Easter Sunday - Father Kapaun's Last Easter

 

If you hear the words “Easter Morning”, what image springs to mind? Likely you think about: a bright sun shining in a blue sky, birds chirping in the trees, a glistening church filled with people. Easter lilies adorn the altar. Men dressed in their Sunday best, and little girls delighting in bright new dresses.

As Mass starts, the jubilant sound of the organ resounds over the assembly, and the Alleluia is once again sung like no other day of the year.

Christ is risen, and we share a Communion with the Lamb who lives by receiving Jesus in Holy Communion! The joy is filled to the brim and runs over even to our homes, where Easter baskets are filled with chocolate and the sweet aroma of ham cooking in the oven teases of the feast to come.

Seventy-five years ago, for a small group of Americans and the priest among them, Easter looked nothing like this. In fact, the contrast couldn’t have been more stark. It was a cold, gray morning when the 60 or so prisoners, who were officers, made their way past guards and up the hill to the rubbled steps of a bombed-out church. It was a motley and bedraggled congregation, led by their Chaplain.

Father Kapaun looked like all the rest of the prisoners with long hair and a scraggly beard. He had an old sweater sleeve pulled over his head as a cap and an eye-patch over an infected eye, but he wore his purple confession stole around his neck.

On Easter Sunday, 1951, he hurled at the communists his boldest challenge, openly flouting their law against religious services. In the yard, of the burned-out church in the officers’ compound, just at sunrise, he read the Easter service.

He could not celebrate the Easter Mass, for all his Mass equipment had been lost at the time of his capture. All he had was the things he used when administering the last rites to the dying–the purple ribbon, called a stole, which he wore round his neck as a badge of his priesthood, the gold ciborium, now empty, in which the Host had been carried when he had administered Holy Communion, and the little bottles of holy oil used to administer the last sacraments. 

He held up a simple crucifix he had fashioned from two pieces of wood as he began the service, reciting the Stations of the Cross from a borrowed missal.

As he spoke, the road to Calvary and the mysteries of our Lord’s Passion became real for the men, who themselves daily lived under harsh treatment and the shadow of death. "We are suffering", he told the men, "but Christ understands and suffers with us".

Then Father Kapaun switched tones, focusing on the Lord’s Resurrection and His glory. He reminded the prisoners that after their time of suffering, they too would experience the Lord’s Resurrection, as long as they didn’t lose faith or hope.

A chorus of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," sung by the Americans, echoed through the damaged church. They sang, "Mine eyes have seen the glory / Of the coming of the Lord ... Glory, glory, Hallelujah! / His truth is marching on."

Together all the men exercised their faith by singing the Lord’s Prayer, loud enough so that the rest of the men in the camp could hear. There was not a dry eye among them, and none who attended could ever forget the hope that Easter offered them.

The Easter service ended with the baptism of a prisoner. A priosner had confided in Kapaun earlier that he had wanted to become a Catholic, and the chaplain chose this special occasion to grant his wish.

Afterward, men shared with one another what the Easter service meant to them, and how special it was after having lived in the hellish prison for months.

But the chaplain broke into tears, surprising them all. When one of them asked why, he was crying, Fr. Kapaun said that it hurt him for not having been able to give them Holy Communion.

By outward appearance, this Easter service in Korea, was a very different vision than we will see in our churches today on Easter, but the reality was the same. Christ is Risen. He remains with us and are to remain with Him. We are to share His life with each other and the world.

This message wasn’t unique to Father Kapaun; it is re-echoed throughout history. On his Apostolic Journey to the United States in 1995, St. John Paul II left us the same message in different words: “There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us. And on the far side of every cross we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit, that new life which will reach its fulfillment in the resurrection. This is our faith. This is our witness before the world.”

On this Easter, we pray that the Lord will bless you and your family abundantly, with this new life in the Spirit. May we all share our joy in the Risen Christ in a world in great need. Venerable Emil Kapaun, pray for us!

Easter Sunday - Eucharist is Risen Jesus

 

Jesus is Risen Alleluia! He is risen from the dead!

On Sunday, the first day of the Jewish week, Mary Magdalene went to Jesus’ tomb. When she saw the tomb empty, it never occurred to her that Jesus had risen. Instead, she thought that since “they” had ganged up against him to get him killed, “they” would not even let him rest in death and had done something with his body.

She reported it to Peter and John who both ran to the tomb, John running quicker and reaching the tomb first as he was younger. John waited outside until Peter arrived to allow Peter to go into the tomb first. John allowed Peter to enter first, since Peter had been chosen by Jesus to lead the Church.

Peter and John saw the burial cloths and John mentions two of them. Most regard them to be what we now call the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium (the head cloth that covered the head of Jesus after His dead) in Oviedo in Spain.

John went into the tomb, and we heard in our Gospel today that he saw and believed. When Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain and they saw him transfigured, he told them they were not to tell anyone until he had risen from the dead, but they didn’t know what rising from the dead meant. On three occasions Jesus had told them He would be handed over, killed, and rise after three days. Again they did not understand what Jesus meant. Now suddenly, as John saw Jesus’ tomb empty, he remembered that Jesus had said he would rise from the dead and now he believed.

On that first Easter Sunday, Jesus appeared to many. We take it for granted that He appeared first to His Mother Mary, but that it was so beautiful an encounter words could not do it justice and that it was so well-known at the time the Gospels were written that no evangelist put it into writing. The Gospels report on Easter Sunday Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, to the apostles, and to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

On the following Sunday, Jesus again appeared to the apostles. As Jesus appeared on Sundays, the early Christians met to celebrate the Eucharist on Sundays, and so the Christian holy day became Sunday the first day of the week while the Jewish sabbath remained Saturday.

The early Christians met on Sundays to celebrate the Eucharist because they knew that was how Jesus was present to them and we know it is how Jesus continues to be present to us.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus learned that when Jesus explained the Scriptures to them, and then broke bread with them—the Eucharist—before becoming invisible to them.

Jesus did not go away after breaking bread with them but, in Luke’s Gospel He became invisible to them. They knew Jesus was still with them even though they could not see Him, and we know Jesus is with us under the appearance of bread and wine.

After the consecration, the bread is no longer bread but Jesus, and only has the appearance of bread. After the consecration, the wine is no longer wine but Jesus, and only has the appearance of wine.

Jesus is not in the tomb. He is risen and here with us as the Scriptures are proclaimed and here with us after the consecration under the appearance of bread and wine.

To reassure us, from time to time, Eucharistic miracles occur in which the bread not only becomes the body of Jesus at the consecration but also changes appearance to become human heart tissue, and the wine not only becomes the blood of Jesus at the consecration but changes appearance to become blood.

Hospital lab tests always show these Eucharistic miracles are heart tissue, myocardium, so we can say it is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the tests always show that the blood is blood group AB.

These Eucharistic miracles reassure us that Jesus is really with us in the Eucharist just as Jesus appeared on Sundays to the apostles to reassure them of His presence with them after His resurrection and appeared on Easter Sunday evening to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is not in the tomb. He is risen and here with us after the consecration under the appearance of bread and wine. Let us rejoice, that Jesus is risen! Jesus is alive and Jesus is with us, most especially in the Eucharist, when we receive Him in Holy Communion, when we adore Him during Adoration and who remains with us in the tabernacle.

May the Virgin Mary, whom tradition tells us Jesus appeared first, help us to experience Her Risen Son!