Friends in Christ, tomorrow begins the Sacred Triduum; this is when Jesus will reveal God’s love poured out for us.
St. Augustine says, that God, in order to captivate the love of mankind, has shot several arrows of love into their hearts. What are these arrows that God has shot forth? They are firstly, all the beautiful things we see around us in creation. The lovely earth, living creatures, the summer trees and blue sky- all these, that man might love him. Says Augustine, ‘O Lord, heaven and earth and all things, tell me to love Thee.’
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When St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi would hold in her hand a fruit or a flower, she would say that they were like many darts into her heart, to wound her with the love of God.
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St. Teresa said that all the fair things we see, the lakes, the rivers, the birds – all are tokens of the love God bears us.
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But God was not satisfied with these arrows into our heart only; the choicest arrow he had reserved, and it is shot forth to wound us; God’s final and best arrow is Jesus Christ. And this is referred to by the Prophet Isaiah: ‘ Hear O islands; listen O distant peoples. The Lord called me from birth, he has made me a polished arrow, and in his quiver he hid me.’
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Cardinal Hugo says, that as the sportsman keeps in reserve the best arrow for the last shot, in order to catch his prey, so did God among all his gifts, keep Jesus in reserve until the fullness of time should come, and then he sent him as a last arrow, to wound with love the hearts of men. And this love is revealed in the events of the Sacred Triduum beginning tomorrow.
Friends in Christ, in the gospel yesterday, we saw that Judas was complaining about the waste of money, in the anointing of Jesus. He said, the money could have been used to help the poor. But he was not really concerned about the poor; something else was eating him inside.
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Why did Judas betray Christ? Was it love of money? Was it disillusionment? Was he frustrated that Jesus had not led a rebellion against the Romans? Was it ambition? We don’t know.
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Some say he was possessed by the devil, and that would seem likely, for scripture says ‘the devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ,’ and also, we read today that at the Last Supper ‘Satan entered into him.’ But possession by the devil begins with a desire for evil and sin.
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Some have asked: wasn’t this part of the plan of God? Then Judas had no choice? It had to happen this way? And this brings us to the question of grace versus free-will.
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God desires that all people be saved. He offers to all, adequate grace to be saved. No exceptions. But we must cooperate with this grace, we must accept it and act on it – its our choice. The Lord sent many graces to Judas in his life. Judas heard Christ preach often about forgiveness. He heard the Lord himself speak about how the love of money ruins a person. Judas saw thousands of people cured, and Lazarus raised from the dead. These are called ‘external graces,’ but Judas also would have many internal graces – promptings in the heart, inspirations to do good – just as we all receive. But he ultimately rejected God’s grace.
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God respects our free-will. We can reject his grace and choose the way of eternal death, but as long as we are alive, the Lord is offering us grace. Even as Judas hung himself, God offered his mercy to Judas in the last moments of life. Did he repent at the last moment at the end of the rope? We don’t know.
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It certainly is true however, that had Judas done what Peter did, and repent openly of his sin, we would be celebrating a feast-day during the year, of St. Judas. As the poet John Wittier wrote: The saddest words by tongue or by pen, are those words, what might have been.
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Let us include in our prayers this holy week, those many wandering and lost souls that the Lord is calling home by his grace. Let them be moved by the mercy of God which we will see this Good Friday on the cross.
Friends in Christ, in the final two weeks of Lent, it is a custom in the Church to cover the crucifix and the statues and the pictures in purple, as we have in our church. What is the meaning of the covering up of these images?
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Well, in the 9th century in some countries, a large, purple cloth was stretched out in front of the entire altar. No one could watch the Mass. The idea was, that we are all sinners, and so we will deprive ourselves of the joy of seeing the Holy Mass during Lent. This cloth was called the ‘hunger cloth,’ hungering for Christ. It was removed on Wednesday of Holy Week, when during the reading of the Gospel it says, ‘the veil in the temple was torn in two.’ Then the veil concealing the altar was removed.
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But the practice which we do today is linked to that of the Latin Mass. The two weeks before Lent have traditionally been called ‘Passiontide.’ Passiontide begins on Passion Sunday, in which the gospel says that the enemies of Christ picked up stones and were ready to stone him to death, but he hid himself. – Jesus hid himself. Therefore, from that time on, we hide all of the images of Christ.
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During the course of Lent, if we observe carefully, we will see that the Church herself experiences death with Jesus, leading up to Easter. As Lent begins, the Alleluia goes away, never to be heard again. Organ music ceases, beautiful flowers are removed, to be seen no more, and fasting begins. As we go further toward the Passion, statues and images are covered. We are deprived of all the joys, of even the smiling face of Mary.
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But this dying continues: On Holy Thursday, the altar is stripped, candles removed, bells are replaced with wooden clackers, the Eucharist is taken out of the church, and on Good Friday there is no Mass at all. When we begin the Easter Vigil, we are deprived even of light itself. total darkness. It is as if the Church herself were dead in the tomb with her Lord.
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Veiling of images reminds us again and again, that if Christ had not come, if he had not suffered for us and rose, there would be no salvation, no saints, no Blessed Mother, no hope at all.
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These days we share in the Passion and death of Christ, so that on Easter we may share with gratitude in his glorious Resurrection.
Friends in the Lord, St. Augustine once said, ‘Ask the kings and emperors and the rich and the learned, who have now passed into eternity – ask them what they now possess of their titles, their wealth, and their awards. They will all answer: ‘Nothing.’
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At a person’s death, we often speak of the great things a person acquired in life, but we should rather observe what he takes with him. When Pope Leo XI was dying, he said, ‘Oh, how much better it would have been for me to be a porter than a Pope.’
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Jesus says today to the Pharisees: ‘You belong to this world, that is why I told you, that you will die in your sins.’ We do not wish to die in our sins. Rather, we wish to work hard for the things that we can bring to the next world. Things of this world are here for us to use; they are not to become the objects of our happiness, because they come to an end.
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The famous Cornelius Lapide said, ‘The world is a stage, and we are actors.’ On this stage, one person plays the part of a CEO, another is a secretary, another is a senator or a teacher; in the drama of life – we each have a role. But when the show is over, the senator is no longer a senator, and the executive is no longer an executive – The scene has come to a close.
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Casimir, the king of Poland, at a party, raised up his cup in a toast and died while drinking it. The scene ended for him. 7 days after his election, Emperor Celsus was killed. The scene ended for him. King Ladislaus, while preparing to get married, died at age 18, the scene was over for him.
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Our life is a drama before God. It is our one chance to play our part, to act our role so as to glorify God. Lent has been a time for us to remind ourselves what is really worth living for. At the end of the play, we do not wish to be like that fool in the gospel who wanted to build more barns to store up his wealth: ‘You fool, don’t you know, your very life will be required of you tonight!’
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Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above.’ We too, must belong to what is above. As St. Teresa says, true life consists in living in such a way, that we will have nothing to fear at death. So let’s work for those things which will accompany us to the new world ahead, and which will make us happy for all eternity.
Friends in Christ, we have in the first reading today, this story about Susanna.
Susanna is in a garden when some wicked men full of lust, threaten her: They say that either she must sin with them, or else they will denounce her and she will be put to death. With her life on the line, Susanna refuses their demands, and indeed, they denounce her, and she is condemned to death.
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This story is actually a ‘replay,’ if you will, of the test in the Garden of Eden. Notice that Susanna is where? In a garden. She is tested – in a garden.
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In the Garden of Eden, it was Eve who was tested by the Devil, to see if she would be faithful to God under duress. Unlike Susanna, Eve gave in and sinned.
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Now God had foretold that there would be a Woman who would crush the devil’s head, who would be victorious. There are a number of images of this Woman in the Old Testament: Jael, Judith, Ester; Susanna is one of these images of the Woman to come, of Mary. It is interesting that Susanna’s husband was named, Joakim. And that was the same name of father of the Blessed Virgin as well.
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So here is Susanna. For resisting temptation, she is condemned to death. But along comes? Her Savior: Daniel. He takes those men apart separately, and asks: ‘Under which tree did this happen?’ Each answers a different tree. They are caught in their lie, and Susanna is saved. Daniel is an image of Christ, the Savior.
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God had foretold from the beginning that for that wicked Serpent, there would come a Woman and her Offspring, and by this, he would lose his head. This is why Daniel says of those enemies: ‘Your fine lie has cost you your head.’
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The events of our Redemption have been foretold centuries ago, under sign and symbol, including this story of Susanna. They show that God has had a plan for us all along.
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[Notice also that these events revolve around a Tree, and the same is true of Eve – it was the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil where that temptation happened. The Cross has been called the Tree of Life, and it is interesting that Mary is there at the crucifixion, under the ‘Tree.’ Remember that Susanna, in the garden, was there with her two ‘maids.’ We find Mary at the Cross with her two maids: Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Cleophas.]
Friends in Christ, when we pray the Creed each Sunday, we profess our faith in God the Father, in his Son, in the Holy Spirit, in God’s creative and saving work in the world – and then the Creed culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead.
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The catechism teaches us that just as Christ has risen from the dead, so will we. He leads the way. The Creed literally speaks of the resurrection of the ‘flesh,’ and this means we will really be ‘bodily’ alive, not some kind of ethereal soul. A full, human person, in a glorified body. This is our destiny.
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In the gospel today Our Lord states: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, they who have done good shall come forth to resurrection of life, they who have done evil unto the resurrection of condemnation.”
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The entire life of Jesus Christ triumphs in his defeat of death by his resurrection. Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from the beginning, but as St. Augustine says, ‘on no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body.’
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Today, it is generally accepted that the life of a person continues in a spiritual way after death. But how can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting life? Yet this is central to our Faith. To end up as a floating soul somewhere, gives us no real hope of heaven, it is not true, human life.
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Lent is racing toward Easter; Easter is the greatest of feasts for the Church, and this is because Our Lord shows us that we will be able to conquer sin and death and rise in glorious, resurrected bodies. As St. Paul says, (1 Cor 15:12) ‘How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. But as it is, Christ HAS risen. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made to live.
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Our future resurrection is the reason for our hope, when new will be alive with God, and all those we love.
Friends in Christ, today in the gospel we see this proud Pharisee, who is compared with the contrite publican. The publican is sorry for his sins: ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
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During the season of Lent, we are given a number of gospel readings on this theme, in order to lead us also, to contrition for our sins. Yesterday we had a lot of confessions, today we have confessions again until noon, as part of this Day of Mercy. One of the requirements to make a good confession, is that the penitent have ‘contrition.’ He must be sorry for his sins.
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We could perhaps think of St. Peter – remember how he denied Christ? ‘I never knew the man,’ he said. And then he wept bitter tears. Were his tears contrition? Not necessarily. Contrition is on the inside, and may or may not show on the outside.
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Is Peter’s contrition perhaps because he feels ashamed, that he was so foolish as to deny Christ? no. People sometimes say they are ashamed that they committed some sin; this is understandable, but this is not contrition.
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Father Benedict Bauer says, ‘Contrition is sorrow for the sin that was committed, together with a decision not to do it again.’
Sin is a rebellion against the Good God. Contrition fills the Will with sorrow for revolting against God and treating him so badly, who loves us. We regret that we have done this to our Friend.
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Contrition need not be a feeling, or involve tears – it is rather, a genuine change in disposition. The Will, which previously held onto something evil, now casts the sin away and hates the sin. It wishes that the evil would be undone. Therefore, contrition includes the determination to turn away from sin.
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Sorrow is essential for the reception of Confession, without it, there is no forgiveness of sin. Some people who go to frequent confession find that they are not improving or changing their life. Of course this is human nature, we often fall into the same traps. But we should also ask, ‘am I really being contrite, am I really determined to change when I confess?
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Mother Church speaks of two types of Contrition: Perfect Contrition and Imperfect Contrition. Perfect Contrition is sorrow for sin out of love of God, the way that we would be sorry that we hurt someone we love. Imperfect Contrition is sorrow because of fear of hell or other horrors of the sin. (It still must contain a purpose of amendment)
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We have an Act of Contrition that we often use here at St. John’s, it is in the confessionals and on our guides, although you are free to use any one that you like. But in the one that we use here, Perfect and Imperfect contrition are in the prayer.
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We say, ‘Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, and I detest my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell – there, that is ‘imperfect contrition’ – sorrow out of fear of losing God.
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then we go on:
I detest my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, ‘but MOST OF ALL, because they offend Thee my God, who art all good, and deserving of all my love’ – that is perfect contrition –
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Making firm and deliberate acts of contrition can really help us to change our life.
St. Friends in the Lord, today in the gospel, Our Lord predicts his passion to his apostles and also tells of his resurrection. Perhaps then, thinking that the kingdom of God was quite near, the Mother of James and John – whose name was Salome – she asks Jesus that her two sons will sit at his right and at his left in his kingdom. She had heard Jesus say that his disciples will judge nations and sit on thrones, so she asks for greatness for her sons.
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As St. John Chrysostom says, James and John no doubt realized that Peter was held as the leader of the apostles, and so they feared that Peter would get this honor before them.
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Now ordinary mothers only desire for their kids to make a lot of money, be successful, prosperous, important – but at least this mother wanted her children to be great in God’s kingdom, even though she did not understand it. Perhaps those boys sent their mother to ask the Lord this favor, because the Lord always listens to the pleas of a mother for her children. But neither this mother nor her sons understood what is the price of reigning in the kingdom of heaven.
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‘Can you drink the cup that I will drink?, Jesus asks them. In other words, can you suffer? Can you give up your life? ‘We can,’ they say. But they did not know what they were saying.
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When Our Lord is arrested and sent to crucifixion, the disciples ran away! They were not ready to be crucified with the Lord. Jesus knew this, that they were not ready yet. In the end however, James WOULD be martyred, and John thrown into a pot of boiling oil and banished to Patmos for being true to the Lord. So eventually, with the grace of Christ, they would be able to drink the cup of suffering and reign with him.
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But let us think of an interesting scene. Those boys wanted to be, ‘one at Christ’s right and one at his left’ in glory; and at the cross, there with Mary, was Salome, this mother of James and John. And if she looked up, she would see Jesus being crucified, and to her horror, she saw two others being crucified, one on his right and one on his left! Is that where she really wanted her sons to be? !
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When we pray, we ask the Lord for what we want; but then we should leave it up to him on how to answer the prayer, because he knows best how and when to answer it.
Friends in Christ, in the gospel today we see one way in which the Catholic Faith is totally different from others. Christ tells us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. This is very different from other, non-Christian religions.
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This is very different from other, non-Christian religions.
I knew a young woman who had grown up Hindu. In India, she sometimes went to Church with her Catholic friend. She was stunned when she heard that we are to pray for our enemies. She said, ‘In Hinduism we have a god that we pray to to hurt our enemies.’ It was this teaching that really drew her to the Faith.
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And Our Lord is not speaking so much about the Hitler’s and ISSIS’s and other enemies, as much as he means the person in our own household or at our own workplace who makes our life difficult.
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So Our Lord asks us to have this kind of Christian love. This being said, we must now ask WHY he said this. The reason is simple: it is such love that makes a person like God. Christ says that Our Father in heaven makes the sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
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God is constantly blessing all of his children, good and bad. He is sending constant blessings upon this earth to us and our enemies. William Barclay says, ‘for what purpose were we made in the first place?’ In Genesis, God says, ‘let us make man in our image and likeness.’ Man is created to be like God. We are to be sharing in God’s life, and conforming ourselves more and more to be in his image and likeness.
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So, one characteristic of God, is this universal concern and goodness to all, this unconquerable goodwill, the desire for the good of each person; and never giving up on anyone. No matter how people have wounded God and insulted him, God continues to desire the good of each person.
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Well, we become like God when we too love the good people as well as our enemies; when we desire good for everyone. And this is why Jesus concludes his words by saying, ‘Be therefore perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
Friends in Christ, in the first reading today, God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel; the Lord says that if the wicked man turn away from his sins, none of his crimes will be remembered. This seems to imply that not only can sins be forgiven by God, but that he will forget them?
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The saints tell us, that on the day of judgment, for those who are destined for hell, God will make known even their most secret and shameful sins, of which they never repented or confessed. St. Basil teaches, that with a single glance, everyone will see all the sins of the damned.
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But according to St. Alphonsus and many holy men, for those destined for heaven, the sins they have confessed in confession will not be made known.
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It is common knowledge, that if a priest is going to attempt an exorcism, he will always beforehand make a thorough confession, why? Because the devil will often try to intimidate the priest, by speaking his sins out loud, to his face. Experience has shown however, by exorcists, that the devil is not capable of speaking the sins which have been confessed. They seem to be gone.
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When a child does something wrong, the child sometimes runs to his parents to openly admit his guilt. The parents are pleased by this admission, and usually punish very little. St. Augustine says that we should submit ourselves to judgment now, going to Confession, admitting our faults now, so that at the end of our life we will have already been judged.
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At the Judgement, at the trial of our life, Satan is the accuser, showing the faults of a person’s life. But confessed sins, he is not able to use as evidence in the trial. What happened to those confessed sins? God says today that he forgets those sins, for it is written: ‘None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered.’ And through Isaiah, God says, ‘I will remember your sins no more.’
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If God forgets our sins, that means they don’t exist. St. Peter Damien taught, that God can actually erase parts of history if he wishes. Let us therefore, confess our sins, that the Lord will erase them from our history.
