The King's Corner

  I miss my Welsh corgis!  Brit, Owyn, and Mary Lou were my family's three beloved friends.  Those four-legged friends gave us over 30 collective years of companionship and love.  The are in heaven.  As one priest recently told me: "If there are no dogs in heaven, I don't want to go."  Me too. Deacon David Pierce

As an alternative to Bishop Barron's perspective provided in yesterday's blog, I offer the following from the Center for Action and Contemplation. (begin) Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you — Ephesians 5:14, Jerusalem Bible   Father Richard Rohr reflects on the presence of light at the resurrection:  At the resurrection, Jesus was revealed as the eternal and deathless Christ in embodied form. Basically, one circumscribed body of Jesus morphed into ubiquitous Light. Light is perhaps the best metaphor for Christ or God. Anything exposed by the light will be illuminated and anything illuminated turns into light (Ephesians 5:13–14). 

I’m concerned and disturbed.  Why? Because the man for whom I have great respect just misled me, and all his many followers, in my opinion.  He went out on a shaky limb to provide “evidence” of the resurrection, and he provided that “evidence” as the centerpiece and thrust of his Easter Sunday sermon.  He concluded that the Shroud of Turin was that “evidence.”  I do not believe the Turin cloth has Jesus’s image made at the moment of his resurrection.  Yet Bishop Barron does. My reasoning is provided below in a previous blog entry about the Shroud.  What follows is what I wrote. (begin) Dr. Lavoie spoke about the Shroud of Turin at Christ the King.  He believes it is the 14-foot, one-piece shroud of Jesus and is “the sign John ingeniously concealed.”  I’m a long-time wonderer about this intriguing cloth.  I started back in 1998 when I read Time Magazine’s article: “The Shroud of Turin.  Now it’s back on display, the debate flares anew: Is this Jesus?” 

The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have." And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfill

When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading. (John 6:16-21) It's about one-upmanship.  Moses split the sea.  Jesus walked on it.  John continues to emphasize that Jesus is the new Moses and is divine.  Did Moses really split the sea?  Did Jesus really walk on water?  To answer “no” to each question is perilous for any Christian expressing what they really think – their doubt. The backlash from believers in these miraculous events can be major. Astonishingly, after Jesus identified himself and

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?" He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.  Philip answered him, "Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little."  One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who