THE SACRED PASCHAL TRIDUUMThursday of the Lord's SupperAt the Evening Mass

“They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” (Exodus 12:8.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass this evening.:

“Then too the unleavened bread is commanded to be eaten with bitter herbs; nor is it possible to attain the promised land unless we pass through bitterness. For just as physicians put bitter substances in medicines with a view to the health and healing of the infirm, so also the Physician of our souls with a view to our salvation has wished us to suffer the bitterness of this life in various temptations. [He knows] that the end of this bitterness gains the sweetness of salvation for our soul, just as, on the contrary, the end of the sweetness found in corporeal pleasure, as the example of that rich man teaches, brings a bitter end: torments in hell.” (Homilies on Numbers, 27.)

Collect

O God,
Who have called us to participate
in this most sacred Supper,
in which Your Only Begotten Son,
when about to hand Himself over to death,
entrusted to the Church
a sacrifice new for all eternity,
the banquet of His love,
grant, we pray,
that we may draw from so great a mystery,
the fullness of charity and of life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Top

Thursday of Holy Week - The Chrism Mass

“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners ...” (Isaiah 61:1.)

Saint Ephrem the Syrian offers the following insight on these verses from today’s First Reading:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted,” that is, God anointed him with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, after being incarnated and clothed with a human body, as is said, he has received the Spirit and has been anointed with the Spirit, because he has received the Spirit for us and has anointed us with it.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me.” That Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and is his essence, is in me, who am the Word and the Son of the Father, and through my incarnation I received the anointment of the economy of salvation.” (Commentary on Isaiah)

Collect

O God,
Who anointed Your Only Begotten Son
with the Holy Spirit
and made Him Christ and Lord,
graciously grant
that, being made sharers
in His consecration,
we may bear witness
to Your Redemption in the world.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

The lamb that was slain has delivered us from death and given us life

Saint Melito of Sardis

Apostolic Father of the Church, Bishop and Martyr

An excerpt from his Easter Homily

Thursday of Holy Week

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 land 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. 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, dishonored 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.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

Top

Wednesday of Holy Week

“The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to answer the weary a word that will waken them. Morning after morning he wakens my ear to hear as disciples do.” (Isaiah 50:4.)

Saint Justin of Rome comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“The power of his mighty word with which he always refuted the Pharisees and scribes, and indeed all the teachers of your race who disputed with him, was stopped like a full and mighty fountain whose waters have been suddenly shut off when he remained silent and would no longer answer his accusers before Pilate, as was recorded in the writings of the apostles, in order that those words of Isaiah might bear fruit in action: “The Lord gives me a tongue, that I may know when I ought to speak.” And his words, “You are my God, depart not from me,” teach us to put all our trust in God, the Creator of all things, and to seek aid and salvation from him alone; and not to imagine, as other [people] do, that we can attain salvation by means of birth, or wealth, or power or wisdom..” (Dialogue with Trypho, 102)

Collect

O God,
Who willed Your Son
to submit for our sake
to the yoke of the Cross,
so that You might drive from us
the power of the enemy,
grant us, Your servants,
to attain the grace of the resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Top

The perfection of love

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Treatise 84

Wednesday of Holy Week

Dear brethren, the Lord has marked out for us the fullness of love that we ought to have for each other. He tells us: No one has greater love than the man who lays down his life for his friends. In these words, the Lord tells us what the perfect love we should have for one another involves. John, the evangelist who recorded them, draws the conclusion in one of his letters: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We should indeed love one another as he loved us, he who laid down his life for us.

This is surely what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, observe carefully what is set before you; then stretch out your hand, knowing that you must provide the same kind of meal yourself. What is this ruler’s table if not the one at which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? What does it mean to sit at this table if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to observe carefully what is set before you if not to meditate devoutly on so great a gift? What does it mean to stretch out one’s hand, knowing that one must provide the same kind of meal oneself, if not what I have just said: as Christ laid down his life for us, so we in our turn ought to lay down our lives for our brothers? This is what the apostle Paul said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in his footsteps.

This is what is meant by providing “the same kind of meal.” This is what the blessed martyrs did with such burning love. If we are to give true meaning to our celebration of their memorials, to our approaching the Lord’s table in the very banquet at which they were fed, we must, like them, provide “the same kind of meal.”

At this table of the Lord we do not commemorate the martyrs in the same way as we commemorate others who rest in peace. We do not pray for the martyrs as we pray for those others, rather, they pray for us, that we may follow in his footsteps. They practiced the perfect love of which the Lord said there could be none greater. They provided “the same kind of meal” as they had themselves received at the Lord’s table.

This must not be understood as saying that we can be the Lord’s equals by bearing witness to him to the extent of shedding our blood. He had the power of laying down his life; we by contrast cannot choose the length of our lives, and we die even if it is against our will. He, by dying, destroyed death in himself; we are freed from death only in his death. His body did not see corruption; our body will see corruption and only then be clothed through him in incorruption at the end of the world. He needed no help from us in saving us; without him we can do nothing. He gave himself to us as the vine to the branches; apart from him we cannot have life.

Finally, even if brothers die for brothers, yet no martyr by shedding his blood brings forgiveness for the sins of his brothers, as Christ brought forgiveness to us. In this he gave us, not an example to imitate but a reason for rejoicing. Inasmuch, then, as they shed their blood for their brothers, the martyrs provided “the same kind of meal” as they had received at the Lord’s table. Let us then love one another as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

Top

Tuesday of Holy Week

“Hear me, coastlands, listen, distant peoples. Before birth the LORD called me, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.” (Isaiah 49:1.)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“He calls to “the islands,” which we take to be the churches of Christ, just as they are lying in the sea or the waves of this present existence and surrounded by the insulting attacks of “the waves,” or the persecutions and afflictions that the enemies of the truth inflict on the churches as they war against the divine call. Concerning these islands the divinely inspired Scripture often speaks. There the blessed David sang a psalm and said, “The Lord reigns, and let the earth be glad and many islands rejoice.” So when Christ taking all things in his hands reigned over it from heaven and ejected the demons’ tyranny, then did they rejoice, that is, the churches over all the earth were filled with happiness. [Isaiah] promised that our Savior Jesus Christ would be revealed to everyone and that God as the Word would come on the earth among them in a form “after our likeness.” That this is so, the person of the Savior himself attests, “Out of my mother’s womb he called my name.” Mixed into these words is a deep and great mystery that requires mystical understanding from above. For he was and is God the Word, equal and sharing the throne with God the Father, coexisting and coeternal.” (Commentary on Isaiah, 4.)

Collect

Almighty ever-living God,
grant us so to celebrate
the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion
that we may merit to receive Your pardon.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Top

By one death and resurrectionthe world was saved

Saint Basil the Great

Bishop and Great Eastern Father of the Church

An excerpt from his On the Holy Spirit

Tuesday of Holy Week

When mankind was estranged from him by disobedience, God our Savior made a plan for raising us from our fall and restoring us to friendship with himself. According to this plan Christ came in the flesh, he showed us the gospel way of life, he suffered, died on the cross, was buried and rose from the dead. He did this so that we could be saved by imitation of him, and recover our original status as sons of God by adoption.

To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ’s by being gentle, humble and patient, we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life.

We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life, and our Lord himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life, and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end. When runners reach the turning point on a racecourse, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.

Our descent into hell takes place when we imitate the burial of Christ by our baptism. The bodies of the baptized are in a sense buried in the water as a symbol of their renunciation of the sins of their unregenerate nature. As the Apostle says: The circumcision you have undergone is not an operation performed by human hands, but the complete stripping away of your unregenerate nature. This is the circumcision that Christ gave us, and it is accomplished by our burial with him in baptism. Baptism cleanses the soul from the pollution of worldly thoughts and inclinations: You will wash me, says the psalmist, and I shall be whiter than snow. We receive this saving baptism only once because there was only one death and one resurrection for the salvation of the world, and baptism is its symbol.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

Top

Monday of Holy Week

“Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased. Upon him I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1)

In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Eusebius of Caesarea writes:

“Although this very great person is not the one who was in the mind of those hearing the prophecy the first time, he is not here called “Jacob” or “Israel” or “the seed of Abraham,” so clearly the Christ of God is meant here, just as the Evangelist paid witness: “I have set my Spirit on him, and he will execute judgment on the nations.” And after many things have taken place in the nations, which were not made fit to be counted in the apostolic chorus, the nations will hope in him. But in Isaiah’s prophecy the names of Jacob and Israel are missing. Who else could this be, the one called servant of God and his chosen one? Therefore it continues, “My soul delights in him.” For only he is the chosen one of God, and the socalled soul of God was delighting in him. In a manner similar to referring to the feet, hands, fingers and eyes of God, Scriptures make use of the term “soul” in relation to God. He is “chosen, ”not in the same way as the apostles, since it is to him alone that it is said, “whom my soul esteems,” but also “the Spirit of God was dwelling in him alone.” “For in him the fullness of the deity dwelled bodily.” For the Spirit is given to the one coming forth “from the root of Jesse,” the unique Word of God, whom the apostle revealed saying, “The Lord is the Spirit.” For he alone, pouring out the Spirit of inheritance, worked all things outwardly concerning the worldwide judgment on the nations, so that all would be prepared for the coming of God’s verdict.” (Commentary on Isaiah, 2)

Collect

Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, though in our weakness we fail,
we may be revived through the Passion
of your Only Begotten Son.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

Top

Let us too glory in the cross of the Lord

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from a Sermon

Monday of Holy Week

The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the hope of glory and a lesson in patience.

What may not the hearts of believers promise themselves as the gift of God’s grace, when for their sake God’s only Son, co-eternal with the Father, was not content only to be born as man from human stock but even died at the hands of the men he had created?

It is a great thing that we are promised by the Lord, but far greater is what has already been done for us, and which we now commemorate. Where were the sinners, what were they, when Christ died for them? When Christ has already given us the gift of his death, who is to doubt that he will give the saints the gift of his own life? Why does our human frailty hesitate to believe that mankind will one day live with God?

Who is Christ if not the Word of God: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? This Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. He had no power of himself to die for us: he had to take from us our mortal flesh. This was the way in which, though immortal, he was able to die; the way in which he chose to give life to mortal men: he would first share with us, and then enable us to share with him. Of ourselves we had no power to live, nor did he of himself have the power to die.

Accordingly, he effected a wonderful exchange with us, through mutual sharing: we gave him the power to die, he will give us the power to live.

The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory. In taking upon himself the death that he found in us, he has most faithfully promised to give us life in him, such as we cannot have of ourselves. He loved us so much that, sinless himself, he suffered for us sinners the punishment we deserved for our sins. How then can he fail to give us the reward we deserve for our righteousness, for he is the source of righteousness? How can he, whose promises are true, fail to reward the saints when he bore the punishment of sinners, though without sin himself?

Brethren, let us then fearlessly acknowledge, and even openly proclaim, that Christ was crucified for us; let us confess it, not in fear but in joy, not in shame but in glory. The apostle Paul saw Christ, and extolled his claim to glory. He had many great and inspired things to say about Christ, but he did not say that he boasted in Christ’s wonderful works: in creating the world, since he was God with the Father, or in ruling the world, though he was also a man like us. Rather, he said: Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Top

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

“And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split...” (Matthew 27:51.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Passion proclaimed at Mass today:

“Anyone who searches the Scriptures with some diligence will see that there were two curtains, an inner curtain which covered the Holy of Holies and another curtain exterior to either the tabernacle or the temple. These two curtains are figures of the holy tabernacle which the Father prepared from the beginning. Of the two curtains, one “was torn into two parts from the top all the way to the bottom.” This happened at the time when Jesus “cried out with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.” Thereby the divine mystery was revealed that in the Passion of the Lord our Savior the outer curtain was torn from the top, which represents the beginning of the world, to the bottom, representing the end of the world. Thus by the tearing of the curtain the mysteries were disclosed, which with good reason had been hidden until the coming of Christ. Both the outer curtain and inner curtain would have been torn if it had not been the case that we still know only “in part” and if it had not been the case that everything were already revealed to the beloved disciples of Christ who constitute his body. As it is, however, because we are being brought gradually to the knowledge of new things, only the outer curtain is “torn from top to bottom.” But “when the perfect comes” and the other things which now remain hidden are revealed, then the second curtain may also be removed. We will then see even the things which were hidden within the second curtain: the true ark of the covenant, the cherubim, the true mercy seat and the storehouse of manna in a golden bowl, and all these clearly — and even things greater than these. All of this has been revealed through the law of Moses when God said to him, “Make everything according to their forms which were shown to you on the mountain.”” (Commentary on Matthew, 138.)

Collect

Almighty and ever-living God,
Who as an example of humility
for the human race to follow
caused our Savior
to take flesh and submit to the Cross,
graciously grant that we may heed
His lesson of patient suffering
and so merit a share in His Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

Top