PASSIONTIDE - Veils and interior life

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The hour has now come for the Son of Man to be glorified...

The last two weeks of Lent are known as “Passiontide.”  A new preface is prayed these last weeks of Lent before the Holy Holy Holy.  The Lord's Passion, his suffering, is meant to take center stage, and the veils that we see over the sacred art around us are meant to help us achieve the goals of the Church's liturgy in these last two weeks.  Here’s what we should be doing differently.

Ultimately all of Lent, but especially these last two weeks, leads toward the interior life.  The church enhances its exterior silence so that we can foster an interior silence. This is also why the music of Lent is meant to be more meditative and subdued, even with less instrumentation when possible.  Thirdly, there are to be no flowers in decorating the sanctuary, and other decorations are diminished as well.

As for the veils, although we have only a couple statues and about five images in our church, All the friends of God, the saints, humbly take a step back from the foreground for these two weeks so that we have the chance to focus directly on God, their one true love.

With all this "quieting down" of the sensory experience, we are encouraged to focus on the proclamation of the Word of God and the memorial of the Lord’s sacrifice made present for us in the Eucharist.

Fittingly with that intention, the Stations of the Cross, which are left un-veiled, draw our focus more intensely.  In a sense, they are the one thing we are encouraged to meditate upon.

In a symbolic way, we can see this time as a parallel to when Jesus was in the tomb. The Bridegroom is “taken away” so to speak, though this happens most intensely for us on Good Friday, when the tabernacle is left empty.  We can also imagine what Mary must have felt like for three years when her son was out and about, surrounded by huge crowds so that it was hard for her to get close to him.   But at the same time, we know that the Lord is within us, just as Mary always knew the union of her Son's heart with hers.

And it is there, in our hearts, that The Lord desires for the Law to be written, as we heard in Jeremiah the prophet.  This passage is the longest quotation of the Old Testament that you will find in the New Testament, in Hebrews 8.  Obviously it was very important to the Christian faithful, because that New Covenant was also mentioned by Jesus at the Last Supper: the blood of the new and eternal covenant.  Christ's sacrifice allows the Law of God (his Word made flesh) to be written on our hearts.

Instead of looking for God outside of ourselves, we need to remember that the Lord is speaking within us, through His still, small voice.  The power of silence is discovered most profoundly at this time.  Let us allow the word of God to enter more deeply into our hearts, to speak to us, to form us and shape us.  Next week when we especially devote much more time to the Passion of Christ for "Palm Sunday" or "Passion Sunday," may we truly allow the Sacred Scripture to echo within us as it resounds through this Church.

It is in the wounds of Christ that we are healed.  The Blood of Jesus washes away our sins and renews us.  Monday evening is a powerful chance for us to know this truth in our own persons.  I now invite Fr. Richard McAlear to share some more about how he wishes to help us all encounter that healing touch of Christ during his days here in the parish.

Saved by Him. Not by ourselves. But we have work to do.

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God works in mysterious ways.

 - prophets and now through Magisterium 

 - Jesus

 - dreams for Joseph son of Jacob and Joseph husband of Mary
 - even a story in the Old Testament where God gives a donkey the ability to speak to a prophet!

 - But one of the biggest mysterious ways that God acted in the Old Testament was in the historical deliverance of his entire people from Exile in Babylon: Without them having to lift a finger (just like in Egypt about 8 centuries earlier), pagan king Cyrus of Persia, conqueror of Babylon, becomes God's instrument as he gives free release to the Jews to return to their land and offer their sacrifice to God in the temple.  They even get government funding for rebuilding the temple.

The Lord does this to show that He alone is God and that He alone is the one who graces and blesses His people. They truly don’t earn freedom. God gave it to them. Many times in fact: in Adam they were made free; then in Moses the Hebrews were freed from another slavery; then again through the Judges up to King Saul and David when they were firmly established once again; and that brings us to today’s reading which is clearly another way God frees them to worship once again.

But all of this is a foreshadowing of the most important victory over the greatest slavery of all: sin and its wages, death. Fear of death has enslaved humanity since the beginning, says Hebrews 2:15.  And that fear enslaved humanity, until God saw the time was right to deliver us through His Son.  This is the joy we celebrate every day as a Christian: that God has saved us by His grace.  The word grace means gift.  The Catechism defines it this way: "grace is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life." (p. 1996) Grace is a participation in the life of God, which is poured unearned into human beings, whom it heals of sin and sanctifies. There are multiple ways God grants his own divine life to us, but the more important ones are through the entirety of revealed truth (the Gospel), the sacraments and the hierarchical ministry (yes, even homilies at times), and of course, prayer in all its forms liturgical and private.

All of God's salvation has nothing to do with our efforts.  Like the Israelite slaves in the first reading, we don't save ourselves.  It is all a free gift of God.  He is "rich in mercy," as we heard from Saint Paul today.  We run out of gas in seeking God's mercy long before He tires in giving it.

What are you afraid of?  If you think about it, it all points back to fear of death - death in all its small forms.  But Jesus, who is the Resurrection and the Life, has conquered death, and by God's grace you are in Him no longer meant to fear anything, but simply to trust that God has your life in His hands.  Nothing is more freeing than that - living life with no fears, no worries, no regrets.  That is the freedom that Christ came to give us, and that is the grace that is ours by His free gift, if only we receive it.

Now to find that healing, we have to do something very simple, but very difficult.  It's simple because it's not complicated, but it is difficult because it is not easy.  And that is, we have to give up control of our lives - to die to ourselves, to our desires, to our dreams, to our plans, to our wants and needs, - and to say yes to God's Will in an absolutely radical way.  And if you think that is easy, look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane - he sweated blood over it.  No, it is clearly very difficult to give up control completely, but when we do that, we have died to the world and are now alive in Christ Jesus.  We transfer our life to where it matters most: heaven.  In God our soul finds rest and refuge.  Nothing can touch it any more.  That is the freedom that God wants to give us in his great mercy.  That is the grace in which we Christians stand day after day.  That's why we wear rose (pink) even in Lent.  That is why we can say "rejoice!" (Laetare) even when the evils of our world are so present to us, even as we endure great suffering and trial.  Merciful Jesus, Lord of life, truly present in this Eucharist, may Your grace help us to say "yes" to all the mysterious ways God wishes to work in our lives.  Amen.

Lent 3rd Sunday - Cleansing our temple

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"God loves us right where we are.  But he loves us too much to let us stay there."

Some say this was perhaps the main cause of Jesus’ crucifixion.

The temple was cherished.  The whole reason people pray today at the "wailing wall" or Western Wall is because it was the edge of the temple as we know it.

This was the time of Passover - everyone was there to offer lambs for sacrifice, not to mention any other offerings for newborns, marriages, etc.  What Jesus did would have caused huge disruption to Jerusalem.  Although some loved it, others would have been appalled.   It would have united and solidified many of His enemies if they weren’t already set against Him.
Why did Jesus make such a risky move?
Because the temple was important.  And he noticed that it wasn't being used properly.  It needed some work - not the stones and wood and incense, but the people inside it.  After he drove them out and refocused things, the temple was what it was meant to be again: a house of prayer.

"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
...But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Saint Paul: "Do you not know that your body is a temple, with the spirit of God dwelling within you?"
For the Jews, by the way, remember that the body was not just the body - it was the person.  Your body represents your life - your soul - your mind - everything.
Jesus doesn't just want to take care of the temple, but the people within it.  So if your body is a temple, you better believe that Jesus wants to do some work in there.  When things are way out of shape, it feels like violence to get them back in order.  It isn't pretty or easy, but that is not a bad thing.  The only bad thing is that things are far from the way they should be, like Jesus discovered in the temple today.  Ultimately this is tough love, and it's a good thing.
So Jesus wants into your temple, your life.  He will probably find some things that need some work.  He might have to act a little violently.  This is tough, but it's love.  And afterwards, it's worth it.

The Ten Commandments - the Law of God - the Ten Words of God - Jesus Christ.  Sometimes they feel harsh as well.  As we hear them today, let us allow them to enter our hearts and do some tough love.  To drive out any sin that is found there.  To allow our spiritual temples to be what they are meant to be about - prayer and worship of the One who created us and loves us.