doom dreaming, make a habit of saying, whether aloud or internally, “Jesus, I trust in you!”

Study
Instead of binge-watching shows, challenge yourself and exercise rather than relax your mind. Grow in your understanding of your Faith. The deeper your understanding of your faith, the greater the personal connection and engagement. Don’t let this opportunity pass by.

There are so many excellent online resources available that you don’t even have to worry about shipping delays. Ascension has numerous “instant access” study programs at affordable prices. Could you do any better than to think about the life of Jesus Christ through Jesus: The Way, the Truth, and the Life? Or, why not spend these weeks learning about the history of the Church through the excellent program, Epic? You can explore the biblical roots of the Catholic Faith through Sonja Corbitt’s Fulfilled. If you are a mother, you can think more about your vocation to motherhood with Danielle Bean’s cleverly named Momnipotent program. Perhaps you want to use this time to go deeper in prayer? Check our Fr. Mark Toups’ Oremus: A Guide to Catholic Prayer or Lenten Companion. Finally, you could master Scripture by working through Ascension’s excellent Great Adventure Bible study series. Or why not work through Romans?

Prepare for Massless
Sunday Worship More and more dioceses are canceling public Mass. But canceling Mass or dispensation for the Sunday obligation doesn’t mean you don’t have to worship God. The worship of the Lord is mandated in the first three commandments and it is our first duty. How are you going to worship the Lord outside of Mass? You can spend a couple of days during the week preparing a home service.

Why not have your family process to a place dedicated to prayer (see #8) while singing a hymn. You can find some hymns online that you could sing. Then you could make a general confession and sing the Kyrie. Read the Mass readings. In place of the homily, listen to the Mass readings explained by Dr. Brant Pitre, Dr. Scott Hahn, or Jeff Cavins. Or listen to some homilies that are posted online, like those from St. Mary’s Cathedral in Aberdeen. Take a crucifix or icon of Christ and spend some time in mental prayer. Include an Act of Spiritual Communion.

Read or Listen to Stories of the Saints
The saints faced much adversity but did so virtuously. They have much to teach us in these uncertain times. You can pick up dramatized audio stories of St. Francis, St. Cecilia, and St. Patrick from the Augustine Institute. If you have children who are home from school, check out the series of saint stories from Holy Heroes. Or read about St. Albert the Great, St. Colette, St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis de Sales, St. John Henry Newman, St. John Paul II, St. Therese, or her saintly family. If you want to read a novel about a saint, look into the novels by Louis de Wohl.

Pray Compline
If you don’t already, end the day with Compline or “night prayer.” This is the last hour of prayer for the day. It is meant not only to prepare you for rest, but to prepare you for death. It includes a time for examination of conscience. You can view the “night office” through Universalis, which offers an excellent app if you’d like to have all the offices. Magnificat also has a version of Compline, and during the Coronavirus outbreak, they are offering complimentary access to an online version of their monthly book.

Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy
In times like these, we can fall into the trap of thinking only about ourselves and taking care of our needs. We can see our fellow human beings as threats. But the hallmark of our devotion to God is our concern for those in need. What can you do to help others during this time? Consider the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and ask yourself what you might do to help.

Build a Home Shrine
Why not get crafty during this time? If you don’t have one, build a little home altar or shrine. There is a great book that can help you called The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home by David Clayton and Leila Marie Lawler.

Dr. James R. A. Merrick is a lecturer at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Senior Fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, and a theology and Latin teacher at St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. Follow Dr. Merrick on Twitter: @JamesRAMerrick.

As we age, we come to expect letdowns and disappointments. Because of so many unfulfilled promises and unmet expectations, we become cynical of anything that can seem too good to be true. Our hearts grow calloused to protect us from future disillusionment. And so, we come to demand proof and assurances before committing ourselves to anything.

Such is the case with Thomas and the other apostles in today’s gospel. They had set all their hope on Jesus. And it all came to a horrifying and humiliating end with the crucifixion. Now, they were reduced to hiding behind a locked door for fear that the authorities would do to them what they had done to Jesus.

While they were cowering in fear, Jesus appeared to them. John tells us that Jesus shows himself to them, “despite the locked doors.” John is not just referring here to the heavy wooden doors of their hiding place. He is talking about the closed doors of their hearts. Jesus doesn’t wait until they calm down or get perspective on the situation. Rather, he breaks through the door of their fear announcing the good news that he is alive.

Just as Jesus is not shut out by the closed doors of the apostles’ fear, neither is he shut out by the closed door of Thomas’ doubt. Instead, taking up Thomas’ challenge, Jesus appears to him so that he can put his doubt aside. The nail marks on his hands, feet, and side dispel any doubt that this is truly the risen Jesus standing before him.

All of us have times when we approach God with a closed heart. We might fear that He will take from us more than we’re willing to give. Or, we might fear that we’ll be made fun of if we live His message in a total and radical way. Our hearts may also be hardened by doubt. With so many different religions and so many different opinions, we might wonder, who’s to say which is the right way?

No matter where we are with our faith — no matter how closed our hearts may seem — Jesus can break through that closed door and reveal himself. If you can only go so far, Jesus can meet you there. If you can only believe so much, Jesus can take your hand and lead you a little further along. There is no doubt, fear, or weakness that Jesus, through the power of his resurrection and the power of his Holy Spirit, cannot surmount.

Thomas is an example for us here. He is famous for his doubt — but his story doesn’t end there. Tradition tells us that he went on to preach the Gospel in India. He is often pictured with a spear, because he was run through with a spear and killed. Doubting Thomas was martyred for his witness to the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus broke through the closed door of Thomas’ doubt and filled him with the faith which enabled him to eventually give his life for Jesus.

The same is true for us. On Divine Mercy Sunday, Jesus wants nothing more than to reveal himself to us, dispel our doubts, and lead us to freedom and peace.

Douglas Sousa, S.T.L. is an author for Liturgical Publications, Inc., and writes reflections on various topics, including reflections on Sunday readings.

I wonder what those holy women were feeling early in the morning on that first day of the week, as the Scriptures teach us, when Mary Magdalene and the others came to the tomb only to find it void of the one whom they sought, when in their amazement they were told:

“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” (Matthew 28:5-6).

Those holy women were the first to receive the good news that has forever changed the course of human history and the meaning of our shared human experience.

Our shared human experience as of late will make this an Easter to remember, sadly for the suffering that our nation and many parts of the world have experienced throughout the Lenten season and even before due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we are not able to celebrate Easter in the many ways that might wish to, the good news of the empty tomb is not changed, nor is our Lord’s invitation to new life in Him rescinded.

On behalf of Bishop Paprocki and the Cathedral clergy and staff, I pray that the Lord will bless you and yours this Easter with the fullness of His grace and the joy that comes from Him alone. With every cross may we remember that the cross is never an end unto itself. In moments of sacrifice and desolation may we know that we are not alone or forsaken. May we always be mindful that Easter teaches us that God always gets the last word, and in the case of the cross and the tomb, His last word is life. All honor, praise, and glory to the risen Christ, who, by His death and resurrection, has gained for us the rewards of everlasting life! Happy Easter (and I hope to be able to wish that in person at some point during the fifty days of this holy season)!

Father Christopher House is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, namely Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

Christians, to the Paschal Victim

Offer your thankful praises!

A Lamb the sheep redeems;

Christ, who only is sinless,

Reconciles sinners to the Father.

Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:

The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.

Speak, Mary, declaring

What you saw, wayfaring.

“The tomb of Christ, who is living,

The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;

bright angels attesting,

The shroud and napkin resting.

Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;

to Galilee he goes before you.”

Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.

Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!

Amen. Alleluia.

This ancient hymn, the Victimae Paschali Laudes, is one of only a few “sequences” still in use in the Catholic Church today. A sequence— for your Catholic trivia file—is a hymn traditionally sung just before the Gospel proclamation. Before the reforms of the Mass in 1570, there were many such hymns on feast days and solemnities throughout the Church year. The current Roman Missal has only three: the above sequence for Easter, the Veni Sancte Spiritus for Pentecost, and the recommended (i.e. optional) Lauda Sion for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

The Easter Sequence is one of my absolute favorite pieces of prose in the entire Church year. Traditionally, the hymn is dated to the 11th century, one millennium after Christ’s Resurrection and one millennium from our current day. As such, it’s not only a beautiful hymn, it’s a sort of “bridge of faith,” connecting our belief down the centuries to the faith of the Apostles on that Easter morning, when the dawn from on high had only just begun.

Take a few moments to read this beautiful hymn, proclaimed proudly to believers this and every Easter (better yet, find a version of it on YouTube and listen to it!). It speaks in simple words an almost unfathomable reality: Christ, who alone is sinless, reconciles us to the Father! Death and life have fought for us in these days, my brothers and sisters, but the Prince of Life has conquered—not will conquer, but has conquered, definitively, once and for all, this nighttime of our fears.

And now, in the light of Easter morning, our hope indeed has risen. Postured again before the empty tomb, having lived a more realistic Good Friday and Holy Saturday than we ever could have imagined, we stand amazed, realizing once again what it is we truly live for.

Our Lord’s Resurrection, I pray, is as real to you today as it is to me. I pray the light of this Easter morning sheds light and glory on the struggles of this past Lent. And I pray that with this new dawn, the grace of the Lord’s favor will once again shine on His pilgrim people: we who live in this world, but who have long hoped for a world not yet completely our own.

Christ indeed from death is risen, brothers and sisters! May our King, ever reigning, come to meet us in His glory and bring us at last to life with Him and the Father, in the unity of His Holy Spirit. Amen, alleluia!

Father Michael Friedel is a Parochial Vicar at the Cathedral and Chaplain at Sacred Heart Griffin High School.

He’s. Not. Here.

3 simple words, but the incontrovertible evidence that the tomb was empty – the tomb until moments prior guarded by Roman soldiers, sealed by decree of Pilate, and scrutinized by those who hated and loved Christ alike – that He is not there, that He is somehow alive, marvelously outshone the splendor of the angels on that first Easter morning.

Sinfulness, fear, awe … all those emotions that would appear in any “normal” encounter with angels are obliterated and overwhelmed by the truth of the resurrection. They run back to the disciples, yes, “with fear”, but, all the more incredibly, with “great joy”. Never had such a transformation been brought about in human hearts.

They come to the tomb despondent – having seen the brutality of the crucifixion – devastated – still feeling the horror of that great stone rolled over their God’s grave – despairing – excepting the remnant of love that they can still offer His body. But 3 words later, and with one blinding-flash of angelic light, hope returns to their hope. The hope … that somehow the bloody nightmare of Golgotha wasn’t the end. The hope … that somehow this grave and grief were somehow all part of God’s plan. The hope … against hope that their redeemer lives.

But those three words were to be outshone by a single one several swift steps back towards Jerusalem:

“behold, Jesus met them and said, “Hail!”

The same single word that announced the beginning of God’s great invasion into His enslaved world – hail, rejoice, be glad – now announces His definitive re-conquest. The women need not fall down in shame and sin. Sin has been annihilated, shown to be nothing in comparison with the superabundant Love of God. They need not fall down in fear or trepidation. Death has no power here, it has been overthrown; the tomb is now our passage to eternity. And they need not fall down awestruck at the work of God, for their God bears wounds in His human hands, and feet, and heart. Never again can any of us claim to be unworthy, unloved, or uncherished once we have embraced the Body of the Risen Christ.

My dear friends, in Christ. Your and my sins – if we give them to our Risen Savior – stand the same chance against God’s Love as that rock did. Your and my fears – if we live out of our identity as sons and daughters in the Risen Son – will be transformed into icons of His resurrecting-power, as Christ’s burial shroud was. And, your and my wonder at the mystery and power of our Risen Christ – if we receive His greeting of profound love – will be the catalyst for our great joy, in the midst of a world that otherwise might seem pretty crazy.

Happy Easter!!! Yes, it’s a weird one, a daunting one even, but so was the very first Easter! Those women approached the tomb thinking that the greatest good God could bring out of that morning was Jesus’ body anointed properly. But God grace isn’t like ointment, it doesn’t just cover over the problems or pains of our lives, it radically inverts them. If He can bring the greatest of all goods out of a roman execution … If He can conquer the powers of Sin and Death by enduring the shame of Golgotha … He can manage, in the midst of anything, to make the greatest of saints out of you and I. Alleluia, He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Fr. Dominic Rankin is a Parochial Vicar at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

We can learn a lot about evangelization from the World War One film 1917. On imdb.com, a reviewer, calling himself “grantss” (no relation to me) summarized 1917’s plot with these words:

“April 1917, the Western Front. Two British soldiers are sent to deliver an urgent message to an isolated regiment. If the message is not received in time the regiment will walk into a trap and be massacred. To get to the regiment they will need to cross through enemy territory. Time is of the essence and the journey will be fraught with danger.”

Now imagine the above summary changed slightly so that it applies to your life–and the lives of your fellow Catholics:

“March 2020, the City of Springfield. Cathedral parishioners are sent to deliver an urgent message to a Midwestern population. If the good news is not received in time, many people will remain far from God and be eternally unhappy. To get to the unchurched they will need to venture into secular society. Time is of the essence and the journey will be fraught with danger.”

In the First World War, the stakes included the lives of millions of soldiers and citizens, along with the political future of Europe and its colonies. The Allies were fighting to defeat the Axis Powers and to defend their foreign and domestic nations and peoples.

In the life of every Christian, a similar war is waged. In your life and in mine, we have the opportunity to be a participant in the campaign to bring friends and family and neighbors to Christ, or, we can choose to allow these relatives and acquaintances to remain in “enemy territory.”

Okay, you say, I’m willing to take part, but what exactly is my part again? Do I need to put on a uniform? Go through basic training? Dig a trench and hunker down?

In 1917, we see the Axis and Allied armies use tried-and-true tactics, while also incorporating new technologies and strategies into their arsenal. They fight with knives, rifles, and machine guns, trip wires, buried mines, and barbed wire, and artillery and airplanes–anything to get the job done.

In a similar vein, a modern Catholic who wants to win the evangelization war must use both tried and true techniques, like having good friends and a consistent prayer life, reading Scripture, and going to Mass as often as possible, while also taking advantage of new ways to spread the good news.

These might include posting on social media sites, pulling Christian messages out of popular movies, songs, and games, using words and analogies that connect with modern audiences, and offering others your personal testimony and friendly hospitality to show them that the Christian life is livable, believable, and true.

These strategies can’t be activities that we “add on” to our lives but should instead be parts of a total lifestyle change. A soldier going to war doesn’t just change clothes or add a few hours of combat to their normal routine. They leave family, friends, home, career, and everything else behind to defend their country.

Just so, a Christian hoping to evangelize can’t just put on a cross necklace, volunteer to read at Mass, or pray piously for five minutes before bedtime and expect to leave the rest of their life the same as before. A Catholic determined to be an ambassador will need to let the light of Christ shine in and on and through every aspect of their life.

Finally, just as the goal of war is to bring peace to a nation, the goal of evangelization is to bring peace to others. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, we aren’t at peace with anything in the world: our bodies, our work, our friends, and above all, our God. Everything and everyone is fractured and broken. Because there is this great need, we need to aim our evangelization at bringing the peace of Christ into the lives of everyone we know and meet.

Grant Wilson is a seminarian for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, currently residing at the Cathedral on internship. He will be going into third theology in the fall.