The Last Supper - Since our Divine Lord came to die, it was fitting that there be a Memorial of his death. Since he was God, as well as man, and since he never spoke of his death without speaking of his Resurrection, should he not himself institute the precise memorial of his own death? And that is exactly what he did the night of the Last Supper... His Memorial was instituted, not because he would die and be buried, but because he would live again after the Resurrection. His Memorial would be the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets; it would be one in which there would be a Lamb sacrificed to commemorate spiritual freedom; above all, it would be a Memorial of a New Covenant...a Testament between God and man.
When the hour came, [Jesus] took...a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to [his apostles] saying, "This my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." - Luke 22:14-20 -
The Inner Cross - Every unhappy soul in the world has a cross embedded on it. The cross was never meant to be on the inside, but only on the outside. When the Israelites were bitten by the serpents, and the poison seeped within, Moses planted a brazen serpent on a stick and all who looked on it were healed...So the Son of Man came in the likeness of man, but was without sin, and all who look upon him on his cross are saved. In like manner, the inner cross disappears when one catches a vision of the great outer Cross on Calvary.
[Jesus] came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, "Pray that you may not come into the time of trail." Then he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done." Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. - Luke 22:39-44 -
The Scourging And The Crowning - Our Lord described himself as having a baptism wherewith he was to be baptized. John gave him the baptism of water, but the Roman soldiers gave him his baptism of blood. After opening his sacred flesh with violent stripes, they now put on him a purple robe which adhered to his bleeding body. Then they plaited a crown of thorns which they placed on his head. They mocked him and put a rod in his hand after beating him on the head. Then they knelt down before him in feigned adoration.
Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed. - Isaiah 53:4-5 -
The Cross - Many a cross we bear is of our own manufacture; we made it by our sins. But the cross which the Savior carried was not his, but ours. One beam in contradiction to his own. To the women who met him on the roadway, he said: "Weep not for me." To shed tears for the dying Savior is to lament the remedy; it were wiser to lament the sin that caused it. If Innocence itself took a Cross, then how shall we, who are guilty, complain against it?
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me...?
I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people...
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joints;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones. - Psalm 22:1,6,14-17 -
The Fire Of Sin - The green tree was Christ himself; the dry tree the world. He was the green tree of life transplanted from Eden; the dry tree was Jerusalem first, and then the unconverted world. If the Romans so treated him who was innocent, how would they treat the Truth that is in his Church; in an uneasy conscience perhaps he beckoned you to his confessional; in a passing prayer he called you to greater prayerfulness...You accepted the truth, you confessed your sins, you perfected your spiritual life, and lo! in those moments when you thought you were losing everything, you found everything; when you thought you were going into your grave, you were walking in the newness of life...The antiphon of the Empty Tomb was striking on the chords of your heart. It was not you who died; it was sin. It was not Christ who died; it was death.
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. - 1Corinthians 5:6-8 -
Our Mother Of Mercy - Through the centuries the Church Fathers have said that Our Lord keeps for himself half his regency, which is the kingdom of justice, but the other half he gives away to his Mother, and this the kingdom of mercy. At the marriage feast of Cana, Our Lord said that the hour of his Passion was not yet at hand - the hour when justice would be fulfilled. But his Blessed Mother begged him not to wait, but to be merciful to those who were in need, and to supply their wants by changing water into wine. Three years later, when not the water was changed into wine, but the wine into blood, he fulfilled all justice, but surrendered half his kingdom by giving to us that which no one else could give, namely, his Mother: "Behold thy Mother." Whatever mothers do for sons, that his Mother would do for us, and more.
Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council, had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. - Luke 23:50-56 -
The New Dynamics Of Easter - Finally the Easter lesson comes to our own lives. It has been suggested...that it is better to go down to defeat in the love of the Cross than to win the passing victory of a world that crucified. And now it is suggested in conclusion that it is better to go down to defeat in the eyes of the world by giving to God that which is wholly and totally ours. If we give God our energy, we give him back his own gift; if we give him our talents, our joys, and our possessions, we return to him that which he placed in our hands not as owners but as mere trustees.
Whatever gains I [Paul] had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ...For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ... I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. - Philippians 3:7-10 -
The executioners expected Jesus to cry, for everyone pinned to the gibbet of the cross had done it before him. Seneca wrote that those who were crucified cursed the day of their birth, the executioners, their mothers, and even spat on those who looked upon them. Cicero recorded that at times it was necessary to cut out the tongues of those who were crucified to stop their terrible blasphemies. Hence, the executioners expected a word, but not the kind of word that they heard...Like some fragrant trees which bathe in perfume the very axe that gashes them, the great Heart on the Tree of Love poured out from its depths something less a cry than a prayer - the soft, sweet, low prayer of pardon and forgiveness.
BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN ( 1895 to 1979 )
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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