HOLY WEEK - Part Two

Many are the voices we hear during Holy Week, and many different characters appear in the drama of these days. We continue these posts for holy week as we  focus on the: 

• The Voice of Jesus
• Voices From the People
• The voice of Satan (speaking through various people)

.................... Journey to Calvary ....................

We find ourselves at table with Jesus, at the Last Supper.

The Voice of Jesus: Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.

After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.          

So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” So Judas took the morsel and left at once. 

And it was NIGHT.

Consider:

• ... that you hear, Jesus speaking, and revealing that his heart is "deeply "troubled" - even the heart of Jesus does not escape the Dark Night.
• ... that now you are looking at the exact place where the battle between Jesus and Satan takes place - in the HEART; that the elements of this physical world, are where Satan fashions the weapons he uses; the cross, the thorns, the scourge, the nails, the lance, and all the other physical sufferings we experience.
• ... that Satan entered Judas; that is was NIGHT - the absence of light of truth, when evil carries out its designs.

The Voice of Peter & Jesus: Peter said to Jesus, “Master, why can I not follow you now? 

I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Consider:

• ... that any number of people in the world say that they believe that there is a God; but this is not true faith. No one knows that God exists, better than Satan; he knows for certain and trembles at His Name. 
• ... that faith begins by hearing and seeing and recognizing that Jesus is really and truly who he says; as seen in the gospels, as told by the witness of others.
• ... what the mind knows to be true, only becomes living faith when the heart embraces it  unconditionally.
• ... that the heart has many treasures to which it clings. Satan knows them all, he knows which ones to use against the heart, which ones to threaten to take away, in order to separate the heart from its commitment of faith in Jesus. 
• ... that Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Mtt. 6:21

.................................... footnotes ....................................

PRAYER FOR THE RENEWAL OF FAITH

With St. Thomas I now cry out, “my Lord and my God!” Yet like St. Thomas I have doubted you and questioned my faith in you. I too have been scandalized by the world, troubled by my problems, confused by my sufferings or those of others. I was tested and found wanting. Even though I vowed as did St. Peter, “Lord, I will never deny you”, Satan has sifted me like wheat through his fingers and I fell away. In my thoughts and in my words I said, “I do not know the man.” In my actions I denied my faith before everyone. While I was denying you, you were suffering and dying for my sins. You broke Satan’s hold over me by your passion and cross; you won forgiveness for my sins. What mercy you have shown by entering into my death and bring me back to life again. Now heal me as you healed St. Peter on the shores of Tiberias Sea. Ask me now, as you asked St. Peter, “do you love me?” Yes Lord. You know everything, you know that I love you.

HOLY WEEK - Part One

There are many voices to hear during Holy Week, and many different characters in the drama of these days. Drawing on these, I will structure the next blogs as resource for prayer. We will focus on the: 

• The Voice of Jesus
• Voices From the People
• The voice of Satan (speaking through various people)

 .................... Journey to Calvary ....................

We Find Ourselves At: The Anointing at Bethany. Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. John 12:1

Consider:

• ... all that Mary's heart has experienced in these days. The words of Jesus drew her to place herself literally at Jesus' feet, awaking in her a deep and trusting faith in Jesus and everything he said. 
• ... how her trust was shaken when Jesus seemed to fail them when her dear brother Lazarus fell gravely ill and died.
• ... how the raising of Lazarus demonstrated that Jesus is Lord of all, even life and death, 
• ... that the faith Mary now has can not be broken, not even by death itself.
• ... that there are three stages in the birth a living faith, (as seen in Mary's experience):

1. Awaking of faith in the person Jesus. Evangelization.
2. The Purification of faith by the testing of the world, the flesh, the devil.
3. The Infusion of Living faith, the direct work of the hand of God; sanctification; gift of the Holy Spirit.  

The Voice of Satan: Then Judas the Iscariot, one [of] his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said,“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.

Consider: 

• Satan is speaking though Judas. His tactic is his signature one. If he is to draw souls away from Jesus, he must appeal to values that seem to come from Jesus, here, caring for the needs of the poor.
• Caring for the needs of the poor, is not a substitute for devotion to Jesus, it is something that flows from the Devout Life. 
• One might argue that atheistic communism was a product of the same reasoning that Judas puts forward.
• Fruit must have a tree to produce it. Good fruit can only come from a good tree. The tree that produces the fruit of true Christian works, is the Cross of Christ.

The Voice of Jesus: So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Consider:

• In a world wounded by ignorance of God's truth, and deceived by the lies of Satan, injustice, neglect, and poverty will always remain. The greatest danger in all the world is the loss of communion with Christ.
• Each believer must prepare for the "Dark Nights" of the spirit, when faith is tested.

Voices from the People: So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will  come and take away both our land and our nation.” 

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them,
“You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year,
he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, 
but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.

So from that day on they planned to kill him.  

Consider:

• ... that no earthly authority can be master over the reign of Christ and the life that flows from his Kingship, that is his merciful grace. Your communion with his kingship can never be taken from you; only that you choose to give it up.
• ... that the stronger your communion with Christ grows, the stronger will Christ's enemies oppose you.
• ... that if Satan had defeated Jesus on the Cross, none of us would even know of this communion we live and the peace it brings.

VOICES of Lent - Part Eleven

We begin this post with the continuation of a theme begun in the previous Post, Part Ten, "Entering the Week of  Decision". Again we are structuring the Post as a dialogue.

.....................................................................................................

Good Spirit: Dear Soul, you must ready yourself, for the days leading up to the Cross of Jesus grow fewer. There is an important decision that awaits you.

Soul: Good Spirit, what is the nature of the decision that is before me?

Good Spirit: Will you offer in sacrifice to God, the one true possession you own, that is exclusively yours, to do with as you alone so choose. Will you offer it as a sacrifice and unite it with Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross? 

The possession of which I speak is your "Will", your unconditional "Yes"; to truly and freely take up and sacrifice, give back, surrender unconditionally and irrevocably, to exchange your will for the will of the Father. 

Hence forth, you will forsake the fruit of "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", that is, deciding on your own, what is good or evil; rather you will seek out, in all matters, what the Father has ordained as good or evil, and to do so, no matter what the cost to you. Are you willing to unite your voice to that of Jesus as he says, "Father, ...  not my will, but yours be done." Luke 22:42

Jesus' willing acceptance of his passion and death on the Cross, is his perfect "Yes" to the will of the Father. Adam and Eve were given but one thing to which they were to assent, not to be the authors of what was good or evil. God alone would be the author of truth, of what is good and what is evil. But to this, with the seduction of Satan, they said "No" to God. They took with them the fruit of their decision and departed from God's presence. 

From that day on, man's relationship with God was distorted by man's ignorance of the Truth. To win God's favour, man fashioned religions built on offering sacrifices; offering from their possessions, gifts meant to appease what they believed to be God's anger toward them. They took from their crops, their animals, even the lives of people and immolated them on altars in sacrifice. 

But it was in God's plan to send a New Adam, who would reveal to the world, the one thing God wanted from man, his yes to God's perfect truth. The new Adam is his Son, Jesus. God begins his plan by forming a people who are chosen to be the first to experience God's plan unfolding. God chooses Abraham to be the father of these people, from whom this new Adam shall spring.

Soul: Did not God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac on an altar?

Good Spirit: This was God's way of teaching Abraham, and all human kind, that he does want Abraham's unconditional "yes", but that he does not want humans sacrificed to him on altars. (Read Genesis 22:1ff.) Perhaps it is best summed up in Palm 51:16 ... 

Certainly you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it;

you do not desire a burnt sacrifice.

The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit –

O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject. 

Dear Soul, take this passage from Matthew's gospel for your prayer and meditation, as we move forward to Palm Sunday

Matthew 21;33

 "Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.

When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.

But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.

Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way.

Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.'

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'

They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"

They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times."

Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?

.................................... footnotes ....................................

Consider from this passage that the:

• ... land owner is God
• ... vineyard, this world of opportunity
• ... hedge, God's design for truth
• ... wine press, God's will for all people
• ... tenants, mankind 
• ... vintage time, judgement
• ... servants, prophets, old and new
• ... son, Jesus
• ... inheritance, to rule the world their way
• ... thrown out, a world without God
• ... killed him, the Crucifixion of Jesus
• ... other tenants, true believers 

VOICES of Lent - Part Ten

We continue with this series of postings entitled, VOICES of Lent. I present these posts in the form, as it were, of a dialogue between the soul at prayer, and the guiding Spirit. It ends with a footnote section with additional suggestion.

.....................................................................................................

Good Spirit: Come with me now dear Soul, for we are about to enter the WEEK of DECISION. 

Soul: Good Spirit, why do you call this week the WEEK of DECISION?

Good Spirit: This is the final week before you enter Holy Week. Listen carefully to the Voice of Jesus as he lays down this challenge.

"Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Lk. 9:23

Soul: Does this me that the Christian life is a life of daily suffering? Is there no hope of healing, of joy and happiness? Does Jesus mean for us a life of misery and suffering?

Good Spirit: The Cross and the Christian Life are one and inseparable. This is a great mystery, deep in meaning. To understand this mystery, first you must have a fuller understanding of the word, "suffer". To suffer is derived from ancient words that mean, to bear-up-under, to support a weight, having the strength to carry. When your Father created you, a soul, he formed you in a human body, and placed you in this physical world. From the moment of your birth, you felt the weight of your physical existence, with its countless needs and imperfections. You cried out for comforting, and so began your life.

Soul: Do we know why the Father created us in this way? Could the world not have been made a more perfect place to live in?

Good Spirit: When God created the angels, they were glorious beyond imagining. But soon pride in their glorious nature caused some to consider themselves equal to God. They rebelled against God, and so were banished from God's presence. When the Father came to create human kind, it was his intention that they too would share in his glory. But before they were to enter the Father's glorious presence, they must fully understand their own humble nature, lest they too fall into the same pride that caused the fall of the angels.  They must come to realize that this glorious existence, to which they are destined, is pure gift, that their glory to come is but a reflection of the Father's glory, given to them out of the Father's love for them. 

And so dear soul, as you make this short journey through your life in this world, you wear the imperfection of your life now, as one clothed in humble attire, while you wait to put on the glorious attire that the Father has planned for you. You wear, you accept, you bear-up-under, you carry your humanity, justly, peacefully, truthfully, faithfully; rejecting every prideful thought, you surrendering your will, your only true possession, to the will of the Father, giving it back as an act of love. This is what it means, "to take up your cross daily".

There are many causes of human suffering. People may find themselves in conflict with the natural order itself. A simple misstep can lead to a fall, resulting in injury and thus causing human suffering. A chance encounter with a predator, could bring harm, even death. There are great things falling from the ski, or a mishap in the ordering of cells in the human body that can cause suffering. 

But perhaps, the greatest human suffering is caused by man himself. Motivated by selfish pride, people inflict great harm on one another. The cross itself is an invention of men to cause suffering and death. Even though there are any number of remedies available to alleviate suffering in the world, people fail to employ them. Suffering has caused people to be confused about God, questioning, is there even a God at all. How can there be a kind and loving God in the light of so much suffering? 

It is into this imperfect and confused world that the Father sends his Son. In Jesus is revealed the answer to these great mysteries. The miracles of Jesus show that there is a God who is greater than creation's imperfection. He teaches that life in this world is a schooling in humility, preparing people for a glorious life of perfection, in the Fathers presence, for all eternity. By embracing fully, the vulnerable, human condition, even the evil brought against him by the pride of others, Jesus teaches,"The Way", the Way of the Cross, the way that leads to man's glorious destiny, the Way of humble obedience to the will of the Father.  When you take up your cross, you forsake every deviation from the Father's purpose, no matter what the cost, so as not to loose the glory that awaits you.

.................................... footnotes ....................................

PRAYER FOR THE GRACE TO WALK THE WAY OF THE CROSS

         My Lord Jesus, the night before you took up your Glorious Cross to carry on your shoulders the full weight of my sins, you entered the garden to pray.  This is the garden from which Adam and Eve were banished because of their sin and so we have all been banished with them.  Now the Heavenly Garden of Paradise will be opened for us   by the merits of your passion.

          On this night, you invite us to come with you to watch and pray. You warn us as you did your disciples, that Satan desires to sift us like grains of sand through his fingers. We must stay awake in prayerful vigilance, lest we too fall into the sleep of unbelief as so many have done.

          Jesus, our loving savior, grant us now to walk in prayerful meditation along the Way of your Cross.  Help us to understand that it is our sins that you carry, that it is our guilt which merits this punishment, this passion that you so loving suffer in our place. Satan is now ready to carry us off in the chains of our guilt, to cast us into the fires of Hell for all eternity.  

          But your suffering and death on the Cross merits for us the forgiveness of our sins, and the removal of all our guilt. You alone, the innocent and pure One, could carry such a Cross.  May we be inspired to take up our crosses and walk with you now the way of humble obedience, the way of perfect love, the Way of your Glorious Cross, which leads from this garden into paradise. by Fr. Curtin