Holy Thursday

Today is an important day for the Church. We priests celebrate two Masses. In the morning all priests of the Diocese go to the Cathedral to concelebrate with the bishop what we call the Chrism Mass. Two things happen during this Mass. First we priests renew our commitments, to place Jesus first in our lives, to obey our bishop, and to look after the People of God. Secondly during this Mass the bishop consecrates the three oils we use for Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders and Anointing of the sick. It is called the Chrism Mass because Chrism is the name of one of the holy oils. At the end of the Mass we collect our oils to keep them in the parish. Every year we burn the old ones and we replace them with the new oils. It is like what happens to us during these days of Holy Week: we die to ourselves and we rise again with Christ.

In the evening we have the Mass of Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Easter Triduum, where we commemorate three things that happened at the Last Supper: the washing of the feet, the institution of the Eucharist and the institution of the priesthood. The Eucharist is the important one. Jesus had to go to heaven, but he wanted to stay with us, because he loves us and we need him. He could do it because he is God. Therefore he left us this sacrament, for the priest to be able to consecrate the bread and the wine, for us to be nourished by his body and blood, and for Jesus to be able to remain with us in the tabernacle. If all the sacraments are important, this one is the most important one; in the others we receive grace from Jesus, in the Mass we receive Jesus himself.

In the washing of the feet we remember Jesus washing his apostles feet. We normally wash twelve men’s feet, easier for us to identify them with the twelve apostles. But what we truly remember is how Jesus lowered himself to the form of a servant to wash our feet. The washing of the feet was reserved to slaves. God is coming down to us to the point of performing a menial task. Our feet need plenty of washing, because when we walk we get dirty. Peter said to Jesus when he came to wash him: Master, wash my hands and head as well. We too are like Saint Peter: we need a thorough washing. Jesus even washed Judas’ feet. He is ready to wash any sinners’ feet, ours too.

The last thing we commemorate today is the beginning of the priesthood. Jesus established priests for his Church to renew the sacrifice of Calvary throughout the centuries. The main reason for our priesthood is the Mass. We also need priests for the other sacraments, specially Confession, to become better, holier and closer to Jesus. Today is a special day when we pray for priests, specially the ones in our own parish. The more we pray for our priests, the holier they become. It is a good selfish prayer. We get the priests we deserve. When we complain about our priests, we should blame ourselves: we don’t pray enough for them.

At the end of the Mass we reserve the Blessed Sacrament on the altar of repose. We keep enough hosts to give Communion on Good Friday because it is a day when we won’t have Mass, because Jesus is dead. The tradition is to spend a bit of time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. We keep Jesus company on this night, when he was alone in the garden of Gethsemane.

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Palm Sunday

Why did Jesus enter in Jerusalem on a donkey? He could have come on a horse or on a camel, more elegant animals, sitting higher to be able to be seen and have a better view. But he wanted to fulfill the Scriptures. They said that the Messiah had to come riding on a donkey. Why did the Scriptures prophesied on a donkey and not another animal? Because the donkey is a humble, docile and hardworking beast, more suitable as an example for us, unlike a horse who prefers showing off and pretending. They say a donkey is a symbol of peace, humility and the simple life. A horse is a symbol of war, pride and luxury.

One of the Psalms says that we are like a donkey before God. Jesus has decided to ride on us. We are just a donkey. Many times we think that we are a horse and we become silly, proud and rebellious. We cannot forget that even though we are carrying Jesus, we are just a donkey. When we pretend that we are a horse, the ride becomes bumpy, and Jesus finds it difficult to stay on top. Don’t be a stubborn, grumpy old donkey, only thinking how to find revenge with a kick. Be a young one, with long ears ready for the Master’s command, a quick step ready to work in his service. The Lord wants to ride us, to reach heaven together. The best way for us to enter into heaven is being docile to his call.

Eventually you allow him to ride on you and you experience the shouts of the multitude and the cries of joy to the prophet who is coming to the holy city. People lay their garments for you to walk softly. You enjoy treading on people’s clothes. You feel important, thinking that people are welcoming you. You look around, acknowledging people’s praises and almost crash against a pole in the middle of the road. A simple gesture from Jesus makes your head bow low and fix your eyes on the way. No more frivolous thoughts or wandering looks. All around you is not for you; just for Jesus.

Jesus is a good rider. He lets you ride at your pace, he doesn’t kick with his legs. He brings peace with himself. His yoke is easy and his burden light. But you need to cooperate. All he wants from you is to follow his path. It looks easy but it is not. Common experience tells us that it is one of the most difficult things. It is all right when both our path and his path coincide. But when his path differs from ours, when begins to climb up hill, when the path gets bumpy and rough, we prefer to go down hill. When are we going to be convinced that his way is the best way?

When Jesus sees Jerusalem he begins to cry. You don’t know what to do. You never have seen him crying. He is weeping because of what is going to happen to the holy city, its future destruction at the hands of the Romans. It is amazing, Jesus just sad for a heap of stones. He is like us; we humans worry about things and gadgets. Jesus is a man and has good memories of the temple. And all because it didn’t follow the paths of the Lord. You want to apply the lesson to your own life. You don’t want Jesus to weep for you and for your children.

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The Annunciation

In the fullness of time, when everything was ready, God sent the Angel Gabriel to Nazareth, to a young beautiful girl, to ask her a question. If we could choose an important moment of history to be present, this should be one of those. We know this scene from Mary herself. Scholars of Sacred Scripture say that the words of the Gospel came from Our Lady’s mouth, because these words have Aramaic roots, and Saint Luke wrote the Gospel in Greek. It is a divine dialogue between Our Lady and the Archangel Gabriel, not easy to understand from our humanity. To begin to comprehend what happened there, we need to become smaller, a bit more pure and humble.

It is important to realise who the two protagonists were: a human being and an angelic spirit. A girl named Mary, around 14 or 15 years old, extremely beautiful, and even though she looks very young, she shows an unusual maturity. The other one is an Archangel named Gabriel, one of the three we know from Scripture. His name means Fortitudo Dei, Strength of God. He is involved with the events of the Incarnation, God becoming flesh. He appeared as a messenger from God to Daniel, Zechariah and our Mother. To differentiate him from the other two Archangels, we represent him carrying a lily, a symbol of purity and fertility.

The town where this event took place is Nazareth, a little village in the middle of nowhere, 150 kilometres north of Jerusalem, with 50 houses around a spring. It wasn’t a famous place to live. Nathanael asked Jesus, when he found out where he came from: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” There was a saying at that time: if God punishes you, he will give you a wife from Nazareth. The Oriental tradition places the Annunciation near thevillage spring. We normally place it in her house, because the Gospel gives the impression that the angel came into her room. Her house didn’t look like all the classical paintings. It was half house and half cave. But it was clean and tidy, well kept and comfortable.

While the angel comes in to deliver his message, popular devotion represents Mary immersed in prayer. Saint Josemaria writes: “Mary is recollected in prayer. She is using all her senses and her faculties to speak to God. It is in prayer that she comes to know the divine Will. And with prayer she makes it the life of her life. Do not forget the example of the Virgin Mary.” If an angel came to tell us something, would he find us recollected in prayer? We need to pray to get to know the will of God. Sometimes we don't pray because we don't want to know His will; other times because we are lazy; other times because we are too busy with material things, and we don't have time to give to God.

While she prays she looks so beautiful. The more she prays, the more beautiful she looks. It is as while praying, God wants to lift a bit the veil which covers her beauty, for us to be proud of our Mother. When she talks with God, her face shines, like Moses when he conversed with God. There is no way any that image of our Lady can portray her properly. Saint Josemaria writes: “What must the cheerful way that Jesus looked upon people have been like? It must have been the same look that shone from the eyes of his Mother.”

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