The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin
Pauca Verba (a few words)
Holy Week:
Every week – every day – is a holy day. But the Church sets this week aside each year to contemplate the sacred acts of Jesus which make heaven and eternal life accessible to us. His love, which is bigger than death!
Some of us will have watched “The Passion of the Christ” this afternoon. Perhaps the film moved us to a closer sense of friendship with Jesus Christ. The religious sisters who trained me in elementary school used to tell us, “If you were the only person who ever lived, Jesus would have done all of that for you!” I can’t comprehend that. It seems too much for it to be true. I must not forget.
There are scenes from Holy Thursday in the film: Jesus gives us the gifts of priesthood and Eucharist. The priesthood makes apparent for us – a sensory experience for us – the work of sacrificing and interceding and healing which Jesus does eternally before the Father on our behalf.
Jesus washes feet at The Last Supper – pointing to the ultimate service he will render the world the next day on Good Friday. He gives us the gift of himself veiled by bread and wine. It is broken, given away, emptied, poured out food he gives – as he will be broken, given away, emptied and poured out on the cross.
On Good Friday – Jesus is alone – executed between thieves. God has a right to be angry with us for the sins we empty upon God from the bowels of our planet. Jesus gets in-between us and God’s righteous wrath. And when God sees Jesus personally – that he is the sinless one – he accepts the stand-in and raises his Son up to new life – inviting us to come along with him. But some people don’t like the idea of God being allowed to get angry with us. They’d prefer someone softer. (Curious though – our own angry is sometimes explosive and over only imagined slights and offenses – nothing especially real or important!)
Jesus is placed in the tomb. His grave is borrowed. He is not from this earth.
Pray for those who are baptized this week, those received into the Church, those who receive their First Eucharist. With Confirmation, these are the Sacraments of Initiation. In Baptism – Eric and Dan go down into the watery grave where they meet the risen Christ. Their sins are left in the water. And so are ours as we renew our own Baptism vows on Easter morning and are blessed with the shower of water used the night before!
If you’ve kept the Sugar Fast – be generous and offer up one more week. You may break the fast on Easter Sunday morning: grateful to God for his mercies, grateful for the gift of perseverance and the strength to fulfill a pledge, to break the back of a sugar addiction, to be part of a sacrificial gift of $500 to Amazon Relief!
Prayer for Holy Thursday morning: Instructing his friends into the divine mysteries, Jesus the wisdom of God, prepares a table that gives food to the soul, and mingles for the faithful the cup of the wine for life eternal. Let us all, therefore, draw near the mysterious table, with pure souls let us receive the Bread of Life: Let us remain at the master’s side, that we may see how he washes the feet of the disciples and wipes them with a towel, and let us do as we have seen him do, washing one another’s feet. For such is the commandment that Christ himself gave to his disciples. (Byzantine Morning Prayer)
Prayer for Good Friday morning: The whole creation was changed by fear, when it saw you, O Christ, hanging on the cross. The sun was darkened and the foundation of the earth was shaken for all things suffered with the creator of all. Of your own will you have endured this torment for our sakes. Therefore, we the faithful glorify your great compassion. And seeing you hanging on the cross, O Christ, the Virgin Mother cried, “O my Son, where is the beauty of your form? I cannot bear to look upon you crucified unjustly. Make haste, then, to arise my Son, that I may see on the third day your resurrection from the dead. (Byzantine Service of Good Friday)
