March 28, 1999Passion (Palm) Sunday |
1. Holy Week is not meant to be just a series of anniversary celebrations for past events. That would be reason enough to celebrate; but there is more than that. In Holy Week, especially the Triduum, we celebrate the paschal mystery, the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus, as it takes place in us His people. The dying and rising of Jesus is understandable enough; but do we understand and experience how that applies to us?
2. Palm Sunday celebrates with a parade and the reading of the Passion. There are a number of purposes to this celebration. To mention just one: to come to terms with the unexpected reality that the crown of thorns is truly a crown of victory.
3. The reform of the liturgical calendar has attempted to restore a mind-set that had been lost. As a little child in the forties, I was taught that Lent ended at noon on Holy Saturday. An important change was made in the fifties (almost 40-45 years ago) that still is not understood by many. Lent ends with the afternoon of Holy Thursday; "Easter" begins the evening of Holy Thursday. The Easter celebration consists of two parts: the Triduum(the Three Days) and the Great Fifty Days. The Triduum begins with The Evening Celebration of the Lord's Supper on Thursday and ends with Paschal Evening Prayer on Sunday evening. In terms of time, it consists of Thursday evening to Friday evening, Friday evening to Saturday evening, and Saturday evening to Sunday evening; in terms of celebration, it is meant to be seen as one continuous celebration, sometimes intense sometimes relaxed, sometimes gathering together in Church, sometimes gathering in small groups or by oneself. It is meant to be a time of retreat from the usual as much as possible and a time to concentrate on prayer (including song), fasting, and listening to God's word. In real time, our conversion, our opening ourselves to letting God work in us, has been taking place hopefully all through Lent; in ritual time our conversion should really "grab" us during these three days. This is the way the Church celebrates these days; is it the way I celebrate them?
4. Some wonder good-heartedly but negatively why we celebrate so much at night, especially Saturday night. The basic reason is that the dark is representative of the "dark side". Notice how most of us prefer to turn on sufficient lights rather than be in the dark. On the religious level it represents the kingdom of the Devil. It is into this kingdom of the Evil One that Jesus, by dying and rising, brings victory. We, accompanied by Jesus, enter this night world of Satan, to flaunt that victory as it is present in us. Secondly, it has been the common practice of the Church through the centuries to look for the return of the Lord in the middle of the night. So it is that we tend to do our important "things" at night.
5. Dying and rising are two fundamental activities for every Christian on a daily basis. This dying and rising does not refer to the physical acts of dying and being resuscitated. They are activities centered on relationships. Relationships don't just happen; they wax and wane; they change. The relationships involved here are the ones between God and oneself as an individual and as a member of the community. The centuries have taught us that it is beneficial to give these everyday activities a definite emphasis in that time period we call Lent/Easter with a particular emphasis during the Triduum.
6. More, obviously is expected of us but, if there is only one thing you could do to express your Catholic Faith, the root thing is the authentic celebration of the Easter Vigil. This is the celebration of the paschal mystery in the celebration of the sacraments of initiation, Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. It is celebrated in those entering the water for the first time and in us, already initiated, through the renewal of our baptismal promises and the gathering at the Lord's table with His people.
With the arrival of Palm (or Passion) Sunday, this weekend, Holy Week is upon us once more. It is an invitation to experience our Faith at its most profound depths: when we relive the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord. The sacred Triduum (or Three Holy Days) has its roots in the life of our Lord, the liturgies of the early Centuries of the Church, modified by Pope St. Pius V, modified by Pope Pius XII, and all of these reforms of the ages were incorporated in the new rites which were promulgated in 1970 after the Second Vatican Council. It is the most important week of the Church's year, and all are asked to put aside regular business to walk with the Lord in these days. We not only relive the days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter morning with Our Lord, but we also reflect on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Institution of Priesthood, and the centrality of the Cross to our Faith. I also would encourage you, if you have not, to take advantage of the two remaining Penance Services. (see dates and times below). All of the priests of the Decatur area will be participating. Also, another ceremony in recent years is the blessing of the Easter Foods (an Eastern European tradition) which Fr. Don Wolford and myself will celebrate here Holy Saturday afternoon at 1:30 PM. I would like to conclude with a reflection about the week ahead from THE DAYS OF THE LORD: THE LITURGICAL YEAR published by The Liturgical Press in Collegeville Minnesota:
The major liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday reflect this. The celebration of the Last Supper and the passion at times when most people are able to attend leads to a participation that is 'full, active and conscious.' The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John, the general intercessions and the veneration of the cross, are very powerful moments on Good Friday. In the past, early morning liturgies on Holy Saturday were, for the most part, very poorly attended. Now, even if the congregation does not fill the church, the Vigil has become a truly paschal celebration. Each of these liturgies is spiritually alive; they teach not in words (i.e., in sermons) but in actions: they lead to an active celebration in the mystery. On Holy Thursday, after the Mass and transferral of the Blessed Sacrament, everyone is invited to join in adoration; and many people join in reading the 'farewell discourses' (John 14-17). The atmosphere of meditation carries on from this first liturgy till the celebration on Good Friday. Finally, the mood of silent waiting on Holy Saturday gives way to the joyful alleluias that spring forth on Easter night, the shouts that endlessly proclaim our Easter faith: 'Christ is risen! He is truly risen!'
However, in order to fully appreciate and experience the wondrous depth of the mystery of the Easter Triduum, the faithful must make a firm effort to free themselves from the worldly preoccupations that are sources of distraction. The lifestyles of the secular world clash with the serious reflection demanded during these holy days; however, we know that it is not of the world, especially during the Triduum. This is the paradoxical duty of every Christian today, as it has always been.
The celebration of Palm Sunday, also known as Passion Sunday, began in Jerusalem in the fourth century. It began at the very place where the crowd proclaimed Jesus as King. As it evolved, a bishop would ride on a donkey up to the church on the Mount of Olives with the crowd carrying palms and singing hymns. Pilgrims visiting the Holy Land spread the practice at Jerusalem throughout the Church. In time the universal Church made this procession a part of the liturgy.
LENTEN THOUGHTS. The Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. No other Mass will be celebrated in the church on Holy Thursday. Everyone is invited to take part in the Mass, and also in the ceremony of the washing of the feet. The foot washing ceremony is an ancient part of the Holy Thursday Liturgy going right back to the Last Supper itself. Participating in it is a great way to begin the Easter celebrations. On Good Friday, no Mass is celebrated anywhere in the Church. We celebrate only the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion during which communion is distributed. On Saturday, the only Mass is the Easter Vigil Mass. The Triduum is one continuous celebration beginning with the sign of the cross on Holy Thursday and ending with the Alleluia on Saturday night.
Holy Week is upon us! We begin this Palm Sunday with the reading of the Passion according to Matthew. It's an invitation to recall, remember and make present the central mystery of God's total commitment to us and our world in the person of His Son.
As we participate in these liturgies we acknowledge how nothing was spared by Jesus to set us free from sin and darkness. It in no way implies that Jesus enjoyed the suffering or was oblivious to it. He entered it completely. The Passion is the total immersion into the darkness of alienation that is sin, to bring us into the light that comes with total obedience to the Father's will.
How do we let the Passion touch us? Through the liturgical actions it is made present and effective as we open our hearts, in faith, to the transforming power of God's love.
I invite you to take some time and let go of distractions and cares to focus on Him who set us free. What more could God have done than give us His Son? Jesus taught us in the Garden what is involved in being faithful: Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me; yet, not my will, but your will (Mt. 26:39b).
The Passion of our Savior is the way out of selfishness into the light of God's truth - that you love one another as I have loved you.
Fr. Ron
Lord of ages past and to come, bless our home. Help us to see You present in each other and in all who enter through our door.
As we prepare to celebrate the jubilee,
Hold this family in your hand.
Be with us as we enter and leave this home each day.
Go with us. Guide us toward the work of freedom. Let us reflect Your light to all we meet in all we do.
Help us to forgive each other, to affirm and nurture each other, to celebrate our life together.
Make us good stewards of all You have endowed us with: our health, our love for each other, and our earthly goods.
As we prepare to celebrate the new millennium, give us the faith to be Your servants in this life and the hope to spend eternity with You.
Amen.
Nations are not machines or equations. They are like ecosystems. A people's habits, beliefs, values and institutions intertwine like a root system. Poisoning one part will eventually poison it all. As a result, bad laws and bad court decisions produce degraded political thought and behavior, and vice versa. So it is with the legacy of Roe v. Wade. Roe effectively legalized abortion throughout pregnancy for virtually any reason, or none at all. It is responsible for the grief of millions of women and men, and the killing of millions of unborn children in the past quarter century. Yet the weakness of the Supreme Court's 1973 reasoning are well known. They were acknowledged by the Supreme Court itself in the subsequent 1992 Casey decision, which could find no better reason to uphold Roe than the habits Roe itself created by surviving for 20 years. The feebleness and confusion of the Casey decision flow directly out of Roe's own confusion. They are part of the same root system. Taking a distorted right to privacy to new heights, and developing a new moral calculus to justify it, Roe has spread through the American ecology with toxic results.
Today's Gospel is St. Matthew's story about the passion and death of Jesus. The first reading is the prophetic announcement from Isaiah of this reality; the servant of the Lord was rebuffed but did not turn back, beaten and spat upon, and yet the suffering one knew the Lord was with him. In the second reading St. Paul offers us a spiritual and theological reflection on the meaning and impact of this self-emptying of Christ.
Message:
The fullness of life comes through the self-emptying of the Suffering Servant and is fulfilled by our identity with this self-emptying. As Christ gave himself for us, we give ourselves for others.
Application:
What are we willing to let go of, to empty ourselves of, to die to, in order to achieve the "triumph of the cross" and to access into our individual and corporate lives Christ's victory over sin and death? In other words, how do we identify with the passion and death of Jesus in order to make the life of Jesus within us real to us here and now? Here are some suggested attitudes/actions to sacrifice:
Racism and Prejudice: Automatically judging "them" in a negative way or approaching "them" with fear or with anger because "they" do not have the same "ways" or "values" that we have.
Self-Reliance: Figuring that, if we work hard enough or obey the right commandments or follow the proper order or carry out the established traditions, we will become holy.
Past Hurts: Acting as though a hurt from history (a week, a year, a decade ago) still disrupts my well-being and my spiritual and psychological functioning.
Unwarranted Judgments: Coming to conclusions about people and events without proper evidence or adequate information and forming opinions about others from hearsay and gossip.
Apathy and Non-Involvement: Adopting a passive role toward the Church as only a spiritual "filling station" or just a place to send the kids for school.
Possessiveness: Running an activity, event, or grouping which excludes some, tramples others, or stonewalls some more.
Capital Punishment: Ignoring the teaching of the Church and holding on to support of the death penalty.
These are just a few examples to help us examine our collective conscience in preparation for Easter.
--Father Benet OFM
Jesus Christ was sent by the Father as the revelation of God's mercy (see Jn 3:16-18). Christ came not to condemn but to forgive, to show mercy (see Mt 9:13). And the greatest mercy of all is found in His being in our midst and calling us to meet Him and to confess with Peter that He is "the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16).
No human sin can erase the mercy of God, or prevent Him from unleashing all His triumphant power, if we only call upon Him. Indeed, sin itself makes even more radiant the love of the Father who, in order to ransom a slave, sacrificed His Son: His mercy toward us is redemption. This mercy reaches its fullness in the gift of the Spirit who bestows new life and demands that it be lived.
No matter how many and great the obstacles put in his way by human frailty and sin, the Spirit, who renews the face of the earth (See Ps 104:30), makes possible the miracle of the perfect accomplishment of the good. This renewal, which gives the ability to do what is good, noble, beautiful, pleasing to God, and in conformity with His will, is in some way the flowering of the gift of mercy, which offers liberation from the slavery of evil and gives the strength to sin no more. Through the gift of new life, Jesus makes us sharers in His love and leads us to the Father in the Spirit. [VS n. 118]
--Pope John Paul II
This last weekend of Lent is called Passion Sunday, the day of palms. We begin the week we call "Holy" so named because it is where Lent and Easter meet, where we focus most intensely on the Paschal Mystery of the dead and risen Christ. Our candidates are near the end of the 40 Lenten days, a solemn retreat we have shared with them. The fasting, the praying, the giving of alms and the doing of good works draw them ever closer to the Easter Vigil. Next Saturday night, the catechumens will be given the Church's gift of baptism. On that night, the candidates will make a profession of faith with us. On that night, all will share in confirmation and then complete the sacraments of initiation with holy Eucharist. With the assembled faithful, they become faithful.
With this series of historical vignettes we review the history of the parish and archdiocese.
RETIREMENT
With quiet dignity the Old Cathedral seemed retired into a stately graceful old age in the autumn time of its parochial life. More and more the commercial areas of downtown St. Louis business life encroached upon the premises of the Old Cathedral, until it was hidden practically from public notice. An event in 1922, however, deserves mention. The farewell service of Monsignor Tannrath, then pastor of the Old Cathedral, with a Solemn High Mass on Christmas Day, which was broadcast over Radio Station KSD. It seems that this was the first time that the world had ever heard the broadcasting of the Holy Mass or of any other Catholic liturgical service.
The church with only a very meager number of resident parishioners remaining, has been in recent years almost completely devoted to servicing the religious needs of downtown St. Louis workers. Quite rightly it has become St. Louis' most historical and revered shrine, a mecca for sightseers and visitors, a second "home" parish for thousands of St. Louis Catholics.
Friends have never been wanting to supplement and minister to its financial and liturgical needs, especially those who by their generous donation of time and talent, have combined to form a choir of city-wide renown.
Zealous alert pastors and ministers have been happily successful in directing well deserved attention to this historic, religious edifice, and by scheduling Holy Masses and devotional functions to accommodate the convenience of downtown workers, have succeeded in keeping the old church very much alive and serviceable.
