Bishop Kevin Farrell

The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas

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The Resurrection of the Lord

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On this great feast we celebrate more than the Resurrection of the Lord, we celebrate our Redemption, the effect of the Lord’s Resurrection upon each of us. The opening prayer of the Easter liturgy expresses it beautifully. “God our Father, by raising Christ your Son you conquered the power of death and opened for us the way to eternal life. Let our celebration today raise us up and renew our lives by the Spirit that is within us.”

We are remindd by Peter’s words in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles that our Redemption is a beginning and not an end. They are taken from his baptism of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, and his family. It is the Apostle’s first outreach to the gentile community and presages the ready acceptance of the gospel by the Greco-Roman world. Peter sends us a clear message as to what our task is. Like Peter, we are impelled by the Christ event to share it, to mediate it to others. “We are witnesses to what he did.” We must proclaim Jesus as Savior and “bear witness that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Our Redemption does not mean that we should rest in satisfied self-righteousness, but rather, that we must set about continuing and completing the work of Christ and the Apostles. Just as the Light of Christ dispelled the darkness of death, by our words and our actions, we must raise up Christ in our communities, in our place of work, in our families, in our world where the darkness of sin and selfishness needs to be dispelled. In the words of the responsorial psalm, because of the Resurrection “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

As members of the Body of Christ we continue the saving work of Christ, not on our own but by the power of “the Spirit that lives within us.”

I wish you all a very blessed Easter.

Passion or Palm Sunday

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During Lent we have been led by the Sunday gospels on a mini-journey through Jesus’ public ministry and teaching. Beginning with his Baptism and his Transfiguration, we follow his journey; his rejection of illness as a punishment for sin, his giving the fig tree another chance to bear fruit, his preaching on forgiveness in the stories of the Prodigal Son and the adulteress woman as he moves toward Jerusalem.

The liturgical observance of the day of his arrival in Jerusalem is called Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. It is unique in that there are two gospel readings. The first gospel reading gives us the name Palm Sunday. The reading from Luke is proclaimed outside the Church which symbolizes Jerusalem. It tells of Jesus approaching Jerusalem from Bethany, across the Mount of Olives.

His entry is delayed while his Apostles go ahead to find a mount for him to ride. Matthew tells us it was a young donkey. His entry is a joyous one with onlookers hailing his arrival and placing palm branches in his path. Here we have two important symbols, the donkey which recalls the donkey upon which Solomon entered Jerusalem after his anointing to succeed David as King, and the palms, an ancient symbol of victory and triumph.

Symbolically we join in the celebration as we follow Jesus into Jerusalem carrying our palm branches as the procession enters the church. Immediately the tenor changes with a passage from Isaiah reflecting Jesus’ determination to accept his fate. “I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” We are then reminded of what is to come by the 22nd Psalm, which Jesus will utter from the cross. “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”

Finally, we are told of the events that are to occur. The Passion is read, Luke’s story of the suffering and death of the Lord which gives this Sunday its other designation, Passion Sunday.

So, through our participating in the symbol and ritual we join with the Lord as he prepares to enter into his final hours before his betrayal and death.

Lent is all about Easter

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As we approach the end of Lent we should remember that the purpose of Lent is to prepare us for Easter. It is a time for us to reflect on the great mystery of our Redemption. This reflection begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Pentecost. During this time through ritual and symbol we reflect on the Passion, Death, Resurrection and return to the Father (Ascension) of Jesus, and finally the sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son after His return.

For thousands of years God reached out in love and faithfulness to reconcile humanity to himself. There was no response. Finally, in the Incarnation,God who called became the Man who responded. Jesus, fully God and fully man, responded perfectly to the Father’s call. But the rejection continued. In the words of John’s Gospel “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.”

His rejection resulted in His Passion, Death and Resurrection. John continues: “But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.” Through the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, we are empowered to join with Jesus and our imperfect response to the Father is joined to his perfect response…and the way to the Father is opened to us.

In liturgy, we celebrate our Redemption in three phases. Lent, which extends from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday evening, the Triduum (which is really a single three-day celebration) that includes Holy Thursday evening, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter. We conclude with the Easter Season which extends from Easter to Pentecost to complete the cycle of Redemption.

In the next few blogs we will consider how this holy season is, in a sense, a great catechism that teaches us by words, rituals and symbols the meaning of our Redemption.

Three thousand new Catholics

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It is a source of great joy that we will be welcoming over 3000 new Catholics into the Church of Dallas this Easter.

Last week 700 catechumens underwent the Rite of Election at the Cathedral. Catechumens are unbaptized persons preparing to be baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil. The numbers were so great that four different Rite of Election ceremonies were needed to accommodate the catechumens and their families.

Together with 2300 other previously baptized candidates they have been preparing to enter the church in the Rite of Election for Adults for nearly a year. All will enter the Church at the Easter Vigil.

Please pray for our catechumens and candidates as they begin the final stage of their journey.