• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • Our Team
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Saint Antoine Daniel KYRIALE
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

A Father Who Keeps His Promises

Fr. David Friel · April 9, 2012

Have you ever made a promise? Have you ever broken a promise? Any human being asked those two questions would have to give the same, sorry answer. The simple, sad fact is this: we all make promises, and we all break promises.

Jesus made promises, too. Think of some of them. He said:

• “Ask, and you shall receive” (Luke 11:9).
• “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
• “The meek shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
• “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37).
• “If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51).
• “I will be with you always, even until the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

These promises are actually some of the reasons He was put to death, because He made promises that only God could make.

But there was one promise He made that was almost impossible to believe. He once said to a bunch of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Even the people around Him when He first made the claim objected to it. The Gospel of John records, “The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’” (John 2:20).

Surely, it would be an impossible feat to rebuild in three days what had taken decades to construct. But, as we know now, Jesus wasn’t actually referring to the temple building in Jerusalem. Instead, “the temple He had spoken of was His Body” (John 2:21). And that actually makes His promise even more unbelievable! He had promised that, if they should kill Him, He would rise on the third day.

Preposterous! Impossible! Ridiculous!

No one in the history of the world had ever come back from the dead. And yet, it happened. Jesus kept His promise.

My friends, our world is filled with broken promises. Politicians and lawmakers break promises; friends and neighbors break promises; husbands and wives break promises; priests and sisters break promises; all of us poor sinners, sadly, break promises.

But God never does. Through Christ’s Resurrection, this “world of fragile peace and broken promises” becomes the Kingdom of everlasting peace and enduring promises. The Gospel of the empty tomb—our entire celebration of Easter—teaches us that God is a Father Who always keeps His promises. He actually rose from the dead on the third day. He really brings eternal life to those who follow Him. And He will remain with us until the end of time.

These are the promises the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “The Times” mentions CCW
    We were mentioned in article in an article by “The Times” (United Kingdom), as you can see here.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Catholics in America have been the heirs of a sentimental and subjective hymn tradition that, for some reason or other, has taken a deep and fast hold on the fancy of the average person.”

— Fr. Francis Brunner (1953)

Recent Posts

  • Summer Ward Method Courses • CUA 2023
  • PDF Download • Vespers Organ Accomp. Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent) — 24 pages
  • Mass and Motets
  • Sneaky “Salicus” Statements by Solesmes
  • “Lætáre Jerúsalem” • Introit (3rd Sunday of Lent)

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2023 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.