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ADW Blog >> I Shall Recover It All- A Meditation on the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent (Msgr. Charles Pope)
I Shall Recover It All- A Meditation on the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent
By: Msgr. Charles Pope.
In today’s Gospel We hear the story of the raising of Lazarus form the dead. The story is a significant turning point in the ministry of Jesus for, as we shall see, it because of this incident that the Temple Leadership in Jerusalem resolves to have Jesus killed.
As is proper with all the gospel accounts we must not see this as merely an historical happening to people 2000 years ago. Rather we must recall that I am Lazarus, I am Martha and Mary. This is also the story of how Jesus is acting in my life.
Let’s look at this Gospel in stages and learn how the Lord acts to save us and raise us to new life. This gospel has six stages that describe what Jesus does to save us:
I. HE PERMITS - Sometimes there are trials in our life by God’s mysterious design to bring us to greater things. The Lord permits these trials and difficulties for various reasons. But, if we are faithful, every trial is ultimatly for our glory and the glory of God. The text says,
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Notice therefore that Jesus does not rush to prevent the illness of Lazarus but permits it now for something greater, that God’s Glory in Jesus be manifest, and, we may add, for Lazarus’ own good and his share in God’s glory.
It is this way with us as well. We do not always understand what God is up to in our life. His ways are often mysterious, even troubling to us. But our faith teaches us that his mysterious permission of our difficulties is ultimately for our good and for our glory.
Scripture says,
1.Rejoice in this. You may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials. But this so that your faith, more precious than any fire tried gold, may lead to praise, honor and glory when Jesus Christ appears. (1 Peter 1: 10)
2.But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)
3.For our light and momentary troubles are producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:17-18)
An old gospel hymn says: Trials dark on every hand, and we cannot understand, all the way that God will lead us to that blessed promised land. But He guides us with his eye and we follow till be die, and we’ll understand it better, by and by. By and by, when the morning comes, and all the saints of God are gathered home, we’ll tell the story of how we’ve overcome, and we’ll understand it better by and by.
For now it is enough for us to know that God permits our struggles for a season and for a reason.
II. HE PAUSES – Here to we confront a mystery. Sometimes God says “wait.” Again, this is to prepare us for greater things than that for which we ask. The text says,
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Note that the text says that Jesus waits because he loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. This of course is paradoxical since we expect love to rush to the aid of the afflicted.
Yet Scripture often counsels us to wait:
1.Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (Ps 27:14)
2.For thus says the Lord God, the holy one of Israel, “By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet an in trust, your strength lies. (Isaiah 30:15)
3.The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance…God’s patience is directed to our salvation. (2 Pet 3:9)
Thus, somehow our waiting is tied to strengthening us, and preparing us for something greater. Ultimately we need God’s patience in order for us to come to full repentance, so it may not be wise to ask God to rush things. Yet still his delay often mystifies us, especially when the need is urgent.
Note too how Jesus’ delay here enables something even greater to take place. For, it is one thing to heal an ailing man. It is another and greater thing to raise a man who has been dead four days. To use a meal analogy, Jesus is preparing a feast. Do you want a microwave dinner or a great feast? Great feasts take longer to prepare. Jesus delays but he’s preparing something great.
For ourselves we can only ask for the grace to hold out. An old gospel song says, Lord Help me to Hold out, until my change comes. Another song says, Hold on Just a little while longer, every thing’s gonna be alright.
III.HE PAYS – Despite the design of God and his apparent delay, he is determined to bless us and save us. Jesus is determined to go and help Lazarus even though he puts himself in great danger. Notice in the follow text how the apostles are anxious about going to Judea. For, it is a fact that some there are plotting to kill Jesus. In order to help Lazarus, Jesus must put himself at great risk. The Text says:
Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.“
We must never forget the cost that Jesus has paid for our healing and salvation. Scripture says, You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Pet 1:18).
Indeed, the apostles concerns are born out when we see that, because he raised Lazarus from the dead, the Temple leaders from that point on plot to kill Jesus (cf John 11:53). It is of course dripping with irony that they should plot to kill Jesus for raising a man from the dead. We can only thank the Lord who, for our sake endured even death on a cross and purchased our salvation by his own blood.
IV.HE PRESCRIBES – The Lord will die to save us. But there is only one way that saving love can reach us and that is through our faith. Faith opens the door to God’s blessings and it is a door we must open by God’s grace. Thus Jesus inquires into the faith of Martha and later of Mary. The text says
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.“
Jesus prescribes faith for there is no other way. Our faith and our soul are more important to God than our bodies and creature comforts. For what good is it to gain the whole world and lose our soul? We tend to focus on physical things like our bodies, our health and our things. But God focuses on the spiritual things. And so before raising Lazarus and dispelling grief, Jesus checks the condition of Martha’s faith and elicits an act of faith: “Do you believe this?” ….Yes, Lord, I have come to believe.
Scripture connects faith to seeing and experiencing great things:
1.All things are possible to him who believes. Mk 9:23
2.If you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible for you.” (Mt 17:20)
3.And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. (Matt 13:58)
4.When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Mat 9:28)
So Jesus has just asked you and me a question: “Do you believe this?” And how will you answer? Now be careful. I know how we should answer. But how do we really and truthfully answer?
V.HE’S PASSIONATE – Coming upon the scene Jesus is described as deeply moved, a perturbed, as weeping. The text says,
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”
In his human heart Jesus experiences the full force of the loss and the blow that death delivers. That he weeps is something of mystery since he will raise Lazarus in moments. But for this moment Jesus enters enters and experiences grief and loss with us. It’s full force comes over him and he weeps, so much so that the bystanders say “See how much he loved him.”
But there is more going on here. The English text also describes Jesus as being perturbed. The Greek word here is Greek word ἐμβριμάομαι (embrimaomai), which means literally, to snort with anger; to have have great indignation. It is a very strong word that includes the notion of being moved to sternly admonish. What is this anger of Jesus and to who is it directed? It is hard to know exactly, but the best answer would seem to be that he is angry of death, and what sin has done. For it was by sin that suffering and death entered the world. It is almost as thought Jesus is on the front lines of the battle and has a focused anger against Satan and what he has done. For Scripture says, by the envy of the devil death entered the world. (Wisdom 2:23). And God has said, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’ (Ez 33:11).
I do remember at the death of loved ones that I experienced not only sorrow but also anger. Death should NOT be. But there it is, it glares back at us, taunts and pursues us.
Yes, Jesus experiences the full range of what we do here. And out of his sorrow and anger, he is moved to act on our behalf. God’s wrath is his passion to set things right. And Jesus is about to act.
VI.HE PREVAILS – In the end Jesus always wins. And you can go to the end of the Bible and see that Jesus wins there too. You might just as well get on the winning team. He will not be overcome by Satan, even when all seems lost. God is a good God, he is a great God, he can do anything but fail. Jesus can make a way out of no way. The text says,
He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go free.”
I have it on the best of authority that as Lazarus came out of the tomb he was singing a gospel song: Faithful is our God! I’m reaping the harvest God promised me, take back what devil stole from me, and I rejoice today, for I shall recover it all!
But notice something important here. Although Jesus raises Lazarus, and gives him new life, Jesus also commands the bystanders (this means you) to untie Lazarus and let him go free. So Christ raises us, but he has a work for the Church to do, to untie those he has raised in baptism and let them go free.
To have a personal relationship with Jesus is essential, but it is also essential to have a relationship to the Church. For after raising Lazarus (us) he entrusts Lazarus to the care of others. Jesus speaks to the Church, to parents, to priests, catechists, and all members of the Church and gives this standing order regarding the souls he has raised to new life: Untie them and let them go free.
We are Lazarus and were dead in our sin. But we have been raised to new life. And yet, we can still be bound by the effects of sin. And this why we need the sacraments, scripture, prayer, and other ministry of the Church through catechesis, prayer, preaching and teaching. Lazarus’ healing wasn’t a one and your done scenario and neither is ours.
We are also the bystanders – And just as we who are in need of being untied and set free, who who are also members of the Church, also have this obligation to others. Parents and elders must untie their children and let them go free by God’s grace, pastors their flocks. I too as a priest have realized how my people have helped to untie me and let me go free, how they have strengthened my faith, encouraged me, admonished me and restored me.
This is the Lord’s mandate to the Church regrading every soul he has raised: untie him and let him go free. This is the Lord’s work, but just as Jesus involved the bystanders then, he still involves the Church (which includes us).
Yes, faithful is our God. I shall recover it all.
Artwork above from the ancient mosaics at Ravenna
This is the song Lazarus sang as he came forth (I have it on the best of authority)
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Godzdogz >> 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'
Sunday, April 10, 2011
'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'
Today we begin a series of posts on the seven 'last words' of Christ. The last words of dying people are treasured and it is not unusual that different members of a family, or different friends, hold on to different things said by a dying person in the last days of their life. So we find seven words recorded in the Gospels. Matthew and Mark give us just one, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me', the opening line of Psalm 22. John gives us three - 'I thirst', 'Behold your son', and 'It is finished'. And Luke gives us a further three, 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do', 'Today you will be with me in paradise', and 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit'.
A traditional devotion of Holy Week is to meditate and preach on these seven last words and composers over the century have set them to music. The most recent such setting is that by James MacMillan, renowned Scottish Catholic composer and Lay Dominican.
Luke's three words show us Jesus practising what he had preached. The message of reconciliation, forgiveness, and trust in God's mercy which so characterises the ministry of Jesus in Luke's gospel finds its most powerful expression in his attitude towards his executioners, towards the thief dying alongside him, and towards his Heavenly Father.
The first of these words is 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34). How can we expect to be forgiven if we do not forgive, he had asked the disciples more than once. 'They know not what they do' is a reason he gives for this forgiveness. This can be heard on two levels: they are blinded by the agitation of the mob, the confusion of the situation, and the passion that has taken hold of their hearts. Some of those involved might have said they were 'just doing their job'. On a deeper level it refers to the divine plan which, unknown to them, is working itself out through their actions: they do not know it but their actions are contributing to the work of the world's salvation. We read later in the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus was 'delivered up by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God' (2:23). On one level he is put to death by the hands of lawless men. On another level it is a divine plan that is unfolding.
When we find difficulty in forgiving others we should remember the forgiveness of Jesus. We have all received it, and hope to receive it in the future. We have much for which to ask forgiveness, from Him and from each other. There is much to be remembered about those who have done us harm or have become our enemies, children of God like ourselves no matter how difficult it may be for us to love them. Jesus dying on the cross gives us his most powerful teaching about the love of enemies, in asking the Father to forgive the very people who were carrying out his execution.
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Ordo recitandi >> Passion Sunday
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Passion Sunday
Passion Sunday is the fifth and penultimate Sunday in Lent. It is a semi-double Sunday of the first class.
The most apparent and visually striking feature of this Sunday is the Roman practice of veiling all crosses and images with violet cloth. The custom seems to have developed from the words in the day's Gospel 'Jesus autem abscondit se' - but Jesus hid himself. The veiling takes place after Mass on Saturday morning after Mass and before Vespers are sung.
Yesterday morning's Vespers, along with the veiling, brought in certain more penitential aspects to the Office. The Gloria Patri is omitted from the invitatory of Mattins, from the responsories of Mattins and from the short responsories of the Hours. It is also omitted from the Asperges ceremony before Mass on both Passion Sunday and on Palm Sunday. In Masses 'of the season' Gloria Patri is also omitted from the introit and Lavabo along with the psalm Judica me Deus. The Suffrage of the Saints is also omitted until after Trinity Sunday.
At Vespers the antiphons and psalms were those of Saturday, the chapter proper to the Sunday. The Office hymn changed to the poignant and magnificent Vexilla Regis prodeunt. This hymn is sung at Vespers throughout Passiontide and at the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified on Good Friday. The antiphon on the Magnificat and collect were proper to the Sunday. As noted above the Suffrage of hte Saints was omitted. At Compline the Lesser Doxology was omitted from the short responsory. The Dominical preces were sung.
At Mattins the invitatory is Hodie, si vocem Domini audieritis, Nolite obdurare corda vestra from Ps. 94 and a special rubric indicates the omission of that verse in the psalm. The hymn is Pange, lingua ...Lauream. The same invitatory and hymn are sung from today until the Sacred Triduum in the Office of the Season. The antiphons given in the Psalter for Sundays are used. As usual Mattins has three nocturns and nine lessons. In the first nocturn the lessons are the Incipit of the book of Jeremiah. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from the ninth sermon on Lent by St. Leo the Great. In the third nocturn the lessons are a homily of St. Gregory on St. John's Gospel. The Te Deum is omitted as on other Lenten Sundays and a ninth responsory, Quis dabit capiti, sung in its place. At Lauds the antiphons, Vide Dominum etc., are proper to the Sunday and the second scheme of Psalms sung (50, 117, 62, Benedictus es, 148). The chapter is proper to the Sunday and hymn is Lustra sex.
At Prime and the Hours the antiphons, Ego daemoninum etc., are proper to the Sunday. At Prime the psalms are 92, 99 (displaced from Lauds) and the first two stanzas of psalm 118. At Prime the Dominical preces are sung.
Mass is sung after Terce. The ministers wear folded chasubles. The Gloria is not sung. The second collect is for the Church, Ecclesiae. There is no third collect in Passiontide. As usual in Lent a Tract is sung after the Gradual. The Creed is sung, the preface is of the Cross and the dismissal Benedicamus Domino.
Vespers are of the Sunday (sung at the normal time). The antiphons and psalms are those used on Sundays, the chapter is proper and the hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt. A commemoration is sung of the following feast of St. Leo. At Compline the Dominical preces are omitted because of the commemorated double feast at Vespers.
In the 'liturgical books of 1962' Mattins is cut down to three lessons as usual. At Prime the psalms are 53 and the first two stanzas of 118. The Dominical preces are omitted at Prime and Compline. At Mass there is only one collect and the dismissal is Ite, missa est. The ministers wear dalmatic and tunicle instead of folded chasubles. At Vespers there are no commemorations.
Art (top): Jerome Nadal
Posted by Rubricarius at 00:01
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Vultus Christi >> Father, I Give Thee Thanks
Father, I Give Thee Thanks
By
Father Mark
on April 10, 2011 11:53 AM
Permalink
Comments (1)
Homily preached this morning
at Holy Family Cathedral, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Over the past three Sundays,
brothers and sisters,
we have listened attentively to the Gospel of Saint John.
Saint John's is the divine and mystic Gospel:
its every page shines
with the brightness of the Face of Christ,
revealing the glory of the Father.
Its every page burns
the fire of the Heart of Jesus
revealing the Father's merciful love.
Saint John's Gospel is alive
with the prayer of Jesus to the Father.
One cannot listen to the Gospel of Saint John,
or read it, or meditate it in one's heart
without being lifted, almost imperceptibly,
into the prayer of Jesus to the Father:
a prayer that rises on the wings of an unshakable confidence
in the Father's readiness to hear us at every moment.
So few of us pray as the Father would have us pray
because we cling to our own prayers
-- narrow, myopic, half-hearted,
constrained by our fears,
and weighed down by our inability to trust.
Jesus, however, would have us pray as He prays.
Even more than that,
He would have us open our hearts
to His own prayer to the Father;
the bold and trusting prayer of the Son,
the sacrificial and all-powerful prayer
of the Eternal High Priest.
Jesus would infuse His own prayer into our souls
and, by the action of the Holy Ghost,
so draw us into His own relationship with the Father
that He will pray in us,
and we in Him,
and the Father, seeing us in prayer
hearing our words,
attentive to our groanings,
and counting our tears
as so many pearls for the treasury of the Kingdom,
will see on our faces the Face of the Son,
the Eternal High Priest,
and hear in our every heartbeat
the echo of His.
There is much in today's Gospel
that solicits my attention
and almost begs to be preached.
There is, for instance,
the message sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary,
the model of all intercessory prayer:
"Lord, behold him whom Thou lovest is sick."
How like the prayer of the Mother of God at Cana
is this prayer of two women, friends of Jesus,
fully confident in His response even before He gives it.
"They have no wine." (Jn 2:3)
"Lord, behold him whom Thou lovest is sick."
There is no need to say more.
A prayer of intercession patterned after this prayer
cannot fail to touch the Heart of Jesus.
I could also linger over the message that Martha
whispers into Mary's ear:
"The Master is here, and calleth for thee." (Jn 11:28)
This is the very message that everything in our churches
whispers to the believing heart:
the doors of the Church says it,
the Holy Water at the entrance of the Church says it,
the flicker of the sanctuary lamp says it,
the centrality of the tabernacle says it.
"The Master is here, and calleth for thee." (Jn 11:28)
How can you or I remain indifferent to such an appeal?
I could preach about the tears of Jesus:
the tears of the God-Man,
the tears that reveal the Divine Sensitivity of the Human Heart of God,
the tears that show us the Divine capacity for human friendship,
the tears that, falling upon our stony, hardened hearts,
soften them, change them, and wash them clean.
There is much more in today's Gospel
that begs to be preached, repeated, prayed
and held in our hearts.
Every line, in fact, is a vein of purest gold
waiting to be mined for the treasury of Mother Church.
All of this being said,
today I am drawn irresistibly to verses 41 and 42
of this eleventh chapter of Saint John\.
"And Jesus, lifting up His eyes said:
'Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard me.
And I know that Thou hearest me always;
but because of the people who stand about have I said it,
that they may believe that Thou hast sent me." (Jn 11:41-42).
Jesus lifts up His eyes.
By lifting His eyes towards heaven,
Jesus teaches us that prayer is nothing else
than the lifting of the heart and mind to God.
The direction of His eyes
reveal the movement of His Heart.
Everything in the Son is turned towards His Father.
There is not a moment in His earthly life
when He, the Word who was in the beginning,
is not God facing God.
Instructed by His example,
the Church directs that in the most sacred part of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
in that "Holy of Holies" that is the Canon of the Mass,
the priest, in imitation of Jesus,
lift his eyes towards the Father.
Here, the priest functions as the Head of the whole
worshipping body,
the congregation kneeling behind him.
When the eyes of the priest are raised heavenward,
the hearts of the faithful are also drawn upward,
for the eyes of the head
determine the orientation of the whole body.
There is no detail in the liturgy of the Church
that is of no consequence.
The lifting of the eyes heavenward
sets in motion the whole Church,
that is, the multitude of those who
"being of but one mind and one soul" (Ac 4:4)
lay aside all earthly cares
and forsake all that weighs upon their hearts
to enter with the Son, the High Priest,
into the sanctuary of heaven.
'Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard me."
Here is Saint John's echo of that admirable thanksgiving of the Son in the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke:
"In that same hour, He rejoiced in the Holy Ghost,
and said: I confess to Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
because Thou hast hidden these things
from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them to little ones.
Yea, Father,
for so it hath seemed good in Thy sight." (Lk 10:21)
The prayer of the Son to the Father
is an outpouring of thanksgiving:
every utterance of the Son says to the Father:
I praise Thee,
I bless Thee,
I adore Thee,
I glorify Thee,
I give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.
Is this not the hymn of His Bride the Church
that will set all our cathedral bells ringing
in the night of Holy Pascha?
And where did the Church learn her language of thanksgiving
if not in the school of the Heart of Jesus,
her High Priest and her Spouse?
There is never a moment when the prayer of the Son
does not capture
the full and infinitely loving attention of His Father.
What was from all eternity
-- the ineffable conversation of the Father with the Son,
and the Son with the Father --
is actualized for us here and now
in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Mass, being the Son in dialogue with the Father,
being, even more, the Son handing Himself over to death
the Son immolated,
the Son sacrificed, albeit in an unbloody manner,
for our sakes
and for the Father's glory,
authorizes every boldness in prayer.
There is nothing that the Mass cannot obtain.
Saint John Fisher said that
"He who goes about
to take the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from the Church,
plots no less a calamity
than if he tried to snatch the sun from the universe."
Were the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
to cease on this earth of our ours,
we would be plunged into a darkness
as terrible as if the sun, the moon, and the stars
were extinguished in the firmament.
And why?
Because the Mass is the Eternal Father
captivated by the prayer of the Son:
Christ's prayer in us
and our prayer in Him.
"Because of the people who stand about have I said it,
that they may believe that Thou hast sent me."
Our Lord prays aloud
not because the Father needs to hear His human voice,
but because He would have us hear Him pray.
Hearing Him pray with such boldness,
with such filial confidence,
with such priestly majesty,
how can we not believe
that He who prays
is the Resurrection and the Life?
The Son's prayer to the Father
is uninterrupted,
ceaseless from before the beginning of time
and into the infinite unfolding of eternity.
This is the prayer that He articulates
for our sakes
in front of the tomb of Lazarus,
so that we, confronted by the stench of our sins,
bound in bands of our vices,
shrouded in our self-absorption,
and faced with the inexorable reality of death,
may be consoled and liberated by His prayer
and make His prayer our own
in this, the valley of the shadow of death,
Brothers and sisters,
this first week of Passiontide
as the Catholic tradition calls it,
and the following week called Great and Holy
will be for you and for me
a progressive entrance
into the prayer of Christ to the Father.
Christ will pray in us
and we in Him
at every stage of His bitter Passion,
in the seven last words from the Cross,
in the stillness of Holy Saturday,
and then in the glory of the resurrection
when the Son, waking from the sleep of death,
will open His eyes to see the Father bent over the tomb
as a father bends over the cradle of his first-born.
Open your hearts then
to the prayer of Christ.
Receive it, distilled by the liturgy of His Bride the Church,
and having received it
let it become in you ceaseless and uninterrupted
the pulse of your life in God,
your heartbeat, your life's breath.
It is time to go the altar.
The Master is here and calleth for us.
Let us go to meet Him:
our Victim and our Priest.
Categories:
Lent 2011
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ADW Blog >> I Shall Recover It All- A Meditation on the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent (Msgr. Charles Pope)
I Shall Recover It All- A Meditation on the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent
By: Msgr. Charles Pope.
In today’s Gospel We hear the story of the raising of Lazarus form the dead. The story is a significant turning point in the ministry of Jesus for, as we shall see, it because of this incident that the Temple Leadership in Jerusalem resolves to have Jesus killed.
As is proper with all the gospel accounts we must not see this as merely an historical happening to people 2000 years ago. Rather we must recall that I am Lazarus, I am Martha and Mary. This is also the story of how Jesus is acting in my life.
Let’s look at this Gospel in stages and learn how the Lord acts to save us and raise us to new life. This gospel has six stages that describe what Jesus does to save us:
I. HE PERMITS - Sometimes there are trials in our life by God’s mysterious design to bring us to greater things. The Lord permits these trials and difficulties for various reasons. But, if we are faithful, every trial is ultimatly for our glory and the glory of God. The text says,
Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. So the sisters sent word to him saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Notice therefore that Jesus does not rush to prevent the illness of Lazarus but permits it now for something greater, that God’s Glory in Jesus be manifest, and, we may add, for Lazarus’ own good and his share in God’s glory.
It is this way with us as well. We do not always understand what God is up to in our life. His ways are often mysterious, even troubling to us. But our faith teaches us that his mysterious permission of our difficulties is ultimately for our good and for our glory.
Scripture says,
1.Rejoice in this. You may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials. But this so that your faith, more precious than any fire tried gold, may lead to praise, honor and glory when Jesus Christ appears. (1 Peter 1: 10)
2.But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)
3.For our light and momentary troubles are producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:17-18)
An old gospel hymn says: Trials dark on every hand, and we cannot understand, all the way that God will lead us to that blessed promised land. But He guides us with his eye and we follow till be die, and we’ll understand it better, by and by. By and by, when the morning comes, and all the saints of God are gathered home, we’ll tell the story of how we’ve overcome, and we’ll understand it better by and by.
For now it is enough for us to know that God permits our struggles for a season and for a reason.
II. HE PAUSES – Here to we confront a mystery. Sometimes God says “wait.” Again, this is to prepare us for greater things than that for which we ask. The text says,
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Note that the text says that Jesus waits because he loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. This of course is paradoxical since we expect love to rush to the aid of the afflicted.
Yet Scripture often counsels us to wait:
1.Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (Ps 27:14)
2.For thus says the Lord God, the holy one of Israel, “By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet an in trust, your strength lies. (Isaiah 30:15)
3.The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance…God’s patience is directed to our salvation. (2 Pet 3:9)
Thus, somehow our waiting is tied to strengthening us, and preparing us for something greater. Ultimately we need God’s patience in order for us to come to full repentance, so it may not be wise to ask God to rush things. Yet still his delay often mystifies us, especially when the need is urgent.
Note too how Jesus’ delay here enables something even greater to take place. For, it is one thing to heal an ailing man. It is another and greater thing to raise a man who has been dead four days. To use a meal analogy, Jesus is preparing a feast. Do you want a microwave dinner or a great feast? Great feasts take longer to prepare. Jesus delays but he’s preparing something great.
For ourselves we can only ask for the grace to hold out. An old gospel song says, Lord Help me to Hold out, until my change comes. Another song says, Hold on Just a little while longer, every thing’s gonna be alright.
III.HE PAYS – Despite the design of God and his apparent delay, he is determined to bless us and save us. Jesus is determined to go and help Lazarus even though he puts himself in great danger. Notice in the follow text how the apostles are anxious about going to Judea. For, it is a fact that some there are plotting to kill Jesus. In order to help Lazarus, Jesus must put himself at great risk. The Text says:
Then after this he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?”Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If one walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” He said this, and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” So the disciples said to him, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep. So then Jesus said to them clearly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.” So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.“
We must never forget the cost that Jesus has paid for our healing and salvation. Scripture says, You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Pet 1:18).
Indeed, the apostles concerns are born out when we see that, because he raised Lazarus from the dead, the Temple leaders from that point on plot to kill Jesus (cf John 11:53). It is of course dripping with irony that they should plot to kill Jesus for raising a man from the dead. We can only thank the Lord who, for our sake endured even death on a cross and purchased our salvation by his own blood.
IV.HE PRESCRIBES – The Lord will die to save us. But there is only one way that saving love can reach us and that is through our faith. Faith opens the door to God’s blessings and it is a door we must open by God’s grace. Thus Jesus inquires into the faith of Martha and later of Mary. The text says
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.“
Jesus prescribes faith for there is no other way. Our faith and our soul are more important to God than our bodies and creature comforts. For what good is it to gain the whole world and lose our soul? We tend to focus on physical things like our bodies, our health and our things. But God focuses on the spiritual things. And so before raising Lazarus and dispelling grief, Jesus checks the condition of Martha’s faith and elicits an act of faith: “Do you believe this?” ….Yes, Lord, I have come to believe.
Scripture connects faith to seeing and experiencing great things:
1.All things are possible to him who believes. Mk 9:23
2.If you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible for you.” (Mt 17:20)
3.And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. (Matt 13:58)
4.When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Mat 9:28)
So Jesus has just asked you and me a question: “Do you believe this?” And how will you answer? Now be careful. I know how we should answer. But how do we really and truthfully answer?
V.HE’S PASSIONATE – Coming upon the scene Jesus is described as deeply moved, a perturbed, as weeping. The text says,
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”
In his human heart Jesus experiences the full force of the loss and the blow that death delivers. That he weeps is something of mystery since he will raise Lazarus in moments. But for this moment Jesus enters enters and experiences grief and loss with us. It’s full force comes over him and he weeps, so much so that the bystanders say “See how much he loved him.”
But there is more going on here. The English text also describes Jesus as being perturbed. The Greek word here is Greek word ἐμβριμάομαι (embrimaomai), which means literally, to snort with anger; to have have great indignation. It is a very strong word that includes the notion of being moved to sternly admonish. What is this anger of Jesus and to who is it directed? It is hard to know exactly, but the best answer would seem to be that he is angry of death, and what sin has done. For it was by sin that suffering and death entered the world. It is almost as thought Jesus is on the front lines of the battle and has a focused anger against Satan and what he has done. For Scripture says, by the envy of the devil death entered the world. (Wisdom 2:23). And God has said, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’ (Ez 33:11).
I do remember at the death of loved ones that I experienced not only sorrow but also anger. Death should NOT be. But there it is, it glares back at us, taunts and pursues us.
Yes, Jesus experiences the full range of what we do here. And out of his sorrow and anger, he is moved to act on our behalf. God’s wrath is his passion to set things right. And Jesus is about to act.
VI.HE PREVAILS – In the end Jesus always wins. And you can go to the end of the Bible and see that Jesus wins there too. You might just as well get on the winning team. He will not be overcome by Satan, even when all seems lost. God is a good God, he is a great God, he can do anything but fail. Jesus can make a way out of no way. The text says,
He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go free.”
I have it on the best of authority that as Lazarus came out of the tomb he was singing a gospel song: Faithful is our God! I’m reaping the harvest God promised me, take back what devil stole from me, and I rejoice today, for I shall recover it all!
But notice something important here. Although Jesus raises Lazarus, and gives him new life, Jesus also commands the bystanders (this means you) to untie Lazarus and let him go free. So Christ raises us, but he has a work for the Church to do, to untie those he has raised in baptism and let them go free.
To have a personal relationship with Jesus is essential, but it is also essential to have a relationship to the Church. For after raising Lazarus (us) he entrusts Lazarus to the care of others. Jesus speaks to the Church, to parents, to priests, catechists, and all members of the Church and gives this standing order regarding the souls he has raised to new life: Untie them and let them go free.
We are Lazarus and were dead in our sin. But we have been raised to new life. And yet, we can still be bound by the effects of sin. And this why we need the sacraments, scripture, prayer, and other ministry of the Church through catechesis, prayer, preaching and teaching. Lazarus’ healing wasn’t a one and your done scenario and neither is ours.
We are also the bystanders – And just as we who are in need of being untied and set free, who who are also members of the Church, also have this obligation to others. Parents and elders must untie their children and let them go free by God’s grace, pastors their flocks. I too as a priest have realized how my people have helped to untie me and let me go free, how they have strengthened my faith, encouraged me, admonished me and restored me.
This is the Lord’s mandate to the Church regrading every soul he has raised: untie him and let him go free. This is the Lord’s work, but just as Jesus involved the bystanders then, he still involves the Church (which includes us).
Yes, faithful is our God. I shall recover it all.
Artwork above from the ancient mosaics at Ravenna
This is the song Lazarus sang as he came forth (I have it on the best of authority)
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Godzdogz >> 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'
Sunday, April 10, 2011
'Father forgive them for they know not what they do'
Today we begin a series of posts on the seven 'last words' of Christ. The last words of dying people are treasured and it is not unusual that different members of a family, or different friends, hold on to different things said by a dying person in the last days of their life. So we find seven words recorded in the Gospels. Matthew and Mark give us just one, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me', the opening line of Psalm 22. John gives us three - 'I thirst', 'Behold your son', and 'It is finished'. And Luke gives us a further three, 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do', 'Today you will be with me in paradise', and 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit'.
A traditional devotion of Holy Week is to meditate and preach on these seven last words and composers over the century have set them to music. The most recent such setting is that by James MacMillan, renowned Scottish Catholic composer and Lay Dominican.
Luke's three words show us Jesus practising what he had preached. The message of reconciliation, forgiveness, and trust in God's mercy which so characterises the ministry of Jesus in Luke's gospel finds its most powerful expression in his attitude towards his executioners, towards the thief dying alongside him, and towards his Heavenly Father.
The first of these words is 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34). How can we expect to be forgiven if we do not forgive, he had asked the disciples more than once. 'They know not what they do' is a reason he gives for this forgiveness. This can be heard on two levels: they are blinded by the agitation of the mob, the confusion of the situation, and the passion that has taken hold of their hearts. Some of those involved might have said they were 'just doing their job'. On a deeper level it refers to the divine plan which, unknown to them, is working itself out through their actions: they do not know it but their actions are contributing to the work of the world's salvation. We read later in the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus was 'delivered up by the definite plan and foreknowledge of God' (2:23). On one level he is put to death by the hands of lawless men. On another level it is a divine plan that is unfolding.
When we find difficulty in forgiving others we should remember the forgiveness of Jesus. We have all received it, and hope to receive it in the future. We have much for which to ask forgiveness, from Him and from each other. There is much to be remembered about those who have done us harm or have become our enemies, children of God like ourselves no matter how difficult it may be for us to love them. Jesus dying on the cross gives us his most powerful teaching about the love of enemies, in asking the Father to forgive the very people who were carrying out his execution.
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Ordo recitandi >> Passion Sunday
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Passion Sunday
Passion Sunday is the fifth and penultimate Sunday in Lent. It is a semi-double Sunday of the first class.
The most apparent and visually striking feature of this Sunday is the Roman practice of veiling all crosses and images with violet cloth. The custom seems to have developed from the words in the day's Gospel 'Jesus autem abscondit se' - but Jesus hid himself. The veiling takes place after Mass on Saturday morning after Mass and before Vespers are sung.
Yesterday morning's Vespers, along with the veiling, brought in certain more penitential aspects to the Office. The Gloria Patri is omitted from the invitatory of Mattins, from the responsories of Mattins and from the short responsories of the Hours. It is also omitted from the Asperges ceremony before Mass on both Passion Sunday and on Palm Sunday. In Masses 'of the season' Gloria Patri is also omitted from the introit and Lavabo along with the psalm Judica me Deus. The Suffrage of the Saints is also omitted until after Trinity Sunday.
At Vespers the antiphons and psalms were those of Saturday, the chapter proper to the Sunday. The Office hymn changed to the poignant and magnificent Vexilla Regis prodeunt. This hymn is sung at Vespers throughout Passiontide and at the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified on Good Friday. The antiphon on the Magnificat and collect were proper to the Sunday. As noted above the Suffrage of hte Saints was omitted. At Compline the Lesser Doxology was omitted from the short responsory. The Dominical preces were sung.
At Mattins the invitatory is Hodie, si vocem Domini audieritis, Nolite obdurare corda vestra from Ps. 94 and a special rubric indicates the omission of that verse in the psalm. The hymn is Pange, lingua ...Lauream. The same invitatory and hymn are sung from today until the Sacred Triduum in the Office of the Season. The antiphons given in the Psalter for Sundays are used. As usual Mattins has three nocturns and nine lessons. In the first nocturn the lessons are the Incipit of the book of Jeremiah. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from the ninth sermon on Lent by St. Leo the Great. In the third nocturn the lessons are a homily of St. Gregory on St. John's Gospel. The Te Deum is omitted as on other Lenten Sundays and a ninth responsory, Quis dabit capiti, sung in its place. At Lauds the antiphons, Vide Dominum etc., are proper to the Sunday and the second scheme of Psalms sung (50, 117, 62, Benedictus es, 148). The chapter is proper to the Sunday and hymn is Lustra sex.
At Prime and the Hours the antiphons, Ego daemoninum etc., are proper to the Sunday. At Prime the psalms are 92, 99 (displaced from Lauds) and the first two stanzas of psalm 118. At Prime the Dominical preces are sung.
Mass is sung after Terce. The ministers wear folded chasubles. The Gloria is not sung. The second collect is for the Church, Ecclesiae. There is no third collect in Passiontide. As usual in Lent a Tract is sung after the Gradual. The Creed is sung, the preface is of the Cross and the dismissal Benedicamus Domino.
Vespers are of the Sunday (sung at the normal time). The antiphons and psalms are those used on Sundays, the chapter is proper and the hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt. A commemoration is sung of the following feast of St. Leo. At Compline the Dominical preces are omitted because of the commemorated double feast at Vespers.
In the 'liturgical books of 1962' Mattins is cut down to three lessons as usual. At Prime the psalms are 53 and the first two stanzas of 118. The Dominical preces are omitted at Prime and Compline. At Mass there is only one collect and the dismissal is Ite, missa est. The ministers wear dalmatic and tunicle instead of folded chasubles. At Vespers there are no commemorations.
Art (top): Jerome Nadal
Posted by Rubricarius at 00:01
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Vultus Christi >> Father, I Give Thee Thanks
Father, I Give Thee Thanks
By
Father Mark
on April 10, 2011 11:53 AM
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Comments (1)
Homily preached this morning
at Holy Family Cathedral, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Over the past three Sundays,
brothers and sisters,
we have listened attentively to the Gospel of Saint John.
Saint John's is the divine and mystic Gospel:
its every page shines
with the brightness of the Face of Christ,
revealing the glory of the Father.
Its every page burns
the fire of the Heart of Jesus
revealing the Father's merciful love.
Saint John's Gospel is alive
with the prayer of Jesus to the Father.
One cannot listen to the Gospel of Saint John,
or read it, or meditate it in one's heart
without being lifted, almost imperceptibly,
into the prayer of Jesus to the Father:
a prayer that rises on the wings of an unshakable confidence
in the Father's readiness to hear us at every moment.
So few of us pray as the Father would have us pray
because we cling to our own prayers
-- narrow, myopic, half-hearted,
constrained by our fears,
and weighed down by our inability to trust.
Jesus, however, would have us pray as He prays.
Even more than that,
He would have us open our hearts
to His own prayer to the Father;
the bold and trusting prayer of the Son,
the sacrificial and all-powerful prayer
of the Eternal High Priest.
Jesus would infuse His own prayer into our souls
and, by the action of the Holy Ghost,
so draw us into His own relationship with the Father
that He will pray in us,
and we in Him,
and the Father, seeing us in prayer
hearing our words,
attentive to our groanings,
and counting our tears
as so many pearls for the treasury of the Kingdom,
will see on our faces the Face of the Son,
the Eternal High Priest,
and hear in our every heartbeat
the echo of His.
There is much in today's Gospel
that solicits my attention
and almost begs to be preached.
There is, for instance,
the message sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary,
the model of all intercessory prayer:
"Lord, behold him whom Thou lovest is sick."
How like the prayer of the Mother of God at Cana
is this prayer of two women, friends of Jesus,
fully confident in His response even before He gives it.
"They have no wine." (Jn 2:3)
"Lord, behold him whom Thou lovest is sick."
There is no need to say more.
A prayer of intercession patterned after this prayer
cannot fail to touch the Heart of Jesus.
I could also linger over the message that Martha
whispers into Mary's ear:
"The Master is here, and calleth for thee." (Jn 11:28)
This is the very message that everything in our churches
whispers to the believing heart:
the doors of the Church says it,
the Holy Water at the entrance of the Church says it,
the flicker of the sanctuary lamp says it,
the centrality of the tabernacle says it.
"The Master is here, and calleth for thee." (Jn 11:28)
How can you or I remain indifferent to such an appeal?
I could preach about the tears of Jesus:
the tears of the God-Man,
the tears that reveal the Divine Sensitivity of the Human Heart of God,
the tears that show us the Divine capacity for human friendship,
the tears that, falling upon our stony, hardened hearts,
soften them, change them, and wash them clean.
There is much more in today's Gospel
that begs to be preached, repeated, prayed
and held in our hearts.
Every line, in fact, is a vein of purest gold
waiting to be mined for the treasury of Mother Church.
All of this being said,
today I am drawn irresistibly to verses 41 and 42
of this eleventh chapter of Saint John\.
"And Jesus, lifting up His eyes said:
'Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard me.
And I know that Thou hearest me always;
but because of the people who stand about have I said it,
that they may believe that Thou hast sent me." (Jn 11:41-42).
Jesus lifts up His eyes.
By lifting His eyes towards heaven,
Jesus teaches us that prayer is nothing else
than the lifting of the heart and mind to God.
The direction of His eyes
reveal the movement of His Heart.
Everything in the Son is turned towards His Father.
There is not a moment in His earthly life
when He, the Word who was in the beginning,
is not God facing God.
Instructed by His example,
the Church directs that in the most sacred part of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
in that "Holy of Holies" that is the Canon of the Mass,
the priest, in imitation of Jesus,
lift his eyes towards the Father.
Here, the priest functions as the Head of the whole
worshipping body,
the congregation kneeling behind him.
When the eyes of the priest are raised heavenward,
the hearts of the faithful are also drawn upward,
for the eyes of the head
determine the orientation of the whole body.
There is no detail in the liturgy of the Church
that is of no consequence.
The lifting of the eyes heavenward
sets in motion the whole Church,
that is, the multitude of those who
"being of but one mind and one soul" (Ac 4:4)
lay aside all earthly cares
and forsake all that weighs upon their hearts
to enter with the Son, the High Priest,
into the sanctuary of heaven.
'Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard me."
Here is Saint John's echo of that admirable thanksgiving of the Son in the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke:
"In that same hour, He rejoiced in the Holy Ghost,
and said: I confess to Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
because Thou hast hidden these things
from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them to little ones.
Yea, Father,
for so it hath seemed good in Thy sight." (Lk 10:21)
The prayer of the Son to the Father
is an outpouring of thanksgiving:
every utterance of the Son says to the Father:
I praise Thee,
I bless Thee,
I adore Thee,
I glorify Thee,
I give Thee thanks for Thy great glory.
Is this not the hymn of His Bride the Church
that will set all our cathedral bells ringing
in the night of Holy Pascha?
And where did the Church learn her language of thanksgiving
if not in the school of the Heart of Jesus,
her High Priest and her Spouse?
There is never a moment when the prayer of the Son
does not capture
the full and infinitely loving attention of His Father.
What was from all eternity
-- the ineffable conversation of the Father with the Son,
and the Son with the Father --
is actualized for us here and now
in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Mass, being the Son in dialogue with the Father,
being, even more, the Son handing Himself over to death
the Son immolated,
the Son sacrificed, albeit in an unbloody manner,
for our sakes
and for the Father's glory,
authorizes every boldness in prayer.
There is nothing that the Mass cannot obtain.
Saint John Fisher said that
"He who goes about
to take the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass from the Church,
plots no less a calamity
than if he tried to snatch the sun from the universe."
Were the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
to cease on this earth of our ours,
we would be plunged into a darkness
as terrible as if the sun, the moon, and the stars
were extinguished in the firmament.
And why?
Because the Mass is the Eternal Father
captivated by the prayer of the Son:
Christ's prayer in us
and our prayer in Him.
"Because of the people who stand about have I said it,
that they may believe that Thou hast sent me."
Our Lord prays aloud
not because the Father needs to hear His human voice,
but because He would have us hear Him pray.
Hearing Him pray with such boldness,
with such filial confidence,
with such priestly majesty,
how can we not believe
that He who prays
is the Resurrection and the Life?
The Son's prayer to the Father
is uninterrupted,
ceaseless from before the beginning of time
and into the infinite unfolding of eternity.
This is the prayer that He articulates
for our sakes
in front of the tomb of Lazarus,
so that we, confronted by the stench of our sins,
bound in bands of our vices,
shrouded in our self-absorption,
and faced with the inexorable reality of death,
may be consoled and liberated by His prayer
and make His prayer our own
in this, the valley of the shadow of death,
Brothers and sisters,
this first week of Passiontide
as the Catholic tradition calls it,
and the following week called Great and Holy
will be for you and for me
a progressive entrance
into the prayer of Christ to the Father.
Christ will pray in us
and we in Him
at every stage of His bitter Passion,
in the seven last words from the Cross,
in the stillness of Holy Saturday,
and then in the glory of the resurrection
when the Son, waking from the sleep of death,
will open His eyes to see the Father bent over the tomb
as a father bends over the cradle of his first-born.
Open your hearts then
to the prayer of Christ.
Receive it, distilled by the liturgy of His Bride the Church,
and having received it
let it become in you ceaseless and uninterrupted
the pulse of your life in God,
your heartbeat, your life's breath.
It is time to go the altar.
The Master is here and calleth for us.
Let us go to meet Him:
our Victim and our Priest.
Categories:
Lent 2011
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Feria of Passiontide - Missa 'Miserere Mihi' - Commemor.: St. Leo the Great - April 11th, 2011 - Propers
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