April 9, 2023

Dear Friends in Christ,

The above lines, taken from the Solemn Proclamation of Easter, known as the Exultet, remind us of the incredible power of Christ’s resurrection. With all the distractions that fill our every waking moment these days, the sacred liturgies we have celebrated this past week provided a much-needed pause to remind us that we must keep our hearts and minds focused on Christ and the power of His resurrection. Staying focused on Christ can be challenging, whether we are dealing with personal or family tragedy or pain or worried and discouraged as we watch the horrific news and images that continue to come out of Ukraine. We also find ourselves concerned about and praying for all those involved in the recent school shooting in Nashville and the tornadoes that have claimed so many lives and caused so much damage. Yet, through it all, we need to trust that Jesus is walking with us and that He will use the power of His resurrection to bring us joy and, most assuredly, bring light into the midst of the darkness around us.

Remember that Jesus promised He would never leave us orphaned or abandoned. Stay close to Him! Bring Jesus into your hearts and homes, unlike any other time in your life. And reflect on the ultimate message of these days, namely that every Good Friday, every cross we bear, brings about an Easter Sunday. We may not know when that Easter experience will shine forth, but we need to trust that Christ will see it through because of His great love for us!

May we be like the early disciples of Jesus, who used the power and grace of the resurrection to transform lives. In Christ’s name, may we go forth to bring peace to our family and friends, may we go out and bring mourners joy, and most importantly, may we go out and help dispel all kinds of darkness and evil so that the Kingdom of Christ may continue to grow in our midst. There is, indeed, great power in the resurrection of Christ. It’s up to us to use it! That power is in our hands!

Happy Easter!

With best wishes and prayers for you and your family, I remain,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Rev. Msgr. G. Michael Bugarin

Lead in-solidum Priest for Saint Joan of Arc Parish

The disciples ran to the empty tomb when they heard about the risen Jesus on the first Easter. Even Peter, who ran away from him and then denied him three times, ran to Jesus.

Do we have that kind of excitement when it comes to embracing our risen Lord? We are not citizens of this world. We are made for heaven, and in this Easter Octave the joy in acknowledging that fact resonates throughout the Church. In our baptism, we became a new creation in Christ. With his resurrection he ushers in a new beginning.

Jesus is alive! With the Ascension, he took his rightful place at the right hand of the Father, but he is still among us in the Eucharist, in his Word, and in you and I.

So take heart and have hope in the resurrection, no matter what you may be going through.

SJA is moderating a Facebook group for our parishioners and friends embarking on the Catechism in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz and Ascension Press.

You can find the link to join on the SJA Facebook page or click the button below. We already have 90+ participants!

In this week’s Encountering the Word video, Jeff Cavins reflects on the readings for The Resurrection of the Lord – The Mass of Easter Sunday:

First Reading: Acts 10:34A, 37-43

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23

Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6B-8

Alleluia: 1 Corinthians 5:7B-8A

Gospel: John 20:1-9

Friends, Happy Easter! Christ is risen—Alleluia, Alleluia! Recently, I had a public conversation with the popular historian Tom Holland. Someone from the crowd asked him, “What’s the call of our time?” and he said, “Let Christianity be weird.” When I was coming of age, there was a tendency to reduce Christianity to just another vague mysticism or moral system. If that’s all Christianity is, who cares? I’m with Tom Holland: let Christianity be weird, because Christianity is weird. And a lot of the weirdness focuses on the thing we celebrate today: the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Easter: A very happy and blessed Easter Season to you and to your families. Since February 22, we have been on this journey through our Lenten season, which culminated with Holy Week and the shortest season on the Church calendar. If you didn’t attend any of the liturgies during Holy Week, you missed the entire season of the Triduum! The Triduum is the summit of the entire liturgical year, the three calendar days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. And from sundown and the beginning of the Easter Vigil on the evening of Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday begins and we celebrate the Resurrection and Christ’s victory over death.

Every single celebration of the Mass is a celebration of this same singular event. Every single Mass celebrated by the church is a re-presentation of the Christ’s death and Resurrection from the dead. And on every Sunday and every Solemnity, we proclaim together what we celebrate and believe when we profess the Creed. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the section on the Profession of Faith, Christ’s death and decent into Hell is explained. Christ’s death was not a passive experience. He chose to accept the cross, to go to work for the salvation of souls—not only ours, but those who faithfully awaited a Savior even before Him. That time on the tomb was not one of silent helplessness, but a time of repair and rescue. The Catechism States:

The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was "raised from the dead" presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.

Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into "Abraham's bosom": "It is precisely these holy souls… whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell."

Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him. (CCC 632-633)

Maybe we don’t like the thought of Jesus in Hell. Maybe we don’t even think about it, even though we profess it often at mass. So here’s an image that might be helpful to remember that it is a rescue mission. He went there to liberate the captives to whom God wanted to show mercy.

It was actually Fr. Riccardo, the presenter of the Rescue Project series many of us have been a part of in recent weeks who introduced me to the Anastasis. I have always loved this particular Greek icon and when you study it, you can see where some of the language and imagery he uses in the Rescue Project come from. Anastasis is Greek for Resurrection. Here’s the icon:

I realize this is a small image, but if you google Anastasis icon you will see many different versions of it. It is set in a stylized cave, the depths of Hades under mountains, in which the “righteous” men and women of the Old Testament have been kept in prison by Satan, the Prince of Hades, and assorted devils. Jesus stands in an almond shaped “glory” of light; such a “glory” is usually called a “mandorla” from the Italian word for “almond.”

What I find most profound about the image is that Jesus grasps the Adam and Eve by the wrists, pulling them out of their casket-like prisons. He is not reaching out for their hands, waiting for them to respond and reach back; He is grabbing them by the wrists, dragging them out of Hell. It’s not actually Adam and Eve He’s saving, but rather that they represent humanity in its fallen state. They represent the condition we would have found ourselves was it not for the Savior. But now He has come and broken those chains that trapped us in unending death, and given us the chance for eternal life.

At the feet of Jesus we see the broken gates of Hades (“Hell”), a bound corpse, and enough broken locks and bolts to stock a small hardware shop. These are to tell us that Jesus has broken into the prison of Hades, and is letting the prisoners out.

Various other Old Testament figures are seen to right and left, including, on the left, King David, King Solomon and John the Baptist. Among those on the right is Abel (outside the image shown), the son of Adam and Eve, holding his shepherd’s staff. Abel is considered the “first martyr” of the Old Testament because he was killed by his brother Cain.

The Office of Readings of the Church for Holy Saturday includes a hauntingly beautiful text known only as the “Ancient Anonymous Homily.” It speaks beautifully of the “Anastasis event.” It begins as follows:

Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell.

Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you.

I pray that this Easter Season, in the weeks ahead, each of us can hear Jesus speaking into those places of darkness in our lives that keep us captive, saying, “Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place.”

Jesus is Risen!

You are in my prayers this Easter Week.

adawson@sjascs.org 

We know that God is calling us spend time with Him in prayer. But sometimes it can feel like a waste of time. But is it?

Today, Fr. Mike shares a very special “Sneak-Peak” into an awesome resource for First Reconciliation and First Communion preparation from Ascension: “Renewed” and “Received”.

In a world that seems increasingly unstable, people are searching for stability.

That was the general theme behind a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. It was focused, primarily, on so-called Generation Z, those born in and since 1997.

The writer was reflecting on the sentiments she has observed from this particular generation of workers, early in their careers, trying to establish work-life equilibrium and make their mark, without suffering from fatigue and burnout, in a world best with one crisis after another.

The writer works her way through the topic, sharing insights from her own career and comments from others in various career stations and places, and ultimately concludes, “as you get older … all you can really hope for is good health and a meaningful life. Our health is often out of our hands, but making meaning of the change around us – making it about something greater and better than simply change itself – is something we can all endeavor to do.”

It’s interesting advice, but, especially on this Easter Sunday, one might suggest it misses the point a bit, or at least falls short.

Ultimately, the only source of meaning, and the only source of true comfort and stability, is in God. It is in looking to him that we find true, lasting joy and comfort.

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God,” we hear in today’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

“Think of what is above, not what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

“When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.”

He is Risen! Amen! Alleluia!

That’s it! You’re in. Now you can get the free FORMED app for your phone by searching FORMED Catholic in your app store.

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7:00 a.m., A Special Intention for the Family of Tina Calisi

7:00 a.m., A Special Intention for the Dobrzechowski Family

7:00 a.m., Brad Shuder

6:00 p.m., Special Intentions for Sally Cabot, Christine Bugarin and the Dawson Family

7:00 p.m., Cornelius B. Thelen

7:00 a.m., Rob Finn, Evan Battani, and Robbie Battani

4:00 p.m., Bonnie Batche, the deceased members of the Hage Family, Joan Weber, Dr. Lori Karol, Jim Jagger, Rob Finn, Evan Battani, Robbie Battani, Christopher Weingartz, Richard M. Barno, Edward, Helen and Henry Blind, Michael DePetro and Special Intentions for the J. Champine Family, the Thomas Family, for Robert & Vivian Baulch, for George & Vincent Jeruzal

6:00 p.m., Pedro Silva

8:00 a.m., For the Intentions for St. Joan of Arc Parishioners

10:00 a.m., Thomas & Gladys Langlois

12:00 p.m., Joseph Paluzzi Jr., Frank R. Murray, the deceased members of the Rogier & Dettloff Families, William Kiefer, Marguerite Joseph, Ed Baranek, Ronald Rourke

10:00 AM - Funeral for Fern Pascany (Read Obituary HERE)

10:00 AM - Funeral for Mary Louise Orrico (Read Obituary HERE)

Thursday (April 13):

Friday (April 14):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:30 AM - Baptism of Hazel Hope James

11:30 AM - Baptism of Valentina M. Militello

1:00 PM - Wedding of Laura Mlynarek and Jared Carle

4:00 PM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass