For example, I might think myself physically strong, but until I successfully lift something significantly heavy, I’m not convinced or sure that I really am strong. Or, I might think I’m a pretty good golfer, but when my scores are consistently higher than 110, I’m not really a good golfer, am I? And I might think I’m courageous, but unless courage is called forth from me, I really can’t say for sure that I really am courageous. Get it?  Adversity presents opportunities that can demonstrate, and prove, the reality and authentic presence of virtue.

Well, today our Scripture readings are encouraging us to appreciate, understand and adopt the virtue of love. “Love one another” is our Master’s directive. So what is this “love”? Here’s a pretty good definition: LOVE IS “desiring the Good for the other without counting the cost to one’s self.” Yes, Love is a movement of my interior being which longs for another/others to be God-like, no matter how hard it is for me to assist them in accomplishing this holiness or goodness.

A few caveats: first, I know that I love lots of various people throughout my everyday life, and I’m also aware of their love for me, but that’s easy–there’s no challenge really to love those who love us, is there? Second, consider how we love when it’s not easy; when it’s dangerous, painful, costly, uncomfortably, etc. What about when someone really and truly hates you? What if someone gossips about you? What if someone tells a hurtful thing about you–whether true or not–to others in order to harm you? What if someone hates you so deeply that they avoid all contact or interaction with you? Now THAT’s adversity! And that’s when love is proven and perfected in us.

As I grow a bit older, I have been blessed with a few opportunities to experience such instances of adversity and I’ve finally been able to love. How? Clearly not by my own inner strength or core goodness…it’s just too hard. But, realizing (and depending on) Christ’s ongoing forgiveness of my sins, my faults, my limitations…and grateful for His love, I am then able to share what I already possess: Christ’s love.

Yes, His command is that we love one another…”as I have loved you”. Here’s the challenge: when adversity strikes, am I able to truly love as Christ loves? If so, thank the Good Lord! If not, this is our invitation to accept–AND SHARE–the love Christ has for each and every one!

Yes, on this Second Sunday of Easter–the last day of the Easter Octave–we see various, literally, tangible affects shared with the community of believers after Christ’s Resurrection:  “Peace” given to the disciples; faith “proven” for a doubting Apostle; singularity of mind and heart within the people who have faith; trusting generosity among sisters and brothers…all in the name of the Risen Christ.

Alleluia!

Since last Sunday—Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord—and flowing profoundly during these last days, each of us have been struck by very physical happenings and experiences:

• from walking and waving palm branches commemorating His entrance into that Holy City, to the oils being blessed and shared with us, that we might be anointed with His balm throughout our days;
• from the Lord washing our feet in loving service, to receiving His Body and Blood as food for eternity;
• from reposing with Him in the garden, to going out with Him to Calvary where He was offered to death on a tree;
• from His broken body taken down from the Cross to being laid in a tomb…His last breath spent, His last act completed…or so it seemed.

All of these physical happenings have had their effect on us: we moved, we walked, we heard, we sang, we saw, we prayed, we listened, we pondered and we made silence.  The experiences of these last days have haunted us, enriched us, and blessed us.  And now?  …now:

• we awake to see a glorious, holy fire roaring in the dusk;
• we watch as His Light illumines the darkness that surrounded us;
• we hear as stringed instruments and pipes announce He is Risen;
• we wash in the waters of baptism, renewed and refreshed;
• the balm of this great news anoints our hearts with the consolation and joy that, “He has been raised from the dead!”;
• our eyes see the newness of His Church;
• our nostrils smell the sweetness of our praise;
• our souls leap with every key and strum of our choir!

Yes, He is Risen!  And as powerful and strange as these last days have been, how powerfully new our future days can now be.  You see, only now do we have a hope—borne of faith—that we, too, will never die.  Christ, by His rising, has now changed forever the course of all human history: He, now, has become the gateway for our own eternal life.  He became a man so that by dying a man’s death, He would be one with us.  His nature is thus so bound up with ours.  And He—the man—rose, by His power as God, and in His nature bound with ours, He invites us to rise with Him.  How wondrous a gift…a gift that brings a final experience for each of us who believe: we experience a deep, a humbling, a most powerful gratitude for the gift of life offered eternally for each of us who believe.

Finally, recall that the first apostles heard the encouragement of the three women who visited the angel at the tomb, re-told in tonight’s gospel.  From that great news, too, we now hear Him beckoning, we now see Him alive, we now offer Him praise and thanksgiving for the dawn of eternal life has risen.

Alleluia!

Anyway, years ago when I was in seminary, Pope John Paul II gave a stirring reflection on the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper—a reflection replete with depth and imagery.  He spoke of the evening’s ritual and Scriptures as a kind of triptych:

with the Institution of the Eucharist in the center panel (tonight’s second reading),
flanked by the Old Testament’s pre-figuration in the paschal lamb on one wing (tonight’s first reading),
and brotherly love and service on the other winged side (tonight’s gospel story).

You see, what Christ is doing on this night, was pre-figured in the Old Testament Passover feast heard in our first reading.  And when He celebrates it on this very evening, He replaces the one-year old lamb and offers Himself in its stead.  Absolutely: no animal flesh or blood would be able to save us from the Passover of death, rather One like us would need to offer His flesh and His blood; God would have to offer His own Son in order to expiate sin, in order to restore the just friendship between God and Man.  And so the third part of the triptych, would then be the results of the pre-figurement and the fulfillment: that, loving service would now be His followers’ aim, purpose and mission…in order to bring His saving work to all.

So, it appears a natural question comes to mind tonight: has it worked?  Has what was pre-figured…has what was fulfilled…has what was commanded had any effect in us?  In other words, have we gained at all from Christ’s evening Supper?

John’s gospel stated, “He loved His own in the world, and He loved them to the end.”  The Eucharist now, is the permanent sign of God’s love, the love that sustains our journey to full communion with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.  Yes, His actions that night continued His saving work…we have the evidence of His great love, and we see that love blossom when we live out the mystery during these three days…and always.

As we pause this evening to adore the Blessed Sacrament in its repose, and as we meditate on the mystery of the Last Supper and the self-emptying gift of service offered to us by Christ Jesus, may each of us feel immersed in the ocean of Love that flows from God’s heart.

As we began our Masses outside today, and heard the gospel story of Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem, and have now recalled the dark betrayal, passion, suffering, and ultimate death of Christ in a communal narrative, one might wonder, “What are we doing, really?”, or rather “why are we doing all of this?”  Clearly, parents of younger children are most probably hearing such questions from their children this morning.  Yes, it’s good for us to consider what we’re really doing at the opening of Holy Week and throughout these next sacred days.

But, in order to answer questions such as these, it’s good for us to recall what Jesus Christ does during Holy Week and why He does them.  The Lord enters into Jerusalem and endures the events of Holy Week in order to celebrate Passover.  Not merely the Passover of His ancestors, but His own Passover.

Jesus is commemorating the Israelites’ bondage in Egyptian slavery, and their Passover to freedom; their hopeless darkness and their Passover to light and new-found hope in Yahweh; their suffering and Passover into healing; their sin and Passover into God’s mercy; their death, and Passover into new life found in God alone.

And as Jesus commemorates that ancient, holy history, He Himself also enters into all those realities of Passover: He takes upon Himself darkness, hopelessness and sin, suffering despair and death…all so that He might Passover such things and enter into the light, the freedom, the hope and the new life of His Resurrection at Easter.

So, returning to our children’s question, “what are we really doing?’, we are entering into our own Passover with Christ.  We bring our lives and we enter into Passover: from our particular sinfulness, we then Passover into God’s mercy; from our bondage and slavery to so many things, we then Passover to freedom as God’s daughters and sons; from our despair, we Passover into renewed faith; from our selfishness, we Passover into faithful generosity; from our darkness, we Passover into God’s gift of Light; and from our death, we Passover into the New Life of the Risen Christ.

Let us ‘Passover’ well this week: take advantage of all of the glorious and loving works of the Lord Jesus this passion-tide, that our Holy Week might be fruitful and we might all receive the blessings of the Risen Lord who is coming.

God love you.

In the Gospel, some Greeks ask to see Jesus.  Jesus responds by saying that anyone who loves his life will lose it; to gain your life you have to be like a grain of wheat which brings forth much fruit, but only by falling to the earth & dying.

The Greeks must have been baffled.  What has this speech of Jesus’ got to do with their request to see him?

Jesus’ response helps those Greeks to see him—the true Lord, the One who did not come to get status and power, but who came to lose his life, to fall and die, like a grain of wheat.  The point is made emphatically at the end of Jesus’ response to the Greeks.  He ends with a prayer: “Father,” he prays, “glorify your name.”  The true Lord came to seek God’s glory, not his own.

The final part of the lesson for the Greeks, and for us, comes in God’s response to Jesus’ prayer.  God honors Jesus by answering his prayer out loud: “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again!”  Yes, God’s voice came to finish the lesson: God honors those who seek to honor him.

In our society people often strive to gain glory for themselves, even if it means hurting others.  Yet, as followers of Jesus, we strive to gain glory too. But our glory is a free gift of God granted to those who serve others by dying to self.

True glory lies not in status or power or name or authority, then, but, on the contrary, in being willing to fall and die like a grain of wheat.  It lies in being willing to let go, to lose one’s life in this world for the glory of God’s name.

And so the Greeks do get what they asked for.  In the response of Jesus to them, they, and we, see the true Lord, and with the true Lord, the pattern for glory in our lives, too.

Now is the time…stay near Him to see the glory He offers us, the new life He gives us, as He draws all people to Himself!

God bless you during these final weeks of Lent.

• the walls of the city are torn down;
• the Temple of God is burned down, and all its holy things are smashed;
• the people are taken captive to Babylon.

Their country, their customs, their language, their cult, their Temple—it’s all lost.

In the Psalm, there is a poignant picture of the people’s heartbreak over this destruction of their home. The people who wrecked Jerusalem want the Jews to sing Hebrew songs for them. That request is the final blow. “How can we sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land?”, the captive people say to themselves in their grief.

The Second Reading says that God is rich in mercy and great in love. Why then doesn’t God protect his people from heartbreak like this?

One piece of the solution is in the Gospel Reading. God doesn’t want to destroy people; he doesn’t allow suffering for the sake of hurting them. Rather, God is looking for a remedy, as the First Reading puts it. God is willing to use desperate measures, even the heartbreak of his people, to save them.

And not only that, but God is willing to use his own suffering too. As the Gospel says, God gave his beloved Son to save the world. Christ was betrayed by his friend, put to public shame, officially condemned, tortured, and put to death. Any one of these things is enough for sorrow, isn’t it? And so, in the incarnate Christ, God uses his own great suffering as the final remedy to bring people from death into life, when all other remedies have been tried and failed.

Heartbreak by us, by Christ, is for life, not for death.

And here is what else we need to see. Jerusalem was rebuilt, and the Temple was restored, as the First Reading explains. Christ’s death was followed by his resurrection. In each of these cases, heartbreak was turned into joy.

And so heartbreak is not the last word.  Finding our heart’s desire—in God alone—is!

The Easter Triduum, the “Three Days”, is the celebration of the Christian Passover. Just as our Jewish ancestors gathered annually to remember the events of their release from slavery in Egypt, so too, we gather to celebrate our Passover from death to life in Christ. The Triduum is at the heart and soul of our Christian faith, commemorating the triumph of God’s love over darkness and death. It’s the fullest ritual expression of what it means to be a Christian. In our reliving and remembering, we’re renewed and reborn along with the newly initiated members of our community.

In essence, the Triduum is one great festival that lasts for three days: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. As with all the great feasts of the Church, the celebration begins at dusk on Holy Thursday with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. On Good Friday, the first full day of the Triduum, we gather to remember the Lord’s Passion and Death. Saturday is a day of quiet reflection on the Entombment of Christ as we wait, like the disciples, for news of the resurrection. And finally, on Saturday night we gather in vigil and hear the amazing news that Jesus Christ, our companion and brother, is not dead, but is risen from the grave. The Triduum liturgy ends with Evening Prayer on Easter day.

As we prepare the rites of the Triduum liturgy, we are afforded many opportunities to emphasize and maintain the unity of this one celebration. We accomplish this ritually by remembering that each of the days, while having their own emphasis, celebrate the entire mystery of Christ’s passion and death. In our Friday rituals, we need not pretend that the resurrection has not yet happened. We are not playacting here. Though the liturgy of Friday is stark, we may still catch glimpses of Easter triumph. The same is true of Easter. We arrive at the joy of the resurrection only through suffering and death. Easter without the cross has little meaning.

Another way of supporting the unity of this three-day festival is by observing the ancient practice of the Paschal fast. This fast traditionally lasted from the beginning of the Triduum until the communion rite on Easter. By means of this sacred fast, we’re mindful of our prayers as we depart for our homes until we gather again the next day.

Finally, the unity of the Triduum can be greatly enhanced by the music we choose for the celebrations each of the days. Like symphonic composers, we might incorporate melodic themes, threading together the disparate elements of this one great festival. Triduum unity is enhanced when we make use of recurring melodies and musical elements on successive days.

Holy Thursday: Celebration of the Lord’s Supper

We begin the Triduum with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The entrance antiphon for this day gives us wonderful insight into the Triduum celebration: “We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, or life and our resurrection; through him we are saved and set free.” (Gal. 6:14) We celebrate the triumph of God’s love accomplished by the cross of Jesus Christ. Life is born from death.

The liturgy of these three days is rich with symbols. As we prepare these rites we are challenged to help people enter into the prayer of these rites. The Triduum symbols become incredible vehicles of prayer. The primary symbols of Holy Thursday are the washing of the feet and the sharing of the Eucharist. These symbols embody the themes of service, priesthood, and unity. As we implement the rites, we’re afforded a wonderful opportunity to ensure these two great symbols stand out boldly and clearly for all.  The foot washing clearly needs to engage the assembly in the most profound way possible. And on this day of all days, a loaf of real bread, along with wine from the cup, should be the norm.

At the Last Supper, Jesus transformed the Jewish Passover meal into a memorial of his death and resurrection. He becomes the new Passover, the Way to new life in the kingdom of God. Today, we as Christians gather to celebrate this covenant meal and bind ourselves to Him as we follow him to death and resurrection. And with Him, we surrender own lives for the sake of the world.

The goal of the Triduum liturgy is to unite the entire community of faith into a single celebration.  Despite the differences in our worship during the rest of the year, we celebrate this liturgy as one family.  We preserve this unity by providing only one celebration on the days of the Triduum. Providing separate liturgies for special groups only undermines the unity.

Note that there is no dismissal or final blessing for the liturgy on Holy Thursday. The service does not end but continues when we gather on Friday for the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion. After the solemn procession of the Eucharist, the assembly informally disperses as the altar and sanctuary are stripped in preparation for the liturgy the next day. Little emphasis should be placed on the rite of stripping. This is just a simple act of preparation for the next day.

Good Friday: Celebration of the Lord’s Passion

The liturgy on Good Friday is the second ritual step on the Triduum journey. In the context of the one great liturgy, the death of Christ is not to be isolated from the fullness of the Paschal mystery.  Good Friday is not a time of mourning, but rather, of remembering, of seeing once again the boundless love of God expressed in the self-offering of his own Son. Though Jesus of Nazareth dies in shame on a cross, God’s love is so powerful that not even death can defeat it.

The Celebration of the Lord’s Passion has three distinct parts: the Liturgy of the Word, the Veneration of the Cross, and the Communion Service. It’s significant that the Gospel of John was chosen as the Passion account for this day. In John’s gospel the victory of Christ shines through every step of the way.  Death is not seen as defeat but rather as the passage of Christ into his glory.

Today, the liturgy begins in silence. We do not provide opening music or a call to worship. The rites assume that this is simply the continuation of the liturgy of the previous evening. During the liturgical year, only the Good Friday and the Easter Vigil liturgies begin in this way. This reflects the true nature of the three days of the Triduum as being one extended celebration.

The primary symbol of today’s liturgy is the cross as a sign of victory and salvation. The Veneration of the Cross is one of the most ancient elements in liturgy today. We gather as family around the cross of Christ and embrace it as our own. As each of us has an opportunity to carry it, so too will we enjoy its victory and joy. A wooden cross, large enough to be visible from every corner of the church, and without a corpus, is the ideal. A single cross respects the connection with the one cross of Christ that is our salvation.

The actual rite of veneration should be handled with efficiency and grace, while not seeming rushed.  The symbol cannot speak to people’s hearts if they are not allowed to fully experience it. The challenge in planning the movement of this rite is that all present be given an opportunity to make some sign of reverence to the cross. Besides making our own act of veneration, much of the power of this rite lies in watching other people make theirs. Young and old, rich and poor, healthy and infirm, we all come to the cross to find hope and be saved.

A simple communion rite concludes the service this day. We again depart in silence until we gather for the vigil on Easter. During the day on Holy Saturday we are encouraged to spend some time in reflection on the burial of the Lord, allowing ourselves to sit quietly with the disciples as they wonder what to do next.

Easter Vigil: The Celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection

The Easter Vigil liturgy has its roots in the Old Testament and relives in ritual, the night the Israelites stayed awake waiting for the Lord to deliver them from their slavery in Egypt. Similarly, we wait with the disciples for the good news that Jesus indeed is risen! In its fullest expression this is a true vigil, a night watch. We gather as family to re-tell the wondrous stories of our salvation and draw strength as we remember. We wait together in joyful hope for the good news of Christ’s victory over death. In the process, we discover for ourselves the glory of the Cross.

The liturgy this night has four parts: the Light Service, the Liturgy of the Word, the Rites of Initiation, and the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Each part is imbedded with powerful symbols: light and darkness, fire, word, water, oil, touch, and a meal shared as friends. If we put all of our energy into preparing these symbols so that they can speak loudly, people will be drawn into their power and experience the presence of God.

While our present-day Easter Vigils rarely last throughout the night, they can remain long and cumbersome for many communities. Unfortunately, in our technological age, we’re not people who typically do well with waiting. It is important for us to begin where the community is and not where it ought to be. The challenge we face as liturgists is to prepare the rites in such a way that the people can truly hear the stories, experience the fullness of the symbols, and participate in the wonder of this night.

These reflections on the Triduum have–hopefully–encouraged you to consider joining us for these glorious celebrations in just a few weeks!

Yes, the great covenant offered to us—and maintained even to this day—proves the goodness, the wisdom, the power and the strength of God who loves so completely.

And if such a demonstration were not enough for us, our Gospel gives us a further insight into God’s passionate love, as seen in the person of Jesus. Bringing to mind the sentiments of the Scriptures…“Zeal for your house consumes me,” as He enters the temple area. This zeal signifies an intensity of love that Jesus possesses, whereby He cannot tolerate anything that is repugnant to His love…so, to have zeal for God and for God’s House finds Jesus unable to patiently endure anything contrary to the honor of God, whom He loves above all else.

This is the kind of zeal we see in Jesus in today’s gospel.

But why is he so upset: why is He so violent in this encounter with the moneychangers? We need to step back for a moment and soak in the atmosphere…and then we need to look a little closer and spy what is at the heart of such an intense emotion.

First, step back: Jesus is entering Jerusalem in order to celebrate the Feast of Passover. He has made the distant journey, on pilgrimage to the Holy City in order to recall and commemorate the solemn feast of deliverance from oppression that the Israelites were given centuries earlier by God. And with a view toward that same freedom from oppression, He arrives at the Temple. And instead of finding a place where all people can come and find free access to the living God in worship, Jesus finds the many obstacles that were put in their way…He finds a new form of oppression…an oppression that perverts the worship that is due to Yahweh-God. Greed is the motivator here, cheating is the activity at the Temple, religious rhetoric replaces authentic and free worship. No wonder Jesus’ zeal is inflamed.

Now, look a bit closer to see what this oppression is really doing.

Notice the doves, above all the other animals, being sold for sacrifice. After traveling great distances and many days to come to the Temple, every Jew was obliged to offer a sacrifice of some kind, in thanksgiving fr the freedom from oppression their ancestors—and presumably, they themselves—received from God’s own generous goodness. Oxen, cattle and sheep were most fitting, but for those who were poor and could not afford such a sacrifice, they were reduced to offer birds of plenty instead…like a simple dove. And yet, with the common practices of extortion and gouging, the poor couldn’t even afford to offer a small bird to Yahweh, they could not fulfill the mission for which they set out days and miles earlier. They were forced to take what little money they had for food and shelter, and in the name of religion purchase a measly sacrifice with money that was sorely needed. And so, such an act being done in the temple area, and in the name of religion, becomes an act of significant injustice—a new oppression for the already poor, the already suffering. Believers cannot afford to have such an attitude toward the poor, and Jesus’ zeal rises up and consumes Him, and all those around Him.

That’s what’s happening in our gospel and inside the very being of Jesus, and He reacts with intense zeal.

And this is not the only time He’ll react in the face of oppression and suffering and injustice.

In just a few short weeks, we will witness again the zeal of Christ. He will have to acknowledge that sin enslaves us and there is only one remedy, there is only one path that He can walk in order to establish our true and lasting freedom. Yes, we’re drawing closer to Holy Week and to the Paschal Mystery. The zeal we witness in the Temple this morning is just the beginning…the conclusion is yet to be witnessed…and it will again be shared with us in the coming days and weeks. His passionate zeal—while it takes a different form…the form of surrender, docility and humble love—will be no less. By His actions, we will be made free.

Stay with Him.

• In our second reading, St. Paul is emphatic: God is for us, and thus no one and no thing of any significance can be against us.  Most importantly, Christ intercedes for us, watches over us, guides and encourages us throughout our lives.  So, when we might feel ‘beat-up’ or dejected, keep Him in mind.
• In our first reading, Abraham lets nothing stand in the way of Faith.  As unbelievable as it may seem, he’s even willing to go so far as to offer his son as a sacrifice in order to re-establish and re-affirm his covenant relationship with Yahweh-God.  Unbelievably, he comes so close and with such resolve, yet God shows again his deep love: staying Abraham’s hand God is fully delighted in the fact of his servant’s faith.  Through such a willingness (albeit devastating and painful) to offer his own son, Abraham is blessed with the greatest of covenants, blessings and rewards.
• And finally, in our Gospel, Jesus is transfigured while three of his disciples look on.  These blessed bystanders are able to witness the glory that would soon flow from Christ’s suffering, death, and rising.  In other words, the result of God’s offering of His only Son (recall Abraham and Isaac), allows this Son to be glorified; and further, we are able to witness this, to be transformed by such an offering, to receive the deep and countless blessings of an eternal covenant offered by God, through Christ.

So what does all this mean?  What are these circumstances meant to convey to us…God’s people of faith?

Abraham intuited God’s mercy when He was willing to offer Isaac in sacrifice.  Only this assurance could compel Abraham to such depths of obedience.  Similarly, in the Transfiguration, God reveals to the disciples a glory they could never otherwise imagine.  But such a glory requires the slaughter of a Son…and our faithfulness to this Son guarantees that, we too, might receive unfathomable life.

So, remember this, when all is said and done: God is not only “with us” (as we said in our Christmastime “Emmanuel”), but He is ultimately “for us”…His chosen ones.

God bless you throughout this holy season.