Fullerton T

Holy Thursday and Good Friday

Lent has ended and now we begin the Holy Week Triduum. The word Triduum is the Latin for three days that is the three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the great Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night. The Church celebrates one liturgy each day. We should not think of the liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil as three separate events, all three form part of one single extended liturgy. In fact at the end of the Mass on Holy Thursday there is no dismissal and blessing instead we accompany Jesus to the Altar of repose. In the same way there is no formal beginning and end to the Good Friday liturgy.  This three-day liturgy concludes with the solemn blessing at the end of the Easter Vigil or at the morning Mass on Easter Sunday.

HOLY THURSDAY

Holy Thursday is all about the priesthood and the institution of the Eucharist at the last supper. On the Morning of Holy Thursday, there is only one mass celebrated in a Diocese (Although the Chrism Mass may be celebrated earlier in the week). All the priests gather around the Bishop and the people of God to renew their commitment to priesthood. Also at this Mass the oils of Chrism, Catechumens and the Oil of the Sick are blessed by the bishop, these holy oils will be used in the Baptisms, Confirmations and anointing of the sick in the local parishes over the next 12 months. The theme running throughout this day is one of humble service that is service of God and his people.

The Evening Mass commerates the Last Supper again the theme is service and sacrifice both of these are aspects of the same mystery.  We see Jesus as one who serves, who gives himself. Just as he freely gives himself in washing the feet of his disciples, so too he gives himself  in the bread and wine he takes, blesses and hands to the disciples.  

In the same way we receive Jesus in the form of Bread and wine from the hands of our priests. All these acts of self-giving are the same act – that of the Son of Man who came ‘not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ May we take up the mantle of humble service giving a helping hand to others and not counting the cost to ourselves. Many people over the years have given much at great personal cost and have not failed in their example of humble service and that for me  is what  Holy Thursday is all about  Humble service for others and not being afraid of being the presence of Christ for others no matter what the cost is.

 GOOD FRIDAY

On this day in the liturgy we read St. Johns account of the passion, we pray for the needs of the Church and the world, we venerate the Cross and we receive the blessed Eucharist. We think of the death of Jesus on the cross, his death was a result of the courage of his convictions. He lived his life with a message of compassion, of equality and love, Jesus was often critical of those who lorded it over those who were less well off or who had little or even nothing at all. The cross of Good Friday is a sign and a symbol that all of us recognise, it is a sign of the completeness of the love that God has for each one of us faults and failings included. It is not accidental that the Passion according to John is always read on this day.  This account shows Jesus always in charge, in total command of his situation.  John’s Passion is an extended commentary on an earlier statement of Jesus found in John 10:17-18:  “I lay down my life that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”   

 The focus of the liturgy of Good Friday, is not primarily a meditation on Jesus’ pain, nor on our sinfulness, nor on our imitation of Jesus’ humility on their own.  Rather the focus is a reminder to us that we are beneficiaries of this event, and so we call the Friday “Good” by thanking God for what God has done for us in Jesus.  The final words of Jesus from the cross say it all for us, “Is is accomplished!”  Jesus is not overcome.  On the contrary!  He has overcome! When we go up to venerate the cross on Good Friday we should allow the cross to move us to be better people. Consoling, comforting and challenging the people we meet with the values of Jesus and the Cross.

How splendid is the Cross- of Christ!

It brings life, not death;

Light not darkness;

Paradise, not its loss.

It is the wood on which the Lord,

like a great warrior;

was wounded in hands, and feet and side,

but healed thereby our wounds.

A tree had destroyed us,

a tree now brought us life.

Theodore of Studios

6TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Last Wednesday  on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes we as the universal Church celebrated the world day of prayer for the sick this year  the theme chosen by pope Francis was “I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame” (Job 29:15). On that day we prayed in a special way for the sick and those who care for them. This Sunday in our parish we celebrate the anointing of the Sick and the reading from the Gospel is the healing of the leper. Our Gospel story tells us  about the Leper going to Jesus who healed him but it is about much more than just the healing, it is about the faith that the leper had in Jesus. It is also about the faith we have in Jesus.  After he heals him Jesus tells the man to be silent. He wants the miracle to be personal and quiet for a purpose. The man is to go first to the priests and go through the ritual cleansing prescribed in Leviticus (14:1ff.) Maybe the priests would ask the man how he was cured and then they would hear about Jesus. Who better to give witness to Jesus than someone whose life has been changed by him? Who better to witness to the strength, joy, encouragement, hope and direction that Jesus gives us than one who has been transformed by him?  The man’s life was changed not by any observance of religious codes or rituals, but by Jesus’ compassion, touch and words. We have to ask ourselves are our own lives changed by the words and compassion of Jesus?

Do we  show the same confidence in Jesus that the leper did?  Do we allow ourselves to be transformed by the compassion and words of Jesus in order to show the compassion of Jesus to others? Each one of us know what needs to be put right in our own situation, where we are and as we begin Lent next Wednesday we stop and thank God for the faith we have. May we share the healed man’s enthusiasm to make known the goodness of God. As we begin the season of Lent  with the Ashes next Wednesday with all the opportunities it provides for renewal of our spiritual lives Let us pray for a spirit of compassion and understanding as we journey through Lent to the great celebration of Holy Week and Easter.

3RD SUNDAY OF ADVENT GAUDETE SUNDAY

This weekend we celebrate the 3^rd Sunday of advent also known as Gaudete Sunday or Rejoicing Sunday. The term Gaudete refers to the first word of the Entrance Antiphon, “Rejoice”. Rose vestments are worn in many churches to emphasize our joy that Christmas the birthday of Christ is near, and we also light the rose candle on the Advent wreath. Again we hear John the Baptist in the Gospel Reading for this Sunday where he calls us to renewal and repentance in our lives and the lives of others when he calls all of us to make way for the lord

The question for us this “Gaudete” Sunday is how do we measure our lives and how do we make straight the ways of the Lord? By what standard do we live, work, and relate to the world and with those around us ? How do we encounter and relate to God? Advent the same as Lent has at its heart the message and the call to repentance, to what the Greeks called “metanoia ”which means to come back. In Advent we look towards a different measure for life and this is hard as we continue our preparations for the razzmatazz of Christmas

The secular world’s way to peace and happiness is always a focus on individual achievement to the exclusion of others. The way of God does not focus on the achievements of  the individual at the exclusion  of the other. We as people of god should realize that The Messiah’s message, revealed in his words and his deeds, provide us with a different standard  to live by a standard where all are valued and none are left out. A standard where all people are valued Sons or daughters of God and known as such .

I stated at the beginning that we are celebrating the joy of Gaudete Sunday which is about the happiness and rejoicing of Jesus the son of god being near. As Christmas draws near, the Church emphasizes the joy which should be in our hearts over all that the birth of our Savior means for us or all that it should mean for us especially in our world where so many have little or nothing at all. The joy of Christmas will come to us if we set about actively trying to create it for others. If I go about my life demanding that others carry me rather than seeking to carry them; feeding off others rather than feeding them; demanding that others meet my needs rather than trying to meet theirs, joy will never find me no matter how hard I party or try to crank up the Razzmatazz and the good cheer.

The Joy we have at Christmas is not really about Partying or the Secular Razzmatazz of the ongoing parties etc instead it is really about Jesus Christ the Son of God who is for us the light in the darkness. It is about really reaching out to others family members, friends and relations those who we might not value as much as we should. Indeed those who the secular world really count for nothing.

We joyfully praise God on this Gaudete Sunday. We thank him for all he has done for us in our own lives and in the lives of all those who are dear to us, families and friends whoever. We rejoice that through the coming of his Son Jesus we have come to know the Father. We do what we can to imitate Jesus life, to follow his Gospel of love in a spirit of joy. As we continue our Advent journeys  along the roads that lead to salvation let us prepare the way for the Lord in our own lives remembering that in  the words of the Antiphon  we should rejoice, that is Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice. the Lord is near. 

23RD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Well we are now at the end of the summer holiday months of July and August  and all the schools in our locality are back in full swing and all the various clubs and societies that closed for the holidays are now gearing up for the new season. It seems to me that time waits for no one and this must be true enough when my nephew who is 22 years old was wondering why his life was passing by him so quickly. It is very true that life is passing by all of us both young and old along with all the other age groups in-between and the question to be asked of all of us is am I doing what god wants me to do with my life?  

In our Gospel passage for this Sunday St Matthew recounts Jesus’ instructions to the disciples about how they should deal with a brother who does something wrong. This same instruction applies to us and our dealings with other people in the here and now of today. This passage is very different from those of the two previous Sundays. They were dramatic stories, marked by deep emotions and with deep implications for the characters involved. This is a little gem of a passage but with little drama, a very practical, common-sense teaching on that most common and most prosaic of community problems – conflict.

It is a great wisdom teaching which continues to be valid for us in our own time. Management has become a science today, and Jesus’ teaching stands up well as a model of how to “manage” conflict in any situation.  It is the duty of the disciple we are told  to point out the error and even if our correction might not be well received. St Matthew wants to let the Christians in his community know how to deal with those who drift away from the teaching of Christ or blatantly contravene the commandments. And he chooses those words of Jesus which most stress the authority and the competence of the Christian community, the Church, to deal with these cases: Whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.  However, there are some safeguards built into this teaching on reproving those who go astray. Jesus says that first of all you must have it out with him alone. This might lead to a speedy solution and the person’s good name is preserved. Yet it seems  from the gospel reading that the only sanction is that the person be excluded from the community of the Church. That is surely the meaning of the words: treat him like a pagan or a tax collector treat him as an outsider. But in considering such matters we must be very careful; for getting all worked up about the behavior of someone else  can frequently be a sign of something else, something much closer to home.  Encountering the truth about another person and ourselves is daunting  because it makes us face up to the other person and ourselves and the weaknesses that are part of us and all we are.

We may try to make others a function of our egos, but it fails. Rather than enter the struggle, in many cases we ignore it. Our human relationships mirror our relationship with God sometimes good  often times not so good. Whenever we encounter each other—not only in prayer—Jesus is in our midst let us remember this as we go forward as people of faith.