GOSPEL
Mark 1:12-15
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."
The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent is always the temptation of the Lord in the wilderness. Immediately after His baptism, The Lord went into the wilderness to fast and pray, preparing Himself for the supernatural mission which lay ahead. Absorbed in solitude, resting in the Father’s heart, He was confronted by Satan who tempted Him to use His divine powers for Himself. Knowing the identity and purpose of Christ, that He is the Son of God and had come into the world to destroy the power of sin and death, the devil tried to stop Him at all costs.
Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus rejects the Evil One’s attempts to pull Him away from the Father, to lure Him away from His mission, to dazzle Him with the false joys of a selfish life. The Lord refuses all of these lies and temptations, quoting Scripture against Satan, so that his falseness will find no room in His Heart.
Apply this fundamental moment in the life of Jesus to your life. This Lent, the Lord wants to lead you into the wilderness of your own heart, to speak His tender love to you, to heal your wounds and forgive your sins, to renew your identity as a beloved child of the Father, and to reinvigorate your sense of mission and vocation.
The three traditional practices of Lent—prayer, fasting and almsgiving—open us up to relationship, prayer to God, almsgiving to others, fasting to our deepest, truest self. In these relationships, we discover our deepest identity as sons and daughters of the Father, purchased with the Precious Blood of the Son and anointed in the Holy Spirit. Secondly, we also find our missionary purpose—to live as disciples of Christ in the proclamation of His saving Gospel to the world. Thirdly, we come to know our destiny—life on high in Christ Jesus in the glory of heaven forever.
The Good News of our faith reminds us that we do not need to wait until the next life to taste the abundance of God. The Lord wants us here and now to know, love and serve Him. Go fearlessly into the wilderness of your soul. You will find the Lord there waiting for you.
To have a relationship with the Lord, we need to set time aside every day for prayer. Most of us, as busy as we are, find it difficult to regularly pray with attention and devotion, to move beyond the simple recitation of words.
Let this Lent be the graced moment when you allow the Lord to truly lead you into prayer, as you have never experienced it before, deeper and richer, a foretaste of the good things to come! God wants you to rest in His Heart. He lovingly desires this peace for you. A question we must ask is: do we want it for ourselves?
CHALLENGE: INTENTIONALLY CHANGE SOMETHING IN YOUR LIFE TO MAKE MORE TIME FOR PRAYER
Many of you already have a well-developed prayer life, but many others may need to fundamentally change something in their daily routine to accomplish this commitment:
- Get up 30 minutes earlier
- Omit television time
- Go to a place of silence in your home
- Drive in silence and pray in your car
Something will have to give for us to truly embrace a rhythm of prayer within our daily life.
CHALLENGE: PRAY WITH THE DAILY MASS READINGS
Let the focus of your prayer this Lent be the daily Mass readings. Chosen for us by the Church, an Old Testament reading set side by side with a Gospel, these Scriptures will lead us directly to the Heart of Christ and His chosen Word which He desires to share with us.
- Read the readings several times.
- Ponder them.
- What word, phrase, image or message stands out?
- What questions, thoughts, feelings arise in your mind and heart?
Bring all of that to the Lord. Let His love and presence wash over you. Abide in that peace. Rest in His Heart. Speak your heart to His. Finally, is there some action which you feel the Lord calling you to embrace as a fruit of your prayer? Let the impact of this reflection time guide you throughout the day, in your thoughts, words and actions.
What is keeping you from having the prayer life you need and want?
In what ways is the devil trying to pull you away from the Father and lure you from your mission?
How does the world dazzle you with the false joys of a selfish life? What are things of this world you have trouble saying "no" to?
How can you more fully give your heart to the Lord? Do you tell God that you love Him? What are some specific things you can do to try to better understand just how much God loves you?
GOSPEL:
Mk 9:2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents:one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.
The Second Sunday of Lent presents the pivotal experience of the Transfiguration for our prayerful reflection. Serving as a midpoint in the Gospels, this sacred moment on Mount Tabor is an extraordinary revelation of the identity and glory of Jesus Christ as the Beloved Son of the Father. Peter, James and John view the Lord in His resurrected, luminous mystery, as a foreshadowing of the heavenly glory to come. The Church points us towards the Transfiguration in the early part of Lent to keep our hearts and attention focused on the victory of Easter as a spiritual motivation, both for our present penance during these forty days and the good things of eternity to come.
In three pivotal Scriptural moments, the Father audibly speaks from heaven, proclaiming Jesus as His Beloved Son at Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan (Mark 1:11) and on Mount Tabor at His Transfiguration (Mark 9:7) and then, immediately before His Passion and death, Jesus calls out in front of a crowd, “Father, glorify your name,” and the Father responds, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again” (John 12:28). These citations contextualize God the Father’s ongoing affirmation of Jesus as His Son, illustrating the Transfiguration experience as a heavenly affirmation of Christ’s identity, divinity, power, and victory over sin and death.
A significant aspect of our Christian faith is the conviction that, in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we receive adoption as beloved sons and daughters of the Father, that who Jesus is by nature, i.e. the Son, we become through the grace of Baptism. This divine filiation finds mention all over the Scriptures, the writings of the early Church, the Catechism, and the Missal. Ephesians 1:5, Galatians 3:26 and 4:5-7, 1 John 3:2, and Romans 8:14-19 come to mind as worthy of reflection. God shows His love for us most profoundly by making us His children in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters to Jesus, initiated into a living relationship with the Blessed Trinity. This divine and familial communion of love both defines the nature of the Church and our eternal salvation.
Our deepest identity is that we are beloved children of the Father. Our mission is to live out the Gospel of our salvation through union and imitation of Jesus. Our destiny is eternal life, joined with the Communion of Saints in perpetual adoration and praise of the Most Blessed Trinity. Simply put, what the Father says of Christ at the Transfiguration, He now says of us. The glory of Jesus on Mount Tabor is now our glory, already present in grace and faith, hidden in many ways, but a glory to be fully revealed in heaven.
The spiritual efficacy of the saints flows from their self-knowledge as children of the Father and most powerfully expresses itself in their love of God and neighbor. In reading the lives of my favorite saints, I have always felt this palpable explosion of joy in their hearts, as they came to know in an absolute way the personal love of the Father for them as His beloved. This overwhelming experience demanded an outlet of charity—the service of others. Think of Francis of Assisi kissing the lepers, Mother Teresa picking up the outcast from the gutter, Maximilian Kolbe giving away his food ration and his life at Auschwitz, or John Vianney hearing confessions for sixteen hours a day.
Before Mother Teresa was famous, Malcolm Muggeridge, a British journalist, had heard of this nun in Calcutta who was doing wondrous work with the poor. He traveled to India in the 1960’s with a film crew, seeking to make a movie about her work. When he set up the cameras in Mother’s Home for the Dying, he realized that it was way too dark to capture anything on film, but he went ahead regardless, rolling the cameras as Mother Teresa and her sisters went about their daily work, bathing, feeding, and comforting the dying. Assuming this particular footage would never turn out, Muggeridge developed it anyway, and was absolutely astonished by what he saw. The images taken in the Home for the Dying were filled with a radiant, supernatural light which was certainly not present at the time! Through such experiences, Muggeridge eventually converted to Catholicism, and helped Mother Teresa in her work.
Almsgiving is one of the traditional Lenten practices Catholics embrace in this holy season. When we make a gift of ourselves to others, when we pour out our hearts and energy, offering our time and treasure to truly love and help our brothers and sisters, especially the poor and suffering, God shines His radiance on us.
The glory of the Transfiguration flashes out to light up the heart and to instill hope in someone who feels lost and alone. No wonder the saints’ depictions in iconography and art always contain a halo encircling their heads! The luminous love of God transfigured them and so they shone with the very light of God.
CHALLENGE: COMMIT TO A NEW ACT OF SERVICE
Make a gift of yourself by giving your time to other people:
- Volunteer at your church, parish school, a retirement community, a shelter, or a local charity
- Visit a shut-in or someone you know who might be lonely
- Drive someone to Mass or Stations of the Cross or to the cemetery to visit a loved one’s grave
- Do household chores or grocery shopping for a neighbor in need
- Commit to praying daily for a person who you find difficult or unlikable
- Choose a different person for each day of Lent to write a letter to or to call
CHALLENGE: DONATE IN NEW AND DIFFERENT WAYS
Share what you have with others by being more generous:
- Each day of Lent, choose one item of clothing to donate to a shelter or store like St. Vincent de Paul
- Give up eating at restaurants or buying coffee and donate all the money you would have spent to a charity
- Buy two of everything on your grocery list and give the duplicate items to a food shelter
- Create small kits (granola bars, water, socks, personal care items, etc.) that you keep in your car and hand out to those in need
- Increase the amount you give to your church
- Choose a new charity and set up a monthly donation
Mother Teresa literally saw Christ in the suffering and the needy. How can we see Christ in the people around us, even the unlovable and difficult?
Sacrificial love always costs something of us. How can we love others until it hurts? How can we be instruments of the Lord's love, kindness, and forbearance?
What are the Transfiguration moments in your life, when the clouds seemed to part and you were able to see the glory of God?
Financial giving is an important sacrifice and supports the good work of charities close to home and around the world. When possible, though, providing a personal interaction is also vital. In Catholic teaching, integral human development means that we care for the whole person, providing not just for their material needs, but also offering love, connection, respect, and care for spiritual needs.
If you do not go to Confession regularly, consider going once a month for a year, and then see if you are not more at peace, more joyful, freer from habitual sins and failings, more generous and alive. You simply will be. How could you not, since the Lord bestows such graces upon us in this sacrament?
Confession is the only place we can go in, burdened with guilt, sin, remorse and sadness, and then leave liberated, forgiven and joyous. In confessing our sins, we show our wounds to the Lord and He heals us, applying the medicine of His mercy and pardon to the failures and darkness of our selfishness.
- Examination Options from the USCCB
- Guided Examination of Conscience Video with Fr. Mark-Mary
- Detailed Examination with Confession Information, Prayers, and more, Bulldog Catholic
- Examination Questions by Fr. John Trigilio, EWTN
CHALLENGE: COMMIT TO A NIGHTLY EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
One daily habit that can help us uncover our spiritual weaknesses is doing a quick examination of conscience at bedtime. Before falling asleep each night, spend a few minutes prayerfully reflecting on your day:
- Look for positive moments and thank God for them.
- Look for moments where you struggled with sin or behaved in a way you wish you hadn’t.
- Ask God’s forgiveness.
- Look forward to the next day and make a commitment to work harder on areas of weakness.
CLICK HERE for a printable Week Three worksheet.
Most people do not go to Confession as often as they should or even as often as they would like to. What are the things that keep you from going more often?
What can you do in the time between your visits to Confession to help you be more aware of your sins and spiritual struggles. What can you do to make a better Confession next time?
Is there something you are afraid to confess? What will give you the courage to change your life and give this challenge over to the Lord?
Is there something you keep confessing because you don't believe the Lord has really forgiven you? How can you deepen your understanding of His mercy?
If you asked the people closest to you what your biggest struggles are, what would they say? Are you honest with yourself about your spiritual shortcomings?
GOSPEL
Jn 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
The mission of the Church is to evangelize, to share with everyone we meet, the astonishing Good News of the Gospel. We do this most profoundly by living the faith ourselves, for once we experience Jesus in His saving power and transformative love, we want for everyone else, the promise of eternal life which we ourselves have received. Rescued people want to rescue others, those who have been healed want to heal others, those who have been forgiven want to forgive others.
I urge all of us to continue to go and make disciples, to persevere in witness to the primacy of Christ and His holy Gospel, so that every person in our diocese comes to salvation through faith in Jesus and membership in His Church. God so loved the world that He sends us as witnesses to the death and resurrection of Christ, which heals and restores us as beloved children in His house.
CHALLENGE: COMMIT TO BEING ABLE TO SHARE THE KERYGMA IN YOUR OWN WORDS
As missionary disciples, each of us is called to memorize the key components of the kerygma or the basic message of the Gospel. Think of it as your faith elevator speech. If you had five minutes to witness your Catholic faith to someone, how would you express it?
The kerygma is typically shared in four parts: creation, sin, redemption, and response.
1. Creation: God created everything good and out of love. Human beings are the culmination of His creation and were made for relationship with Him.
2. Sin: Our first parents, Adam and Eve, by their rejection of God, bring sin and death into human experience. We can see the effects of this ruin all around us in the world.
3. Redemption: Because God loves us so much and is so merciful, He sends His son, Jesus Christ, who willingly suffers and dies to restore us and reconcile us to the Father.
4. We are given the free will to choose how we respond to Jesus. If we repent and believe, we can find real joy and eternal salvation.
CLICK TO READ BISHOP HYING'S BOOKLET ON THE KERYGMA
(available free online)
CHALLENGE: CREATE A LIST OF 3 PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE WHO YOU WILL TALK TO ABOUT JESUS
We all have relatives, friends, neighbors, and coworkers who have either lost their faith or who never heard the Good News of God's love proclaimed to them. Identify three people close to you who need to hear the saving message of God. If you keep these people top of mind, then you'll be able to spot opportunities where you can share your faith or make an invitation. Evangelization is about relationship. It will only be successful if the person trusts you and knows your love. Often, it is more about witnessing with how you live, listening, asking questions, and sharing your personal encounters with Christ.
CLICK HERE for a printable Week Four worksheet.
How does the Lord seek to restore you this Lent? How are your Lenten practices helping to bring that about?
Who in your life needs Jesus and the sacraments? How can you pray and fast for them this Lent? How can you witness the Lord to them?
What is keeping you from sharing your faith with others? What steps can you take to remedy this?
GOSPEL
Jn 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.
“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
The Gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent captures the fundamental paradox of Jesus’ life and preaching. “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life” (John 12: 24-25). In many instances and using various images, the Lord keeps telling us: If you want to be great, become little. If you want to be first, be last. If you want to truly live, die to yourself. If you want the glory of heaven, embrace the shame of the cross.
This way of the Gospel is a hard and mysterious path, indeed, sheer nonsense or madness to those who think in worldly terms. The unredeemed self seeks its own safety, comfort, interests and pleasures. Our culture equates a successful life with wealth, possessions, power, and beauty. Jesus offers a radically different path, promising hardship, renunciation, sacrifice and the Cross to those who choose to follow Him. These two world views are so opposed to each other that it bears exploring the rationale for embracing a Christian life.
As believers in Christ, we Catholics are convinced that the human person is made for self-gift, that the only way we can become fully ourselves, to experience joy, love, communion and indeed salvation, is to open ourselves fully to the Other, that Other being both God Himself and other people. We are hard-wired for relationship, which means that possessions, comfort, power, beauty or wealth can never satisfy the longings of our hearts. The life this world offers can never deliver on its promises of happiness and satisfaction.
When we realize this truth, opening ourselves up to God and other people in a love that gives itself away, we are surprised by joy, fulfillment and peace. Happiness is a by-product of a life handed over in charity; if we make personal happiness our goal in life, paradoxically, we will never find it, because the focus is still on ourselves. Love calls us out of the narrow confines of our selfishness, and sets us on a path of sacrifice, whereby we discover the great secret of the Gospel: the good life is marked by service, generosity, suffering, and death to the false self, as we strive to love God with all of our heart, will, strength and mind. How else could the martyrs of our beloved Church have gone to their terrible deaths with a joy that usually marks a wedding feast?
When I did mission work in the Dominican Republic, I was always powerfully struck on Ash Wednesday as we talked about fasting and sacrifice, because many of the people in our communities ate once or twice a day at most, lived in a poverty year-round that I initially could not even imagine, and were confined by the circumstances of their lives to embrace hardships which make our most daunting Lent look tremendously complacent. In this context, our small acts of fasting and penance put us in touch with our hungry, poor, and suffering brothers and sisters around the globe, and should move us to help.
Every year, I give up coffee because it is the hardest thing for me. Does God care that I am going off caffeine for 45 days? Does that impress Him? Probably not, but it helps me to focus on Him. When I crave a cup of java, I remember that I can live without coffee, but I can’t live without God. I need to reach for prayer, the Bible, the Rosary, and charitable actions more naturally and easily than I run to the coffee pot for a fresh infusion of energy. This refusal of innocent comforts strengthens my will for the discipline and sacrifice of the Christian struggle for holiness, as we battle the Evil One and the false self, so that we can rise with the Lord this Easter with mind and heart renewed!
Refraining from food or anything else that gives us pleasure, we discipline our bodies and wills to seek the Lord, to empty ourselves out of comfort and complacency, to leave more space for God to act within us and to take up His abode within our soul through the wonder of sanctifying grace.
In a life cluttered with self, a bloated spirit, a selfish heart, the Lord finds no room to sit down and converse with us, because our inflated ego is using up all the oxygen in the room. Fasting throws our false ego in the dumpster, so that our true self, the one God knows and loves as a beloved daughter or son, can live in the radiance of the divine.
CHALLENGE: FAST FROM ENTERTAINMENT
In addition to other fasting you may have committed to, try giving up some time spent with your favorite form of entertainment such as TV, social media, radio in the car, watching sports, etc. Start with 15 minutes a day and see how much you can add each week. Take that time and fill it up in some way with God. Try a new prayer practice such as the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Rosary, or Liturgy of the Hours. Spend the time doing spiritual reading. Stop by Church and pray before the Blessed Sacrament for 15 minutes.
CHALLENGE: TRY A MICRO-FAST
We have hit the time in Lent where our intensity starts to fade a little. Maybe you aren’t praying as much as you were the first weeks of Lent. Maybe you’ve slipped a little on your Lenten promises. Don’t relent…RE-LENT! Recommit yourself by adding in an occasional micro-fast. Micro-fasts are small acts of self-denial that help us intensify our focus as we head toward Holy Week. Here are a few micro-fast suggestions: Take a cold shower instead of a hot shower. Drink your morning coffee cold. Park in the farthest parking space and walk. Deny yourself salt, pepper, and condiments for a meal. Sleep without your pillow for a night.
CLICK HERE for a printable Week Five worksheet.
What idols are you tempted to make more important than God in your life?
When have you profoundly experienced joy? How was it linked to self-giving?
How can we persevere when fasting and penance are difficult for us?
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were to take place in two days’ time. So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to arrest him by treachery and put him to death. They said, “Not during the festival, for fear that there may be a riot among the people.”
When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head. There were some who were indignant.
“Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil? It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.” They were infuriated with her. Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me. The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anticipated anointing my body for burial. Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them. When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.” The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he came with the Twelve. And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one, “Surely it is not I?” He said to them, “One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish. For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be dispersed. But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee.” Peter said to him, “Even though all should have their faith shaken, mine will not be.” Then Jesus said to him, "Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” But he vehemently replied, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all spoke similarly.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be troubled and distressed. Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch.” He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.” When he returned he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing. Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open and did not know what to answer him. He returned a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners. Get up, let us go. See, my betrayer is at hand.”
Then, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying, “The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him and lead him away securely.”He came and immediately went over to him and said, “Rabbi.” And he kissed him. At this they laid hands on him and arrested him. One of the bystanders drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear. Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me? Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me; but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled.” And they all left him and fled. Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest’s courtyard and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire. The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none. Many gave false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. Some took the stand and testified falsely against him, alleging, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands.’” Even so their testimony did not agree.
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?” But he was silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said to him, “Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?” Then Jesus answered, “I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.’” At that the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further need have we of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as deserving to die. Some began to spit on him. They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards greeted him with blows.
While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s maids came along. Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” But he denied it saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. Then the cock crowed. The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, “Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.” He began to curse and to swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking.” And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” He broke down and wept.
As soon as morning came, the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He said to him in reply, “You say so.” The chief priests accused him of many things. Again Pilate questioned him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they accuse you of.” Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested. A man called Barabbas was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion. The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed. Pilate answered, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate again said to them in reply, “Then what do you want me to do with the man you call the king of the Jews?” They shouted again, “Crucify him.” Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort. They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him. They began to salute him with, "Hail, King of the Jews!” and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him. They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha — which is translated Place of the Skull —, They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it. Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left. Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself by coming down from the cross.” Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.” One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.” Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome. These women had followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him. There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died. And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid.
As we approach Holy Week, we have spiritually moved through Lent, seeking to empty ourselves of egoism, complacency, distraction and self-seeking, so that the Lord finds greater space and capacity within us to receive His divine grace. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving have opened us up to deeper and fuller relationships with God and others. Our reflection on the Scriptures has expanded our experience of the Lord’s love for us, made manifest in Christ Jesus. We are about to liturgically enter once again the saving events of Jesus’ final week—His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, the drama of the Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden, the moving and disturbing details of His arrest, trial, crucifixion and death, and His glorious triumph over sin and death in the resurrection.
One of the striking aspects of Holy Week for me is the vulnerability of Christ. He enters the city humbly, seated on a donkey, not on a powerful horse or in a majestic carriage. Jesus stoops down to wash the feet of the apostles, doing the work of a slave. He suffers violence, mockery, spitting, calumny, torture, and crucifixion with a peaceful equanimity, forgiving His enemies and commending Himself to the Father. In all of this astonishing detail, we see God redeeming us, not from a position of safety or distance, but from a humble vulnerability which I find both shocking and consoling.
The Love which washes feet, forgives a thief, a coward and a traitor, and suffers a terrifying crucifixion, all the while being reviled and hated, is so beyond our human capacity to grasp that it takes our breath away. No wonder kings will stand speechless in the presence of the Suffering Servant, as Isaiah prophecies. At the center of this complete self-giving and self-emptying of Christ, stands the enduring gift of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper, the Lord hands over His Body and Blood in sacramental form to His apostles, and through them, to the Church, just as the next day, He hands over His Body and Blood on the Cross.
“Do This in Memory of Me” is quite clearly a commandment of Jesus which the Church has fulfilled unfailingly for 2000 years. The Mass is our sharing in the sacrifice of the Lord, this offering of the Son to the Father, drawing us into the very life of the Trinity, who is constantly pouring out divine love upon us. The Eucharist is the fruit of the death and resurrection of Christ, drawing us into the Paschal Mystery, as we enjoy a union with the Lord in Holy Communion which is both physical and spiritual.
Ponder the events of Holy Week through the prism of the Eucharist. Just as the crowds shout, “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” as Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, so too we sing the “Hosanna in the Highest” right before the Eucharistic Prayer, as the Lord descends upon the altar and enters into us. Every Mass is a privileged moment when we receive the Body of the Lord, as the apostles did at the Last Supper. They have no spiritual advantage over us. As the Lord gives His life on the Cross on Good Friday, so too He offers His life to us in every celebration of the Eucharist. The disciples on the road to Emmaus recognized the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread; so too, the fullness of Christ’s life fills us when we experience the power of the Mass. When we receive Holy Communion worthily, we digest the great secret of the resurrection, as Saint John Paul put it.
In the Bread of Life discourse in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus promises that those who feed on His Body and Blood will live forever with Him. This commitment is absolutely amazing! If I am faithful to the Lord, believing in Him, seeking holiness, rooting out sin in my life and participating in the Eucharist worthily, I will live forever in the glory of God! This gift is the extraordinary good news of our Catholic faith! When such holy people die and the Lord looks at their souls, what will He see? Will it not be as if He were looking into a mirror, because they will be so filled with Him, that He will see an image of Himself? The entire purpose of the death and resurrection of Christ is to ransom you from sin and hell, so that you can live as a child of God, know the abundance of His love now, and live with Him forever in the joy of heaven. I encourage you urgently to attend all of the Holy Week liturgies. Open your heart to the Savior whose Heart was pierced, so that you can taste the glory of the Eucharist.
Our belief that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ is a challenging conviction to fully embrace, for it means that God, who is beyond time and space, whose eternal power, knowledge, and love know no bounds, is fully present in the humble form of bread and wine.
This divine gift changes everything, for the Lord so binds Himself to us, becomes one with us, linking Himself to our body, mind, heart, and soul that we now live in a profound union with Him.
CHALLENGE: SPEND MORE TIME WITH JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST
Whether you attend an extra daily Mass each week or commit to a regular time for Eucharistic Adoration, vow to spending more time in the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist.
CHALLENGE: DEEPEN YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE EUCHARIST
Enter more deeply into your knowledge of and love for the Eucharist by learning more with the resources below:
CLICK HERE for a printable Week Six worksheet.
What part or aspect of the Eucharist moves you the most?
What did the apostles feel and think when they received the Body of the Lord?
How has your participation in and reception of the Eucharist deepened with time?