Easter Sunday - O Happy Fault!

Readings: Acts 10:34, 37-43; Psalm 117; Colossians 3:1-4 [or 1 Corinthians 5:6-8]; John 20:1-9

At the Easter Vigil when the Exultet is sung, we hear the words O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer! Reflecting on these words can help us understand what Christ has done for us by His death and resurrection.

When the human being was first created, he was in a state of original justice. There was a relationship of trust and friendship between God and humanity. His body and soul were so united in accordance with God’s will, that the human soul had an inherent disposition which preserved the body from death and corruption.

The first sin of humanity was a betrayal of this trusting friendship with God. Humanity desired the wisdom and knowledge of God so that he might become equal to God and no longer subject to His will. With this great rebellion, the perfect order and harmony of creation was lost and humankind became subject to death. Even though this is all we deserve, God did not abandon us in this sorry state. He sent His only Son into the world so that death could be conquered and humankind’s original friendship with God could be restored.

In St John's gospel we read that the High Priest Caiaphas said it is better that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should perish. The reasoning Caiaphas uses is rather like the reasoning some modern utilitarian philosophers use. But Jesus did not accept His own death because He wanted to preserve the status quo; rather, He freely accepted His death because He wanted God’s reigning presence to break forth into the world. In Christ’s death and resurrection we see that God’s justice is real. He vindicates the innocent; He is full of mercy, compassion and forgiveness; He loves us more than we can know.

With Christ’s conquering of death, it is not simply a matter of things being restored to how they were before the Fall - much more has happened. God has freely given to humanity that which humanity originally tried to take by force. Because God became truly like us, and died and rose again for us, we now have the opportunity of becoming truly like Him.

Lamentation of the prophet Jeremiah

Each day during Tenebrae, the first reading is taken from the book of Lamentations, and it is sung in English to a traditional Dominican chant tune. Below is a video from the Lamentation sung on Holy Saturday morning by fr Robert Gay, OP.

Tenebrae on Good Friday

Below is an edited video of two responsories from Matins, and of the Benedictus sung during Lauds, which are all part of the Office of Tenebrae celebrated in Blackfriars Oxford on Good Friday morning.



Translations:

The veil of the temple was torn, and all the earth shook.
The thief cried from the cross, saying: 'Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom'.
Amen, I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.
Remember me, Lord...

They betrayed me into the hands of sinners, and threw me amongst the wicked, and they had no pity on my soul.
Strong men have gathered against me, and like giants they stand over me.
The kings of the earth stood by, and princes gathered together.
And like giants...

Oratio Ieremiae

The prayer of the prophet Jeremiah, from Lamentations chapter 5, is chanted during Tenebrae on Holy Saturday. It is sung this year at Blackfriars, Oxford by fr Lawrence Lew OP, and below is a new video and recording of the Oratio Ieremiae:

The Prayer of Jeremiah the prophet:

Remember, O Lord, what has come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.

Our inheritance is turned over to aliens, our houses to strangers.

We are become like orphans without a father, our mothers are as widows.

We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought.

We are dragged by the neck; no rest is given to the weary.

We have given our hand to Egypt and to the Assyrians to get bread enough.

Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their iniquities.

Slaves have ruled over us; there was none to redeem us from their hand.

We fetched bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword in the desert.

Our skin is scorched as an oven because of the violence of hunger.

They ravished women in Zion and virgins in the cities of Judah.

Princes were hung up by their hands; no respect was shown to the elders.

Young men were shamefully used and boys collapsed under the loads of wood.

The old men have gone from the gates, young men from the choirs of singers.

All joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing is turned into mourning.

The crown is fallen from our head; woe to us because we have sinned.

For this our heart has become sick; therefore our eyes have grown dim.

Because of Mount Zion that is destroyed jackals prowl all over it.

But you, O Lord, will remain for ever, your throne from generation to generation.

Why do you forget us for ever, forsake us for so many long days?

Restore us, Lord, to you and we shall be restored; renew our days as from the beginning.

But you have utterly rejected us, furiously angry against us.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return to the Lord your God.

Holy Saturday - The Stillness of the Tomb

Today is a day of strange quietness.  We have lived through the sorrowful passion of Our Lord, walked with him the Way of the Cross, and stood at its foot with Our Lady and St. John, hardly daring to believe that God incarnate could be so treated.  But at last, his terrible suffering is over. Those who condemned him, mocked him and tortured him can do no more to hurt him now: he has passed beyond their reach. 

In the silence of this day when Christ is present in the tomb we have a chance to reflect on the depth of the love that brought him to give his life for us, to see his death both as an atoning sacrifice and as a victory over death and the powers of hell.  Now he has descended to the dead to free those who died in the peace of God and reside in Abraham’s bosom, and to take them to his heavenly kingdom.  Those who have awaited him for so long, from our first parents Adam and Eve, to the last God-fearing people to die before him, are finally taken from this place of waiting into paradise. 

And yet, this day feels strange because it is so in-between.  We mourn the death of Our Lord and saviour; yet still await his triumphant resurrection.  We feel sorrowful and yet we are filled with a joyful hope, for we know that his death is not the end.  This mysterious, liturgical time of waiting is a powerful way in which to understand the situation of the Church militant – the Church on earth, for we believe in a God who has already come to us and made his home among us, revealed himself to us as the God who is love, and yet we await his glorious return when he will make all things new. 

On this day of liturgical anticipation, let our hearts be made ready to celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord and saviour, so that we may face him without fear when he comes again to judge the living and the dead.

  

Good Friday - Humbled for a Season

Readings: Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12; Psalm 31; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42

The Good Friday liturgy begins with a dramatic gesture that hearkens to the words with which we began our Lenten journey. Just as we were told "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return", so the priest recalls this by falling prostrate, humbling himself to the dust of the earth. For the word humilitas comes from humus, meaning earth or ground. The act of prostration is, according to the Nine Ways of Prayer of St Dominic, an expression of humility on account of our sinfulness and St Dominic could be heard saying, as he lay flat on the ground, "God, be merciful to me a sinner". Our Lenten journey, then, has been about this: coming back down to earth, having exalted ourselves; humbling ourselves before God and seeking His mercy.

In Blackfriars we follow the medieval practice of creeping to the Cross which involves three prostrations as we approach the Cross to venerate it. Again, St Dominic's Nine Ways tells us that he would perform the prostration "to teach the brethren with what reverence they ought to pray", for this was the posture of adoration. This, then, is the posture befitting a creature before God, and so, the prostration shows justice restored, making right what humankind, by their sinfulness and rebellious pride, had done wrong. Thus we express now, before the Tree of Life, the humility and obedience that our ancestors, Adam and Eve, had not shown before that Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Eden. And so, creation is restored to its proper order.

However, it is not sinful humankind that restores justice and puts right its relationship with God. It is not we who have humbled ourselves before God and merited His forgiveness. None of this is our doing. As the liturgy proclaims in these days, Christus factus est pro nobis..., 'Christ for our sake became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross'. And this is what the Good Friday liturgy recounts. The prostrations symbolise the humbling of Jesus Christ, our God who became Man because of His love for us, and who suffered and died for our sake. Through His profound humility and obedience shown on the Cross, He has restored order to His creation and won for us and for all people, God's forgiveness and salvation. And so, this Friday is called Good, for on this day all is made good again.

And the antiphon continues: Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum..., 'Therefore God has exalted Him'. We are wont to exalt ourselves but Christ is exalted by God and raised high on the Cross, his Throne of Glory, to draw all humanity to himself. And so, we creep to the Cross, humbly approaching our humble King enthroned on the Cross, the suffering High Priest at His Cruciform Altar, and we kiss the Cross as a sign, not of betrayal (as Judas did), but of embrace, acceptance and love. Through this kiss, we signal our desire to be one with Jesus Christ, to share His humility, and so, to share the exaltation and glory of Him who is "the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him" (Hebrews 5:9).

Scenes from Holy Week in Blackfriars

From Monday to Wednesday of Holy Week this year, the Dominican students prayed the Stations of the Cross in our priory church in Oxford. Each day, a different brother led the meditations, pausing at one of the stations to preach a short reflection. The videos of those reflections were posted on Godzdogz earlier this week. Below are some photos from the Stations of the Cross:









On Spy Wednesday (8 April), Churches Together in Central Oxford organized its annual Walk of Witness through the busy shopping streets of Oxford. Once again, the brothers and congregation from Blackfriars were the largest group represented at this ecumenical event as we walked silently through the city following behind a large wooden cross:



On Maundy Thursday morning, the priory church was full for Tenebrae, the offices of Matins and Lauds, sung with readings and chanted responsories. At the close of Tenebrae each day, the cantors lead the choir in a litany of prayers at the foot of the High Altar. Below is a video of this segment of Tenebrae, followed by a translation of the text.



Lord, have mercy (in Greek & Latin).
Christ the Lord was made obedient unto death.

You who came to suffer for us:
Christ, have mercy.

You who, your arms stretched out on the cross, drew all ages to yourself:
Christ, have mercy.

You who prophesied: 'I will be your death, O Death':
Christ have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ the Lord was made obedient unto death.
Lord, have mercy (in Greek & Latin).
Christ the Lord was made obedient unto death:
even the death of the cross.

Maundy Thursday - Do this in remembrance of me

Readings: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14; Psalm 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15

It may surprise us that the Church has chosen as the gospel for the liturgy of this Holy Thursday not one of the accounts of the Last Supper according to Matthew, Mark or Luke. They describe, in a direct way, the meal Jesus held with his disciples. But the gospel of John does not give such an account. There are no “words of institution” and nothing is said about bread and wine which are given as the body and blood of Christ. So, why do we hear instead about the washing of the feet on this feast day on which we remember the institution of the Eucharist in the cenacle?

The Gospel of John is often called the “spiritual gospel”. It describes the same reality – the life and death of the God-man Jesus Christ – from a different perspective and in a different language compared with the other three Evangelists. And so we can discover in the report of the foot-washing a spiritual reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist. Indeed, all four accounts of the Last Supper are about the forgiveness of sins, friendship, love and unity.

Where the synoptic gospels report the Last Supper, John shows us the foot-washing; where they show the Eucharist, he shows a washing with water; where they reveal a drink that brings forgiveness, he presents a washing which brings about unity, communion with Christ. It is such a remarkable dialogue between Jesus and Peter: “He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you’” (John 13:6-10).

Jesus refers to another bath which has already taken place which is why he has only to wash the feet of the disciples. When we recognize therein the sacrament of Baptism, and interpret Jesus’ foot-washing as the Eucharist, we find exactly this idea. The bath of Baptism has made us clean from original sin and all sins. But nevertheless the washing of the feet, the Eucharist, is necessary to wash away the “everyday sin”. Jesus says: “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” We cannot reject this washing saying that we have not sinned and do not need it. Day by day we get dirty; Christ wants to wash our feet from the dust of the street. We should not refuse his humble service.

John reflects on the deep meaning of the Last Supper. It is an act of humility out of love. The washing of the feet is an act of humility out of love. And both the Eucharist and the symbolic foot-washing bring about unity – unity with Christ and with our neighbours. Christ washes the feet of his disciples in order that they may have part in him. And he asks them to wash each other’s feet: “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). This is his new commandment: “Love one another; even as I have loved you, you also must love one another” (John 13:34). This is his “do this in remembrance of me”.

Wednesday of Holy Week - The Twelfth Station of the Cross

Br Gregory Pearson OP gives a reflection on the Twelfth Station of the Cross - Jesus dies on the Cross - in a video specially pre-recorded for Godzdogz.

Tuesday of Holy Week - The Tenth Station of the Cross

Br Mark Davoren OP gives a reflection on the Tenth Station of the Cross - Jesus is stripped of His garments - in a video specially pre-recorded for Godzdogz.

Monday of Holy Week - The Third Station of the Cross

Br Graham Hunt OP gives a reflection on the Third Station of the Cross - Jesus falls for the first time - in a video specially pre-recorded for Godzdogz.

Palm Sunday - Spectators or Participants?

Readings: Mark 11:1-10 (Blessing of Palms); Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 21; Philippians 2:6-11; Mark 14:1-15:47 (Mass)

At the beginning of Lent it seems that there are things we can do, fasting, praying and almsgiving, practical works of asceticism and charity, in order to participate in what the Lenten season is about. A few weeks in, though, the liturgy begins to direct our focus away from ourselves and on to Christ, in particular by relating him to many Old Testament figures - Jonah, Jeremiah, Susanna, Moses - prophets or innocent sufferers whose experience and mission anticipate those of Jesus. By the time we get to Holy Week it can seem that all that is asked of us is to be spectators, no longer participants, onlookers amazed at the glory that is being unveiled.

And yet it seems impossible to remain purely a spectator. Some of the less central figures in Mark's account of the passion show this in different ways. The woman whose love leads her to anoint Jesus scandalises by her extravagance and yet is praised by Jesus for her way of participating in his paschal mystery. Her symbolic action, he says, will be told in remembrance of her wherever the gospel is preached. A bystander in Gethsemane is moved to cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, thinking that perhaps this is a way to be helpful. His action is only implicitly rejected by Jesus (explicitly so in Matthew's and Luke's accounts). Is this bystander the young man who then runs away naked (Mark 14:52)? This is a strange verse, almost surreal, perhaps intended to make us think of Amos 2:16, 'those who are stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked on that day, says the Lord'.

Simon of Cyrene is forced to participate, helping Jesus to carry the cross. He becomes a living parable, then, of the teaching of Jesus that it is only those who take up the cross and follow him who can be his disciples. Mark alone mentions Simon's sons Alexander and Rufus, a personal detail perhaps to help his readers identify a family known to them, who could no longer be counted simply as bystanders and onlookers to the passion of Christ but had become sharers in it. The centurion too seems to have something forced from him as he witnesses the death of Jesus, a sudden expression of faith that echoes the voice of the Father at the baptism and the transfiguration: 'truly this man was the Son of God' (Mark 15:39).

We may feel that in Holy Week we are invited to be bystanders and spectators only but it is impossible to remain neutral about these events. It is impossible to remain indifferent about what was done to this man (if only to include Him with all the many millions of innocent people whose suffering cries out for justice). If we hang around and watch this drama unfold and allow it to touch our humanity we will find ourselves drawn to get involved as His love evokes our love and His obedience evokes our faith.

Lent Week 5 Friday - Speaking Truth

Readings: Jeremiah 20:10-13, Psalm 17:2-7, John 10:31-42

Today’s readings focus on conflict, misunderstanding and the desire to silence those whom we disagree with or do not understand. To be in a situation where you are misunderstood or where what you say, true though it may be, is rejected is a very difficult situation to be in. To use a modern phrase “people don’t get you”. To be in a situation where people reject you because of what you believe and know to be true can be emotionally, and in drastic cases, physically painful. This is the situation that the prophet Jeremiah is in, in today’s readings.

“Terror from every side! Denounce him, Let us denounce him!” People are baying for his blood and trying to trip him up, so that they may condemn him, “perhaps we will seduce him into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!”

In today’s Gospel passage Our Lord is not faring much better, he too is experiencing the force of an angry mob. We are told in the opening line that they were fetching stones with which to stone him. Why was this? Jesus had affirmed a truth about himself, about his identity. In the situation of today’s Gospel, Jesus is being rejected for claiming to be God, for being God among us. Jesus asks his detractors “I have done many good works for you to see, works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?” Those who wished to stone him answered “we are not stoning you for doing good work but for blasphemy: you are only a man and you claim to be God”. They do not disagree or even deny that he is indeed doing good works. This is not the issue. What they wish to stone Jesus for is proclaiming a truth, the truth of his identity. This truth is so unpalatable to them that, despite the good they see him do, they wish to destroy him. The uncomfortable truth of Jesus identity has so blinded his hearers that they cannot even bear to allow him to live, lest they should have to hear it again and again.

In society nowadays to claim that something is a “truth” may cause you trouble. You may find yourself labelled as intolerant, closed minded, exclusive, or heaven forbid, politically incorrect. How many times have we heard it said that a Christian education inhibits children from being socially integrated, and may lead to a fragmented and intolerant viewpoint. As Christians we must fearlessly witness to our faith, fearlessly, kindly and lovingly. This may cause us to be “stoned” by the labels of misunderstanding. However Our Lord has walked the path before us and cleared the way. These are painful experiences, but as Christians we must trust in our Saviour and rely on his aid. As the psalm today says “My God is the rock where I take refuge”.

When we face misunderstanding or hostility because of our faith let us take refuge in the arms of our loving Saviour and respond with his love.

Lent Week 5 Thursday - Eternal Life with God

Readings: Genesis 17:3-9; Psalm 105; John 8:51-57

The covenant that the Lord makes with Abraham is beyond belief. Exceeding fertility will belong to Abraham, bringing him many descendants and the rule of many nations. But much more radical is the promise of Jesus: “Whoever keeps my words will never see death.” The Jews to whom he spoke recognised this. Even the covenant made with Abraham did not save him from death, nor the words of the prophets. This man Jesus seeks some false glory.

Jesus points essentially to his unity with the Father. He knows that of which others could only speak. Apart from the Father, he is not. He is profoundly one with the Father, and it is the Father who glorifies him and is glorified in him. It is his sonship, his perfectly shared love with the Father, that is present among them. He speaks the word that comes from that love and glory. Those who hear that word participate in that eternal love. From there they can never see death.

Jesus is not greater than that which was promised to Abraham, than that which was spoken by the prophets. Jesus is himself what was promised. Words cannot describe that promise, but in the presence of that spoken word, life is eternal.

Lent Week 5 Wednesday - The Truth will set you free

Readings: Daniel 3: 14-20, 91-92, 95; Daniel 3: 52-56; John 8: 31-42

Freedom is much prized in contemporary Western secular thought: at the political level, wars are fought to bring ‘freedom’ to the population of various countries, while at the level of the individual, the freedom to do whatever you want (perhaps with the proviso that it shouldn’t harm anyone else) appears to be the basics of popular ethics. Of course, the pursuit of freedom independent from God is not a new thing: we find it in the book of Genesis, in the story of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) and, indeed, in the sin of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:1-7).

And yet in today’s readings we are reminded that autonomy is not true freedom. In the book of Daniel, the three young men choose death rather than worshipping false gods (though that would have preserved their life and autonomy), because they understand that sin is a more radical rejection of their God-given freedom even than loss of life. This is because true human freedom is the freedom to flourish as human beings. Sin does thus indeed, as Our Lord says, enslave us (Jn 8: 34), since it prevents us from sharing in the life of God: that sharing in his life is the purpose for which he made us, and so only in him can our human nature fully flourish.

But how, sinners that we are, can we escape that slavery? Our Lord tells us in today’s Gospel: it is the truth that will set us free (Jn 8: 32). How, though, do we come to share in that truth? By being disciples of him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life and who, by his free choice, suffered death and rose again that we might share in his life.

Lent Week 5 Tuesday – Look Up!

Readings: Numbers 21:4-9, Psalm 102; John 8: 21-30

Snakes have a terrible reputation. Their anthropomorphic representations such as Kaa, The Lady of the Green Kirtle and Lord Voldemort, are always sly, cunning and evil characters. The Bible is bookended by the cunning serpent in Genesis and the “ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray”, in the Book of Revelation. Even Our Lord insults the Sadducees and Pharisees by calling them “serpents and a generation of vipers.” It is no surprise that Christians have often represented sin using the image of a serpent.

When the wandering Israelites fail to trust in God they are punished for their sin by a plague of fiery serpents, which kill many of the people. They repent for their sin and God instructs Moses to build a brass serpent and to put it on a standard. God promises that all who look upon this raised brass snake or Nehushtan will live. This episode foreshadows the salvation found in the Cross. Due to our fallen nature we will often come under attack from the ‘fiery snakes’ of sin and if we lose sight of our Lord, if we do not put our Faith in Him, we will die in sin. When Our Lord is “lifted up” upon the Cross, we must look up and see, as the centurion did, that Jesus is the Son of God.When we do this, we shall live and be healed, because all sin is crucified with Him. His Blood will heal and save all who ‘look up’ and believe.

Lent Week 5 Monday – Go away and do not sin again

Readings: Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62; Psalm 23; John 8:1-11

In today’s Gospel passage from John, Jesus returns from the Mount of Olives to the Temple in order to teach and is almost at once embroiled in a most dramatic episode. The scribes and Pharisees bring before him for judgement a woman who has been ‘caught in the very act of committing adultery’. But the case is far from clear cut; a trap has been laid for Jesus. Is he to advise condemning the woman under Jewish Law and sanction death by stoning, disobeying the Roman authorities who had forbidden the Jews to exercise such power over their own people, or is he seemingly  to  condone her actions and do nothing?

The trap is, however, a little crude, for those assembled surely know a little more than they let on. Where for instance is the man they must also have caught ‘in the very act’ for he too is surely liable for the same judgement under Jewish law? That the woman is indeed sinful is not disputed but that there is much more to the case clearly impresses itself upon Jesus. He declares, 'if there is any one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her'. This is often misquoted and taken by some as a licence to sin, or as a sign that no one can take up a moral issue and censure sinful behaviour since none of us is without sin. This is a sad corruption of Jesus’ words in which he wishes to chastise severely those present in the Temple for their part in this distasteful affair. They are not without sin in this regard because they are in some way complicit in the adulterous actions that have been committed.

We, therefore, often miss the most important aspect of this passage, that of the unrestrained mercy of Christ. The woman has sinned, she makes no effort to deny or conceal this, and stands humbly before him. Subsequently Jesus extends to her the Divine forgiveness that we are all in need of in our lives. It is right that we are not too quick to judge and it is certainly right that we do not put God to the test as the Pharisees tried to do to Jesus, but neither is it a matter of condoning wrongful behaviour, turning a blind eye to sin (especially in our own lives). It is a matter of recognising our sinfulness and placing our humble trust in Christ before whom we must all be judged. Let us then hide nothing from him but turn towards him with all our hearts for forgiveness and by our example encourage others to do the same.

Lent Week 5 Sunday - The Raising of Lazarus

Readings: Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

John is the only evangelist to narrate the story of Jesus’ act of bringing the dead Lazarus back to life, although both Mark and Luke give examples of how Jesus restored life to the dead (Mark 5:23-23, Luke 7:11-17).  There is, however, something particularly dramatic about the story in John.  Here is a man who lay dead for four days and whose body had already started to decay.  The raising of Lazarus represents the last and the greatest of the seven miracles or ‘signs’ in John’s Gospel.  After this event no further miracles are recorded by John until the Lord’s own Resurrection.  In fact, the ‘sign’ of Lazarus serves in a way to prepare people for the coming death of Jesus and to point to his conquest over death in the Resurrection.

The family of Lazarus are plainly drawn to the person of Jesus and know of his ability to heal the sick.  But their expectations of him are somewhat limited.  Mary, who had anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her own hair, now prostrates herself once again at the feet of Jesus and declares: ‘Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.’  And Martha, a woman known for straight talking, directly challenges Jesus. It is simple: if he had come when he was asked, her brother would not have died.   Similarly, some of the onlookers wonder: ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’  Jesus, however, clearly demands a response and a trust that goes deeper than this, that is to say, he looks for faith in his power to bring the dead back to life.  We all pray for those we love to be cured when they are sick and no doubt we praise God if our prayers are answered in this way.  But Jesus wants us to believe even in the face of death, to believe that he has the power to restore life: ‘He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live’.

Jesus describes himself as ‘the resurrection and the life’.  He is able to do this because his union with the Father is so intimate that the life of God is his life.  Indeed, this intimacy is so close that Jesus is able to associate himself with the divine name: I AM.  He says: ‘I am the resurrection and the life’.  In Jesus we see the power of God at work to save.  Throughout the whole of this scene Jesus is completely calm and in charge of the whole situation.  His final words - 'Lazarus, come out!' – are as powerful and efficacious as the divine fiat at the creation.

This reflection is on the alternative, Year A, readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. For a reflection on the Year B readings see here and here.

Lent Week 4 Saturday - When Trust is Difficult

Readings: Jer: 11:1-20, Ps 7, Jn 7:40-52

Just before the passage that we read in today’s Gospel, Jesus had been preaching during the Jewish festival of booths which commemorated the wandering of the Jewish people in the wilderness for forty years. Jerusalem is packed with pilgrims so Jesus has a large audience. We see that many Jews were deeply impressed by the substance of Jesus’ words. They recognised at once that what he said came from God for they felt that he was at least a prophet if not indeed the long awaited Christ, or anointed one. But others could not see this at all. Jesus did not fit into their fixed notion about what the Christ would be. He obviously does not fit into their expectations or categories.

So often in life we do not want to hear the message of Jesus or acknowledge his authority, compelling though it may be. Perhaps it just makes us too uncomfortable or makes demands on our lifestyle choices that we just find inconvenient. Perhaps we feel that we have met him half way or that we are doing just fine being nice and at least not hurting others. Then we realize what the extraordinary claims of Jesus require. Often one of our responses to this challenge is to try and poke holes in Jesus' right to ask anything of us. This is what the chief priests and the Pharisees do when they make the claim that this man cannot be a prophet for “prophets do not come out of Galilee”. If they bothered to investigate the truth about Jesus instead of rushing to cut him down and therefore enforce their own positions, they could have discovered that he was born in Bethlehem which is not in Galilee! 

Another temptation when challenged by Jesus' message is to shoot the messenger which can often be the Church, bishops or perhaps someone who dares to speak the truth to us. Rather than listen and enter into dialogue we can hit out as the Pharisees do to Nicodemus: “Are you a Galilean too?”

But to all who try to take up the challenge of Christ, who take the risk of moving out of their comfort zones by following him with all their struggles, weaknesses and shortcomings, Jesus offers something extraordinary: new joy, new strength, and hope that wells up to eternal life. “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water’” (Jn 7:37-38).

Lent Week 4 Friday - Is this the Christ?

Readings: Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22; Psalm 34:17-18, 19-20, 21, 22; John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man is from (John 7:26f)

How arduous it is for Jesus' contemporaries to accept the messianic pretension in his words and deeds. They cannot believe that this man from Nazareth, the son of the carpenter, should be the Messiah. Jesus is too well known, too ordinary, too human. What they expected was a mighty leader, one on whose shoulders authority rests (cf. Isaiah 9:6), who would free his people from oppression and foreign rule. Jesus seemed unsuitable to fulfill these expectations. But while his parentage was too earthly, his appearance and behaviour was too heavenly. He scandalised with his teaching, his healings, his disciples and his self-reliant manner. This was even more than messianic. It was divine. And therefore, it was blasphemy.

We can find in today's Gospel a foretelling of the Church's difficulties in defending Christ's perfect divinity and his perfect humanity. In the first centuries and throughout the ages we have been challenged to hold together both truths, that Christ is truly God and truly Human. If he were merely a good man and not God, how should we be redeemed? And if he were really God but not a man like us, how could his death bring us salvation? But it is the constant faith of the Church that he, the eternal Son of God the Father, became man "for us and for our salvation". The Christian faith stands and falls with it.

This is, of course, difficult to follow and impossible to understand fully. It can only be grasped in faith. Let us therefore in this season of Lent meditate on what God has done for us in Jesus. Let us consider that he whom we know to be from God is the Messiah, the Christ, the Saviour of the world.