Holy Saturday: The Divine Plan to Re-Create the World

I think of the Easter Vigil Mass celebrated on Holy Saturday as the liturgical equivalent of a Thanksgiving meal. At Thanksgiving, we do not count calories. We indulge. At the Easter Vigil, we do not worry about time. We feast liturgically.

A part of that liturgical feasting is the proclamation of seven readings from the Old Testament and two from the New, plus eight responsorial psalm sections. The readings start with the account of creation and then highlight key moments of our salvation history. The culmination of the sequence is the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ in the Gospel reading.

As we see from the passage from Genesis, God created a good world. All that he made was good. Evil entered the world through human sin, which brought about the marring of God's creation. After this marring, the Fall, God undertakes the redemption of humanity. Over the course of centuries, he prepares the way for the Incarnation, his coming among us as one of us to take upon himself our own sins and thereby restore us to our original blessed state.

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Good Friday Reflection - Yearning for Paradise

Passage:

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 25:39-43)

Reflection:

When I was about 12, I saw a raunchy Italian comedy, called Il Ladorne, depicting a fictional account of the life of the Good Thief. I remember very little of the story now, but I do recall the last scene. After various adventures and misadventures, the Thief gets sentenced to death by the Romans. At the end of the movie, he is hanging on a cross next to Jesus, who turns to him and says: "Today you will be with me in Paradise." The Thief responds, somewhat nonchalantly: "That’s okay. I can wait."

The Thief’s reply is, admittedly, a bit sacrilegious, and you might be wondering why I am quoting it now. But is this not very often our own response to Christ? When Christ tells us "Today you will be with me in Paradise," do we not say, "That’s okay. I can wait."

Isn’t death the greatest fear in our culture? Do we not almost worship youth, resisting, resenting the process of aging?

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Good Friday: Don't Leave Jesus Because of Judas

Books have been written on the Passion narrative proclaimed on Good Friday, so a short reflection can focus only on a small portion of the treasure-trove of meaning in the readings of this day. For this reflection, out of the many possible topics, I will focus on Judas.

The question of Judas has generated a vast array of interpretation throughout history. In Dante's Inferno, we see him in the innermost circle of Hell, right next to Satan, as a result of committing the supreme act of betrayal. By contrast, in the Gnostic Gospel of Judas, he is depicted as a friend of Jesus, in that, according to the Gnostics, he helped Jesus leave the chains of this earthly existence by facilitating his execution. Many other gradation of interpretation can also be found between these two.

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Holy Thursday: Service and Self-Sacrifice Are at the Heart of the Eucharist

On two occasions, Jesus rebukes Peter in the Gospels. The first time is when Jesus foretells his suffering and death but Peter objects. The second time is in the Gospel passage for today, when Jesus is about to serve the disciples by washing their feet but Peter tries to stop him.

In the synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the focal point of the Last Supper narrative is the institution of the Eucharist, through which Christ gives us his Body and Blood to eat and drink under the appearance of bread and wine.

In his Gospel, John puts the emphasis on Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, an act which, at the time of Jesus, would have been performed only by the lowliest of servants. Through this act of service, Jesus models servant leadership for the disciples. He also leads us more deeply into the mystery of the Eucharist.

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Palm Sunday: Let Us Welcome Jesus As the Crowds Did

In the first Gospel proclaimed today, Jesus rides into Jerusalem in advance of the Passover celebration. The feast of the Passover goes back to ancient Israelite history, which we see recounted in The Books of Genesis and Exodus. The patriarchs of Israel settle in Egypt, where the Israelites start to prosper greatly over several generations. But in time Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, turns against them and starts to oppress them to the point of enslaving them.

God then sends Moses and Aaron to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt. Pharaoh refuses, so God punishes Egypt with ten plagues, the last of which involves the angel of death going through Egypt and striking down the firstborn male of every household. The Israelites can escape this punishment by sacrificing a lamb to be eaten and smearing its blood on the doorframe of their home. The angel of death will then see the blood and pass over the house, sparing that family from the punishment to be inflicted.

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Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A): Jesus Offers Us Much More Than Endless Life

The famous Christian writer C.S. Lewis once suggested that Lazarus was the first Christian martyr. Why did he make this unusual claim? His contention was that Lazarus had already gone through the experience of death when Jesus called him back to life. Lazarus would then need to go through the process of dying again at a later time. By being brought back to life, Lazarus was, Lewis suggested, the first disciple who was called upon to commit to dying for Christ.

This take by Lewis might seem a bit strange, but it points to a deeper reality. Our physical life in this world is not our final end. It is not the ultimate life we hope for. As is often the case in The Gospel of John, there are two layers of meaning in the discussion in the passage.

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Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle B): Choosing the Ultimate Self-Sacrifice

Once and only once in my life, I did a celebrity stakeout. My wife and I spent hours in a Croatian hotel to see members of the band Duran Duran, who were known to be staying there. We managed to meet three of them briefly. I have to wonder if a sort of celebrity stakeout is happening at the beginning of today's Gospel passage too when some Greeks come to see Jesus and try to gain access to him through the disciples.

In the context of the passage, Jesus has just ridden triumphantly into Jerusalem. Many in the city expect him to claim the Messianic kingship. During the day, he is teaching in the city, accompanied by his disciples. By night, he is at a hidden location at the Mount Olives outside of the city, so he is not as easily accessible during these days as before. Are the Greeks hoping to see him for spiritual reasons or because he is widely regarded as the rising power of the political order?

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Fourth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A): Are We Blind to God's Graces?

Today's Gospel passage reminds me of an ironic time in my life. When acquaintances would ask about how things were going in my life and I would give them a brief overview, they would invariably tell me how happy they were that things were going so well for me. The irony was that I was feeling absolutely miserable about my life during this time. I was simply unable to see the blessings that had been given to me.

In today's passage, the leaders do not see the blessing that is so plainly before them. Ironically, the blind person regains his sight, but the people who have been able to see physically are not able to see spiritually and they disregard even the physical evidence before them.

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Fourth Sunday of Lent (Cycle B): How Is Our Sin Working for Us?

The Gospel passage for today alludes to an account in The Book of Numbers (21:4-9) where God punishes the Israelites for their sins by sending seraph serpents among them to bite them. After they repent, God instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and to lift it up among the people. As long as they gaze upon the serpent, they are healed from the snake bites. They can escape the consequence of their sin by accepting the healing grace of God, given to them in the form of the bronze image.

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Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle A): Christianity Is a Proposal of Marriage

Back in the 90's, I saw a quote that has stayed with me over the years. The quote said: Christianity is not a religion. It is a proposal of marriage. In many ways, those few words capture the essence of our faith.

In the Old Testament, the relationship between God and Israel is often depicted as a marriage. Israel is the bride, many times unfaithful, and God is the aggrieved husband who keeps calling his beloved back to him. As Scripture scholar Brant Pitre expounds in his book Jesus the Bridegroom, the marriage metaphor continues in the New Testament.

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Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle B): The Grace of God Is Not Transactional

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus shows anger because the Temple leaders are taking advantage of the people. According to the Mosaic Law, the Israelites must travel to Jerusalem periodically and have various sacrifices offered on their behalf in the Temple, many of which involve animals.

However, the Temple leaders make a financial racket out of the necessary sacrifices.

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