Showing posts with label cross. Show all posts

I wanted to post this yesterday, as it has to do with the readings for Mass from the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to find the time yesterday to post it, so please forgive the day-late post.

Rejoice! …For the work of our redemption is at hand! My friends, that glorious cross upon which our Beloved Lord was raised is soon to be raised once more, as we are quickly approaching the Easter Triduum. Traditionally, this Sunday is given the title of Laetare Sunday, meaning we must rejoice! We have much cause for rejoicing here as we prepare to enter into the most solemn time in the Liturgical Year. By opening our hearts to God’s love and the many blessings He has prepared for us, we will be able to experience countless graces over these next few weeks. As Lent comes to a close, the Church asks you and me to examine our lives in light of the cross, and to remember the infinite love our God has for each and every one of us.

Just how great is this love? The Gospel of Saint John tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life”. How good is our God! The God of the entire universe, all powerful, all-knowing, and supreme among the nations, came to earth as a fragile little baby, completely dependent on Mary and Joseph to survive — for the purpose of suffering a cruel, torturing, gruesome death at the hands of pagan soldiers thirty-three years later. What love He has for us! We would do well to echo the words of the Psalmist and repeat that beautiful prayer, “Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!”

Saint Paul tells us in the second reading that God has raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavens in Christ Jesus. Christ bore our infirmities and suffered the pains of death in our place, so that – even though we are unworthy – the gates of heaven would be opened for us, and we would receive the most blessed grace to enter into union with God who loves us more than we could ever imagine. By raising us up with Christ, God has given every one of us a gift: the gift of our cross. For it is by carrying our crosses, just as Christ did as He walked the path to Calvary, that we might glorify our Heavenly Father with His Son, in union with the Holy Spirit. It is so important that we beg the Holy Spirit for the strength we need to carry our crosses, for it is impossible for us to carry them alone. However, all things are possible for God, and if we do all things through and for Him, it becomes easy to live our lives in Christ. Just as the Spirit strengthened Christ in His darkest hour, we too will be given the grace we need to imitate Christ when we feel like the weight of the world is upon us. Even if life seems to reach that point sometimes where everything seems impossible to handle, we have to remember that if it wasn’t for our crosses, we could never be able to be raised up in Christ Jesus! How privileged we are that God would love us so much to give us that very same instrument He prepared for His Son, that like Him, we too can be crucified and raised up again to love Him in return for all eternity!

Saint John Vianney pleads for those who do not know the love of God, as he has said, “Oh, if I could only lead you to Mount Calvary, where our Lord died, for the sake of our salvation. But even if I could do that, it would be necessary that God should give you the grace of inflaming in your heart the burning love of St. Bernard, who broke out in tears at the mere sight of the cross!” My friends, during this time of Lent it is important for us to continue to pray for each other, recognizing that by loving one another we can reflect the love of God. His Holiness Pope Paul VI in his Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes reminds us that Jesus taught His disciples, telling them that charity is not something to be reserved for important matters, but must be pursued chiefly in the ordinary circumstances of life. Undergoing death itself for all of us sinners, He taught us by example that we too must shoulder that cross which the world and the flesh inflict upon those who search after peace and justice. How pleased God must be when we live in the good works that He has prepared for us, as Saint Paul tells us we should strive to do! May all of us who truly desire to take up our crosses and follow Christ to Calvary pray for the courage and conviction we need to be living witnesses to the gospel. In a world that needs us desperately to be living icons of Christ for one another, let us always love our neighbor as God loves us, and imitate our Heavenly Redeemer for the greater glory of God and His bride the Church.

Greetings to all and prayers for a holy, grace-filled season of Lent thus far!

For my Gospel of Mark course, each of us in my class were given a choice to exegete a passage from the gospel. I figured since we were in the middle of Lent, and the opportunity presented itself, what better passage to write about but the death of Our Lord? I have just completed the paper, and thought I would share it online for anyone who was interested. Below is a small sample from the paper. Please click the link below the sample to continue reading the full text.

My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
by: Robert A. Boileau

I. INTRODUCTION

C. S. Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The conclusion of the Gospel of Mark renders to the reader a captivating end to a beautiful narrative on the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. It is through His passion and death that the Christian will come to see his or her purpose in life, and in reading the Death of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, one can easily see how important this must be. The author launches the reader into a vivid exploration of the events which unfolded some two-thousand years ago in Jerusalem, and conveys the most important message of all, and all of the implications and consequences that follow — Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God.

II. LITERARY CONTEXT

In what can surely be presented as the climax of the Gospel of Mark, the author demonstrates to the reader a vibrant narrative describing the death of the Son of God. The placement of this pericope, “sandwiched” between the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, is a continuation of the “tolling of the hours” found in the Passion narrative of Mark’s gospel. The author compartmentalizes the Passion of Christ into three hours: the third hour (midmorning), when Jesus was crucified, the sixth hour (noon), as He hung upon the altar of the cross, and the ninth hour (midafternoon), when He cried out in a loud voice and breathed His last. This event culminates with the fulfillment of all the prophets in the Old Testament, most especially in the book of the prophet Isaiah. For Isaiah states, “Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses” (Is. 53:12). In addition to the prophets, Jesus also quotes from the Psalms. His “cry in a loud voice” is an Aramaic rendering of Psalm 22, which will be treated in more detail shortly. The significance of the words “at noon” also indicate a change in time, which is the author’s way of setting the tone for the reader for what is about to follow. Many new characters appear on the scene as well, such as Salome — an unknown woman, most probably Jewish — of whom very little is known in this context, a centurion — who will play a very important role in the narrative — and other miscellaneous women who had “followed Him when He was in Galilee and ministered to Him” (Mk. 15:41).

III. HISTORICAL DISTINCTIONS

In typical Markan narrative, the author sets the scene by beginning the pericope with the words “at noon” (Mk. 15:33), which signifies a new Sitz im Leben (a situation or setting in life). This methodology employed by the author is common throughout the entire Gospel narrative, as this Gospel is the shortest of all the synoptics, and quickly moves from one event to the next. It can be determined from the text that the author had a familiarity with the Roman world, its language, and its mode of government . This gospel was written primarily for an audience of persecuted Christians in Rome under the reign of the emperor Nero, and probably reached its final form around the year 70 A.D., just after the fall of the Temple of Jerusalem. In the year 1901 a scholar by the name of Wilhelm Wrede demonstrated that Mark wrote his story for theological rather than historical reasons ; this is most probably due to the persecutions that the Christians in the early Church were undergoing — they were probably being discouraged by the “failure of some [of the other Christians in their communities] to commit themselves, unto death, for the gospel of Jesus Christ”.