Year A
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THE GOD WHO LOVES AFFECTIONATELY
20th May 1996 will remain ever present in my mind. At the end of our second semester examinations in the minor seminary, we were asked to go home for a one week break, and I went home joyfully to spend time with my parents and siblings. On reaching my parents’ shop which was situated in the business district of Aba,Nigeria, I asked the whereabouts of our last born who was one and half year's old. My mum looked at me askance and said – “Did the rector not inform you?” I asked my mum what she was talking about and she broke down in floods of tears. My brother had died due to malaria while I was writing my exams, and my parents had informed the rector to release me to attend the funeral; however, the rector fearing how devastated and shattered I would be knowing how close I was to my brother, hid that information from me, meaning I was not able to attend my brother’s funeral. I cried uncontrollably upon learning what had happened and the fact I could not bid him farewell. I loved my brother and still love him; knowing he has joined the choirs of angels in heaven, I do ask him to intercede for me all the time.
On this 5thSunday of Lent, our Gospel pericope from John 11:1-45, showcases the affectionate side of the God who is one with us. Jesus’ love for Lazarus was so palpable that the Jews stated – ‘Behold how he ‘affectionately’ loved (ephilei) him!’ This is the one aspect of God we seldomly talk about; however, it is the fundamental characteristic of God. It is this affectionate love of Christ for His friend Lazarus, that led Him to raise Lazarus from the dead; He will equally open our graves, raise us to life as revealed to Prophet Ezekiel in the vision about the valley of bones in our First Reading, and give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit as St Paul tells us in our Second Reading. My friends, our God is an AFFECTIONATE GOD who has destroyed our death and restored us to life; I have no doubt that my younger brother is at peace in His affectionate bosom. On this last Sunday of Lent and before the commencement of Holy Week, let us ask Him for the grace to selflessly and affectionately love all of humanity and creation, and to have that conviction that death is but our passage into immortality.
This Sunday Lent reaches a turning point. It is now just two weeks to Easter Sunday. This year, cycle A, we are following in our Sunday readings the path of the catechumens as they enter their final preparations for their Christian initiation on Easter night. But first they will be following Jesus through Holy Week and his Passion. As they do so, they will need to be full of hope and so it is striking that the readings this Sunday are about the resurrection and new life.
Previously, this Sunday was known as Passion Sunday and the next two weeks were Passiontide. The emphasis at the time was more on the Cross and Good Friday than the Resurrection and Easter Sunday. This emphasis came from St Francis of Assisi and so the sufferings on the Cross came to dominate. My own Carmelite heritage comes from our origins in the Holy Land and their emphasis on the Resurrection did continue throughout the Middle Ages. It was only around 1950 that the Church once again became aware that the Resurrection of Jesus was the key to the New Testament: if Christ is not risen, our faith is pointless, as St Paul says. The result was the restoration of the Paschal Triduum in 1955. Yet today elements of older ways can continue. I have wondered why crosses and statutes are often covered until Good Friday. The liturgy this coming week will become a preparation for Holy Week with the Preface of the Passion being used from Monday.
With the emphasis of the readings on the Resurrection, the Liturgy this Sunday sets the scene for us as we approach Holy Week. When we follow in the liturgy the events from the procession on Palm Sunday through to the tomb on Good Friday afternoon, we will be doing so as an act of memory. We know that the outcome will be our joyful proclamation on Easter night that Jesus has risen from the tomb. It is good therefore to reflect upon and anticipate that outcome this Sunday. This coming fortnight will be our memory, remembering and making present the great events by which Jesus saved us in the past. As the catechumens follow these events for the first time they and we need the message of hope and new life which is presented this Sunday. As they are baptised, we will be renewing our own baptismal commitment, having ourselves followed the same journey through death to resurrection. Our celebration this Sunday needs to celebrate the hope that will bring us through the next two weeks. We will follow Jesus to the tomb and rise from it with him. We will do so having already proclaimed with Martha that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Bidding Prayers (provided by Fr Anthony Fyk)
For the Church, the Body of Christ –
that she may continue to proclaim, in season and out of season, the saving power of the Paschal Mystery, by which we die with Christ and rise to newness of life in grace.
For those who suffer and are in agony –
that whatever their crosses may be in life, may they realise they are walking the way with our Lord to his resurrection and victory.
For our parish community –
that we may die to selfishness every day, walk the way of charity, and be united more with Christ, who gave himself up for us on the Cross, so that he might be our new life.
These hymns have been chosen from a selection of sources (see key):
Breathe on me, Breath of God (CFE98, L302,LHON182,TCH91)
I am the bread of life (CFE272, L629, LHON349)
The Spirit lives to set us free (CFES914, L771, LHON672)
Unless a grain of wheat (CFE754, L748, LHON697)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
