Adult Formation

Though you can argue many answers to this gospel question, all of them scripturally based, I wonder if his final gift was not the “peace” of the resurrection accounts, nor even the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost.  Rather, I wonder if Jesus’ final gift to the disciples/church was that he left us.

Stephen Hawking, one the greatest minds in theoretical physics, passed away on March 14th of this year.  Since then, I have caught snippets of interviews on NPR about some of his thought on parallel universes.  Apparently there is at least a theoretical possibility of multiple alternate universes.

My brother Joe shared a true story with me that helped me to understand the sound of Easter.  It seemed that three weeks ago it was the second graders’ turn to do the readings at their all school Mass.

Some see only the wounds.  They are drawn to the scars and nail prints and blood and scourges – because their own lives are marked with that pain and suffering.   Some are drawn to the face – to look into those eyes – hoping to find forgiveness or love or understanding

Though it is a small detail in the scope of the huge story that we tell today, it begins with one of the more important palms of the entire story.  Not THESE kind of palms – [gesture to the palms people hold in their hands]  but THESE kind of PALMS! [– gesture to my own palms]

Unlike John’s gospel, where the first miracle Jesus performs is the changing of water into wine, and in Matthew where he cures a leper, Mark’s account of the first miracle worked by Jesus is the freeing of a man from possession by an unclean spirit.