From St. Anthony Messenger:


Baptism is our entry into God’s plan for the world. Confirmation and Eucharist open the door wider.

"I wish I knew more about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. I have studied the four Gospels, but they tell me only about the last years of his life. What did he do those first 30 years?

Since I don’t know what went on during those early years, I guess I can let my imagination fill in the blank spots. I see Jesus getting up each morning and going off to work in the carpenter shop known as Joseph and Son, Inc.

I picture Jesus and his dad making piano benches and TV cabinets (or whatever carpenters did in those days). Then, one day, some rich folk down by Jericho order a dinette set. Jesus is delivering their table and chairs when he comes upon John baptizing at the Jordan River.

Jesus sets down the table and chairs and listens to John preach. Then Jesus goes into the water. He hears a voice telling him that he is loved and he comes up changed.

As far as I know, he never went back to the carpenter shop. And some rich family in Jericho is still waiting for their table and chairs.

I hope you will forgive this fanciful account. I tell it in order to illustrate the pattern for our Christian Sacraments of Initiation: First, we go down into the water. Second, we hear the voice that we are loved. Then we come up changed, and something gets left behind.

Let’s explore this model or pattern.
 
 
Going Into the Water
 
We frequently go into the water and wash off by taking a shower or a bath. But Baptism is different from these ordinary washings. Baptism is a sacrament—something we see through.

Recently, I had my picture taken for our parish directory. I thought my sister might like the 8” x 10” they gave me. Thus, I bought a nice picture frame and inserted the photo in it. But I couldn’t see the picture very well behind the glass.

Then I realized that there was a protective coating on the glass that needed to be removed so that you could see through the glass to view the photo. Otherwise, my sight rested on the surface of the glass.

Sacraments are something like that: They help us see through to the important part. Baptism is like the glass in the picture frame. Faith enables us to remove that protective coating so that we can see through the water bath—the symbol—and get to the important part—the spiritual reality.

Baptism is not just a bath; it is a birth into a whole new realm of possibilities—God’s possibilities.

All of creation is an expression of the Divine Artist. The love that is God’s inner Trinitarian life spills over into creation.

We see this most clearly in God’s masterpiece, Jesus, who is “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being” (Hebrews 1:3, all quotes are NRSV).

If sacraments are something like that glass in the picture frame, which we look through to see the deeper reality, there is no more perfect sacrament than Jesus himself. Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15).

In Jesus “we see our God made visible and so are caught up in love of the God we cannot see” (Mass of Christmas, Preface I).

Baptism is our entry—our birth—into God’s plan for the world. We go down into the water, we put on Christ and we are taken up into the mystery that is God’s inner life of Trinitarian love—a love which burns away all guilt; a love which heals all shame. We are Christ-ened, we are divinized (theosis). And we hear the Voice: “You are my child! I love you.”
 
 
Hearing God's Voice
 
At Baptism we hear the voice of God assuring us of our deepest reality: We are beloved of God. At Baptism, as with all the sacraments, the ritual expresses a moment that extends beyond the ritual itself.

The Sacrament of Marriage is a good example. Those of you who are married heard the voices of your spouses during the sacrament telling you that they loved you, and would love you and honor you all the days of their lives. But that ritual moment was not (I hope) the first time any of you heard that voice say “I love you!” Hopefully, there were many “I love you” moments leading up to the sacrament and many more following the wedding ritual.

Similarly, the Sacrament of Baptism for adults is preceded by a period of preparation (the catechumenate) during which the members of the Christian community help candidates prepare to hear the voice, to realize in an ever more profound way that they are beloved by God. That is why the Sacred Scriptures—the story of God’s love for us—play the central role in this preparation.

After Baptism, we continue to hear the voice again and again throughout our Christian lives. We hear this voice of love primarily through the Christian community, assuring us that we are beloved with a love that cancels out all feelings of shame or insufficiency and empowers us for mission. The community is essential to being Christian.
 
 
We Become Changed
 
Jesus, at his baptism, went down into the water, heard the voice and came up changed. I wonder if we would know anything about Jesus (or even care, for that matter) if he didn’t come up changed. What if he simply came up out of the Jordan, delivered the table and chairs, and then went home to the carpenter shop and continued life as usual?

But that didn’t happen: Jesus came up from the water changed.

And that has to happen to us also: We have to come up changed. Otherwise, there is no point. We go into the baptismal pool as carpenters, teachers, mothers, bankers, nurses, clerks, etc. And we come up lovers! Whatever our vocation in life before Baptism, afterward we are lovers, proclaiming the God who is Love itself.

The voice we hear at Baptism is a special kind of communication. It is not merely information; it is a symbolic exchange.

I’ll use weather as an example. Before leaving on a trip, I can call up a weather report on my computer so I know whether I need to take my coat or an umbrella. This is simply information; it requires no particular response.

But if you meet me in the corridor and say, “Good morning,” you will feel hurt or snubbed if I hear the greeting and simply pass by without any acknowledgment. You were not giving me a weather report. Rather, your greeting was symbolic communication and it demanded a response.

God’s baptismal “I love you” is just such symbolic communication. It demands a response. We must come up changed.

And something gets left behind. Maybe it’s not a table and chairs. But it might be prejudice, egoism, greed or selfishness. Once you hear the voice you will begin to see what it is that you will have to leave behind.

We go into the water (sacrament, liturgy, worship); we hear the voice (Word; Sacred Scripture); and we come up changed (mission, ethics). In this pattern we find worship, Sacred Scripture and ethics, the three pillars of Christian life.
 
 
Christian Initiation
 
If you have seen adults (or children of catechetical age) baptized at the Easter Vigil, you know that Baptism (the water bath) is part of a larger ritual process. The candidate goes into the water (Baptism), is anointed with oil (Confirmation) and is welcomed into table fellowship (Eucharist). Christian initiation comprises three Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.
 
The New Testament frequently speaks of table companionship as initiation into the company of Jesus. Indeed, one of the images for the culmination of the Mystery—God’s plan for creation—is the image of a great banquet where all are seated at table with the Trinity. “Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

Our sacramental rituals for those Churches that follow the liturgical customs of Rome were influenced by the cultural context of the Mediterranean countries in which they evolved. In the first and second centuries, after bathing, Romans would rub their bodies with oil (to moisturize the skin) and dry off.

Likewise, when we are invited to go out and dine with others, we probably wash up, dry off, get dressed and then go to dinner.

In our sacramental system, the bath of Baptism is followed by the oil of Confirmation. Anointed with the Holy Spirit and clothed in Christ, we are invited to the eucharistic table.

At that table, we not only hear the voice that we are loved, we experience communion with God. We feast on the divine flesh and are thus ourselves divinized.

We who eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ are taken up into that Body and we become Christ’s Body. The divine food does not merely empower us to imitate Christ; it enables us to live in Christ.
 
 
Evolution of Separate Rituals
 
These rituals, as I have just described them, were not my experience and probably not your experience either. I was baptized as an infant. (I might have heard the voice at Baptism, but it was probably drowned out by my own voice crying!) I received First Holy Communion as I began grade school. Years later, I was confirmed.

How did the Roman Church move from Baptism/Confirmation/Eucharist in one ritual ceremony to three separate rituals: Baptism, First Holy Communion and then, later, Confirmation? The complex history of this change in ritual practice occupies a large part of the graduate course I teach on the Sacraments of Initiation. If you are willing to accept a three-minute-history-of-the-world with all the simplifications that would entail, here is what happened.

In the early days of Christianity, infants began to be baptized along with their parents, who were being sacramentally initiated into the community. (Remember that one of the insights into the water bath was that this bath washed away all sin.)

Theologians asked, “If Baptism washes away sin, how is it possible to baptize an infant who is not able to commit sin?” Good question!

St. Augustine and others responded by explaining that, while the infant could not commit any personal sins, by the very fact that he or she was biologically a descendent of Adam and Eve, the infant inherited their sin, Original Sin. Baptism washes away that sin and that is why it is possible to baptize infants. Good answer!

I don’t know what it is, but something in us often makes negative things more intriguing than positive things. For example, I bet you can name more ill-nesses than well-nesses! Similarly, I bet you have heard a lot more about Original Sin than about original grace or original blessing!

As the theological discussion began to focus more and more on Original Sin, Original Sin moved from the reason why infants can be baptized to the reason why infants must be baptized. Parents are instructed to have their babies baptized as soon as possible.

But still, initiation remained one, unified process: The infant was baptized, anointed and received the Eucharist. Sometimes, the infant would spit out the host. Thus, the custom began to not give the host to an infant. Instead, the infant was given only the Precious Blood, by placing a few drops of the consecrated wine on the child’s tongue.

Then in the fourth and fifth centuries, Europe experienced a ministry crisis: There were not enough bishops. Christian communities were led by an overseer (bishop) who was assisted in his ministry of catechesis and education, administration, care of the sick and social outreach by ministers (deacons) and by a “parish council” of elders (presbyters).

Various solutions to this problem were tried. Finally, in those churches that followed the liturgical customs of Rome, it was decided that in the rural areas (daughter parishes), one of the presbyters would be authorized to preside at the Eucharist and was also authorized to receive new members into the community. But the post-baptismal anointing (Confirmation) was to be reserved for the bishop.

This was the beginning of separating the washing up and the drying off, as well as the source of our thinking about Confirmation as a sacrament separate from Baptism.

During the 11th and 12th centuries, when Communion from the cup began to be denied to the laity, it seemed strange that only priests and infants received Holy Communion with the Blood of Christ. Thus, infants stopped receiving Holy Communion at their Baptism.

That is how we arrived at the separation into three sacraments: Baptism, followed by Confirmation and then Eucharist.

When Pope Pius X lowered the age for First Holy Communion from early adulthood to the age of reason (interpreted to mean about six years of age), children began receiving the Eucharist before they were confirmed. Thus, the order changed to Baptism, followed by Eucharist and then Confirmation.

When thinking of the meaning of these sacraments, it is best to look to unified liturgies presented today in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: Those who wish to join the Christian community go into the water and hear the voice, are anointed by the Holy Spirit and are changed forever in the Holy Eucharist."
 
 
Father Richstatter’s text is also the April 2009 Catholic Update, “Sacraments of Initiation: God’s ‘I Love You.’”
 
Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., earned a doctorate in sacramental theology from Institut Catholique of Paris and serves on the faculty of St. Meinrad School of Theology. He is a popular writer and speaker at parish and diocesan gatherings.
 
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Apr2009/Feature2.asp

An Easter reflection from America Magazine:


"Peace be with you.” That first Easter evening Jesus’ greeting burst through the gloom and confusion of the upper room. The disciples’ grief over Jesus’ death, their dismay over Jesus’ rejection by Israel’s leaders, their shame over abandoning Jesus at the cross, their bewilderment over the empty tomb and Mary Magadalene’s wild report—all those feelings came to an abrupt halt with the familiar salutation: Peace be with you. But at that moment, Jesus’ salutation must have been more shocking than reassuring. Their heads must have been teeming with questions, with doubts and phantom terrors. What could these words mean?


When we Christians hear this Easter greeting anew this year, we too should be dismayed as much as consoled. For the peace of the risen Christ ushers us into a new existence, where nothing will ever again be the same. Because it is soul-transforming, Christ’s peace is a costly gift that demands radical conversion. Because that peace is all-embracing, uniting us with all sorts of people we would otherwise avoid, it rips away our prejudices and tears asunder the protective walls that afford us comfortable assurance. As Jesus explained, “Not as the world gives, do I give.”

The peace of Christ heralds the beginning of a new age. We are being drawn into a new way of life where the world as we know it—the world of black and white contrasts, of rivalries and wars, of domination and oppression, of zero-sum solutions and justified inequality—should lose its grip on our minds and hearts. Christ’s peace should cast out the fear that runs the world and too easily takes our imaginations captive. In the glow of Christ’s peace, the fear that chills our hearts, puts us on guard and sets us, however subtly, against one another should seep away. We should be set free to live boldly in hope and to challenge those who would shackle our Christian visions.

A primary effect of Easter peace is to unite the church itself. For St. Paul “the bond of peace” Christ gives his disciples defines the church. It unites its members across class, gender and ethnic barriers: slave-free, male-female, Jew-Greek. The bond of peace is more essential to the church’s identity, in Paul’s estimation, than any charisms or offices his disciples may exercise, and in the Christian community genuine unity ought to weigh even more heavily than any claims of religious lineage or preening orthodoxy.

Insofar as any of us in the U.S. church today may be on the prowl to catch out anyone else in a dissident position or find ourselves perpetually on the attack, Christ’s greeting of peace will be an uncomfortable challenge. Insofar as we deny the gifts of others and steamroll over them in pursuit of uniformity of opinion, we have severed ourselves from the bond of peace, which is the risen Christ himself. Insofar as we drag the church into partisan political rivalries or seek from it petty political advantage, we are corroding the bonds of charity. Wherever the charism of unity is at work, where bridges are built, where common ground is celebrated and where enmities are overcome, there Easter peace is at work, healing, strengthening and making the many one in the body of Christ.

From the church, God’s peace ripples out to fill the world: “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” The baptized are charged with extending Christ’s work of reconciliation. We are fortunate to live in a time when, in the face of many armed conflicts, people inside and outside the church are taking up the challenge of peacemaking. Whether it is lay communities like Focolare and the Community of Sant’Egidio, Catholic nongovernmental organizations like Caritas Internationalis and Catholic Relief Services or teams of academics and fieldworkers in the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, women and men are working to make Christ’s farewell gift of peace a reality in zones of conflict. Leading this movement, Pope Benedict XVI himself has reached out not only to the interfaith community but also to agnostics and secular activists, inviting them to join in a common witness for peace at Assisi this coming October on the 25th anniversary of the Assisi Day of Prayer. Through all these peacemakers, Christ’s greeting, “Peace be with you,” echoes where it most needs to be heard.
 
To help others find peace and to sustain themselves from crisis to crisis, year after year, Christian peacemakers need themselves to draw deeply on God’s peace, which is “so much greater than anything we can understand.” From the depths of the divine beauty they will draw inspiration, from the reserves of divine strength they will draw energy, and in their vision of God and God’s kingdom they will find unfailing hope. For those ready to be challenged by Christ’s greeting of peace, for those open to hearing the call to be peacemakers in the broken places of church and world, the risen Jesus’ Easter greeting portends a springtime of abounding grace."
 
 
Happy Easter from the St. Vincent Pallotti Center! 

A Holy Week reflection from an archived edition of Shared Visions (Volume 15, Number 3).



"The Christian tradition celebrates Easter as the high point and fulfillment of its entire liturgical year, even more important than Christmas. Our tradition encourages us to see Easter not so much as a single Sunday, such as March 27, 2005, but rather, as an experience lived throughout the whole year.

How do we know this? From a theological perspective, Lent’s forty days of preparation end when we begin the triduum which celebrates the final three days of Jesus’ life. His last supper on Holy Thursday, with his crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter are a single process of passion, death and rebirth. So Easter points to more than simply a holiday. The Church holds up Easter as a many-faceted jewel, and encourages us to pursue how its many themes play out in our personal or communal lives. These themes celebrated during the triduum shed light on and bring hope to the struggles of daily life. Use the suggestions below to help you explore how you can make this happen. Begin by thinking about or talking with others about your understanding of the various biblical themes. Then ask: how are they similar to the volunteers’ experiences such as those listed as examples? Write any response you feel called to as a result of discussion.


The Holy Thursday Experience
Be attentive to the story and read: 1 Cor. 11:23-26
Be smart in understanding the themes: Sharing Passover meal, breaking bread/self for others’ sake, Exodus’ escape from slavery, communion with God.
Be decisive in recognizing similar themes in your life: Sharing a special meal with friends? Sacrificing for another’s benefit? What’s your experience of slavery? When do you feel close to God?
Be persistent as to which is your concern: Is there a slavery you want or need to escape? How will you live out your Passover from slavery to freedom and to communion?


Good Friday Experience
Be attentive to the story, read: John 18:1-19, 42
Be smart in understanding these themes: Dealing with violence, issues of life and death, sacrifice for others.
Be decisive in recognizing similar themes in your life: Where have you seen injustice? What has enabled it to happen? Who has been the victim?
Be persistent in your response: Are your clients victims? What can be done to bring them justice?


The Easter Sunday Experience
Be attentive to the story, read: Mark 16: 1-8
Be smart in understanding these themes: Changing death to life, to resurrection
Be decisive in recognizing similar themes in your life: When have you seen new life in your own life or your clients’ lives? Gone from despair to hope?
Be persistent in your response: Where is new life needed in your or your clients’ lives?

A prayer and reflections on the actions we take during Holy Thursday mass from Creighton University Online Ministries:

Opening Prayer
Let us pray.
God our Father,
we are gathered here to share in the supper
which your only Son left to his Church to reveal his love.

He gave it to us when he was about to die
and commanded us to celebrate it as the new and eternal sacrifice.

We pray that in this eucharist
we may find the fullness of love and life.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

As we prepare to celebrate this wonderful liturgy we begin by entering into a new movement. As this liturgy begins, Lent has ended. Our 40 days of Lent helped us "prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery with mind and heart renewed." Now we come to three liturgies which help us experience what is offered us in the new Passover. Each liturgy helps us enter more deeply into the mystery and meaning. Holy Thursday evening takes us to the heart of the gift and to our mission.


The Elect and the Children
We begin with the Catechumens and Candidates with whom we have been journeying all year. If there are no persons preparing for full communion with us in our parish, or if we have not been aware of them, this is the time to become conscious of and sensitive to the Elect, in our community, our city and around the world. Through the rites of Acceptance and Election, our brothers and sisters have grown to "hunger" for communion with us. We have welcomed them, blessed them, anointed them, and cared for them as our own. For the last three weeks we have prayed for them and supported them in the temptations that come at the end of a long journey. Each Sunday, as we dismissed them after the homily and before the "Prayer of the Faithful," we told them that we "longed for the day" when we could be with them at the table of the Lord. Throughout the year, our care for them helps us understand who we are, the way a good teacher learns more about a subject through the process of education.

We remember our children, whom we are continually forming in the life of our faith community. All our community's "religious education" comes to a special focus for our youngest members.

This Holy Thursday liturgy has the Elect in mind, and it is a wonderful night for children. On this night we "act out" the meaning of the Eucharist, the meaning of our salvation, and the meaning of discipleship. In our preparing for Holy Thursday, it helps to enter into this experience as a member of a community that desires to "show" to our newest and youngest members, who we are and who we desire to be.


The Word
To begin to prepare, let us read the readings of this Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. Our chewing starts here, as does our nourishment. The Exodus account of the Passover tradition reminds us of the exit, the liberation, of the people in slavery in Egypt, and meal that commemorates it. "This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate." During our Lenten journey, we have desired greater freedom, and a deeper liberation from the patterns that keep us from being free. We want to come to the Holy Thursday memorial with those desires alive with hunger and thirst.

Psalm 116 asks, "How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me?" The word, "eucharist" means "thanksgiving." To come to this night prepared to celebrate, we can reflect on all the reasons we have to be grateful. The Spirit of Jesus uses the gift of gratitude to gather us for Eucharist.

Paul tells us the simple and profound words of Jesus, "This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." The gift and the mandate. And Paul says, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes." Our celebration on Holy Thursday will show us how to proclaim the meaning of the Lord's gift to us.

John's gospel is a puzzle and a revelation. The account of the Last Supper in this gospel does not include the narrative Paul gives us, as do the accounts in Mark, Matthew and Luke. In this account of the Last Supper, Jesus does not take bread and wine, say the prayer of thanksgiving, break the bread and share the cup, with the words, "This is my body; this is my blood; do this in memory of me." In this narrative of the institution of the Eucharist, Jesus washes his disciples' feet. With this ritual Jesus shows us how he gives us his body and allows his blood to be poured out for us. By his action Jesus says, here I am as servant for you, do this in memory of me.


The Foot Washing
It is not enough for us to simply hear this gospel and to "break open" this word in a homily. Our tradition is to engage us in the drama of this ritual. So, it is not enough to simply go to the Holy Thursday liturgy and "watch" it happen. We need to prepare.

In the ritual we will experience on Holy Thursday, Jesus washes our feet. The twelve representatives of our community have their feet washed, but each of us is having our feet washed. Each of us needs to "feel" the resistance of Peter. We have to "let" Jesus wash our feet, let Jesus give himself to us, let him be our servant. One of the best preparations is to "taste" my resistance, my independence, my rationalizing which almost convinces me that I don't need washing or healing or saving. Perhaps I need to "name" the part of my life, the part of myself, I want to surrender to the Lord to be embraced and loved, washed and healed. Perhaps on Thursday morning, I can stand in the shower and experience the Lord's love pour over me. Or, if I live in a part of the world where water is not so plentiful, I can wash my face slowly and gratefully. Preparing is a matter of opening our hearts to the gift we will ritualize on Holy Thursday.

In the ritual we will experience on Holy Thursday, Jesus gives us a "mandate." He gives us the one commandment of the gospel, "Love one another, as I have loved you." He gives his very self to us, is broken and poured out, and calls us to give our very selves, to be broken and poured out, in love for others. It is important for us to "taste" our resistance to love. We can come to Holy Thursday prepared by our reflection on how difficult it is to love some people, either because we recoil at their "smelly-ness" or because we find them unattractive or unable to love us in return. The liberation happens when we let ourselves have our feet washed by Jesus. Then Eucharist flows from our gratitude. Gratitude is the seed for great loving - the "return" I can make to the Lord for his great love for me.

Just as the foot washing isn't just about those twelve representatives, it isn't just about me and the family and friends I need to love. This ritual can be as big as we prepare to let it be. The love of Jesus is for all of God's people. We need to come to Holy Thursday with the whole world in our hearts. The mandate to love, as Jesus loves, calls us to be people whose self giving love reaches out to all who need liberation and the dignity God desires.


The Table of the Lord
Now we are prepared for the Eucharist. Now we can say, with a much louder voice, "It is right to give God thanks and praise!" Now, when we remember and celebrate how he loved us, the words are joined to the ritual of foot washing, servanthood, ministry for others. Now, when we open our hands to receive his body and blood, we can feel, with great devotion, the power of this gift and the meaning of its mission.


The Stripping of the Altar and Sanctuary
Our final preparation is to be ready to appreciate the ritual of transition with which Holy Thursday concludes. The Body and Blood of Jesus, which we share at this Eucharist is taken to a special place, so that we might continue to be nourished with this Sacrament on Good Friday. Then our liturgy engages us in a rich ritual. The altar and the whole sanctuary are stripped bare. With this solemn gesture, we ritualize what we as a community are doing to prepare for Good Friday. We strip our focus down to Jesus alone. All the signs and symbols are put aside. We are left with the taste of the Eucharist and the gratitude in our hearts. We leave in focused silence. We leave with the image of Jesus, as servant for us, our hearts readied to celebrate the mystery of his passion and death for us.

From Busted Halo:

To visit the website where this was originally published, please visit:
http://www.educationforjustice.org/resources/passion-palm-sunday-april-17-2011

For more information about Center of Concern, please visit their website.

By: Fr. John Bucki, SJ


Readings:
At the Procession with Palms: Matthew 21:1-11
Mass: Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Matthew 26:14--27:66


Calendar:
April 19: The Jewish observance of Passover begins at sundown
April 21: Holy Thursday
April 22: Good Friday
April 22: Earth Day http://www.earthday.org/
April 23: Holy Saturday
April 24: Easter
April 25: World Malaria Day


Quotes:
It is by uniting their own sufferings for the sake of truth and freedom to the sufferings of Christ on the Cross that human beings are able to accomplish the miracle of peace and are in a position to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil and the violence which, under the illusion of fighting evil, only makes it worse.
--John Paul II, Centesium Annus, 25

Christ crucified and risen, the Wisdom of God, manifests the truth that divine justice and renewing power leavens the world in a way different from the techniques of dominating violence. The victory of shalom is won not by the sword of the warrior god, but by the awesome power of compassionate love, in and through solidarity with those who suffer.
--Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, 159

The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts.
--Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 1

A church that suffers no persecution but enjoys the privileges and support of the things of the earth - beware! - is not the true church of Jesus Christ. A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospel's call.
--Archbishop Oscar Romero


Thoughts for your consideration:
Why is the crowd in the Palm Sunday story so excited?  Jesus has no economic, military, or political power.
Why is there a sense of excitement as we begin to enter the “Holy Week experience?”
Shouldn’t we be ready to give up? [After all Jesus is about to be killed.]
Shouldn’t we be discouraged by the human situation today – by war, violence of all sorts, selfishness, failure, injustice, radical income inequality, discrimination, poverty, abuse of the environment, etc.?
Do we really want to or need to remember the pain and the sorrow that we see in the passion of Christ? Is there not enough pain in the world today?
There was an excitement in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus and there is an excitement as we process with palms. Why?
Is it a sense of excitement because God is among us and part of our human situation?
Is it a sense that God is with us in the midst of all the suffering and injustice?
Is it a sense that God is present in the midst of our deepest longings and dreams?
Is it a sense that God is present in the midst of our deepest struggle for what is right?
Is it a sense that God is here in the midst of the great biblical story of liberation and freedom?
Is it a sense that God is calling us to work for liberation and justice?
Is it a sense that apparent defeat is not the final word or end of the story?

------

Solidarity is one of the central themes of Catholic Social Teaching. The Holy Week story is a story which deals with issues around communion and solidarity:

- in the Passover Meal that Jesus celebrates
- in the model of service that we see in the washing of feet on Thursday
- in Jesus empowerment of his followers at the Last Supper and in the resurrection stories
- in all the courageous actions of Jesus in the midst of opposition
- in the betrayal of Jesus by his closest companions
- in the suffering and death of Jesus on Friday
- in the victory of resurrection and liberation that is revealed on Easter

We can treat the passion in a sentimental sort of way and force a certain sense of grief upon ourselves. However, maybe we are more importantly called to connect Jesus’ experience to our own experience today – an experience that continues today to include life and death, injustice and courage, violence and peace.


Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:
Where do you see the passion of Christ in your own personal life?
Where do you see it being played out in the pubic world today?
Jesus is welcomed into the city and then is put to death.  Share examples of how public opinion changes in our culture.
Does this result in injustice? How are people hurt?


Actions - Links:
Students at the Jesuit Spring Hill College in Alabama have created a Facing Poverty website to tell the story of people who experience poverty in their area. Look at it at http://www.shc.edu/facingpoverty/

The Church World Service has a Peace and Justice page and invites individuals to speak out by e-mail or phone about various justice concerns. Go to: http://www.churchworldservice.org/Educ_Advo/index.html

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers have various online resources for “mission education.” They write “Through baptism, all Christians are called to participate in Christ's mission of bringing the Good News to all people. Mission education is the process by which Christians become more aware of their role in the mission and are formed to carry out the mission. For over 100 years, Maryknoll has been animating, encouraging and supporting Catholics in the U.S. to engage in mission.” Check out their resources at http://maryknoll.us/mepd/resources.htm and look at their blog for sharing best practices at http://missioneducationbestpractices.blogspot.com/


“Crazy Facts”:
The following is from http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2011/03/31/6384619-good-graph-friday-wealth-gap-widened-in-recession “The Economic Policy Institute finds that the richest 20 percent of Americans saw their share of all Americans’ wealth increase by 2.2 percentage points between 2007 and 2009. The remaining four-fifth of Americans saw their wealth decline by the same amount.” Read the report at http://epi.3cdn.net/002c5fc0fda0ae9cce_aem6idhp5.pdf

In 2009, approximately one in four U.S. households had zero or negative net worth, up from 18.6% in 2007. For black households the figure was about 40%.

The median net worth of black households was $2,200 in 2009, the lowest ever recorded; the median among white households was $97,900.

Even at the 2007 economic peak, half of all U.S. households owned no stocks at all—either directly or indirectly through mutual or retirement funds.


Prayers of Intercession:
Response: The Lord God is our help.
For all those in prison or jail, we pray…
For all those unjustly condemned by our criminal justice system, we pray…
For those who are criticized or attacked for trying to do what is right, we pray…
For those oppressed by unjust political systems, we pray…
For those who are victims of lies and unjust attacks, we pray…
For those who are unemployed or underemployed, we pray…
For all those who do not share justly in the wealth of our society, we pray…
For those in any way find themselves sharing in the passion of Christ, we pray…
For an end to all our wars and violence, we pray…


Prayer - Meditation:
Stations of the Cross of Jesus Christ
1. Jesus is condemned to death
Jesus is trapped by the same system that brings us the death penalty, the harshness of life in prison, political prisoners, torture, white color crime, racial profiling, the criminalization of the poor, and all the inequities of our world’s “criminal justice systems.”

2. Jesus is made to carry his cross
Jesus carries his burden as do all those who work the land, labor for low wages, struggle to find work, care for their children and family, worry over their debts, strive for their children, attend poor schools, are abused by their bosses, or in any way struggle to make it in this world.

3. Jesus falls the first time
The burden that crushes Jesus can be compared to the burdens of today - the burden of debt that crushes the poor economies of the world - the unequal distribution of resources which stifles development for many people and nations.

4. Jesus meets his mother
Jesus looks on his mother with love and sees all the pain and possibility of relationship, deep family love and fidelity, abuse and violence, mutual loving care, separation and divorce, loneliness and community.

5. Simon helps Jesus carry his cross
Jesus' story becomes Simon’s story as well. Globalization can be both a burden and a relief, a freedom and a limit. Jesus and Simon are both victims and helpers. Good and evil play out as their lives are connected.

6. Jesus falls the second time
The burden that crushes Jesus is unfair - as are the economic and political inequalities of our day - wages, resources, schools, rights, beauty, power, savings, taxes. Our systems are not always fair.

7. Veronica wipes the faces of Jesus
This “small” act of charity is a most wonderful action of great compassion. It seems to be all that Veronica can do at the moment, yet the injustice remains. She cannot stop the suffering of Jesus. The compassion of Veronica calls out for social change, for an end to injustice, for a new way of living together.

8. Jesus comforts the women of Jerusalem
Women seem to bear the burdens of the world in a special way. Women feel deeply the pain and injustice of our systems. The experience of women throughout the ages calls us to end the injustice. It calls us to a new heaven and a new earth, to a new way of being sisters and brothers.

9. Jesus falls the third time
The burden that crushes Jesus is like the burden of materialism. Every time the world worships things before people, power before justice, and consumption before the spirit, we lose what it means to be human and alive.

10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
This radical loss of everything continues to be felt in the lives of all the poor - those without enough food, clothing, shelter, education, respect, dignity, human rights, and community.

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross
Jesus is a person of active nonviolence, yet here he comes to know violence against his person - the same violence that is seen in all our wars and preparation for war, in all the violence on our streets and in our homes, in all our weapons of mass destruction, in ethnic cleansing, in genocide, in all the countless examples of violence.

12. Jesus dies on the cross
Power and control seem to be strong values in our world, yet Jesus seems to lose all of these things that the world considers important. Yet at the same time, in Jesus nailed to a cross, we see a person of great freedom and compassionate love and a special awesome power - the power of the suffering God crying out for justice.

13. Jesus is taken down from the cross
Jesus is radically stripped of everything. He is a human person whose rights and dignity and been taken away. In Jesus, we see all the women and men of our world who still seek their basic human rights - rights to the basics like food, water, clothing, shelter, education, political freedom, development and justice.

14. Jesus is placed in the tomb
Jesus is carefully placed into the earth - an earth that is the divine creation - a planet that we so often abuse as we waste resources, seek profit before all else, consume without awareness, and disrespect the awesome beauty that is God’s gift.


--Lectionary Reflection by Fr. John Bucki, SJ
http://www.educationforjustice.org

Another reflection from Busted Halo:


http://www.bustedhalo.com/dailyjolt/lent-2011-april-12

Today's post comes from Catholic Charities USA as part of their 2011 Lenten Reflections.  Employees, board members and volunteers from Catholic Charities write a reflection to the day's readings.


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Today's Readings

"In today's first reading, we see the just attacked and slandered by the wicked; while in the gospel Jesus finds himself also pursued and plotted against. Anyone who speaks out, who calls themselves a "child of the Lord" or censures the thoughts of the evil is condemned.


I think many Catholic Charities agencies could empathize with the attacks being made on the just. The left hates us for our defense of the unborn child; the right hates us because we do believe in the rights and dignity of the human person. Sometimes it feels like one can't even turn around without attacks somewhere either in the press or the blogs. The tone ranges from simply uninformed to viciously malignant.

At Catholic Charities of Pueblo, we have been challenged to take up more of an advocate's role. This is not a natural position for me, and many prefer to work in the background, doing good things quietly. But we are called on to speak out, to condemn budget cuts borne on the backs of the poor, laws inspired by racism and fear that target the immigrant, and in general to step into the fray.

As we celebrate Lent, it is important to recognize that we are not alone, and that this is not a new phenomenon. Those who condemn us do not know the counsels of God. But maybe too it is a call to reach out, to connect with those also struggling to do good and gather our strength."

Joe Mahoney
Executive Director
Catholic Charities, Diocese of Pueblo
jmahoney@pueblocharities.org



To see more reflections from Catholic Charities employees, board members and volunteers, please visit: 
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=2320

Join in with two Jesuits from the Chicago-Detroit Province as they lead listeners through reflections for each week in Lent.

http://www.jesuits-chgdet.org/pilgrimage-jesus-lent-2011/
(You may need to download the appropriate program for it to work.)

A reflection on how to appreciate the hard times and celebrate the good times during Lent, your volunteer year and life in general from an edition of Shared Visions from 2008.


"According to the spiritual writer, Thomas Merton, “Only the lost are saved. Only the sinner is justified. Only the dead can rise from the dead.” We experience a spiritual or personal transformation only after experiencing a “little death”—suffering or difficulties, lessons in humility, letting go of attachments. By examining the patterns in life—ups and downs, joys and sorrows—we will see that we live through a series of “little deaths” followed by renewals or “resurrections.” In daily life, we go through a series of “Good Fridays” and “Easter Sundays.” For example, as students, we experience the joy of summer only after we live through the difficulty of studying for final exams. As members of a family and a community, we experience the joy of reconciliation only after honest confrontations or conversations.

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING.?

pink blouse

blue Jeans,red boots, black sweater, gray jacket and black reloj

purple skirt, black sweater and gray jacket

black dress and black heels

Brown earrings

brown glasses