“We are going to commemorate the passion of our Savior; let us strive to prepare ourselves for it by great purity of heart… We shall see Him, during this coming Holy Week on the Tree of the Cross, consumed for love of us… opening His heart to place us therein.”
I recently signed up for my annual retreat at my alma mater, Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD, from June 18-22, to be offered by retreat master, Fr. Brett A. Brennan, a priest of the Diocese of Savannah, GA. Next to Holy Week, my favorite week of the year is when I make my retreat, a reminder of the call to be holy. During my seminary days there at the Mount, my favorite class was “The Passion and Death of Jesus” taught by a Pittsburgh priest, Fr. Bill Fay. Fr. Fay was a graduate of Central Catholic High School and he never lost the methodology of the Christian Brothers and their exemplary way of making scriptures come alive. Students would hang on his every word. Fr. Fay was also a master of languages — Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Taking this course on the passion and death was really a crash course of being a true disciple of Jesus and the challenges one faces in life.
Life is an unfair playing field. Life seldom realizes our ideals. We have the picture of what life is going to be and it never is that. Fr. Fay wanted us to know that to follow Jesus is so radical and counter-cultural that worldly ways end up standing on their heads. For this class we read the four evangelists -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- and their various accounts of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. I always admired the insights Father gleaned from each evangelist that gave me new ways of thinking. His main point of his class was to form us to be holy priests, giving to the people what they need most.
According to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is:
- the place to which one withdraws, our hidden center beyond the grasp of reason which only the Spirit of God can fathom and fully know,
- the place of decision and deeper psychic drives; the place of truth where we choose life or death,
- the place of encounter.
Because we are created in the image of God, we live in relationship and covenant.
Jesus, the Innocent One, died out of love to save sinners and we join Him in doing good or act against Him by doing evil. We are confronted by this same choice, again and again and again, every day of our lives. Not a single day goes by that we have not decided whose side we are on. Are we on the side of honesty or deception? Are we on the side of fidelity or betrayal? Are we on the side of decency or perversity? Are we on the side of generosity or selfishness? Are we on the side of compassion or cruelty? Are we on the side of acceptance or prejudice? Are we on the side of integrity or duplicity? Are we on the side of innocence or guilt? Are we on the side of justice or injustice? Are we on the side of grace or disgrace? Each day is a series of choices in which we have to decide if we are on the right side and following Jesus or on the wrong side and following the deceiver.
In reading the passage of the denial, betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus, it’s easy to put ourselves outside of the fray. But Holy Week makes us cross-examine our lives, where we have been in past choices, where we are now and what new life Christ is calling us to. As we celebrate Holy Week, we are reminded of the price of our exoneration. Forgiveness lies at the very center of Christ’s mission. And regardless of our sin, whether public or private, forgiveness is ours for the asking. What better way to experience this most powerful Holy Week than to come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation? Let us stretch ourselves to make the most of this entire great week of salvation.
I’m happy to have two priest-friends who will be joining us for Holy Week: Fr. Gerry Rogala, a retired priest from the Archdiocese of Chicago and Fr. Joseph Calderone, OSA, an Augustinian priest serving as chaplain for the law school of Philadelphia University. At the Chrism Mass at 10:00 AM on Holy Thursday, Bishop Zubik invites all the priests to renew the promises of their priestly ordination. As representatives from our parish receive the sacred oils blessed at that Mass, the Bishop hosts a luncheon for all the priests on this same day Jesus gathered His apostles at the Last Supper. It’s a beautiful time of the renewing of our priestly hearts.
The Sacred Triduum begins on Holy Thursday, a day also known as Maundy Thursday, which comes from the Latin “mandatum” or commandment, referring to Jesus’ commandment to love one another. The action of Jesus donning an apron and washing His disciple’s feet symbolizes this love and service. As Jesus prepared bread and wine for His friends and washed their feet, we are given impetus to serve through various ministries in the Church and world.
Immediately following Holy Thursday Mass, 100 people will make a spiritual pilgrimage to various churches in the western region of Pittsburgh: Holy Innocents (Sheridan), Guardian Angels (West End), St. Philip (Crafton), Ascension (Ingram), St. Simon and Jude (Scott Township), St. Margaret of Scotland (Greentree) and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (Carnegie). We encourage everyone to come and pray as our parish will be open that night until Midnight for adoration. On Good Friday, a day of fasting and abstinence, a most solemn day where no Mass is celebrated, the altar is bare, without cloths, candles or cross, the liturgy consists of reading Jesus’ Passion and Death from John’s Gospel, solemn intercessions, adoration of the Cross, and a Communion service. We remind the faithful of the Paschal fast, observed on Good Friday, and if possible into Holy Saturday, that we receive the joys of the Lord’s resurrection with uplifted and responsive hearts.
We praise You, Lord, that You sought us in Your humility.
We praise You, Lord, that You have kept us in Your mercy.
We praise You, Lord, that You have glorified us in Your humiliation.
We praise You, Lord, that You have provided for us in Your generosity.
We praise You, Lord, that You have arranged for us in rank of Your wisdom.
We praise You, Lord, that You have shielded us with Your might.
We praise You, Lord, that You sanctified us with Your nobility.
We praise You, Lord, that You have instructed us in Your intimacy.
We praise You, Lord, that You have elevated us in Your love.
— Mechthild of Magddeburg, 13th Century
