Monday, April 2, 2018

Monday within the Octave of Easter

(Acts 2:24.22-23; Matthew 28:8-15)

In 1945 Easter was also celebrated on April 1.  On that day Giuseppe Girotti, a young Italian Dominican priest, was executed in Dachau.  His crime was aiding and abetting the Jewish people who were being severely persecuted by the Nazis in northern Italy.  Fr. Girotti, a Scripture scholar, felt a profound solidarity with Jews through his study of the Old Testament.  He considered them his “elder brothers” in the faith.  His story belies the sentiments of Christians who have felt animosity toward Jews because of the report found in today’s gospel.

Matthew’s gospel is severely critical of Jews probably because of the time it was written.  Most exegetes date the gospel to after the fall of Jerusalem when Jews were redefining their religious practices.  They forcibly excluded Christians from synagogue services.  The violence resulted in the portrayal of Jews as almost universally disdainful of Christ.  Only in Matthew’s gospel, for example, do the Jews tell Pilate that both they and their children would be responsible for Christ’s blood.  Jewish leaders bribing the Roman soldiers in today’s passage corresponds to this defamatory narrative.

Certainly Fr. Girotti’s sense that Christians have much to thank Jews for corresponds better with Jesus’ teaching, actions, and resurrection from the dead.  Everywhere, and especially in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus exhorts his followers to forgive.  He never curses anyone throughout his ordeal.  Indeed, he died and was raised so that the sins of all might be forgiven.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

(Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42)

During Holy Week we always hear the story of Jesus’ death twice.  On Palm Sunday we listen to the passion according to Matthew, Mark or Luke depending on the year.  Last Sunday, of course, we heard Mark’s account.  Today, Good Friday, we always hear the passion according to John.  If we listen carefully, we will realize that the passion accounts read on Palm Sunday and the one of Good Friday have very different tones.  They have many of the same elements for sure, but they present Jesus’ suffering in very different perspectives.  Let us take a close look at a few of the differences from Mark’s and John’s passion accounts to see what they say to us.

In Mark Jesus is anxious in the garden of Getsemaní.  He actually prostrates himself on the ground begging deliverance from the coming punishment.  In John, on the other hand, Roman soldiers fall to the ground as they face Jesus.  They are powerless before the great “I AM” that Jesus uses to identify himself.

We all remember how Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry his cross.  In Mark’s gospel Jesus is so weary from the scourging that he can barely get himself to Calvary.  John’s gospel, however, makes no mention of Simon.  Rather, it states that Jesus carries the cross himself.  He is demonstrating the power of which he spoke earlier: “I have the power to lay (my life) down, and power to take it up again” (10:18). 

Mark and John also describe the crucifixion in very different ways.  In John darkness does not cover the earth as in Mark.  Jesus, after all, is the light of the world; where he is, lightness streams.  Jesus’ last words in the two accounts differ significantly.  In Mark he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  In John Jesus calmly says at the end, “It is finished.”  He has accomplished what his Father sent him to do and now returns to Him.

Sometimes we become unsettled when we hear of differences in the gospels like the ones we just noted.  We ask, what really happened when Jesus died?  This question, however, is not likely what the evangelists had first in mind when they wrote their passion accounts.  Rather, weaving together the stories they heard of Jesus’ death a generation or two earlier, they composed their accounts to testify to the faith of their respective communities in Jesus.  Their different perspectives help us at different moments in our lives. Sometimes we feel quite alone in our suffering and wonder where God is.  Then we can turn to Jesus on the cross in Mark’s passion crying out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” and feel assured that he understands our anxiety.  Sometimes, however, we can face the trials life confident that we will overcome them.  Then, the solidity of our faith resembles that of Jesus hanging from the cross in John’s gospel.  The different passion accounts show us that Jesus is always there for us no matter our need.  We can always turn to him, the light of the world, to clear up any difficulty. 

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Holy Thursday

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

All three readings this evening refer to a symbolic meal which people eat to this very day.  The first reading indicates the origin of this meal.  As the nation of Israel is about to flee Egypt, God mandates the people to sacrifice a lamb and to eat its meat.  Furthermore, they are to spread the lamb’s blood on their doorposts to save them from the punishment He will inflict on sinful Egypt.  The lamb symbolizes the very lives of the people offered to God, and its blood represents their obedience to His commands.

In the second reading St. Paul recalls how Christ, a faithful Jew, celebrated the meal but appropriated its meaning to himself.  This had to be done because the people of Israel could not live in obedience to God’s law.  Jesus, who was obedient to the Father’s command from day one, is declaring himself the lamb sacrificed to God.  His blood, shed on cross of sacrifice, will save the people from the death caused by their sins.  Furthermore, followers of Jesus are to recall their deliverance from sin and death in a simple meal of bread and wine.  In the bread they will eat of Christ’s body, the Lamb of God.  In the wine they will drink of his blood shed for the forgiveness of their sins.

The gospel passage sheds light on the meaning of the symbolic meal.  Christ’s offering of himself as the Lamb of God is a service of love for his followers as demonstrated by his washing their feet.  Being cleansed from their sins by his blood, they will imitate his love with similar works of service.  They are to perform daily such works of love for one another.  These works are as easy as a friendly greeting and as difficult as taking time to visit the sick when we are busy.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Wednesday of Holy Week

(Isaiah 50:4-9a; Matthew 26:14-25)

Few passages of Scripture give better context for appreciating Jesus’ passion than the four so-called Servant Songs from the Book of the prophet Isaiah.  These passages are read in the mass every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday of Holy Week.  They are the work of an unnamed prophet who is called “Second Isaiah” because his writings are attached to those of the great prophet of Judah.  Second Isaiah lived in Babylon with other exiled Jews.  He recognized a call to preach to the people about the wonderful deliverance God was to work on their behalf. 

The Servant Songs comprise an especially noted part of Second Isaiah’s writings.  They tell of a completely new kind of Messiah.  No longer is he a conqueror of armies; rather, he wins the esteem of the world by bearing evil patiently.  In today’s reading the Suffering Servant is pictured as being beaten and humiliated without cursing or striking back.  Who exactly is the Suffering Servant?  Second-Isaiah does not identify him.  Jews are likely to see him as their own nation that has suffered discrimination for centuries.  Christians have from the beginning seen the Suffering Servant as a prefiguring of Jesus.

What Second Isaiah says of the Suffering Servant and what Jesus validates in his being betrayed by a disciple and subsequent ordeal we, his followers, should take to heart.  We are called to make a presumption against the use of force to accomplish our ends.  We are also called to sacrifice our time and energy for the good of others.  Such actions reflect the guiding light to the nations, Jesus himself.  He is the one whom, at least in part, the world will come to acknowledge as Lord.

Tuesday, March 26, 2018

Tuesday of Holy Week

(Isaiah 49:1-6; John 13:21-33.36-38)

The mental anguish of Jesus does not receive sufficient attention in the popular mind.  Granted that his physical pain was intense and prolonged, it might have been more easily borne with full support of his disciples.  However, his suffering was multiplied by the abandonment of two trusted disciples as well as the mocking of his captors.  Today’s gospel indicates that Jesus even foreknew his disciple’s sins which likely increased his misery.

It is important not to equate Judas’ and Peter’s infidelities.  Judas’ betrayal was eminently worse than Peter’s denial.  Judas made a pact with the devil by handing his teacher over to Jesus’ enemies with deliberation.  Peter’s offense was committed out of fear for his own welfare.  His fright does not excuse him from sin, but it does diminish his guilt.

We hope never to intensify Jesus’ pain with our own transgressions.  But because we still are not completely faithful, we want to participate in the liturgies of Holy Week with all devotion.  They will cleanse us of our sins and enable us to not offend again.