The church year | Joyful Papist

Archive for the ‘The church year’ Category

From the Office of Readings – an excerpt from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday…

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Read Full Post »

Holy Saturday – Today there is a Great Silence over the world

Posted in Bible study, The church year on March 30, 2013| 2 Comments »

Read Full Post »

I thirst! Jesus asks for the fourth cup of the Passover

Posted in Bible study, The church year on March 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

See, here’s the thing. According to the Gospels, Jesus and his disciples took only three cups during the Passover meal. It was with the third one, the cup of redemption (also called the cup of blessing), that Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist. And he said then that he wouldn’t drink again until he came into his kingdom.

On the cross, in the middle of Friday afternoon, he called out that he was thirsty, and when he’d taken a drink of the rough soldier’s mix of wine and vinegar they offered him, he said ‘It is finished’, and died.

What does it all mean? According to a theory put forward by theologian Scott Hahn, the drink on the cross was the fourth cup of the Passover. Hahn suggests that what Jesus completed by drinking it – what was finished – was the Passover meal, and also its transmogrification into the Eucharist. (The article I’ve linked to is the short version. In his full presentation, Hahn goes into a lot of detail, including the physical and medical reasons why actual thirst was unlikely.)

If this view is correct, not only does it highlight how the Eucharist and the Cross are inextricably bound together, we also need to rethink what Christ meant about coming into his kingdom.

The fourth cup of the passover, by the way, is the Cup of Restoration, based on God’s promise: “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God.”

Read Full Post »

Meditation for Good Friday

Posted in Bible study, Prayer, Sacramentals, The church year on March 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The stations of the cross are a particularly suitable meditation for today. The Internet has a plethora of good online opportunities to meditate the stations. This one is very simple and moving.

Read Full Post »

Good Friday – to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness

Posted in Bible study, The church year on March 29, 2013| 2 Comments »

Read Full Post »

Go and do thou likewise

Posted in Bible study, Catholic dogma, Poetry, The church year on March 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Feet of Judas

George Marion McClellan

CHRIST washed the feet of Judas!
The dark and evil passions of his soul,
His secret plot, and sordidness complete,
His hate, his purposing, Christ knew the whole,
And still in love he stooped and washed his feet.

Christ washed the feet of Judas!
Yet all his lurking sin was bare to him,
His bargain with the priest, and more than this,
In Olivet, beneath the moonlight dim,
Aforehand knew and felt his treacherous kiss.

Christ washed the feet of Judas!
And so ineffable his love ’twas meet,
That pity fill his great forgiving heart,
And tenderly to wash the traitor’s feet,
Who in his Lord had basely sold his part.

Christ washed the feet of Judas!
And thus a girded servant, self-abased,
Taught that no wrong this side the gate of heaven
Was ever too great to wholly be effaced,
And though unasked, in spirit be forgiven.

And so if we have ever felt the wrong
Of Trampled rights, of caste, it matters not,
What e’er the soul has felt or suffered long,
Oh, heart! this one thing should not be forgot:
Christ washed the feet of Judas.

Read Full Post »