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PALM SUNDAY March 25, 2018

Once again our Church comes to the threshold of the most profound liturgical celebration of the year. Holy Week is upon us. The great unfolding of the human drama we re-member these days call us directly to be attentive to who God is for us and why that matters for us. The re-membering is not an exercise of the mind in which we recall events that took place centuries ago. Rather it is a re-membering, a pulling together again in our very being, of all that happened and that continues to happen in the ongoing narrative of Salvation History. It is a re-membering that enables us to “enter” into the unfolding of the great mystery of salvation as one among a communion of believers. We become part of the narrative. We become one of the cast of characters, accompanying our Lord and Savior through the journey he undertakes, “once, for all”.

We begin our great Holy Week by listening to the gospel narrative of the Passion of the Lord, this year from the perspective of Mark. This dramatic proclamation of the gospel, the use of palms, the differences in our usual hum-drum processions, our participation in the gospel drama… all of this sets this particular Sunday celebration apart from every other Sunday. Our participation in Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord is just different enough to set us on a trajectory through Holy Week as a week in our year that is different to every other. This is our “Holy” week.

It usually unfolds quietly and without fanfare at first. But behind the scenes our community readies itself for what is to come. The Chrism mass on Monday at the Cathedral in Los Angeles involves our priests re-committing themselves to service and the blessing of the oils for use in our parish for the coming year. Ministers gather on Tuesday night to pray together and to prepare and rehearse for the great three-day liturgy we call Sacred Paschal Triduum. Our Elect and Candidates for full communion in the Church work with family, friends and sponsors in these ultimate days of preparation for sacrament. Parish Staff and a host of volunteers move with purpose and intentionality to ensure all is in readiness.

Then comes the great Feast of Triduum.

Holy Thursday of the Lord’s Supper is one of the most beautiful and simple liturgies of our entire parish year. We begin it as we begin all our liturgical celebration, signing ourselves with the sign of the cross. We will not be formally dismissed until the conclusion of the three-day liturgy on Saturday night, when we will once again sign ourselves with the sign of the cross. All that unfolds between these moments is our story of salvation unfolding. Foot-washing to mark our commitment to be disciples of Jesus and servants of one another and indeed of any who call on us, and a reminder that service and adoration are two aspects of Eucharist. “We become what we receive”, as Augustine puts it, for the greater glory of God and the building up of God’s reign in the world. We commit ourselves to be Eucharist for others as Christ is for us.

Good Friday at Lourdes is marked by a mood of solemnity, and an unusual quiet descends as we pray together in church, reflecting on the mystery of the Lord’s Passion and our participation in it. This is a day on which no sacrament is celebrated by the Church. There is no mass. Jesus is in the tomb.

On Holy Saturday night, as evening falls, we begin to gather with ritual and song, with word and sacrament once more as we recount the awesome work of our God in working our salvation. We tell the story of our salvation in ritual, in song, in word and in sacrament. This is the night when we celebrate the “Mother of All Vigils”, when the entirety of our faith is ritually expressed and celebrated. As we bear witness to those who go into the watery tomb to die to self and to rise as new men and women in Christ, we recognize ourselves and our own journey of renewal, moving from death to life in all its fullness. We stand reminded in the light of Easter Faith that we too are constantly called to be new men and women in Christ, “new creations”, as St. Paul puts it, for the good of the world and the glory of God.

 

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