Three Days, One Liturgy

This is a reflection that I found posted on Catholics on Call (http://catholicsoncall.org), written by Robin Ryan, CP. It is a good summation of what the Triduum is all about...

The liturgy of Holy Thursday moves us into the celebration of "The Three Days" - the Easter Tridumm, during which we make memory of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. These three days are really one solemn liturgy. If you participate in the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper you will notice that there is no dismissal at the end. Neither is there a welcome or dismissal at the liturgy of Good Friday. The liturgy from Holy Thursday through the Easter Vigil is meant to be a continuous memorial and celebration of the climactic moments in the life of Jesus and in the life of the Christian community.

The Mass of the Lord's Supper plunges us into the drama of the final moments of Jesus' earthly journey. You can feel the tension of this "hour" of which John speaks in his Gospel. It is a sobering, even frightening time when danger lurks on the horizon. We know that Jesus' anguished prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal by Judas, and the arrest of Jesus lie just around the corner. For most people, it would be a time to withdraw, to isolate oneself out of fear. We see Jesus, however, as one who in this hour continues to be present and to offer himself to his disciples. As we hear in the Gospel account, "He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end."

The liturgy links Jesus' gift of the Eucharist with his action of washing the feet of the disciples. Paul's first letter to the Christians in Corinth contains the earliest written reference to the institution of the Eucharist. It reflects an ancient tradition about Jesus' celebration of a distinctive meal with his disciples before his death. In this meal, Jesus does not only share bread and wine with them; through these gifts he offers his very self to them to be their nourishment, their ongoing strength. Whenever they celebrate this meal, as often as the do this in memory of him, they will again experience his personal gift of self in their midst.

In the Gospel of John, the distinctive action of Jesus at this meal that is recalled is his washing of the feet of the disciples. It is an act of humble service usually performed by a slave. In washing their feet at this moment, Jesus is summing up a life of service to the God he called "Abba" and to God's people. What he does at this table is emblematic of what he has been doing all along as he walked with his disciples. This act, too, anticipates the meaning of the cruel death he is about to undergo. As unjust and senseless as his crucifixion may be, his death will be invested with meaning because it will become one final act of service to God and to the human family.

After he finishes washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus tells them, "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet." As people of the Eucharist, we are privileged to receive Christ's gift of self to us - the greatest gift we could ever receive on this earth. We are blessed to experience real communion with Jesus, a genuine sharing of presence that is the heart of this wonderful sacrament. The Risen Christ, who shared this meal on the eve of his own passion, hosts us and serves us each time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. As people of the Eucharist, you and I are also called to be people of the basin and towel. We are invited to emulate this Jesus through lives of loving service to others. We are called to wash the feet of one another.

Bread and wine, basin and towel. This is the "stuff" of Catholic Christian life. These symbols are at the very center of our identity as followers of Jesus. For young adults, and for adults of all ages today, these symbols represent an ongoing challenge. They are counter-cultural because they challenge the "Me First" thinking that often prevails in our society. They signify an approach to life different from the one that tells us to look after the needs of others only after we taken care of our own needs. Jesus tells his disciples, "I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." This "model" he has given us to follow is one that sets the bar very high. It is a model that we can never emulate purely on our own. We need the grace of Christ present and at work within us to take us even one step toward this way of living. It is, though, a way of living in which we walk beside Christ and in which he gives us rest when we are weary. It is life lived to the fullest.

Very Wanted!

This past Thursday, I went to get a haircut. While I was waiting, I began looking in the newspaper at the personal ads. Now, I normally do not read these, but that was the only part of the paper that was there. And I spotted this ad:

VERY WANTED: 30-ish drummer in rockabilly band, with a romantic spirit, professional career, blue eyes, and Catholic!  (Now, is it just me, or does that seem a bit too specific?)

So I began to think about how much those people who welcomed Jesus with shouts of hosanna resemble those who place overly specific and optimistic personal ads in the newspaper. I think that they are setting themselves up for a fall. Their dream of a "knight in shining armor" (or rockabilly Catholic drummer with blue eyes) is unlikely to exist; because the messiah they're looking for isn't the messiah they are likely to get.

When the people welcomed Jesus that morning, they cheered him and gave him a hero's welcome. They saw him as someone who could remove the heavy Roman boot from their backs. They applauded him as someone who could lead a revolt against the Evil Empire, someone who would lead them to freedom.

But Jesus disappointed them. He was not 6-feet plus with abs of steel. He rode into town on a baby donkey, not a warhorse. He went to pray at the temple, not protest at the palace. Jesus did not turn out to be their idea of a savior.

And by Friday, the joyous shouts of "Hosanna, Hosanna" had turned into blood thirsty cries of "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!" So what happened? As the week wore on and Jesus taught day after day in the temple, it became more and more clear, first to Judas, and then to many others, that Jesus was not the messiah they had been looking for. What they failed to realize was that Jesus was the messiah that they needed!

I think that we modern Christians are sometimes like that too. Sometimes, we're not sure who this Jesus really is, but there is something about his life and teaching and witness and death and promise of life again that keeps drawing us back, back to the place where we pray and hope and look hard to see God in our lives.

That is what Holy Week is all about. It's a time to look for Jesus. To look for Jesus in the Scriptures, to see what he was all about. To get rid of our preconceived notions of what a messiah, a savior, a Christ, is supposed to be like so that we can see and receive Jesus just as he is. It's a time to look for Jesus in prayer. To meditate upon his call to follow him, to give up ourselves and serve the needs of others. It's a time to look for Jesus in our worship, to join our community on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, where we recall the passion and death of Jesus, culminating in the celebration of Christ's resurrection at the Easter Vigil.

Most of all, Holy Week is a time to look for Jesus in our lives. In order to see the real Jesus, we must look to the cross - where Jesus died for us. There is where Jesus revealed what God is really like.

This Holy Week, may we find Jesus - maybe by using our own personal ad that reads like this:

VERY WANTED: faithful and loving Savior, Forgiver, Deliverer, Redeemer, and Friend!

March Madness

I wanted to share this article written by a friend of mine, Fr. Tom Zelinski from the St. Anthony Spirituality Center in Marathon, Wisconsin (www.sarcenter.com). Definitely, words to contemplate...

In March, we hear a lot about "March Madness." That is usually about basketball tournaments and people picking their "brackets." There are other kinds of common madness: frantic buying of more material things, trying to get taxes done, the hectic pace of family life, and lots of other events that demand our time, treasure and talent.

For Christians during Lent, there may be another, more serious madness. The madness of Jesus and his mission of revealing the Reign of God. Some of his own relatives thought he was out of his mind. "They found him too much for them." (Mark 6:3) He did things that went against the "common wisdom" of his day.

Following Christ may take our own madness - going beyond an hour on Sunday to spend more time at prayer or reading the Bible and other religious material, and perhaps even the madness of going out of our way to do something for a person we don't know well. As you look around these days, what is something that might take you out of your "comfort zone" into a place of following the word of God? "Whatsoever you do for the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40) We don't do these things for the reward, but because these are good things to do. And, we do them quietly. "Your Father who sees in secret will repay you." (Matthew 6:4)

March is a good time for random acts of madness.

Transformed and Reshaped

So, how is your Lent going? (I've been asking people this question a lot lately.) Have you been doing all the things that you said you were going to do back on Ash Wednesday?

On Ash Wednesday, I challenged all of us to return to the font, where we were baptized, where we were first called by Jesus - to return to that font and be refreshed, renewed, refueled, and restored. I challenged us to take the focus off of our one big "I" and to refocus on God and serving others.

While reading Ezekiel 47:1-9,12 this week, I noticed that he talks about the importance of water. Ezekiel envisioned a river that begins with a trickle, then becomes ankle-deep, then knee-deep, then waist-deep, and then a flowing and life-giving river - a river that transforms the land.

And that is why we are using water (and the shell) as our Lenten symbol this year. So we too can be transformed and reshaped by the water in order to return to our calling of being the people that God intended us to be.

There's still time left in our Lenten journey. There's no time like the present time. Let us turn to the Lord and ask him to allow us to be refreshed, renewed, refueled, and restored.

Listen Up!

As you may have known from my previous posts, I had taken a retreat a couple of weeks ago to spend some time with the Lord. I needed to sort things out, and the best way to do that was through silence, solitude, and prayer. With all of the stuff that is going on in my life, I needed to stop what I was doing and listen for the voice of the Lord and to find where God was calling me.

And I think that's the challenge that we all face today. God is persistent in calling us. But just like in today's reading from Jeremiah, we are a stiff-necked people, and we often turn away from God. We are just so busy with all of the busyness of our lives, and we do not take the time to listen and to hear the voice of God speaking to us. And God does speak to us - constantly! God continues to call us, despite the fact that for the most part, we don't hear him.

Why are so we hesitant to be silent and to listen for God's voice? What are we afraid of that prevents us from stopping to listen? Are we afraid that we will be asked to do something that we cannot do? Are we afraid that we will see inside ourselves and realize that we are not living up to our baptismal calling? These are questions that need to asked, but also questions that need to be brought to prayer.

God loves us, and he continues to call us to return to him (our Lenten calling). It is up to us to take the time to listen to his voice. I recommend that we do this in the silence of prayer - to tune out the worldly wants of our society and to truly open our hearts to walk in God's ways. We need to take the time to be silent in order for us to hear what God wants us to do with our lives.

Take the remainder of this Lent to find your place of peace and solitude, and sit with the Lord and listen. You will be amazed at what you hear.