PAN DE LA SEMANA

N.B. I DUG UP MY FILES AND NOTICED A REFLECTION I WROTE YET IN 2007 WHICH I HAD NOT ACTUALLY POSTED IN THIS BLOG. HERE, THEN, IS AN ALTERNATIVE REFLECTION FOR TODAY   Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion April 6, 2007 Readings: Is 52:13 – 53:12 / Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9 / Jn 18:1 – 19:42 THE CONUNDRUM OF THE CROSS The serene and joyful silence that ended our celebration last night after the Lord’s Supper extends to today, broken only by the sedate and simple recitation of the Morning Prayers. Our afternoon liturgy timed more or less on the hour of the passion and death of the Lord on the cross begins with utter silence with the celebrant prostrating before the bare altar, stripped of all the usual paraphernalia attached to it. The bells are silent. The majestic music of the liturgy gives way to unaccompanied somber songs that smack of simple joy, and silent rejoicing. Silent joy and rejoicing on Good Friday? Are we in our right f...

Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion/Veneration of the Cross SOMBER, NOT SAD It is easy to fall into excesses this day. The thought that “God is dead” can wreak havoc on the faith of those whose faith in a living God, Good Friday or not, is already on tenuous grounds. But Good Friday’s focus is not a dead God, not a dead Christ, but a Christ who gives away everything freely, including his life by dying on the Cross, so that we might live! Good Friday is not about him being dead and remaining very dead. Good Friday is about us getting back to life because He freely gave up His life that we might live. It is about Him being in control, being free and powerful enough even to subject himself to the black and dark forces of sin and misguided humanity, so that humanity might get back to the ways that lead to peace and authentic freedom. Yes, Virginia … you ought not to be sad. The Liturgical celebration done in three parts, nowhe...

Good Friday April 6, 2012 Yesterday, we reflected on the act of ritual washing that then paved the way to watching. Jesus, anticipating the end of his earthly sojourn, and aware of the rising tension between the forces of darkness against the forces of light, became the ever provident Lord and Savior that God always is for us His people. He instituted the Priesthood. And by instituting thereby, too, the Eucharist, the first Holy Mass ever celebrated on earth, the first unbloody yet fully meritorious sacrifice offered in this world, Jesus saw to it that the act of redemption He was just about to do – a bloody and ignominious death on the cross, would be perpetuated and repeated in an unbloody manner for all times and for all peoples. The one and unique Redeemer, who redeemed all of humanity in one fell swoop, sort of, in one bloody and perfect Sacrifice on the Cross, thus assured that salvation goes on up till now, for all days, and for always. The washing of the feet – the granti...