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The Great Week -
Holy Week Theme: The majesty of Jesus King, and the journey of his royal people. Maundy Thursday 20th April 2000 Liturgical Note: There are two celebrations associated with this day. One in the Cathedral where the Bishop, the clergy and people assemble to consecrate and bless the Holy Oils to be used in the celebrations of the Sacraments in the coming year. The second is the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, which is celebrated in every parish church, and in which the faithful recall the evening meal in which Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment, making a New Covenant in his blood. Theme: Where there is charity and love, there is God. A Reading from the book of Exodus 12: 1 - 8, 11 - 14 The Jewish Law sets out the precise instructions for the faithful observance of the Passover Meal which each household held to celebrate the liberation from Pharaoh, and the freedom from slavery in the land of Egypt. This was not just a meal, but rather a religious experience in which the participants, young and old, re-enacted the hasty meal of departure immediately before the flight from Egypt. As each generation followed through the succeeding years, this ritual became the focus of family religious life, and was one of the chief ways in which the history and religious experience of the people was to be passed down the generations. The meal is to be eaten in haste, the bread has not had time to rise with the leaven: “it is a Passover in honour of the Lord God.” A Reading from First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 11: 23 - 26 Paul writes to his Christian converts at Corinth, to remind them of the tradition that he had received, and in his turn passed on to them, how the Lord Jesus after he had celebrated the Passover Meal, and immediately prior to his arrest and passion, took bread, and cup from the table, and spoke of the new Covenant being forged with them by his body and blood. With the command that whenever they celebrated this Passover meal, they should renew, and represent his death. “Do this in memorial of me” is no simple exercise of memory, but a making present in this moment, the death and resurrection of Jesus until he comes in glory. A Reading from Gospel according to John 13: 1 - 15 In this text, the evangelist describes that Last Supper meal which Jesus had with his disciples. In particular this striking event of the Lord and Master, doing the unheard of thing, washing the feet of his own disciples. Such a service would have been performed normally only by a slave or house servant. But here, the Lord and Master, is the servant, and commands his disciples to learn from this example, to copy it by the way they serve and love others. The celebrant, or bishop generally undertakes this duty in the Liturgy this evening, not as an empty token, but as a meaningful gesture, for this is the true meaning of ‘ministry’. The bishop is the servant of the faithful, rich or poor, in sickness or health, young and old alike, slave and free, all entitled to same service of love, as if they were Christ himself. Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion 21st April 2000 This day is observed as a day of fast and abstinence. Liturgical Note: You might think that ‘celebrating’ the death of the one’s Lord was not quite the thing to do! But on this day the narrative of the Lord’s Passion and Death is read from the Gospel according to John. It is despite, all the human suffering, the blood of this most painful of death, also a moment of victory and glory. This is the moment when the Lord is raised up on high. Yes there is sadness as we reflect on the meaning of the sacrifice of Jesus, but also we look forward to the encounter with the Risen Lord, who once and for all, has conquered death and sin for us. A Reading from the Prophet Isaiah 52: 13 - 53:12 The liturgy starts with a silent prostration before a bare altar in the unadorned church. This reading helps us to focus upon the figure of Suffering Servant. Remember the Prophet Isaiah was speaking of these things hundreds of years before the time of Jesus, yet there are such striking similarities, that it is hard for the Christian reflecting upon these words, not to recognise the physical and mental sufferings of Jesus, “a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering...yet ours were the sufferings he bore...pierced through for our faults...through his wounds we are healed...for our faults struck down in death...they gave him a grave with the wicked, a tomb with the rich. By his sufferings my servant shall justify many.” A Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews 4: 14 - 16; 5: 7 - 9 There is still much debate about the group for whom this letter was intended. It may have been convert Jews, or even Gentiles who were attaching too much importance to the former Temple sacrifices. What is clear, is that the writer exhorts us to understand that in Jesus we have the supreme High Priest, that the Sacrifice which he offered is greater than ever that went before, and that, “ we must never let go of the faith we have professed.” A Reading from the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to John 18: 1 - 19: 42 This account of the Lord’s Passion is set out in a series of scenes, [1] Jesus under arrest [2] Jesus before the High Priest [3] Jesus on trial before Pilot the Roman Governor [4] Jesus brought to crucifixion and death [5] Jesus buried John in giving his account of the Last Supper remarks almost casually that as they went to the garden of Gethsemane ‘ night had fallen.’ No accident that turn of phrase! For John will cast much of the account of the Passion in terms of the conflict between light and darkness, good and evil, the powerful, and the weak, between the civil power of man, and the power of Kingdom of God. Rightly, Jesus challenges the Governor Pilot to understand the truth in these events. Indeed, “What is truth?” asks Pilot, and then maybe later, the truth is revealed for the sign written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin which describes Jesus as King of the Jews, is acknowledged by Pilot himself, “What I have written, I have written!” We are challenged too, to reflect on this day about the meaning of the death of Jesus. The faithful keep vigil at the tomb, and in prayer await the Easter morne… |
© Peter Harrison 2000