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From the Desk of Father Gene
or the past five weeks we have been journeying through the Lenten season seeking to unite ourselves with God and with one another. This week as our Lenten journey reaches its summit, we walk with Jesus through his final days and moments. As you know, this upcoming week is commonly called “Holy Week.” We consider this week to be the holiest week of the year since we “celebrate” Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) and then share with him the Last Supper on Holy Thursday; on Good Friday we reflect upon His Passion and Death; and then we rejoice with Him Holy Saturday night at our Easter Vigil and on Easter Sunday as we celebrate the great event of the Resurrection. This Monday evening Fr. Yunior and I will go to the cathedral in Newark to celebrate the Chrism Mass. Here the Holy Oils (for the Sick, the Catechumens, and the Chrism) for the upcoming year will be blessed and distributed to the parishes. All of the priests gathered that evening will also commit themselves to another year of faithful service to the communities they are called to serve. We perform a similar rite on Holy Thursday for the priests and deacon of our parish. We have mentioned this before, but it’s always good to remind ourselves that to best understand this entire week, we must journey with Him into Jerusalem and view the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil) as one continuous event that begins with the Last Supper and culminates in the life-saving celebration of the Resurrection. If we are truly to be united with Christ, then we too must share all that He gave and experience everything that He experienced. Like Christ, we must be willing to give ourselves fully into God’s hand, and therefore ultimately die to ourselves so that we too may rise again and be reborn into God’s life-giving love and redemption. During the Triduum there are unique and important moments for us to pause and give reflection. We begin each day with Morning Prayer. We unite ourselves in prayer and spirit with Christians all over the world. This is only time of the year we offer communal morning prayers. On Holy Thursday evening, we recall Jesus’ final lesson of serving one another as He washes the feet of the disciples and tells them to do the same. Jesus will eventually serve all of us by allowing himself to be handed over for judgment and crucifixion. Before he goes out into the garden though, He shares with the disciples the Passover meal. During the meal, he offers bread and wine and commands us to do this memory of Him. This begins our understanding of the Eucharist. Each time we offer bread and wine in His name, we recall the painful reality of Jesus’ sacrifice. The Good Friday Service and Veneration of the Cross confronts us with the plan and the instruments of God’s salvation: the altar of the cross and Jesus, the sacrificial lamb who is offered for our salvation. The obedience of Jesus, even to death, demands our attention as it calls to mind the cost of sin and the price needed to remove the debt of humanity. We understand that following Christ and serving Him will cost us our lives as well, but our reward awaits us not in this life, but the life to come. On Friday evening our Youth Group brings this understanding to life through the “Living Stations”. We see the human and divine aspects of Jesus’ offering himself for our sins and our salvation. At the Easter Vigil we sing, “Alleluia!” for the Lord has truly risen. Jesus has emerged from the depths of the earth to bring forth a new era of light, happiness and peace. The service of light at the beginning of the vigil teaches us that a “new light” has come into our world. We bask and glory in the light as we seek to fully embrace it and reflect it within our own lives. In the Liturgy of the Word we recall all the wondrous deeds God has done for us in bringing us salvation, and we ask the Lord to open our hearts and minds as we prepare to draw from the springs of eternal salvation. In the celebration of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation we plunge into waters of death and when we arise, we are cleansed and filled with God’s life-giving Spirit. As we enter into the celebration of the Eucharist, we now understand the significance of Jesus’ actions, and our participation tells of our faith and belief in Christ and our willingness to continue the journey with Him until we too enter into God’s Heavenly Kingdom.
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