Everyone knows that the Feasts of the Nativity and the Resurrection are the two biggest days in the liturgical year but you know I feel very strongly that Holy Thursday ranks right there with both of them.
On Holy Thursday we look back to that awesome night when Jesus gathered with his beloved apostles and celebrated the ancient Jewish rite of Passover, and at the same time instituted the new rite that would be the Holy Mass where bread and wine mystically become the Real Presence of Jesus of Nazareth. And the apostles received both the directive and the power to celebrate the Eucharist to be the vehicle through which Jesus continues to be in and with his Church.
So on this very special day we celebrate both the sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders. Of course, the evening reminds us also of things that reflect the wide range of human actions. We see Judas the traitor holding the purse but looking for a way to get a way from the table. We also see the Divine carpenter from a dusty village kneeling before his friends and washing their feet. In today’s world, this awesome symbol loses some of its punch. We move around in automobiles and if we do walk a short distance, it is on sidewalks and paved streets. In Jesus’ time, people walked on dusty roads in sandals or barefooted. The washing of feet was a much needed sacred symbol of hospitality and love.
Each of us needs to find ways to symbolically provide patience, service and love to those with whom we are sharing life.

Share on Facebook

Well, he made the decision. They waved 30 pieces of silver in front of him. Personally, I don’t think that Judas decided to betray Jesus simply because of the money. I think he looked ahead and was fearful that not only would Jesus suffer and die, but that His followers might experience the same end. I think Judas was looking for a safe exit- a safe exit in which he would have a little money to get himself a new start. Why did the Sanhedrin need Judas? The answer was simple. They knew Jesus was so popular with the multitude, that when they arrested him in public in the daytime, a riot could develop and they themselves would get into trouble. Late at night, in the garden, was where the betrayal would take place. Try to remember on Holy Thursday night that Jesus was in this garden with his friends, and suddenly, soldiers of the Sanhedrin would come out of the darkness- led by Judas. Judas experienced temptation and succumbed in the face of it. Now the ordeal begins. Let us stay close to our Lord over the next four days…

Share on Facebook

March 24th, Palm Sunday
It is almost over. For five weeks the Church has been calling us to examine ourselves more honestly, to center our thoughts more clearly on the reality of Jesus of Nazareth and enter into a spirit of prayer that would carry us forcefully into Holy Week and the great Feast of the Resurrection.
Holy Week is here and the next seven days we will symbolically walk with our blessed Lord. First, he experiences a brief triumph as he enters on a donkey (a symbol of royalty) and cheered wildly in his honor as he enters the city gates of Jerusalem. The text of Matthew’s Gospel says that the crowd was huge, very excited, tearing branches off trees and even laying down their cloaks so that the animal could, a symbolic sense, walk on a carpet. Then it gets quiet.
Jesus and his disciples would again go outside the city to the suburban town of Bethany and he will abide with his close friends for three very quiet days of prayer and preparation.
Wednesday has Judas cutting a deal. He promises to give the enemies of Jesus the opportunity to arrest him at a time when it can be done quietly without instigating a riot.
Thursday reminds us of the institution of the Eucharist and the beginnings of the priesthood.
Friday we call “good” but it is awful and holiness explodes on Saturday as we anticipate the celebration of the actual resurrection.
The whole process will be over in just a few days. If we have slipped a little during the past weeks, this would be a good time to say I am going to give it my all, to concentrate on this sacred week for ourselves and for our families.
 

Share on Facebook

When Jesus began his public life, he chose 12 men as his followers and co-workers. It was to these men that he gave awesome responsibility in starting and building up the community of faith which would later be called the Church. Judas was one of the twelve. Very soon after our Lord’s return to his Heavenly Father, the apostles began to get to work and realized that an office had been vacated and that this office should be filled. The apostles gathered and prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide them and then chose Matthias to be the replacement for Judas. Today, May 14th, is his feast day.

In reading this introduction in Acts, you should not pass over it too quickly. It is a clear indication that the apostles clearly saw that they had to form some limited kind of organization. Remember, they would later choose and ordain seven deacons to handle social ministry, but the apostle had to be one of the key witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus and that was the condition for Matthias being elected to be an apostle.

So we are dealing with internal developments within the community in just a few days or maybe a few weeks. We also see that the Church is beginning to form itself into an entity that will most effectively carry forth the message of Jesus Christ, a message that is to be carried forth across the entire world until the end of time. Now that is a job description!

St. Matthias pray for us.

Share on Facebook

The end is approaching. Jesus experienced that triumphant entry into the holy city last Sunday and for the last three days has been staying with his friends in Bethany, which is suburban Jerusalem. However, the clock is running out.

For centuries, the Church has called Wednesday of Holy Week “Spy Wednesday” because it is on this day that the Gospel excerpt of Matthew tells about Judas’ final betrayal. He asks the chief priests, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They gave him 30 pieces of silver. My guess is that this was the most awesome business transaction in human history. The Lord of Creation, God present in the human story, is bartered for a handful of change. The transaction is so bizarre that I don’t think we can really grasp it. However, my guess is that when we turn away from Jesus, once we know his love for us and what he has done for us, we all, in some limited sense, are like Judas, at the Lord’s Supper, which will occur tomorrow on Thursday evening. Judas who actually accuses himself, “Surely it is not I Rabbi.” And Jesus answered, “It is you who have set it.”

Are we not in a comparable position? Don’t we have to accuse ourselves of having failed so many times to do the good to which we are committed? But enough of that. It is true that Friday will remind us of a grim historic moment in the human story, but far more important is the joy of the Resurrection, which is just beyond Good Friday, a joy in which we are invited to celebrate right now and for all eternity.

Let us go forward.

Share on Facebook

Today is Wednesday of Holy Week. But in the past, and even today in the Eastern Churches, this day is called “Spy Wednesday” because the Gospel utilizes St. Matthew’s Gospel to spotlight the betrayal of one of the twelve – Judas Iscariot. We all know so well the story of Judas, how he goes to the enemies of Jesus and cuts a deal for a mere thirty pieces of silver. Think about it; the crime of crimes and the betrayal of all betrayals. The human nature of the second person of the blessed Trinity is sold for a pittance of silver coins.

Sometimes when describing events in the life of our Lord, and especially with certain individuals who are portrayed as having failed him in this way or that, I say that in some limited sense they are examples of ourselves and our own failures. I don’t want to push this too far with Judas. Sinfulness abounds, moral mistakes, even catastrophes, are all around us but most of us when we fail, when we turn away from God, we do not do it with absolute malice.

Rather than thinking too much about the terrible failure of Judas on this particular day, let’s look ahead three days to the glorious reality of the Resurrection and that despite all of our weaknesses and failures we are a redeemed people.

Onward to the Resurrection.

Share on Facebook