Pastor's Letter

 
Today we sing the song we’ve been longing to sing for over 40 days: Alleluia! It’s the song sung and heard around the world, in all different time zones and languages, as Catholics gather for Mass. Once again, we celebrate the discovery of an empty tomb.
 
In today’s gospel, after Mary Magdalene told the apostles that the tomb was empty, Peter and John ran to see it for themselves. John gives us a striking detail that he points out several times: the burial cloths were there even though the body wasn’t.
 
In fact, the head cloth was rolled up and placed to the side of the other cloths, as if Jesus sat up, removed the cloths himself (maybe even, plausibly, as we would do ourselves!), placing the head cloth to the right of himself and the shroud to the left before he escaped to freedom. There was no time to neatly make the bed.
 
In the centuries since Jesus’ Resurrection, there has been intense fascination with the shroud—the burial cloth that draped Jesus’ body. A shroud has been on display in Turin, Italy since 1578, but first emerged as early as 1345. Ever since it has appeared, it has captured people’s attention while being enveloped in controversy. Is it a manmade Medieval replica or is it authentically real?
 
In recent decades, scientists have been studying and analyzing it with the most current methods and tools available, all with the blessing of the Vatican. There is no shortage of data as well as expert opinions but there’s no decisive “ruling” on its authenticity one way or the other.  And yet, it still captures our attention because it opens our minds and hearts to what we believe: we know a shroud remained in an empty tomb because it was no longer needed.
 
Due to the efforts of Marianne Schaffer, Elaine Leshock and their team, we have found a way to bring an exhibit containing a replica of the Shroud of Turin to Saint Hubert this week so that you can see the data, ponder the research, and take a first-hand look at what the burial cloths that are on display in Turin look like.
 
If you have time, please come and see (which were Jesus’ first words to Andrew and John in John’s Gospel, which, not only ignited their curiosity, but changed their lives). Be like Mary, Peter and John who ran to the tomb to see it for themselves.
 
What’s interesting, is that today’s passage will end with John saying he believed while Peter was still weighing the evidence. But, the good news is that their faith brought both of them to the place where Christ was no longer to be found. He escaped the tomb to be with us in a brand new way, which we continue to experience in our world today. And that’s why around the world we sing Alleluia! How can we not?
 
On behalf of our Saint Hubert parish staff and family, Happy Easter, everyone!
 
       —Fr. Mike
 
Please note that Fr. Mike will be away from the parish beginning Tuesday for some R & R. He will return to be with us for the 4:30 PM Mass on April 15.