I have always told my congregations at the start of
Lent: This is not a time to give up chocolate, sugar or TV; it’s a start, but
lent is a time for giving up sin and building virtues. If we are
short-tempered, we must seek hard to practice patience; if we engage in calumny
or detraction, we must keep a still tongue and seek something good to say about
those we would rather criticise; if we are slothful, we must demand hard work
from ourselves, for if we don’t get to the end of Lent and are not a changed
person. If we don’t more clearly image Christ, we have failed somewhat. So how
did your Lent go? Are you recognisably different now than you were six weeks
ago? Even in some small way, recognisably different? I hope I am, but I doubt
it.
How sad it is that the Easter ceremonies to which
Lent leads are so badly attended these days. The great renewal of the Church we
were promised at Vatican II has never come about; all we can point to is having
more laity engaged in parish and Diocesan-based tasks. Having taken them from
their proper apostolate of bringing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy
to bear in society, we replace them with worker priests, removing both priests
and laity from their authentic, divinely appointed roles. And no mtter how many
ecclesial tasks we give the laity, when the Triduum comes around our Churches
are not filled.
And yet Holy Thursday encompasses central Mysteries
of The Faith: The Real presence of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist; the
Sacrifice that saves us, and the sacramental union with God in Holy Communion that
He gives to us, and which comes to us though the priesthood which He ordained
to make all of this preset and possible as a memorial of Him. We claim to
believe that the Holy Eucharist is the Real Presence of God according to His
Word: “I am the Living Bread which has come down from Heaven...”(Jn.6;
Matt.26v26); we claim to believe that the Holy Eucharist perpetuates His Sacrifice on the Cross according to His
word: “This is My Body given up for you...My Blood, which is shed for you”
(Lk.22v19-20); we claim to believe the Holy Eucharist brings Heaven to earth
since it brings Christ to earth -and wherever God is, Heaven is, and yet we
ignore the Holy Eucharist on the very day Our Lord gifted It to us as His
presence, Sacrifice and sacrament of unity with Him -and through Him, with one
another. Many seem to have we forgotten that since every Holy Mass brings
Heaven to earth we do not need to die to go to Heaven; we only need to come to
Mass. Indeed to come to Mass is to come to Heaven, and thus to absent ourselves
from Mass is to absent ourselves from heaven –and who wants that?
Good Friday is generally better attended; even many
lapsed folk seem to recognise something special about Good Friday (“God’s
Friday”), and turn up to acknowledge and celebrate His saving Passion. How could
we not? On Good Friday Our Lord stretches our His hands on the Cross to say
“This is how much I love you…will you not stay follow Me? I suffered intense
anxiety in Gethsemane in presenting Myself before the face of My All-Holy
Father carrying the shame of every one of your sins; I suffered the scourging
at the pillar where My skin was ripped by welts embedded with bone, that you
may have forgiveness for your sins of the flesh; My head is crowned with thorns
to obtain forgiveness of your bad thoughts and attitudes; I am struck with
blows and mocked that you might have strength to stand before the ridicule of
the world and proclaim Me; I carry the wood of the Cross that by rising from
falls under its weight of your sins, you may rise from mortal sin and be
strengthened the earthly struggles of life; I endured the suffocation of
crucifixion and the pains of death that you may have forgiveness for all of your
sins and rise again to the life of grace. How can you doubt that I will welcome
you back and forgive all your repented sins? See how much I love you. Who else
has suffered for love of you as I have? I gave you My Life, My Love, My Mercy
–you have prepared a cross for Me. I brought you from slavery to sin to the
heights of grace: you have prepared a cross for me. Come to Me all you who
labour, and you will find rest for your souls. Give me your sins, that I may have
the pleasure of forgiving them. Leave your sins behind; become a new creation
in Me. Come to me, and I will give you rest.
Holy Saturday we rest with Christ and wait to celebrate
our share in His transfigured, Risen Body: we hear Him tell the Story of
Salvation from the Fall to the Exodus and thence to Jerusalem; we recommit
ourselves to Him by our baptismal promises; we welcome Him and heaven onto the
altar; we offer the very sacrifice of His Body and Blood by which we are
redeemed and sacramentally unite ourselves to Him in Holy Communion a spiritual
intimacy greater than the physical union of husband and wife. How could we not
desire to be present with the community on this Most Holy Night which brings
the glorious new day; a day which stretches out before us the glory of heaven
and our share in the eternal life, happiness and peace of the Most Holy Trinity
in the company of saints, singing Holy, Holy, Holy…Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus
Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis!
PS. Please excuse typing and syntax errors: I cut
and paste too much and cannot type to begin with!
