Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015
“Our Heart Burning within
Us”(Lk.24:32)
A Blessed Easter
to everyone! How blessed we are to be able to celebrate the great feast of the
Resurrection of Our Lord in our beautifully renewed church, which we blessed
and re-dedicated yesterday afternoon!
On this holy
Easter Morning we are invited by St. Paul to remember the events of the
Passover. The Israelites, after 430 years in Egypt, had been commanded by God to
prepare an unblemished lamb to be sacrificed. It was to be consumed that
evening, and its blood was to be sprinkled on their doorposts and lintels. When
God sent the angel of death to claim the firstborn of the land of Egypt, he
passed over the homes of the Israelites, because he saw the blood of the lamb
that had been slain. But the firstborn of the Egyptians, including the son of
the pharaoh, expired during the night. When the Israelites left Egypt in haste
to escape the wrath of the pharaoh and his army, they did not have time to let
their bread rise, so they ate it unleavened. Note that we use unleavened bread
in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
When the
Israelites reached the Red Sea under the leadership of Moses, he struck the
water with his staff, and the waters parted to let them pass through. But when
the Egyptians pursued them the waters came rushing back, and pharaoh and his
army perished in the Red Sea.
After forty years
in the desert, only the Israelites who were born in the desert were allowed to
enter the Promised Land. The older generation, those who had left Egypt, were
not allowed to enter. Many of them had perished in the desert when God punished
them for worshipping the golden calf and behaving in a gravely sinful manner. Not
even Moses was allowed to enter the Promised Land, but he was able to view it
from Mount Nebo before he died. Only Joshua and a few others of the older
generation entered the Promised Land.
When the priests
carrying the Ark of the Covenant reached the Jordan, then in flood stage, the
waters ceased to flow, rising up in the upper parts of the river. All the
people crossed over led by Joshua. When all had safely crossed, the waters
again rushed down on their way to the Dead Sea. This tells us a story in
itself, because Joshua is another form of the name, Jesus. And Jesus Christ is
the one who leads us into the Promised Land of Heaven.
How wonderfully
the events of the Old Testament foretell those of the New. Jesus Himself
affirmed both before and after His Resurrection that the Old Testament
Scriptures refer to Him. To the two disciples on the way to Emmaus to whom He
appeared shortly after His Resurrection, He said:
“‘O foolish ones
and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the
Christ have to suffer these things before entering into his glory?’ And
beginning then with Moses and with all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in
all the Scriptures the things referring to himself” (Lk.24:25-27).
Still not
realizing that it was the risen Jesus Himself speaking to them, they invited Him
to stay with them overnight. St. Luke relates:
“And it came to
pass when he reclined at table with them, that he took the bread and blessed
and broke and began handing it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they
recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. And they said to each other,
‘Was not our heart burning within us while he was speaking on the road and
explaining to us the Scriptures?’” (Lk.24:29b-32).
The truth of the
Holy Gospels must be defended against the false prophets foretold by Our Lord.
The words of Jesus to the two disciples have been flatly contradicted by Benedict
XVI (Ratzinger). In his “let’s pretend” world, the word of God can have two
different meanings, one for the Jews and one for the Catholics. This sounds
like the Protestant doctrine of the private interpretation of Scripture – the Bible
means what you think it means, or more likely, what you want it to mean. But
that it should mean two different things at once?
But Benedict, like
Bergoglio after him, is in the business of appeasing the Jews, whom he says are
justified in not seeing Jesus Christ in the prophecies of the Old Testament,
because of the “obscurity of the texts”. But Jesus did not find the texts
obscure when He spoke to the two disciples about “Moses and the prophets” and
“in all the Scriptures the things referring to Himself”.
Says Ratzinger,
“There are perfectly good reasons… for denying that the Old Testament refers to
Christ…” Incredibly, he says that “the shock of the Shoah (the Holocaust) has
put the whole question in a new light,” which he thinks should cause Christians
to renounce any right to propose a Christian interpretation of the Old
Testament, which he dubs “Israel’s Bible.” (Information from God and the World, and other writings by
Ratzinger, as quoted by Dr. T. Droleskey in No
Space Between Ratzinger and Bergoglio, p.15).
But why should
their Holocaust have any effect whatsoever on what the Catholic Church has
taught for 2,000 years? Who has first claim on the Old Testament? Jesus Christ,
the Word made flesh, of course! The Word of God, and the right to interpret it,
belong to God, the Word! In any case, the Jews have abandoned “Israel’s Bible”
and placed their money on their Talmud.
“‘O foolish ones
and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the
Christ have to suffer these things before entering into his glory?’ And
beginning then with Moses and with all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in
all the Scriptures the things referring to himself” (Lk.24:25-27).
Alleluia! Christ
is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia!
