General. The day is fast approaching when we commemorate the Passion and Death of the Son of God on the Cross. All his life consisted of an ever-going walk to Jerusalem, so that He might there do the Father’s Will and die on the Cross. This Holy Rood was a source of scandal to Jews and an incongruity to Greeks. Jesus, who very well knew what lay hidden in man’s heart, spoke out in full truth and penetrated deeply into humanity by preaching and healing. In the same manner as Christ’s life was fully centred on the Cross, so should our life if only we understand that the wheat seed can produce a hundredfold if it falls on fertile ground and dies unto itself (its existence as a seed). A very remindful concept of what the Eucharist is indeed all about.

Isaiah. This is the Easter story of the Lord Who with uplifted arm opened a pathway through the seas of death from which the Jews could pass to their freedom. In Judaism, sea and waters mean death (the Noah story), but in the Pasch event it was a matter of double jeopardy, the advancing Pharaoh’s army from behind and the sea barrier ahead. Yet God showed His might and in one doing destroyed both hazards, saving His chosen ones ‘that they might sing His praises’ as we shall be doing during the Easter Vigil.

Philippians. Although we have already received our Baptism, it is still our duty to press on and share in Christ’s sufferings and humility on the Cross so as to make the Resurrection event not only his salvific event for humanity, but also our own in everyday life. Our holiness, like Paul’s, should now come from our faith in Christ, coming directly from God and built on faith, that we may understand Christ himself and the fulness of his Resurrecton. For Paul, anything other than understanding ‘Jesus Christ my Lord’ is thrash.

St John. Jesus’ words to the Scribes and Pharisees spelt out man’s reality in the face of accusations which he is ready to make about others, forgetting his own misdoings. The message Jesus gives on various other occasions besides this is ‘Go in peace, your sins are forgiven; sin no more’. In certain occasions he also adds ‘for worse things might befall you’. Jesus is fully aware of the human condition, not wanting pharisaism from man but repentance and humility, a Lenten exercise indeed.

Homilies Index Page - Liturgy of the Hours - Home