Our Lady of Victory / St-Malachy

SECOND SUNDAY

OF EASTER

CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST

Our Lady of Victory

St. Malachy

Sunday - 9:00 A.M.

Saturday - 7:00 P.M.

F O O D F O R T H O U G H T

Reading I	Acts 4.32-35 - The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul.
Responsorial Psalm	Give thanks, for the Lord is good, God's love is everlasting.
Reading II	1 John 5.1-6 - Whatever is born of God conquers the world.
Gospel	John20, 19-31 - A week later Jesus came and stood among them.

Pastor	William Marrevee s.c.j.
Email	w.marrevee@sympatico.ca
Rectory	490 Charles Street Gatineau, Québec J8L 2K5
Secretary	Monday and Thursday 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Telephone	(819) 986-3763
Fax	(819) 986-9889

A sincere welcome to those who are new among us. We hope you find a warm and welcoming faith-home with us. Please introduce yourself after Mass and call the Rectory to register.

MASS SCHEDULE
WED.	Apr. 26th - 9:00 a.m.	OLV	Hubert Giroux by Mrs. Giroux
SAT.	Apr. 29th - 7:00 p.m.	St. Malachy	Mildred Kearnan by Greg & Pat Lavell Dorothy Teske by Agnes Laurin
SUN.	Apr. 30th - 9:00 a.m.	OLV	Bea & Ed Dunlop by Maureen Dunning Allen & Cadieux families by Joseph & Lucille Allen Jerry Cullen by Tom & Isabel Laframboise

WE BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION:
What does it mean that Jesus is raised from the dead? It is the core of the Christian faith. Not easy to handle or to explain. But still essential. Last year, in Catholic update, Thomas H. Groome tried his hand on reflecting on it in such a way that it may speak to us. It will still take some struggling, but it is worth it. Here follows the second of five installments:

Such Easter faith is a gift from God; we should pray for the grace but cannot reason or talk ourselves into it. We can however, try to understand it and to deepen the recognition of what it means for our daily lives. And with so much riding on Jesus' resurrection, it's only reasonable to ask, "What happened?"

We can imagine two extreme responses to this question. On the one hand, that Jesus rising was a bodily resuscitation-as if he woke up and had to go to the bathroom - and on the other, that his rising was only in the hearts and hopes of disappointed disciples. Each one is false-to the New Testament witness-but they help us to locate what did happen in between them.

So, the resurrection was not the kind of resuscitation that the disciples had experienced when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn 11:1-44), or the daughter of Jairus (Mk 5:1-43) or the son of the widow of Nain (Lk 7:11-17. These three would live a while and then have to die again. Rather, the body person of the risen Christ was transformed. Unlike a mortal body, he could pass though walls (Jn20:19); he could walk along with them and then"vanish" from two disciples on the road to Emmaus (LK 24-31). By all accounts, "he appeared in another form" (Mk 16;12). A whole throng of disciples, having seen him bodily "alive," then witnessed him ascending from their midst "into heaven" (see Acts 1:6-12 and Lk 24:50-53).

On the other hand Jesus' resurrection was not just wishful thinking on the part of the disciples. To begin with, they clearly were not expecting it; those two disciples on the Emmaus road spent a whole day with him before recognizing who he was. Others upon his appearance were "startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost" Lk.24:37). If this were a made-up story, they surely would have represented themselves better.

Then the disciples were transformed by their conviction that God had raised him up, many giving their lives in witness to this truth: such commitment is impossible from a conspiracy of fond hopes.

The disciples knew that his resurrection was "real" because Jesus had shown them the wounds in his body-even inviting Thomas to touch them (Jn20:24-29). He had asked them for food and had eaten it (Lk 24:36-43); why, he's even invited them to breakfast (Jn21:121).

So what did happen, between these two wrong responses? We cannot fully describe it; the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ belongs within the supernatural world, within God's eternal reign. Paul portrays the risen Christ as "a spiritual body" (1Cor 15:44) and we may not improve upon that-on this side of eternity.

Those first disciples recognized Christ's resurrection as very real. though they could not fully name his new mode of spiritual embodiment; it was a new phenomenon to their experience-of "another world," as it were, within the life and power of God. Nor can we describe it, never having known as much in our experience. Yet we are invited to join in the rock-solid conviction of those first witnesses that Jesus "was raised on the third day" (1 Cor15:4).

If we can, by God's grace, then all should be changed, changed utterly. Why, we can confess in the Apostles Creed that we fully expect "the resurrection of the body" for ourselves at the end of time.

And it only seems reasonable to wonder which body will rise; I certainly want my 21-year-old one-with all my hair and vital functions-not what I have now. This one would not be a terrible beauty!

LE DROIT DEVOTED TWO FULL PAGES ON THE REQUEST FOR BAPTISM:
It was in the April 15-16 weekend edition of Le Droit that it makes for interesting reading. In my estimation, the observations made are quite accurate. They give abundant evidence of the significant distance between what, on the one hand, the great majority of those who still request baptism for their children see in baptism and what, on the other hand, the Church and "church professionals say baptism means. If that assessment is correct, needless to say it makes communication and dialogue quite a challenge.

This is not a matter of laying blame on anyone. I prefer to go in the direction of asking perhaps some uncomfortable questions. One of them would be: Are we paying the price for the fact that, for many centuries, the principal motivation for baptism was the "taking away of original sin"? Fear of what might happen without the children being baptized was an important factor in baptism becoming a standard practice. In a Christian context, that was the thing to do. It is now no longer fashionable to speak of baptism in those terms, And - apart from the fact that the notion of original sin has to be handled with great care - I must add that baptism does so much more than "taking away original sin". However, it takes a fair amount of effort to recover that "so much more". In the mean time, the practice of baptizing infants continues. For many, as the Le Droit articles indicate, it is part of our tradition.

It is a way of passing on important values without being very specific about what these values are. For many, is expressive of some vague belief in God without, here too, being specific about what sort of God we believe in.

What strikes me in the Le Droit articles is the virtual absence of any reference to the -for Christians-all-important events we have just celebrated in the Great Three Days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday-Sunday. Yes, it is in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that Christian baptism finds its origin. Baptism seals our faith in the Crucified and Risen Jesus, draws us into his saving mysteries, makes us members of an in-Jesus-re-created humanity, something that will only be completed when we finally come home in God's embrace. Baptism makes no sense apart from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is totally defined by Him. That is why baptism is such an enormously significant sacrament rather than being a traditional and cultural religious ritual that we perform around the birth of a child.

Naturally, more can and must be said about Christian baptism, but perhaps these musings may lead to some helpful conversation.

OUR SYMPATHY AND PRAYERS:
- to the Fortier family.

ST. MALACHY WARDENS MEETING:
- Wednesday April 26th, at 7:30 p.m.

PPC MEETING:
- Monday April 24, 7:15 p.m.

BIRTHDAY WISHES AND CONGRATULATIONS TO:
- Peter & Marjorie Burke who will celebrate their 52nd Wedding anniversary on April 23rd.
- Kay Brazeau who will celebrate her birthday on April 23rd.
- Maurice Maloney who celebrates his 82nd birthday on April 24th.

WEEKLY RECEIPTS

Date	Collection	OLV	St. Malachy

Apr. 16th	Regular	$ 929	$ 638
	Holy Land	297	135