'Did a God indeed in dying cross my life that day?' Good Friday

The Agony in the Garedn

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

First Reading Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)  

See, my servant shall prosper;
    he shall be exalted and lifted up,
    and shall be very high.
Just as there were many who were astonished at him
    —so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
    and his form beyond that of mortals—
so he shall startle many nations;
    kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
    and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
Who has believed what we have heard?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
    a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him of no account.

Surely he has borne our infirmities
    and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
    struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
    and by his bruises we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.

By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
    Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people.
They made his grave with the wicked
    and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
    he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.

Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
    The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

The Scourging of Christ

Vecellio Tiziano [Web Gallery of Art]

The Second Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary

This is the talk givenby Pope Benedict XVI after the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday, 22 April 2011. I have highlighted some parts of his message.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This evening, in faith, we have accompanied Jesus as he takes the final steps of his earthly journey, the most painful steps, the steps that lead to Calvary. We have heard the cries of the crowd, the words of condemnation, the insults of the soldiers, the lamentation of the Virgin Mary and of the women. Now we are immersed in the silence of this night, in the silence of the cross, the silence of death. It is a silence pregnant with the burden of pain borne by a man rejected, oppressed, downtrodden, the burden of sin which mars his face, the burden of evil. Tonight we have re-lived, deep within our hearts, the drama of Jesus, weighed down by pain, by evil, by human sin.

What remains now before our eyes? It is a crucified man, a cross raised on Golgotha, a cross which seems a sign of the final defeat of the One who brought light to those immersed in darkness, the One who spoke of the power of forgiveness and of mercy, the One who asked us to believe in God’s infinite love for each human person. Despised and rejected by men, there stands before us ‘a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity, one from whom others hide their faces’ (Is 53:3).

But let us look more closely at that man crucified between earth and heaven. Let us contemplate him more intently, and we will realize that the cross is not the banner of the victory of death, sin and evil, but rather the luminous sign of love, of God’s immense love, of something that we could never have asked, imagined or expected: God bent down over us, he lowered himself, even to the darkest corner of our lives, in order to stretch out his hand and draw us to himself, to bring us all the way to himself. The cross speaks to us of the supreme love of God and invites, today, to renew our faith in the power of that love, and to believe that in every situation of our lives, our history and our world, God is able to vanquish death, sin and evil, and to give us new, risen life. In the Son of God’s death on the cross, we find the seed of new hope for life, like the seed which dies within the earth.

This night full of silence, full of hope, echoes God’s call to us as found in the words of Saint Augustine: ‘Have faith! You will come to me and you will taste the good things of my table, even as I did not disdain to taste the evil things of your table... I have promised you my own life. As a pledge of this, I have given you my death, as if to say: Look! I am inviting you to share in my life. It is a life where no one dies, a life which is truly blessed, which offers an incorruptible food, the food which refreshes and never fails. The goal to which I invite you … is friendship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, it is the eternal supper, it is communion with me … It is a share in my own life’ (cf. Sermo 231, 5).

Let us gaze on the crucified Jesus, and let us ask in prayer: Enlighten our hearts, Lord, that we may follow you along the way of the cross. Put to death in us the ‘old man’ bound by selfishness, evil and sin. Make us ‘new men’, men and women of holiness, transformed and enlivened by your love.

The Crowning with Thorns

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

The Third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary

I'm preparing this on Wednesday of Holy Week. Just today The Catholic Thing website carries an article by Randall Smith, It's Part of the Deal, Isn't It? that provides food for reflection and prayer at this time, especially on Good Friday. He asks his students to reflect on the choices made by the Trappist monks in Tibhirine, Algeria, who were martyred in 1996, and by the villagers of Le Chambon, France, who protected many Jews during World War II.

Recently, students in our Honors class were reading The Rule of St. Benedict. I then had them watch the 2010 film Of Gods and Men about the Trappist monastery in Tibhirine, Algeria, where nine French monks lived and worked until 1996 when, during the Algerian Civil War, seven of them were kidnapped by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria and later found beheaded.

I won’t go into why I pair the movie with the book, other than to say that the movie does a nice job of portraying the Benedictine life, both its challenges and its understated beauties.  Seeing it portrayed in this way helps make the Rule seem less alien.  Rather than asking, “What kind of bizarre person would choose to live this way?” they see it as something more desirable, something worth choosing.

One of the additional questions the movie poses for us, however, is whether the monks made the right decision to stay in Algeria when the violence in their area increased and mortal danger became more threatening.  The movie does a good job of showing how conflicted the monks were.  They were far from determined to embrace martyrdom and rush to their deaths.  At one meeting, a monk says point-blank:  “I didn’t become a monk to die.” 

Continue here.

Christ Carrying the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary

The Killing

By EdwinMuir

That was the day they killed the Son of God

On a squat hill-top by Jerusalem.

Zion was bare, her children from their maze

Sucked by the dream of curiosity

Clean through the gates. The very halt and blind

Had somehow got themselves up to the hill.

After the ceremonial preparation,

The scourging, nailing, nailing against the wood,

Erection of the main-trees with their burden,

While from the hill rose an orchestral wailing,

They were there at last, high up in the soft spring day.

We watched the writhings, heard the moanings, saw

The three heads turning on their separate axles

Like broken wheels left spinning. Round his head

Was loosely bound a crown of plaited thorn

That hurt at random, stinging temple and brow

As the pain swung into its envious circle.

In front the wreath was gathered in a knot

That as he gazed looked like the last stump left

Of a death-wounded deer's great antlers. Some

Who came to stare grew silent as they looked,

Indignant or sorry. But the hardened old

And the hard-hearted young, although at odds

From the first morning, cursed him with one curse,

Having prayed for a Rabbi or an armed Messiah

And found the Son of God. What use to them

Was a God or a Son of God? Of what avail

For purposes such as theirs? Beside the cross-foot,

Alone, four women stood and did not move

All day. The sun revolved, the shadows wheeled,

The evening fell. His head lay on his breast,

But in his breast they watched his heart move on

By itself alone, accomplishing its journey.

Their taunts grew louder, sharpened by the knowledge

That he was walking in the park of death,

Far from their rage. Yet all grew stale at last,

Spite, curiosity, envy, hate itself.

They waited only for death and death was slow

And came so quietly they scarce could mark it.

They were angry then with death and death's deceit.

I was a stranger, could not read these people

Or this outlandish deity. Did a God

Indeed in dying cross my life that day

By chance, he on his road and I on mine?

The Crucifixion

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary

Caoineadh na dTrí Muire - The Lament of the Three Marys

This is part of a traditional hymn in Irish Gaelic.

Verse 1
Nó an é sin an maicín a h-oileadh in ucht Mháire?
Óchón agus óchón-ó
An é sin an maicín a d'iompar mé trí raithe?
Óchón agus óchón-ó

Is that the son nourished at Mary's breast

'Alas and woe to me'
Or is that the son I carried three terms
'Alas and woe to me'

Verse 2
Nó an é sin an maicín a rugadh insan stábla?
Óchón agus óchón-ó
A mhicín a mhúirneach, tá do shrón 's do bhéailín gearrtha
Óchón agus óchón-ó

Or is that the son born in the stable

'Alas and woe to me'
My son my darling your nose and mouth are cut
'Alas and woe to me'

Verse 3
Cuireadh táirní maola trína cosa is trína lámha
Óchón agus óchón-ó
Cuireadh an tsleá trína bhrollach álainn
Óchón agus óchón-ó

Blunt nails were driven through his feet and hands

'Alas and woe to me'
The spear was put through his beautiful chest
'Alas and woe to me'

Thanks to the Irish Dominicans who posted this on YouTube.

'He saw and believed.' Sunday Reflections, Easter Sunday

From The Gospel of John (2003) directed by Philip Saville

Gospel of the Mass during the Day, John 20:1-9

The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

From the Ordo (Philippines): The entire celebration of this sacred Vigil must take place at night, so that it begins after nightfall and ends before the dawn on the Sunday. (Universal Norms, 21). This rule is to be taken according to its strictest sense. The Easter Vigil is not to be celebrated at the time of day that is customary for anticipated Sunday Masses.

The Easter Vigil is not an 'anticipated Mass'. It stands on its own and is the most important liturgical celebration of the whole year. One may fulfil one's Sunday obligation by attending either the Easter Vigil or the Mass during the Day. One may also receive Holy Communion at both.

The Resurrection of Christ, Rembrandt, c.1639

Alte Pinakothek, Munich [Web Gallery of Art]

At the Mass during the Day

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) 

               

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 20:1-9 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem [Wikipedia]

[Referred to in the poem below as 'Church of the Saviour']

Father Pádraig Ó Croiligh is a priest of the Diocese of Derry in Ireland. He is also a poet. The following poem is from his book Brúitíní Creidimh (Mashed Potatoes of Faith) published by Foilseacháin Ábhair Spioradálta in 2005. I have added my own interlinear translation.

Calvaire (Calvary)

Ag barr na gcéimeanna

At the top of the steps

In Eaglais an tSlánaitheora

In the Church of the Saviour

Tá séipéal tógtha thart ar rian na croise,

There’s a chapel built around the mark of the cross,

An dara stáisiún déag dearaithe are a chúl

The twelfth station drawn at the back

Agus poll sa talamh faoi

And a hole in the ground beneath

San áit a mbíodh an chrois

In the place where the cross was

Ag an am ar tharla an crith talún.

At the time of the earthquake.

Ach níl an tarlú fein ná an duine

But neither the event nor the person

Í láthair anseo anois,

Are present here now,

Ach in áiteanna brúite buartha

But in crushed sorrowful places

Ar fud na cruinne

Throughout the world

Agus i láthair an uaignis.

And in the midst of loneliness.

An fear a fuair bás anseo,

The man who died here

Den bhás a rinneadh anseo,

Of the death wrought here,

Tá sé beo agus aiséirithe.

He is alive and risen.

Tá Íosa ina Chríost go foill!

Jesus is still the Christ!

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Sung in English and in Ukrainian, arranged by John Rutter

One of the 'crushed sorrowful places' in today's world is Ukraine. But Jesus is still the Christ there!

There are many 'crushed sorrowful places' in the news just now: Kenya, Somalia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan. The list goes on.

Lebanon is a country that went through a brutal civil war between 1975 and 1990 in which 120,000 were killed, out of a population of not much more than four million. It is affected today by the conflicts in neighbouring countries. Four years ago it gave what is one of the most joyful proclamations of the Resurrection that I have ever come across. One does not need to understand Arabic to know what is being celebrated. Jesus is still the Christ!

We can proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus Christ through any medium. One medium is the cartoon, a medium that was used by early Christians in times of persecution when they used the Ichthys sign, the 'Sign of the Fish', to identify themselves secretly to other believers.

B.C. by Johnny Hart

Johnny Hart was an American syndicated cartoonist who created the B.C. cartoon strip and was co-creator of the Wizard of Id strip. Especially around Holy Week and Easter he sometimes used the B.C. strip to express his Christian faith, as in the example above.

A quotation from the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

A dying man asked a dying man for eternal life; a man without possessions asked a poor man for a Kingdom; a thief at the door of death asked to die like a thief and steal Paradise. One would have thought a saint would have been the first soul purchased over the counter of Calvary by the red coins of Redemption, but in the Divine plan it was a thief who was the escort of the King of kings into Paradise. If Our Lord had come merely as a teacher, the thief would never have asked for forgiveness. But since the thief's request touched the reason of His coming to earth, namely, to save souls, the thief heard the immediate answer:

'I promise thee, this day thou shalt be
With Me in Paradise'
(Luke 23:43).

It was the thief's last prayer, perhaps even his first. He knocked once, sought once, asked once, dared everything, and found everything. When even the disciples were doubting and only one was present at the Cross, the thief owned and acknowledged Him as Savior.

Johnny Hart echoes the words of Archbishop Sheen in the cartoon below published on Easter Sunday 2007, the day after his sudden death on Holy Saturday, 7 April. He often featured anthropomorphic ants in B.C., often at 'Skool', such as here:

[Panel 7: 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' Panel 8: 'Assuredly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise.' Panel 9: 'It is finished.' 'Truly this man was the Son of God.']

Entrance Antiphon  Antiphona ad introitum (Longer form)

At the Mass during the Day