Passion Sunday (B)

(Edited) Reflections (from:) Passion Sunday March 29, 2009, Year B

First reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22
Second reading: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel reading: Mark 14:1 - 15:47

"Clearly this Man was the Son of God!"

Passion Sunday (traditionally known as Palm Sunday) begins the holiest week of all the liturgical weeks in the Church's calendar. The gospel for Passion Sunday presents a narration of the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus. The main events of this Passion are as follows:

• Jesus in the house of Simon with a woman entering and pouring perfume on the head of Jesus
• Judas Iscariot going to the chief priests to hand Jesus over to them
• Jesus celebrating the Last Supper together with His apostles
• Jesus going to the Mount of Olives to pray
• Judas arriving accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs
• Jesus arrested and led off to the high priest
• Jesus accused of blasphemy; and the abuse done on Him by the members of the Sanhedrin
• Peter out in the courtyard and denying Jesus three times before breaking down in tears
• the Sanhedrin sending Jesus to Pilate for interrogation
• Barabbas released in behalf of Jesus who was sentenced by His own people to be crucified
• the soldiers abusing Jesus and mocking Him
• Jesus journeying to Golgotha carrying the cross - with Simon of Cyrene obliged to help Him carry the cross a part of the way
• Jesus crucified and the soldiers rolling dice to gamble for His garments
• two thieves sentenced to die with Jesus, one on His left, and the other, on His right
• Jesus crying out "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?
• Jesus crying out His last breath and the sanctuary's curtain suddenly torn in two - from top to bottom
• a centurion who stood guard exclaimed, "Clearly this Man was the Son of God!
• some women and others who came up from Jerusalem, looked at Jesus from a distance
• Joseph of Arimathea arranging for the proper burial of Jesus

Listening to these events when the gospel is read, or presented as a short dramatization, is a great help in contemplating the great love God has for each one and all He created. The image of Christ crucified on top of any altar - that image of Jesus wounded, suffering, and dying on the cross - is an image that will always have a strong impact on souls. This Crucified image and the events of the Passion will turn many times over in the minds and hearts of those who believe. In the hearts of the faithful is an eternal love that is rooted many centuries ago to a man of God who was born and died on the Cross. And this love knows that the cause of peace on earth will, despite all appearances, be fulfilled. Every Passion Sunday, this nascent truth is sown deep in the hearts of all who attend the Eucharist. It will impress in man's consciousness that there indeed is reason to hope and a reason to live and work for the cause of peace.

Christ's death on the cross is only the beginning of the cause for peace, not the end; it is, after three days, a mark of a glorious beginning. As long as all the faithful never renege on their commitment to Jesus, any death-related situation or event in life will not faze the gift of faith and hope which that commitment inspires. Death will not shock or shake anyone as long as man's context of meaning in life and work is always seen in the context of the Passion of Jesus. For the believer knows that Christ's passion and death is what will lead Him and all who believe in Him to the glory of His resurrection.

This beginning of Holy Week then is a time to pray more and learn how the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, will continually give meaning to our life and also inspire those who do not yet believe. It is a time to give more time also for the needy. For they are clothed in the appearance of Christ's Passion. It is a time to listen, to keep still, and to let the spirit of the Season sink deeply into each heart and soul. It is a time to reflect and to imagine: if you place yourself in that "hour" with Jesus and His apostles, using your imagination - what would you think and do? Would you run and hide like the apostles? Would you be with the others from Jerusalem who looked at Jesus from the distance? Or would you be one of those who kept all that happened in their minds and hearts, and retold the story to others that they may believe?

Memorial of Saints (March 20)

St. Cuthbert wanted to live in solitude as a hermit, but he could not do so because he was appointed bishop of Hexam. Though he was very prayerful, he did not neglect the care of the needy and the abandoned. He was known to have the gift of healing and prophetic visions. With his gift of healing, he healed many who were struck during a plague (died ca. 687 A.D.).

St. Wulfram served at the court of Theodore III of Neustria, and then received an appointment as archbishop of Sens. Wulfram resigned after two and a half years, and became a missionary to the Frisians (who probably lived at that time in what is now present-day Netherlands, northern Germany and southern Denmark). After years of missionary work, he returned to the monastery of Fontenelle (died ca. 703 A.D.).

St. Herbert was a disciple and close friend of St. Cuthbert. Ordained a priest, Herbert lived on an island in Lake Derwentwater, England. This was the origin of the island's name - St. Herbert's Island (died ca. 687 A.D.).

St. Photina is the name Catholic tradition gives to the Samaritan woman Jesus encountered at a well (John 4) in his itinerant missionary life. After being converted by Jesus, Photina preached the gospel, was imprisoned for three years, and died a martyr at Carthage. Martyred together with her were the servants of Emperor Nero's daughter who were all converted to the Christian faith.

St. Martin of Braga built several monasteries. In Braga, he was made metropolitan of Galicia - in present-day Spain. St. Martin wrote several treatises, two of which are Formula vitae horestae and De correctione rusticorum. St. Martin died at Dumium - the main monastery where he did his work as bishop (died ca. 597 A.D.).

5th Sunday of Lent (B)

(Edited) Reflections (from) 5th Sunday of Lent Year B, March 29, 2009

First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51
Second reading: Hebrews 5:7-9
Gospel reading: John 12:20-33

"...If it dies, it produces much fruit."

In the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the gospel presents Jesus speaking about His impending Passion. The passage in John's gospel specifies the Passion as an "hour" - with the Lord Himself mentioning that His hour is coming to pass. That "hour" involves everything in His passion, death and resurrection: beginning with His arrest, to His crucifixion, death on the Cross and resurrection. Aside from the "hour", Jesus also mentions the image of a grain of wheat falling to the earth, and then dies. The Lord uses this analogy to help His hearers understand His dying not as a loss, but one that produces much fruit. It is Christ's will that all who follow Him understand that losses or deaths in its many forms, small or big, if rooted in His life and work, will bear fruit for the greater good.

This Sunday's gospel makes all aware that though Jesus is divine, He was also human. And He expressed it well by saying, "My soul is troubled now, yet what should I say - Father, save Me from this hour?" Jesus knew He was sent by the Father to save the world. And God spoke in a voice from the heavens to make the people also aware of who Jesus is, and what would transpire in that hour that will come to pass. It is an "hour" for the glory of God - a mystery so deep, clothed in the appearance of the Crucifixion, and one which God's wisdom transcends all human reason or philosophy.

It is human to worry, fear or be anxious about the realities of losses and deaths. Some psychologists made a survey, and surprisingly, it was not death that man fears the most but speaking before a crowd of people he does not know. But even with this modern survey, the fear of death has been in the mind of ancient man for it is a reality not known to him. Man fears anything unknown. But Jesus' death helps man understand what it is in the context of faith in a Father who knows all. Since death is a spiritual reality unseen, an analogy is used to understand it in a context of natural faith: like a grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies, and produces much fruit. Faith in Jesus is keeping to His word in faith - that death leads to resurrection, to new life - in this world, and in the next.