HOLY SATURDAY & EASTER SUNDAY

The cross is empty now Jesus lies in the tomb and everything around us is still.’ The heavens and the earth cry out with longing for the sinless one who is not to be found, if we stop to think for a moment we remember that Jesus died and rose again on the third day. We wait, as mourners beside a grave, unsettled, ill at ease, almost not knowing what to do with ourselves. The Church has only one thing to do today: to pray through the emptiness of Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday then is the day when we experience watching and waiting at the tomb as we await the celebration of the Resurrection which we celebrate in the Easter Vigil and the season of Easter. The Jewish people have been celebrating Passover annually for thousands of years, commemorating the night in which God brought them out of slavery in Egypt to begin the journey to the promised land. At the Last Supper, Jesus also celebrated the Passover but gave it a new meaning. No longer a remembrance of passing from slavery to freedom, but through his own passion, death and resurrection we too pass from death to life with him. Until the fourth century, Easter was the only feast of the Church’s year, and to this day it remains the most important. As the Catechism says: “Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the ‘Feast of feasts’, the ‘Solemnity of solemnities’.” Every Sunday Eucharist echoes the Sunday of the Resurrection and Easter.

EASTER SUNDAY

Though  it isn’t now an obligation, the early Church continued to fast through Saturday. Our anticipation has not ended with the memory of Christ’s death. In fact, our anticipation increases as we wait to celebrate the Resurrection. Some may think of the Easter Vigil as just a longer Mass which it is in many respects however this is only part of the story. There are things we do at the Easter Vigil that we do not  do at any other time in the church year.

We light the new Easter Candle from a large fire outside to remind us that Jesus is our light in the darkness, we then process into the darkened church. We hear the great hymn of praise called the ‘Exultet, in which we praise Christ for saving us. The hymn says that we would greatly prefer a fallen universe with Christ to a perfect one without him. “0 Happy fault which deserved so great a Saviour.” We hear more readings than usual on this night, recounting the history of our salvation. Most significantly we welcome new members into the Church and our parish. With them we all renew our Baptismal promises. At Easter, we celebrate joy, the kind  of joy that each of us longs for, when every tear is wiped away, and there is no sorrow any more no more suffering from weather or hunger or hurtful human beings. As we sing in the much-loved hymn by Fr. John Foley, S. J., at Easter, “the cross and passion past, dark night is done, bright morning come at last!” 

When we ourselves rise to meet our risen Lord, in that bright morning we will hear him say, “Come away, beloved. The winter is past; the rain is gone, and the flowers return to the earth” (Song of Songs 2:10-12). In the loving union of that encounter, all the heart brokenness of our lives will be redeemed. That will be perfect joy. So in that same vein of perfect joy we say “this is the ‘day which the Lord has made.’ Alleluia!  let us take fresh hope,  with Christ our Passover everything is possible! Christ goes forward with us in our future!” Let us go forward together as Easter people rejoicing in the Resurrection. We need time to do all of these things well, so we begin a fifty day season of feasting with a long liturgy that is packed with all the riches the Church has to offer.

THE SEASON OF EASTER

It can seem that once Easter Sunday has passed Easter is finished, but the’ celebration continues for fifty days. The next Sunday of Easter day  is traditionally known as Low Sunday or Dominica in Albis (White Sunday) which refers to the white baptismal garment of the newly baptised. Divine Mercy Sunday is a new feast also celebrated on this day. It comes almost as an opportunity in which anyone who missed out on celebrating the mercy of Christ in Holy Week has another chance. After forty days we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of Christ who returns to the Father to send us the Holy Spirit.  We spend the novena (nine days) between the Ascension and Pentecost praying for the Spirit like Mary and the apostles in the Upper Room. On the fiftieth day (which is the literal meaning of the word “Pentecost”) Easter ends. On that day “Christ’s Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 731). Our celebration of Easter resonates throughout the rest of the year: full of gratitude for Christ’s passion, joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey.

GOOD FRIDAY

On this day in the liturgy we read St. Johns account of the passion, we pray for the needs of the Church and the world, we venerate the Cross and we receive the blessed Eucharist.  In the First Reading we listen to A prophetic passage from the Hebrew Bible that describes the suffering of a righteous servant who is despised and rejected by many but ultimately bears their sins and brings healing through his sacrifice. The passage is often interpreted as a foreshadowing of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and is considered a central text in Christian theology. In the Second Reading we hear that Jesus is the ultimate high priest who sympathizes with human weakness and has made a perfect sacrifice for sin, thus providing a way for humanity to approach God with confidence. The passage urges all of us  to hold fast to our  faith in Jesus, who has been appointed by God as the source of eternal salvation.

In the Gospel reading Jesus, after being betrayed by Judas, was arrested and faced trials before Jewish and Roman leaders, culminating in his crucifixion. Despite Pilate’s hesitation, pressured by Jewish authorities and a manipulated crowd, he consented to Jesus’ death. Jesus was crucified at Golgotha alongside two others. Before his death, he ensured care for his mother and declared his mission fulfilled. His side was pierced, verifying his death. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Jesus in a new tomb, marking the preparation day’s urgency. When we think about  the death of Jesus on the cross, his death was a result of the courage of his convictions. He lived his life with a message of compassion and love, Jesus was often critical of those who lorded it over those who were less well off or who had little or even nothing at all. The cross of Good Friday that we venerate is a sign and a symbol that all of us recognise, it is a sign of the completeness of the love that God has for each one of us faults with all faults and failings included. It is not accidental that the Passion according to John is always read on this day.  This account shows Jesus always in charge, in total command of his situation. 

John’s Passion is an extended commentary on an earlier statement of Jesus found in John 10:17-18:  “I lay down my life that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”   The focus of the liturgy of Good Friday, is not primarily a meditation on Jesus’ pain, nor on our sinfulness, nor on our imitation of Jesus’ humility on their own.  Rather the focus is a reminder to us that we are beneficiaries of this event, and so we call the Friday “Good” by thanking God for what God has done for us in Jesus his son.  The final words of Jesus from the cross say it all for us, “Is is accomplished!”  Jesus is not overcome.  On the contrary!  He has overcome! When we go up to venerate the cross on Good Friday we should allow the cross to move us to be better people. Consoling, comforting and challenging the people we meet with the values of Jesus and the Cross.

HolyThursday

On this day  we recall Jesus’ commandment to love one another, his washing of the disciples’ feet and the breaking of the bread. The liturgy on Holy Thursday is a meditation on the essential connection between the Eucharist and Christian love expressed in serving one another. In the 1^st Reading we hear  The Lordcommands Moses and Aaron to mark the new year and prepare for Passover. Each Israelite family is to select a flawless lamb, share as needed, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The lamb’s blood will protect them from the impending plague, signifying the LORD’s mercy as He strikes Egypt but spares His people, establishing an eternal commemoration. The Second Reading tells us  how Jesus established the Eucharist.Breaking bread, He offered it as His body, and the cup as the new covenant in His blood, instructing us to commemorate His sacrifice in this act until He comes again.

The Gospel  tells us that Before Passover, aware of his imminent departure, Jesus demonstrated his love by washing his disciples’ feet, a task for servants. Peter initially resisted but accepted upon understanding its necessity for fellowship with Jesus. Jesus used this act to teach humility and service, emphasizing that followers should emulate his example of serving others. Christ is not only present in the Eucharist but also in the deeds of loving kindness offered to others through us. We are the ones who make ‘real’ the presence of Jesus in the world today in what we do and say as Christians. The theme running throughout this day is one of humble service of God and his people.  The Evening Mass commemorates the Last Supper with the theme of service and sacrifice both of these are aspects of the same mystery.  We see Jesus as one who serves, who gives himself.  Just as he freely gives himself in washing the feet of his disciples, so too he gives himself  in the bread and wine he takes, blesses and hands to the disciples.  

In the same way we receive Jesus in the form of Bread and wine from the hands of our priests. All these acts of self-giving are the same act that of the Son of Man who came ‘not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ The action of the Church that is our action  as the body of Christ on this night also witnesses to the Church’s respect for Christ’s Body present in the consecrated Host in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, carried in solemn procession to the  Altar of Repose. No Mass will be celebrated again in the Church throughout the world until the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening when we proclaim the Resurrection of Christ.  As people who are Christians that is followers of Christ We should embrace all those who are in need of any kind as Christ did. We should be leading lives of generous service to all those who need our help wherever they are and there are many people around who may need our help and care.    When we serve our brothers and sisters we are called them that our God is an all-loving and caring father in heaven then the Eucharist whenever we partake of this great sacrament will bring us joy and peace.May we take up the mantle of humble service giving a helping hand to others and not counting the cost to ourselves. Many people over the years have given much at great personal cost and have not failed in their example of humble service and that for me  is what  Holy Thursday is all about  Humble service for others and not being afraid of being the presence of Christ for others in our world.

PALM SUNDAY

During Lent we have been preparing for the celebration of Easter by works of love and self-sacrifice. Today, in union with the whole Church throughout the world we remember Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to complete his saving work as our Messiah to suffer, to die and to rise again. We, enter Holy Week that is called the Great Week in the orthodox tradition. The entrance into Jerusalem is one of the very few events in Jesus’ life which is mentioned in all four gospels.  It is the only time that Jesus accepts and encourages public acclaim as Messiah.  He even goes as far as organising his entrance by telling the disciples to go and fetch the donkey.  The key moment in God’s great plan of salvation is about to begin and Jesus knows exactly how it will unfold. The events of Palm Sunday were foretold thousands of years ago. The first reading from Isaiah, one of the four Suffering Servant oracles written at the time of the Babylonian captivity, speaks of a courageous and obedient messiah-figure, who says,  “I have set my face like flint” against the beatings and scourging that lie ahead, “knowing that I shall not be put to shame.”

The second reading from Philippians reminds us of Jesus’ total emptying out of His divinity in order that He might identify Himself with the lowest criminal being led to His execution, “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” We move towards the heavenly Jerusalem only because Christ himself has already made that journey to the Cross for us and now he offers to make it with us as we bear the crosses that come to us.   The full drama of the Gospel  begins with the crowd’s fickle acclamation of Jesus as King at the beginning of the reading.  It is a foreshadowing of the blasphemous mockery the soldiers will hurl at our thorn-crowned Savior a few days later on Good Friday. And yet, we raise our voices joyfully with the crowd, linking the honor given Him, especially by the children. We wonder and rejoice as the veil is raised to permit a glimpse of Jesus, as the Messiah-King and liberator `who is the suffering servant of god.  The Church is a master of drama in the liturgies of this week. Through the use of readers for the Passion and the voices of the congregation, we all become part of the action. On Palm Sunday we feel embarrassed to cry out “Crucify Him” with the palm branches still in our hands. It reminds us of our own fickle response and our lack of courage in responding to His love and truth. Yet we know that it was our sins that brought Jesus to Calvary. 

Holy Week is a time for us to realize what we’re really like, and to find that the only remedy for our sin is the fathers love for us. Are we ready to join our own pains and fears to the Master’s? Are we ready to add as much love as we can possibly muster to His boundless love? As we recall the Passion story on Palm Sunday and then again on Good Friday we are called to respond and to imitate his life. As God’s family, we are called to be the Church, the Body of Christ in this world.  We are asked to look out for one another. It’s not just about “me myself.”  It’s about “all of us together.”  Christ came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many as a result of this  he points us in the right direction. It is important that we who say we are Christians accept the truth about ourselves that truth  may not always be good and then in our acceptance of the truth we will be able to look at the Cross and recognise the love of God our Father made real through Jesus. As we reflect upon the story of Jesus coming to Jerusalem  we recommit ourselves to Christ and his message of salvation. Over the next few days let us enter fully into Holy Thursday, Good Friday and  Holy Saturday and then we will really be able to enjoy the Easter feast when it comes on Sunday with renewed hearts. So let us go forth in peace to meet the Lord this Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

5th Sunday of Lent /St Patricks Day

This Sunday here in Ireland we are celebrating the feast of our national patron Saint Patrick. The readings are for the 5^th Sunday of Lent, but the Mass prayers are for the feast. This weekend with all the Irish all over the world we celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick who was credited with bringing the faith to the Irish. I often wonder what St. Patrick who drove the snakes out of Ireland would do about the modern snakes that we have in Ireland today. I imagine he would look at what was going on around him and roll up his sleeves and get on with the job of proclaiming the Gospel. Today we wish all those who might read this who are from Ireland or claim Irish ancestors a very happy St. Patricks Day. 

We are now at the fifth Sunday of Lent; and soon we will be celebrating Palm Sunday and Holy Week. The readings for the 5th Sunday of Lent focus on God’s covenant with us, even though we are often unfaithful God is faithful to us . The first reading speaks of a new covenant. God promises a new covenant with Israel and Judah, different from the old. He will write His laws in their hearts, he will be their God, and they, will be His people. All will know Him and be forgiven.What a resounding response to this first reading is the verses of psalm 51. It is a song of hope, a firm purpose of amendment, and a petition for inserting the Law of Love in our hearts despite the resistance of the way of the world. “Create a clean heart in me, O God!” If we include in the equation the short quote from the Letter to the Hebrews, we’ll have beautiful preparation for the monologue of Jesus predicting his suffering and death and resurrection. “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” The Latin for obey carries the meaning of listening, active listening by way of the heart. The second reading speaks of the obedience of Jesus Christ that brought about our salvation. Jesus, during His time on earth, prayed earnestly to the Father, and the father heard him. Through suffering, He learned obedience, becoming the source of eternal salvation for all His followers including all of us. In the Gospel for this weekend Jesus foretells his death and explains that those who follow him will find eternal life. Some Greeks ask to see Jesus.  Jesus responds by saying that anyone who loves his life will lose it; to gain your life, you must be like a grain of wheat which brings forth much fruit only by falling into the earth and dying.  The seed which must die to produce a harvest is a powerful image of Jesus death. The Greeks must have been baffled.

They were baffled in much the same way that we are when we listen to the stories scripture about Jesus and all the things that he had done. The gospel goes on to tell us that a voice is heard from the cloud, and it speaks of the ‘glory’ that will come to Jesus for giving up his life. It is through his death and resurrection that he draws all people to himself, both Jew and Greek. Many Learned men and women have tried to put their interpretation on the Scriptures but if we listen with open hearts and minds, we will hear what the word of God is saying to us and what it means for our lives and the way we live them.  As we come to the last few days of Lent let us prepare with great intensity for Palm Sunday and the Easter Triduum and then we will really be able to enjoy the Easter feast on Easter Sunday and don’t forget the Easter celebration lasts until Pentecost Sunday!!! 

4th Sunday of Lent

There are two Sundays in the year when we  see the priest wearing rose or pink vestments, Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent .This weekend we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Lent also known as “Laetare Sunday” and this mirrors Gaudete Sunday in Advent. This Sunday marks a change in our  Lenten focus. We are no longer so absorbed by our own limitations and weaknesses in faith. We should be  more confident of God’s kindness, forgiveness and healing without which we would never dare embark on our Lenten  journey. This weekend we look forward to the Easter celebrations with joy and hope.The cause for our rejoicing is that we are getting close to Holy Week and the events that have brought us salvation at Easter. In our First Reading  Judah’s betrayal of faith led to their exile as their enemies destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. God’s warnings were ignored, resulting in the Babylonian captivity. Fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy, the exile lasted until Cyrus of Persia decreed the rebuilding of the temple, marking the beginning of the return from their time  exile.  The Psalm reminds me of a song when I was growing up called by the rivers of Babylon.It was based on todays psalm and sung by a band called Boney M in the 1980s. In Babylon’s captivity, the people wept for Zion, unable to sing their sacred songs in a foreign land.

In the Second Reading God, in His mercy, made us alive with Christ, saving us by grace through faith. We are created for good works, predestined by God as he has brought us to new life in Christ.  In the reading from Johns Gospel   Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus and references Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness as a foreshadowing of his own crucifixion and the salvation that it would bring. Jesus emphasizes the importance of believing in him as the Son of God in order to receive eternal life, and highlights the judgment that will come to those who do not believe.  John tells us that a person is condemned because that  individual has not believed in the Son of God.” God the Father has no desire to condemn, but people condemn themselves by putting God and the ideals of faith out of their lives. Over many centuries so many people have said there is no  god or where is your God.  And many people out there in our world  have turned out the light of faith in their lives permanently. 

I know people of all ages who have been brought up in the Catholic Faith and then have left it all behind and yet anyone who is  actively engaged with faith will know that there is a  god and he is there among us in the people who are in our daily lives and he is a god that cares for us with a fathers love. At the end of the Gospel we are told that Jesus the Light came into the world, but the people preferred darkness to light. Jesus was sent by God to be the light in the darkness of our daily lives. At the Easter Vigil we proclaim the risen Lord as Lumen Christi that is Christ our Light and we celebrate with joy.  Today we are invited to celebrate this Sunday with joy as we look forward to the celebration of Holy Week and the great mysteries of our salvation as we prepare for the feast of Easter.  

3rd Sunday of Lent

Last Saturday I spent the day at Holy Cross Benedictine monastery in Rostrevor with other members of the Order of Malta. The monastery is up the Kilbroney Valley in County Down, a lovely place on a cold but sunny day that Saturday was.  As I was waiting on my friend to bring me back home I sat on a bench and behind me was a running stream it reminded me of the lines from the Psalms, near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit. This is what Lent is really about. It is a call to take the time to come apart in some way  and leave  the day to day lives we lead behind for a time and let the lord revive our spirit so that we can enter more fully into the life of faith that we are called to at Easter as well as every other day in the year.

 In the First Reading  from Exodus God gives  the Ten Commandments to Moses and they tell us to  worship god, avoid idolatry, respect His name, observe the Sabbath, honour parents, and refrain from murder, adultery, theft, lying, and coveting other peoples goods. These commandments are the basis of living the life  that God wants for us as people of faith. The Response to Psalm is you have the message of eternal life O lord.Your laws Lord energize and awaken us, and your principles and commands guide us in truth, showing us that you are the way the truth and the life. Your eternal statutes bring justice and enrich our lives. In the Second Reading  from the 1^st letter to the Corinthians the Jews demanded miracles and the Greeks were looking for wisdom. They were told What we proclaim is Christ crucified and that  was  a stumbling block to Jews and seemed to be complete  foolishness to Gentiles who did not understand it. Yet, for all those who respond to the call of faith Jesus embodies God’s power and wisdom, and that surpasses our own understanding and strength. This Sunday’s gospel reading  puts Jesus’ knowledge of our human nature so clearly: He really knew what was going on in the hearts and minds of those around him. He knew what they thought. He saw what they did to the Temple. The Temple was supposed to be a place were you would celebrate the spiritual presence of God in the world. As we hear in the reading  the people changed the Temple into a marketplace when it should have been a quiet place of spiritual encounter.  Jesus knew that people would see the signs that he worked, the miracles he performed, but would refuse to see and hear the messages behind the signs and the miracles that were there if front of them.

Instead they would see him as a wonder worker, a superman, a good show and Jesus wasn’t about any of that. The portrait of Jesus in today’s Gospel is a world away from the storybook caricature of Jesus, the meek and mild figure he lost his temper as he drove the money lenders out of the temple after seeing what they were doing there.  Our faith is not about a good show instead it is about our relationship with God and with one another. Jesus shows us  what real love is as he went on to die on the cross for us on Good Friday.  Our dying to ourselves during Lent is an identification with the power of Christ crucified. Our calling, then, is to be strong in faith as we look forward to Easter. God gives us signs both people and places as anchors of faith. But, we must trust the Lord enough to cut ourselves free from our anchors and allow him to guide us through the rough currents of life. Are we prepared to do this during our Lenten journey to Easter and beyond as we live our daily lives as people of faith?