vicardoug's Blog

My Favorite Good Friday Homily

By Abbot at Monastery of Christ in the Desert

This year we can look at the Passion of the Lord from the point of reference of the first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah. This author clear saw the value of redemptive suffering. He was able to think in his own mind about a man who would be willing to take on Himself the guilt of us all.

First reading
Good Friday - 2012
Cycle B

First Reading
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted. Even as many were amazed at him—so marred was his look beyond human semblance and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man—so shall he startle many nations, because of him kings shall stand speechless; for those who have not been told shall see, those who have not heard shall ponder it. Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people, a grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood. But the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity. If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him. Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses.

Abbot's homily
We should be surprised by this. Even today it is difficult to convince many people that someone might love them enough to give up his life for them. Perhaps it is because we don't think that we are loveable. None of us really is. A person who gives His life for others is able to see that which is loveable in others, when most of us cannot.

Not only is the man in the reading from Isaiah willing to give up His own life for others, he is also able to accept being scorned and despised by others. This is not the story of some great prince or king, but the story of an ordinary man who was not even so good to look at. It is the story of a man that no one thought very much about or even thought of as having much value.

How Isaiah ever thought up such a personage is really a mystery. When we read this passage from Isaiah, we Christians will always think of Jesus Christ.

Today as we celebrate Good Friday, we must also recognize that the Lord invites us to be that type of person ourselves. If we want to share with the Lord on Good Friday, we must commit ourselves to being the type of person that He was. In Isaiah, we see that even a human so long before Christ could imagine that another human could be like that. It is not necessary to be God to give our lives up for others.

Holy Thursday -Liturgy of the Hours...Office of Readings

From an Easter homily by Saint Melito of Sardis, bishop

The Lamb that was slain has delivered us from death

 and given us life

 

There was much proclaimed by the prophets about the mystery of the Passover: that mystery is Christ, and to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

 
    For the sake of suffering humanity he came down from heaven to earth, clothed himself in that humanity in the Virgin’s womb, and was born a man. Having then a body capable of suffering, he took the pain of fallen man upon himself; he triumphed over the diseases of soul and body that were its cause, and by his Spirit, which was incapable of dying, he dealt man’s destroyer, death, a fatal blow.

   

 

He was led forth like a lamb; he was slaughtered like a sheep.

 

 

 

 

 

 He ransomed us from our servitude to the world, as he had ransomed Israel from the hand of Egypt; he freed us from our slavery to the devil, as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. He sealed our souls with his own Spirit, and the members of our body with his own blood.   

He is the One who covered death with shame and cast the devil into mourning, as Moses cast Pharaoh into mourning.  He is the One who smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring, as Moses robbed the Egyptians of their offspring. He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into an eternal kingdom; who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be his own for ever.

He is the Passover that is our salvation.

It is he who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed him.

In Abel he was slain,

in Isaac bound,

 

 

 

 

in Jacob exiled,

 

 

 

in Joseph sold,

 

 

in Moses exposed to die.

He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb,

persecuted in David,

dishonoured in the prophets.

 

 

It is he who was made man of the Virgin,

 

 

he who was hung on the tree;

 

 

 

 

 

 

it is he who was buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and taken up to the heights of heaven.

He is the mute lamb, the slain lamb,

the lamb born of Mary,

the fair ewe.

He was seized from the flock,

dragged off to be slaughtered,

sacrificed in the evening,

and buried at night.

On the tree no bone of his was broken;

in the earth his body knew no decay.

 

He is the One who rose from the dead,

 

and

who raised man from the depths of the tomb.

 

Holy Saturday Liturgy of the Hours Office of Readings

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

The Lord's descent into the underworld

 

Something strange is happening... there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.

The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

 

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

  

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. 

For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.




   See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

 Rise, let us leave this place.

The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. 

I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.


The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Good Friday Reading From Liturgy of the Hours

From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop
The power of Christ's blood

 

If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish,” commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors.”

If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood.

 

 

In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.
   

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood.

Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy Eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.

    “There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you.

 I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy Eucharist.

 

Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!”

 
As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

    Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat?

By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.

Palms Sunday Cycle B begins Holy Week

Click on the readings below that you wish to review

Palm Sunday Readings    Holy Thursday Evening Readings    Good Friday Readings

 

As we approach the holiest season in the Church calendar it is important to let each celebration speak to our current lives.  It is so easy to get caught up in the sentimental aspect and not really apply what the Lord is trying to teach each of us about our spiritual journey.  There is nothing wrong with the sentimental aspects but the real substance is what the readings are saying to us.

 

The first reading speaks of what has been called, "The Suffering Servant".  Early Christians identified this with Jesus Christ.  The Jews, throughout their history, have identified this image with their own struggles.

At our baptism, we were anointed and impregnated with the Holy Spirit.  We were given the mission to make Christ present for others that we meet in our own spiritual journey, and that certainly means the aspect of the Suffering Servant can also apply to each of us. None of us like suffering, difficulties, rejections, etc. but they are a part of our lives as they were for Christ.

Christ gives us an example so that we can know what to expect in our own spiritual journey.  Each of us will have to carry the cross and it does help to know that it is not for nothing.  Christ realized that all the ups and downs and the extreme suffering were a way to win salvation for all humans.  It can be so easy to reject our own struggles and say, "Well I am not really Jesus and besides He is God and I am not."

.
St. Paul dealt with this when he addressed the Christians Community of the Philippians with what most bible scholars believe was an early Christian liturgical hymn.  It points out, as we will hear, that Christ is God, but was also fully human and does not reject or turn away from human suffering because He is God.  He recognized it was the will of the Father and the way to eternal life.

All of these reading should help us to see that suffering is a part of our journey.  And we need to continually pray for the grace to see that it is a part of our life's spiritual journey.  We do not go out looking for suffering, but for sure, it will come.  The question becomes, will we use it in our spiritual journey, or will we run from it.

 

On Palm Sunday, Jesus was welcomes as a hero.  He could have just hung on to that of being a hero, but He does not.  He freely enters in,to His Passion and Death.  

We live in a world that doesn't see any value in suffering, yet Christ has shown us differently and He asks each of us to enter it when it comes and also realize it is part of our journey to eternal life.

 

 

 

 

 

St. Joseph

March 19

Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary
Solemnity

March 19th, is the solemnity of St. Joseph, father in the Holy Family, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and earthly father to Our Lord Jesus Christ. According to scripture, Joseph, son of David, was working as a tekton, general mechanic and/or carpenter, in Nazareth at the time of the Annunciation. Joseph’s decisions were integral in God’s plan and this holy man chose well. He trusted his angelic vision, accepted Mary as his wife, dutifully traveled for the census, organized the Nativity and participated in the Presentation. Later, he led his family safely into Egypt and when called, faithfully returned to Nazareth. Also, Joseph shared in Mary’s worry during the Finding in the Temple. In other words, Joseph played a critical role through his ability to guide and protect Our Lord as he grew from a baby into the fully-realized Savior.

Devotion to Saint Joseph sky-rocketed in the 19th century, as Christian laborers sought a saint applicable to their current working conditions. During this time, he was elevated to Patron and Protector of the Universal Church, by Pope Pius IX. More recently, Blessed John Paul II honored Joseph in an exhortation entitled, Redemptoris Custos (Guardian of the Redeemer).**

In it, he discusses Joseph’s role in the plan of redemption and states, “’The obedience of faith’ must be given to God as he reveals himself. By this obedience of faith man freely commits himself entirely to God, making ‘the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and willingly assenting to the revelation given by him.’ This statement, which touches the very essence of faith, is perfectly applicable to Joseph of Nazareth.”

 

Fifth Sunday of Lent Cycle B

Click here to review the readings for this Sunday of Lent

 

Last Sunday was Laetare Sunday which means Rejoice because Easter draws nearer.  So now is a good time to look at our spiritual journey and the readings from this Sunday will help us to do exactly that.

 

These images are not easy to look at.  

Why was this the role of the Messiah???

And why is this to be part of our journey to eternal life?

We all know the above story.

Jesus is proclaimed as Messiah by the crowds.  Hosannana in the highest.  So, it is easy to see why the Apostles found it so difficult to comprehend what Jesus says to them after the Palm Sunday experience; that is where the Gospel reading for this Sunday picks up.The apostles all  have their ideas of what it is to be the Messiah, and what He tells them is devastating. They have the wrong idea of Messiah.  What about us?  What image to we have of the Messiah?  Is it that He will take away all our difficulties and problems; or cure all our diseases?  We can be in shock also, when we hear what Jesus tells us in the Gospel...

For each of us, the old person died in the waters of baptism, and we were born again.  We were impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and we are to make Christ present in the world as were the apostles.  We are called to follow the example of Christ, to give our lives for the other.   Boy, it is so hard to give our lives for the other, even for the enemy as Jesus did; and that seems to make little sense in today's world.  We can find ourselves in the same puzzlement held by the Apostles.

 

In the Letter to the Hebrews, written in the second century to converted Jews, shows what it means to be a Christian. This Hebrew community was told that Jesus was obedient to the will of His Father in all that was happening to Him, and that included both the good times and those times of great suffering, even His passion and death.

 What about us in the world today? 

We certainly like the good times, but what about the times that are so difficult.  

Can we be obedient to the crosses, the struggles, we have in our own lives?

Can we really believe that God is at work in both the good times and those times that are such a struggle and such a suffering?

 

Remember that Jeremiah, called at the young age of twenty three to take the word of God to the Chosen who had turned to believing that it was important to make political friends with worldly military powers, such as Egypt, and so not to depend on God.  Jeremiah tells them they are wrong and that God will make a new covenant with them. Life will come from death.  He assures them that God will forgive their many doubts and fears and sins. Certainly, the same is true for each of us today. None of us want the struggles, yet they a part of our journey to eternal life. These Sunday readings, once again, let us know that God loves us, and often works in ways that are not how we would work.  It's a good time to pray for the grace to continue the journey even when the cross, the struggles, appear. 

 

 

4th Sunday of Lent Cycle B

Click here to review the readings for this Sunday

 

 

 

 

 We all have heard that God loves each one of us and wants us in eternal life with Him.  That is really what our journey here on planet Earth is about.  The readings from this Sunday help us to appreciate how much God is willing to do for each of us.

We all know of the struggles that took place for the people in the Hebrew Scriptures, also called the Old Testament.  God's Chosen were sometimes following God, then complaining, then rejecting Him and turning to other pagan gods.  This happened not once, but again and again, generation after generation; and it happens to each of us even today.  Hopefully Lent has been that time that we have recognized this, that we are sinners and that He comes for us with mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

The first reading, taken from the Old Testament, gives us some idea of how God worked in the history of salvation.  God worked in all the ups and downs throughout human history.  He never gives up.  Even out of what seems like betrayal and disaster, God is still able to work to bring about his kingdom.  He can certainly do the same for each of us today.  We are not any wiser than the people of the Hebrew Scriptures.  Their story is our story and God will never give up on us either. We need to continually pray to believe this.  It is so easy to forget and give up on ourselves.  Something God will never do.We are free to choose the good or the evil.  The gospel reading helps to illustrate this.

There is one who wants to believe in Jesus and comes always in the night and secretly to talk with him.  His name is Nicodemus.  Jesus tells him that He is God.  Still Nicodemus is not willing to give himself totally to Jesus.  Jesus never gives up on Nicodemus.  At times, we can be like Nicodemus; we want to do the right things for Jesus, but we also want to continue to be a Christian in secret.  Of what are we afraid?

St. Paul, while imprisoned in Rome, writes to the Ephesians who are faced with struggles, persecutions, threats of death, and rejections. Paul encourages them not to be afraid.  No matter how often we may sin and turn from God, as did the Ephesians, God is always there waiting for us to return.

The key for each of us is to be able see our sins and to return to God again and again.   And to seek forgiveness rather than giving excuses or blaming  the other.  

It is so hard to understand that this process is the way God works in our lives, as He has throughout all of human history.

 

 

 

 

It seems impossible that God would put up with us time after time, and yet, He does.  

He can even use our mistakes and sins to lead us back to Him.

 

 

 

 

St. Paul writes the following to the Ephesians when they are close to giving up...

Now is the time to pray that when we see that at times we sin, we don't love the enemy, we don't have compassion and mercy even toward the person who we think does not deserve it, etc. that God is there loving us and forgiving us.  

It is so difficult to see that this is exactly how God works.  

He can write straight on crooked lines.  

 At times, we are the crooked lines.

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity-March 7

Vibia Perpetua, a well-to-do young woman and mother, and Felicitas, a slave who gave birth to a child three days before suffering a martyr's death, were catechumens. Against such prospective converts the persecution of Septimius Severus was particularly severe. These two holy women suffered death on the seventh of March in Carthage.

The Breviary relates the following touching episode:

Now the day had arrived when they were to be thrown to the wild beasts. Felicitas began to be sorrowful because she feared she would have to wait longer than her companions. For eight months she had been pregnant and therefore, according to Roman law, could not be executed before the birth of the child. But the prayers of her fellow sufferers hastened her time and she gave birth to a baby girl.
While she was suffering from the pains of childbirth, one of the guards called out to her, "If you are suffering so much now, what will you do when you are thrown to the wild beasts?" "Now I suffer," she answered, "but there Another will be in me, who will suffer for me, because I will suffer for Him." When she was in travail she had sorrow, but when she was set before the wild beasts she rejoiced" (Martyrology).
Finally, on the seventh of March, these heroic women were led into the amphitheatre and severely scourged. Then they were tossed about by an exceptionally wild cow, gored, and thrown to the ground.

Third Sunday of Lent Cycle B

Click here to review the readings for this Sunday

 

 

For most of us today, the concept of idolatry seems alien because we don't see pagan statues around us that we bow down to for comfort when we are down.

Perhaps this Lent may  be the time we take a second look at the idolatry that is all around us; and that includes idolatry we may even have in our own lives.

In the first reading, God makes a pact or covenant with the Israelites after they were freed from their slavery in Egypt.  He will be their God and they are to love Him about all else and their neighbors as themselves.

One of the first Commandments we hear in this first reading from Exodus is...

... Do not have idols.  

This was so important for God's Chosen People because it is a part of all the Commandments God gave them.  Remember, in that period of time, the nations around them had false idols, false gods, which could so easily influence them.

Perhaps, Lent is a good time to discover if we have some form of idolatry in our own lives.  That can certainly be one of the reasons why we are asked to fast and abstain (give up something we enjoy), pray more (give up some of our usual routine or leisure time), and give alms (give money away).

A good Lent can be a time we make deep spiritual discoveries about ourselves.  A time to discover how difficult it is to give up things we really love or like because at times they may be idols for us.

Have you made any discovers about yourself this Lent?

Were you able to give up something you really enjoyed?

Perhaps...

Some favorite food?

Desert?

Snacks?

Evening cocktail?

A favorite TV program?

Money?

Leisure time?

A first reaction can be,  well that is too old fashion to give up something.  I really could if I wanted to.  But I have already given up so much.  Maybe next Lent.  It makes me too uncomfortable right now.  

Perhaps the real reason is that we have idols, things we turn to when we have to face difficulties in our lives; when we have to carry the Cross.  We don't want to be uncomfortable.  That can be a very good discovery about ourselves.

 

In the Gospel reading we hear of how upset Jesus was with those in the Temple, His Father's House.  They were turning this sacred place into a place where they could worship the idols of money.  And so,  He overturns the money tables and runs them out.  He is trying to help them see they have idols and have turned away from God.  He was leading them into conversion. But that was difficult for them and they rejected His leading them into conversion.  We can be the same.  Events that lead us to see ourselves, to convert, can be very difficult and also rejected by us.

Sometimes it is so hard to realize that we, too; have idols, that we turn to because we want to feel good.  At the moment God is not making us feel good we turn to something that will take away the struggle of the Cross  and make us feel good.

Maybe this Lent is the time that God is once again turning our money tables over.  This can be a time of real blessing, leading us to conversion to discover that we do have idols and that we turn to them when we refuse the Cross in our lives; the difficulties and struggles that come to us all at times.

 

 

 St. Paul writes to this new Christian community, who at times struggle with suffering, difficulties, persecutions, etc.  They were certainly influenced by majority of the pagans who surrounded them, the ones who turn to their pagan idols .  But Paul reminds them...

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

St. Paul is helping them to see that God works in ways that at times can seem foolish and show them as weak.  Is it not the same for us as we look at the situations and events in our lives that at times do not make any sense or show us as weak?

In those moments are we not influence by the idols of the society around us?

It is so easy and acceptable to turn to today's idols so that we will feel good.

It seems that everyone does.  So why not?

Abuse sex, food, drugs, 

Get all you can in this life

More money will make you happy

Keep you body buff

This list could go on and on.

Part of our lenten journey is to convert, to repent.  And how can we repent if we don't make new discoveries about ourselves.  Whenever we come before the Lord with our discoveries of failure, of problems, of sins; His mercy, compassion, and forgiveness are always there.

Ask God, during the rest of this Lent, for the courage to look deeper within. 

For sure that is the place we discover...

... the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
... the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

...and it is the place where we will discover God.

Courage!