holy thursday
Our christian lives have no meaning
if the Christ who
died for us has not also risen.
At every celebration of the mass its his death we re-member - but the presence
is the risen Lord.
And during these three days, though we recall the historical Last Supper, the
crucifixion and the mystery of the resurrection, it is only as elements of one
whole - the Passing of the Lord from this world to his Father, the mystery of
our redemption. In Christ, we too have died and are risen,
though our resurrection is not yet finally fully achieved.
Do this in memory of me said Jesus,
copy what I have done he had said after the washing of the feet.
Both commandments are directed to the same mystery: the commemoration of the
Lord.
After the Book of Signs (John ch2 to 12), to which the
miracle of Cana was the prelude,
the introduction to the Book of Glory (John cha13- to 21) shows how Jesus
fully revealed himself as the hour of his passing had come. From its opening
phrase, the book quickly establishes that this
revelation is the revelation of God's love manifested by Jesus. Bowed and
kneeling as if a slave,
he washes his disciples' feet. This act of service tells us a lot about God: the
Father, who is the source of love; the Son, who is the Servant; the Holy Spirit
who reveals Father and Son.
But to understand the meaning of this prophetic act, to know as Jesus knows, one
must have
seen Jesus lifted up on the cross and have begun to act as he acted. Only then
will the disciples understand the true meaning of that lowly service which
characterised all Christ's life.
The washing of the feet had an unsuspected depth of meaning.
When inspired by love,
the least service rendered to one's neighbour takes on an extraordinary
dimension; it foreshadows that total sacrifice for which everyone should be
prepared; that full communion towards which we
should all be moving. But we can only do this by accepting the Servant Christ
and following him -
even to the suffering of his passion. With our eyes finally opened to the needs
of our sisters
and brothers, we shall be moved to become like Jesus, people who see and act.
good friday How has he come to the cross, Jesus, the Innocent One
whose origins are not of this world?
He has set everyone against him; he stands before a foreigner, accused by his
own people; he has been judged, condemned by the Jews and by a pagan, each
citing their own laws, and he has been crucified.
But this has involved a double betrayal. The Jews betray their faith in
appealing to Caesar,
and Pilate the sceptic betrays his own conscience in condemning one who is
innocent.
Jesus, a king despised and disfigured, the victim of a corrupt justice,
symbolising in his state of abandonment the degradation to which man can reduce
man, remains all the while, the Man for others whom we are called on to
imitate. At the very hour when Jewish priests are sacrificing their
paschal lambs in the temple, God himself suffers and dies.
From the pierced side of this ambassador in chains,
that love with which God so loves the world is poured out even to the last drop.
The grain of wheat fallen into the earth has already begun to produce the fruit
of salvation.
They will look on the one they
have pierced John 19:37.
The liturgy of Good Friday gives full expression to this attitude of faith with
which the
Church looks on the Lamb sacrificed since the foundation of the world.
He, indeed, is worthy to receive the Book and to open for us the sealed pages.
This perfect High Priest prays with us on that mountain where God provides Genesis
22:14 the victim for sacrifice.
Come, let us adore the Lord raised up between
heaven and earth.
holy saturday After a day's silence during which the Church held
her breath in suspense, a thrilling joy breaks out.
Christ has gone down into the valley of death and has trampled death underfoot!
On the third day he rose again . . we look for the resurrection of the dead and the
life of the world to come - this is the core of our faith.
None of the evangelists describes the emergence of Jesus from
the tomb,
because they are suggesting a mystery rather than reporting news.
This is the best guarantee that they are in earnest. Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God,
to see Christ rising from the dead. The resurrection belongs to a different
category than the
re-animation of a dead body. Lazarus died twice, but Christ raised from the dead
dies no more.
All the witnesses to the first Easter are unanimous about the
empty tomb.
The women who came to embalm Christ's body never found it; this fact alone
proves nothing -
but the resurrection needs no such proof. It belongs rather to the category
of signs and mystery. Would faith remain faith if it insisted on evidence?
The accounts of the appearances of the risen Christ are a
summary of a shared experience
over an indeterminate period of time. These accounts all end with an
exhortation to reject disbelief, to collate the event with the scriptures,
to announce that Jesus is beyond the power of death. He is the eternal living
one,
the source of new life for those who believe in him. The Easter faith, born of
doubt resolved,
is a continuing act of freedom which says: it is
really he; he is alive! This is the challenge of Easter to the Church, the
body of Christ,
risen and exalted at the right hand of the Father.