Three Days

Three Days

What can be said about the three most holy days, the Triduum, in our lives as Christians?

They must be lived and experienced in community.

As Catholics, it is the high point of our liturgical year.

On Holy Thursday,  we come together to celebrate the institution of Holy Orders (the sacrament of ordination into the priesthood) and the Eucharist "the source and summit" of our life in Jesus Christ. The theme of service and discipleship is uppermost in our minds, as the priest washes the feet of his parishioners (remember last year when Pope Francis washed the feet of prisoners- what a model for us all!). We end the evening with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament  symbolizing our waiting with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Liturgy. Sacrament. Symbol. Community. Service.

On Good Friday we come together in Word and symbol, to commemorate the Passion and Death of Jesus. Notice that there is no greeting or blessing at the beginning- just as there was no final blessing at the end of Holy Thursday. The Triduum is all one liturgical celebration. On Friday we hear the Passion, venerate the Cross, and receive Communion that was reserved from Holy Thursday- again, it is all one liturgy, so we don't have "Mass" again.

Holy Saturday is a day of quite reflection and expectation. Jesus has descended to the dead, experiencing fully the reality of death and alienation from the Father. But for us, we wait as the women waited at the tomb. We wait for new life. 

And then at the Holy Saturday Vigil, we are brought together to experience our very salvation.The Blessing of the fire, the entry into the darkened Church with Paschal Candle,  and the candles we hold while the Exultet is sung, all symbolize the Light that has shone in the darkness! Through the Word, we hear the high points of our salvation history.

And we proclaim the Good News Matthew 28.1-10

 We welcome in new Catholics this night, as they are baptized, confirmed and receiving Eucharist.  

And we too experience the glory of the Risen Christ in Eucharist

Liturgy. Sacrament. Symbol. Community. Service.

This is who we are and whose we are. Celebrate the Paschal Mystery by entering into the Triduum.

 

Love Unbound

Love Unbound

"Unbind him, and let him go..."

Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent: John 11.1-45 (click on the link to read the passage)

Like the two weeks of Gospels we encountered previously, the Church prepares us for our holiest of days with the most powerful reminders of who God is. God who is love, knows no boundaries as he reaches for us, as witnessed in the story of the woman at the well. God, who is love, brings us "out of darkness into his own wonderful light", as we encountered last week in the healing of the man born blind.

And now the raising of his friend, Lazarus.

Take a look at the icon I selected for this blog. For those of you unfamiliar with Byzantine iconography, just a quick note. Icons are "doors to the sacred", inspiring prayer and meditation. They are not meant to portray the "earthly" world, so you will not see any vivid "realism" in the portrayal of the figures or the scene itself. You will find many icons portraying the same scene, ones which figure prominently in the liturgical life of the Eastern Church. 

So, in this case, "Lazarus Sunday" is celebrated in the Eastern Church, and many Byzantine churches will have and icon such as the one above. As you read the Gospel, allow your eyes to settle on the icon at various points in your reading, meditating on the scene.

John 11. 1-45 is in itself an icon, in terms of the depth and breath of its meaning for us as disciples. Let's reflect on just two.

"Jesus began to weep" (John 11.35)

 

The crowd around Jesus sees him weeping and thinks two things: either Jesus weeps for the loss of his friend Lazarus, or he is weeping because he could of healed him if he arrived sooner.

The crowd misses the point. Do we miss it as well?

Read verse 33. When he saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed.

Emmanuel, the "God with us" is also the "God for us". He weeps, not for the single friend, or for himself, but for the community. THIS IS THE GOD WHO SUFFERS WITH US!!  As a Christian, this is at the heart of our faith and hope- God loves us so much that he will suffer with us, he will weep for us!

And that would be enough...

And then we enter Holy Week when we see that God's love knows no bounds.

"Unbind him, and let him go" (John 11.44)

As powerful as the Line "Lazarus, come out!" is, I think  John 11.44 is even more so. Consider what Jesus says to his apostles elsewhere in the Gospels:

Whatever you bind on earth shall bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt 16.18-20)

Jesus' command to unbind Lazarus seems obvious- I mean, of course they would take off his bandages now that he is alive!!

But that's not why Jesus says it.

 Lazarus has been freed from sin.

Through our life in Christ we have been freed from sin. We are no longer "bound" by it!

 And notice it is through the community, the Church, that Jesus commands the unbinding!

As you prepare for Holy Week, avail yourself of the love Christ has for you through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Encounter Love Unbound. 

 

 

Blindfolds

Blindfolds

Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: John 9. 1-41

When you were young, did you ever play games that required a blindfold? The most common was Pin the Tail on the Donkey. In these days of hyper-safety do we use Velcro instead of pins? Anyway, there was fun in the dark, knowing of course that blindfold would soon come off. But anytime we put blindfolds on there is confusion, distortion, anxiety... darkness.

Sunday's Gospel account of the man born blind, like any of the "signs" in John's Gospel is meant to be a "sign" for us.  It is a story of the early Christian church, and it is our story of the journey of faith and conversion, especially in this Lenten season.

Please take the time now to read and reflect upon this amazing story:

John 9.1-41 

Here are some key points to ponder:

• Unlike most of the healing stories in the Gospels, The man born blind does not come to Jesus and ask to be healed. It is Jesus who goes to him. (9.1-8). To hear the call of the Lord is the first step to conversion
• The blind man is sent to a place called "Sent" (Siloam) and is to "wash in the pool", an obvious reference to Baptism,
• The journey of faith is a process and not instantaneous. The man born blind is asked by his neighbors, "How were your eyes opened?" he responds, "The man called Jesus..."  When he is asked again by the Pharisees, he then says Jesus "is a prophet". Once he is kicked out of the synagogue and encounters Jesus again. Jesus asks him "Do you believe in the Son of Man". The blind man asks "who is he"? When Jesus says " the one with whom you are speaking," the man finally responds, "Lord, I believe." 
• As we have heard, this journey is not without suffering- rejection by neighbors, by parents, by powerful authorities, by the community- at least when he was blind, he wasn't rejected! But in the end, the man has become a new person, with a vision of the Kingdom of God, and life in the Trinity through the Son, Jesus Christ.
• The other characters in the story- the neighbors, the parents and the Pharisees, serve as a warning to us as disciples about "blindfolds"
• The neighbors are blinded by their perception that people cannot change so drastically. How many times have we hurt others through gossip, lies, and slander, because we have a skewed perception of who they are? Does past history and hurt prevent us from moving on? For teachers, do we find ourselves saying " that kid will never change", or "That class has always been like that." Time to remove the blindfold of hopelessness, and see with a vision of hope.
• The parents of the man born blind react in fear of themselves being rejected, and distance themselves from their son, and the Son of God. How much does fear play a role in our unwillingness to be witnesses to the Good News of Jesus? Are we afraid of letting people know who we really are? Time to remove the blindfold of fear and see with a vision of courageous witness.

• The Pharisees just don't get it. They have been blinded by their own need for power- the power to be right, to be in control, to be greater than others. The end of the chapter says it all - "Surely we are not blind are we?" Jesus said to them, "if you were blind, you would not have sin, but now that you say "we see", your sin remains. The fact that they cannot admit to their blindness keeps them in sin. And so we must ask ourselves, how well have we responded to the call of conversion? Have we availed ourselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Does our pride and ego stand in the way of living a life in Christ"? Time to remove the blindfold of sin and humbly ask for forgiveness and mercy. 

Lent is our time to remove our blindfolds. Ask God to help you restore your vision as a loving disciple.