First Reading: Deut. 8:2 - 3, 14b - 16a | Responsorial Psalm: 147: 12 - 15, 19 - 20
Second Reading: 1Cor. 10:16 - 17 | Gospel: John 6:51 - 58

St. Paul in 1Cor. 10:17, tells us that we are one body. Amazing! This “one body” includes millions if not billions of people. We are to love all of them and be one with them, in suffering and in joy. Even when Israelites had become numerous, Moses complained: “I am unable by myself to bear you.” (Deut. 1:9) So he had to appoint tribal leaders to help him. We too, from diets through medical treatments, do everything to treat our bodies, but Jesus reminds us that:

“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 
                                                             (Matt. 4:4; Deut. 8:3)

When Jesus tells us that he gives his “flesh,” it is not a form of cannibalism, but the forever sacrifice of his self, and is an invitation to the banquet of the Eucharist. It is an eternal banquet; how can anyone refuse this invitation? “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Jn. 6:56” And in John 15:5, he says: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

St. Thomas Aquinas says that this is divine Wisdom feeding humankind “with the bread of understanding, and … the water of learning to drink” (Sir. 15:3)

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (Jn. 1:14)

These verses (vv. 22 - 58) constitute the ending of the Bread of Life Discourse.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Ex. 34:4b - 6, 8 - 9 | Responsorial Psalm: Dan. 3: 52 - 55
Second Reading: 2Cor. 13:11 - 13 | Gospel: Jn. 3:16 - 18

Most people, especially the young, when they encounter a “love”, their face blush visibly. Moses’ face coming down from Mt. Sinai became shining (Ex. 34:29). Not only he had conversed with God, he had heard: “the Lord, a God merciful and gracious … abounding in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness” (cf. Ps. 103:17). If this was not enough, the evangelist John proclaims: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, …” This is the Trinitarian love that circulates within the three members of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and makes them One. The Church councils of the 4th and 5th century finally formulated the Doctrine of Trinity, that the three subsist in one nature, and we profess it at every Sunday Mass. Fr. Simeon (Leiva-Merikakis), OCSO, comments that obedience is a divine virtue that is practiced among the Persons of the Trinity. “For obedience is one of the chief attributes of love, whether human or divine, because the lover longs to please the beloved …” (Fire of Mercy, Heart of the World, vol. IV, p.656) Accordingly, Jesus is obedient to the Father unto death.

For the ‘Responsorial,’ we read a few verses of the Song of the Three Jews, in the midst of the fiery furnace in praise of God. This Song is used in the Liturgy of the Hour, as a hymn of praise. Although there is no evidence that it was used in Jewish Liturgy, it was popular among Christians. It served as the prayers and blessings of the three men, and the sense of miraculous.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 2:1 - 11 | Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 104:1, 24, 29b, 30 - 31, 34
Second Reading: 1 Cor. 12:3b - 7, 12 - 13 | Gospel: Jn. 20:19 - 23 

—then the Lord God formed man (Heb. adam) from the dust of the ground (Heb. adamah), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. Gen. 2:7

The breath of God is life giving; his Spirit renews the face of the earth (Ps. 104:30). For many a little butterfly represents the symbol of the Holy Spirit. They come to us as spring brings forth “new life.” We also encounter “fire” representing God/Spirit in numerous occasions in Old Testament. Moses received his call from God on Mount Horeb, in a flame of fire in a bush, yet not consumed (Ex. 3:1 - 6). In Ex. 19:18, the LORD had descended upon Mt. Sinai in fire. In 1Kgs. 18:38, the prophet Elijah prayed to the Lord and the fire came down. So the people fell down on their faces and believed in the Lord. Prophet Isaiah predicts the Divine presence, with fire and judgment (Is. 66:15 16).

God created everything and his spirit is in all creatures, whether we know it or not. In many religious traditions, fire accompanies, or represents the presence of the Divine. For example in Zoroastrian temples, there is always a fire burning. We usually have a candle in a red container by the Tabernacle. The Jews celebrate Pentecost, fifty days after Passover (Lev. 23:15 - 21). So it happened on this feast day that the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles. In Catechism # 689, we read that the Spirit has a joint mission with Jesus, to lead us to the Truth. May the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord lead us to the Truth.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 1:12 - 14 | Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 27:1, 4, 7 - 8
Second Reading: 1Peter 4:13 - 16 | Gospel: Jn. 17:1 - 11a

Today’s Gospel is like the introduction to Jesus’ final prayer before his crucifixion. It is often called “High Priestly Prayer.” This prayer is often likened to Moses’ farewell address (cf. Deut. 31:30 ff). It is an intercessory prayer. He is praying to his Father and intercedes for his disciples. However if we read verse 17:20, we notice that all Christians are included. It is so powerful that he is praying for us. Jesus has made his Father’s name known (v.7), yet he bears the divine name “I am” himself. It is the hour of his glory. So he prays:

“I do not pray for the world, but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours …”

1Peter is a blend of joy and suffering leading to glorification. It leads us to inner freedom from past sins, and living as witnesses of Christ’s message in the world. Suffering as members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19; 1Tim. 3:15) is brought back here, as in the Beatitude (Matt. 5:11, Lk. 6:22). The idea came from the Old Testament prophets that the ‘elect’ will suffer first before the final judgment (Amos 2:4 - 16; Is. 10:12 - 13; Jer. 25:28). The necessity of suffering is a prelude to the end times; the path involves suffering; there is a cost that goes with it, but it leads to salvation and glorification. 1Peter 4:19 sums up the thrust of this section: “Therefore let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.”


______________________
1. Senior, Donald, C.P. 1 & 2 Peter. Dublin: Wilmington, Delaware: M. Glazier, 1980. P. 8

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 8:5 - 8, 14 - 17 |Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 66:1 - 7, 16, 20 Second Reading: 1Peter 3:15 - 18 | Gospel: Jn. 14:15 - 21

“If you love me…”

It will take us a life-long to love him, to the extent and fully as he asks us. Yet in his farewell discourses (14:1 - 16:33) he makes promises to prepare a room for us in his father’s house, perhaps an allusion to the Jewish “Hekhalot” (palaces), involving stories in which a seer visits the heavenly realm and explores different rooms (based on the chariot vision in Ezek. Ch.1, and in such works as 1En. Chs. 17, 18). That “palace” stands firm forever, built on rock. He will not leave us orphans; his covenantal relationship with us remains, as he will send us an Advocate, in Greek “parakletos,” that is “one who stands, a supporter or comforter,” the Spirit of truth. This Spirit led Philip to Samaria and with the prayers of Peter and John they received the Holy Spirit. We do not see him visibly, but spiritually he remains with us “you are in me and I in you.”

St. Peter to the persecuted Christians at his time, sends the message of hope and salvation; in 1 Peter this comes to a climax in 3:13 - 22. This is the eschatological hope for atonement. Verse 3:18 emphatically states that the suffering and death of Jesus saved us: “he was brought to life in the Spirit.” This passage covers a trajectory of salvation, from the death and resurrection of Jesus; this is the Christian “creed” in 1 Peter. These verses provide the Christological concept that Christ’s innocent suffering is the model for present suffering of the believers and future salvation.

“From on high he reached down and seized me; he drew me out of the mighty waters.” Ps. 18:16


By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 6: 1 - 7 | Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 33:1 - 2, 4 - 5, 18 - 19
Second Reading: 1Peter 2:4 - 9 | Gospel: Jn. 14:1 - 12

Peter addresses the churches in Asia Minor, as aliens in the world (2:11), bearing unjust suffering, yet with the promise of hope and salvation. According to a Near Eastern mythology, the creation of the world began with the laying of a ‘foundation stone’ as the center of the universe, which capped the chaotic water of the subterranean seas. The holy city and its temple are said to have been built on this hub (cf. Is. 28:16). The foundation stone is also a stumbling stone, as in 1Pt. 2:8. In Is. 28, there is a message of judgment on Ephraim (28:1 - 3) and on Jerusalem and Judah (28:14 - 22), who have allied themselves with falsehood. Here the ‘living stone’ refers to Christ, bringing life to all who believe in him.

“and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1Pt. 2:5

John Chs. 13 - 21 are called the Book of Glory. Chs. 14 -1 6 are his farewell discourses. He promises a “dwelling place,” in his Father’s house for each one of us. Amazing! So we are given his word that we will dwell with him in God’s dwelling place. In the reading from Acts, no one was left without the “daily bread.” That is how the household of God is. Ps. 33:4 tells us that we should trust his word. He is the WAY. In the early church (e.g. Qumran community), the Way was used as the symbol of their way of life. The WAY is Jesus’s Christological title.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 2:14a, 36 - 41 |Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 23:1 - 2, 5 
Second Reading: 1Peter 2:20b - 25 | Gospel: Jn. 10:1 - 10

I was at the “Gate of Heaven.” That was the sign on my door, at the retreat house at Mt. St. Mary’s Abbey, in Wrentham, MA, where I used to go to retreat. I told the sisters, next time I will be in heaven. Did I not think about it that the Gate is Jesus himself?

Jesus is using two metaphors to apply them to himself. He is the Gate to salvation, leads us to the sheepfold which is his church. The sheep is his flock. Jesus calls each one by name (v. 3). This indicates a bond between him and each one, an identity, like the father and son. In the old Jewish culture, a son was identified by “the son of …” e.g. Ephraim son of Joseph (Num. 1:10), James son of Alphaeus (Matt.10:3). This is a bond of love. We are his own flock, who like Mary Magdalene recognize his voice, when he calls us (Jn. 20:16).

The second metaphor: he is the Good Shepherd. In Ezek. 34:11 - 31, God is described as the Good Shepherd. “You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord God. (Ezek.34:11)” The portrayal of the people as sheep and Jesus as shepherd has roots in the Scripture in the books of Kings and elsewhere. In the Gospel of John, chapters 2 - 11, there are seven signs or miracles (2:1 - 11; 4:46 - 54; 5:1 - 9; 6:1 - 14; 6:16 - 21; 9:1 - 12; 11:1 - 44) and is often referred to as “The Book of Signs.” The Good Shepherd discourse is between the last two of these signs, the healing of the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus. So by identifying himself as the “I Am,” he is preparing them for his last great miracle.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 2:14, 22 - 33 | Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 16:1 - 2a, 5, 7 - 11
Second Reading: 1Peter 1:17 - 21 | Gospel: Luke 24: 13 - 35

There is a group of Christians who belong to the “7 Mile Church.” They go to Africa (and perhaps to other parts of the world), to areas where the message of Jesus has never been heard before. They are named after the distance between Emmaus and Jerusalem.

This pericope from Gospel of Luke, has been one of my favorites ever. We, like the disciples after Jesus’ crucifixion, are forgetful, and with ‘thick skulls’ do not recognize him in the “Breaking of the Bread.” Those two on the road to Emmaus, were most likely among the same crowd when Jesus fed five thousand (Matt. 14:17 - 21) and then four thousand (Matt. 15:34 - 38). In between these two miracles, he still manifested his divine being by walking on water toward their troubled boat, in danger of sinking (Matt. 14:25 - 27): “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” This happened during the “fourth watch of the night.” When they had told him that his friend Lazarus had died, he waited another two days to start on the road, and on the “fourth” day after his death, he arrived to “wake him up.” God never abandon us; his Grace always follows us, but there is a testing and waiting time to come and rescue us. He can appear through the closed doors of our hearts, show his side, and his pierced hands and tells us, doubt no more: “It is I.”

Job answered his friends:

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God. Jb. 19:25 - 26)”
 

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 2:42 - 47 |Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 118:2 - 4, 13 - 15a, 22 - 24
Second Reading: 1Peter 1:3 - 9 | Gospel: Jn. 20: 19 - 31

In Acts 2:42 - 47 we find an ideal Christian community. No one was left in need. They divided all they had in common. Every day they prayed in the temple, and in breaking bread in their homes, they exulted God with joy. It was based on this same idea that Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933.

During the Easter season, we sing our Psalm of praise and salvation, Ps. 118. We can truly say that salvation is the central theme of the Scripture. Right from the start, in 1Peter (1:1) and throughout the letter we see the sociological effect of the people being ‘set apart.’ We bless God, “who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ …” (1Pt. 1:3) In this new birth, He nurtures us with an imperishable faith, as He did for his disciple, the doubting Thomas. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1Pt. 2: 2 - 3) This calling out of darkness into light (Is. 9:2) is the echo of the two Exodus out of Egypt and out of Babylon (Is. 42:16; 58:10 - 12).

The idea of the new birth was introduced in 1:3, as God’s initiative for salvation. This eschatological hope for atonement into ‘an inheritance,’ (1Pt. 1:5 - 1:9) is found in Old Testament (e.g. Ez. 36:25 - 27) and in New Testament as Jesus told Nicodemus, that ‘no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit,’ Jn. 3: 3 – 6. Believers, figuratively speaking, are born of God (Jn. 1:12 – 13). Thus the goal of this new birth is for the future salvation.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)

First Reading: Acts 10:34a, 37 - 43 | Resp. Ps. 118: 1- 2, 16 - 17, 22 - 23
Second Reading: Col. 3:1 - 4 or 1Cor. 5:6b - 8 | Gospel Jn. 20:1 - 9

New Dawn, Easter blooms with the morning star.
“Roll away the stone …” Death is conquered by New Life.

If we internalize this New Life, given to us by Jesus, the New Life, toward eternity, that is our eternal life. It should not be a one day experience, but every day of our lives. Easter is the first and prominent proclamation of our faith.

The central aspect of this new life in Christ is the experience of being forgiven by the disciples (and us) who betrayed Jesus, and fidelity like the two “Marys.” The “annunciation” of the Resurrection is made by women to men, who were not believing their story. They were the first Evangelizers in the world. They ran away in fear and joy, in search of God, but were found by him unexpectedly on their way to Galilee. Grace is always ahead of us and leads the way; we can never surprise God.

Galilee was the location where Jesus first began his ministry and called his apostles, and now they will encounter the risen Lord. “So Peter and the other disciple got up and ran to the tomb. John 20:3” The doubts through hearing had to become certain by sight. Here God brings down the human pride. The sign of Jonah was given. Jesus also appeared to John and said:

“Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever. Rev. 1:17 – 18”

Our “Galilee” should be a place of joyous encounter between the Lord and forgiven sinners.

By: Farzi Najmabadi (SCB Parishioner)