Ecce lígnum Crúcis

 

Christ’s Hour

Passiontide this year for me has focused in a particular way on Jesus’ embrace of His suffering and death upon the Cross. We learn that Jesus had to “fight” for His Cross so to speak, by withdrawing from certain situations of confrontation. Jesus even hid Himself from the crowds, thus choosing to exclude the possibility of His death by stoning. Just days prior to Palm Sunday, in the Temple on two occasions reported in the Gospel of St. John Jesus withdrew from almost certain death at the hands of the crowd. Our Lord did indeed choose the Cross as the instrument to complete the work of our Redemption.

In the 1962 Missal the passage from John 8:48-59 is put forward as the Gospel for the 1st Sunday of the Passion.

The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge. Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. [Harper Bibles. NRSV, Catholic Edition Bible: Holy Bible (pp. 2907-2908). Catholic Bible Press. Kindle Edition.]

The Gospel for Friday of the 1st Week of the Passion in the Novus Ordo from John 10:31-41 reports the Jews with stones in hand and Jesus once again avoiding arrest.

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’—and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. [Harper Bibles. NRSV, Catholic Edition Bible: Holy Bible (pp. 2912-2913). Catholic Bible Press. Kindle Edition.]

Talk of Jesus avoiding death by stoning can readily be seen in the light of His obedience of the Father’s will in all things and moreover His destiny to suffer death by crucifixion and not some other way of His own choosing. See John 12:27-33:

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. [Harper Bibles. NRSV, Catholic Edition Bible: Holy Bible (p. 2918). Catholic Bible Press. Kindle Edition.]

For the first time really in my life, I have come to see the connection between the veiling of crucifixes in particular, starting from the 1st Sunday of the Passion and the clear significance of the unveiling during the Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday, with this act taking place as the priest ascends the steps of the altar intoning three times the words “Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the world!” Ecce lígnum Crúcis, in quo sálus múndi pepéndit. In Christ’s death upon the tree of the Cross the debt of the sin of Adam is remitted, and the way no long barred to the tree of Life.

In the Mass during Passiontide the Preface of the Holy Cross serves to further focus this reflection. It is truly meet and just, right and profitable for us, at all times, and in all places, to give thanks to Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God: Who didst establish the salvation of mankind in the wood of the cross, that from whence death came into the world, thence a new life might spring, and that he who by a tree overcame, by a tree might be overthrown…

I always liked the Passiontide veils, but this year they make more sense. The thought of Christ withdrawing Himself from the gaze of those who would have stoned Him in order to make His date with the Cross on Good Friday makes it all just that much more profound.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

By Penance to God in Light

 

4^th Sunday of Lent

9-10 March 2024 – St. Lambert Parish

2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23

Eph 2:4-10

Jn 3:14-21

Laetare! Today is Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word which means rejoice! Rejoice why? Among other things because we are over half, nearly 2/3 of the way through our Lenten Penance. This Sunday’s message would be, that if these first weeks of Lent have gotten away from you, don’t give in to discouragement. Just jump right in today with the traditional Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is not too late to make a good Lent. By way of a reminder, this would be the time for you to prepare yourself and to make a good confession now before Easter.

Doing penance, the whole prayer, fasting, and almsgiving business is very Catholic. Why do penance, why take on a special Lenten discipline you may ask? Well, it certainly has something to do with the Church’s teaching on Purgatory and unloading the burden of temporal punishment we have incurred because of our sins. The Lord wants us perfect in love, not only no sin on our souls but none of the residue left behind by what we have done wrong or have failed to do. God wants us, His Church wants us squeaky clean, if you will. The Church teaches that there are two types of punishment due to sin: eternal and temporal. Eternal punishment, the consequence of grave or mortal sin which has not been forgiven in the Sacrament of Penance, is what breaks off our communion with God, leading to the incapacity to enjoy heaven and hence for seeing God. Not seeing God in the world to come and for all eternity is hell; that is eternal damnation.

Temporal punishment, on the other hand, is the consequence of every sin, even venial sins, and that must be purified from our souls, scrubbed away either during our lifetime here on earth or after our death in Purgatory. The Sacrament of Penance remits the eternal punishment due to sin but may not always remit all temporal punishment, as God requires satisfaction for sins. Temporal punishment serves as a means of healing and conversion for sinners, challenging them to undertake a journey of profound conversion towards the fullness of life and love with God. Prayer, good works, indulgences, and the sufferings of purgatory are ways to remit the temporal punishment, to clean up the stains or scars which remain despite reconciliation or forgiveness. God's mercy aids the sinner in this process, using traditional forms of penance or self-renunciation to facilitate the sinner's conversion and healing. The goal is complete purification through our growth in fervent charity. Our Lenten penance helps achieve that, helps stir up love within our hearts, love for God and love for our neighbor.

I think the key concept to understanding penance is that of satisfaction. We can understand satisfaction as a sort of payback. Even humanly speaking, we can understand satisfaction which completes or perfects our sentiments and words of sorrow expressed for having offended someone we love. We see it at work already in our OT reading for today from the Book of 2^nd Chronicles explaining why the Babylonian Captivity came about. At the hands of the Chaldeans, the enemies of God’s People, came all the death and destruction back then in Jerusalem. After killing and plundering, destroying the temple and the city, they carried off the remaining people into the Babylonian Captivity. God let them return home only after the Holy Land had rested long enough to recover the sabbaths lost to the people’s wickedness. God claimed back the 70 years of sabbath rest owed by His People to Him. Before their punishment the Chosen People had gone about their own affairs and as a result of their many offences against God, in justice, they had to pay for this: “But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.”

Today’s Gospel tells the same story, but without using the imagery of a reckoning. St. John’s Gospel notes God’s love for the world and the people’s condemnation for preferring the darkness to the light Who is Christ. This is God’s judgement on the world, on that people who rejected their Redeemer and chose darkness over light. In the Book of Chronicles the princes of Judah, the priests and people are condemned for infidelity, for practicing the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple. When Cyrus of the Persians sent the people back to Jerusalem, he sent them back to rebuild the Lord’s temple destroyed by the Chaldeans. God decreed through Cyrus that it was time to reestablish proper worship of the one true God.

It is never too late to take up the mantle of Lenten penance. We are called to do so in a truly Catholic sense as we heard on Ash Wednesday: Rend your hearts and not your garments! We do our fasting; we perform acts of charity not for the world to see but hidden such that the God Who is hidden and sees in secret will see and reward our penance.

St. Paul writes to the Ephesians: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”

Dating from the year 600, St. John Climacus, writing in a book entitled The Ladder of Divine Ascent, describes for his monk brethren the discipline and attitude needed to climb from the darkness of this world into God’s light. Already at rung 5 of that ladder we get a frightening description of a monastic prison, where monks remain filled with remorse for their shortcomings and failings. It all seems very foreign to us, but perhaps so only because we are not conscious enough of the greatness, of the heights of our baptismal calling, and of how determined Satan is to knock us off of that ladder which leads to heaven.

Laetare, rejoice! God would have us climb up to Him. Take up the challenge and seek the light Who is Christ! Now is the hour, now is the time, now is the day of salvation!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI