Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Passover

“Don’t simply seek to find a place for Jesus in your life; live your whole life in Jesus.”

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With the singing of the Vigil this past Saturday evening, we begin our celebration of the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ – once called Corpus Christi (but that only refers to the Body of Christ).  I suspect many of us can recall when this was an all-day in-church occasion with processions and Benediction in three locations?  I can remember that but I recall most vividly enduring curlers in my hair.  I had stringy, VERY straight hair and my mother did not consider braids or a ponytail appropriate for church.  So I slept with toilet paper twists in my hair to make curls that barely lasted until the end of Mass.  Before lunch my hair was secured in bobby pin twists to get me through the afternoon processions.  Not a very holy memory but one that certainly marks this day as special.

In the Gospel account just read, Mark describes for us only those elements of the Passover that he believes to be most essential: Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it and shared it with his disciples.  Similar words and actions follow as Jesus shares the chalice with his disciples.  And don’t you love the part about where the Passover will be celebrated!  Go to town.  You will see a man with a jug on his shoulder.  (Another evangelist says, “you’ll see a man with a donkey.”)  Ask him “Where is your guest room, where we may eat the Passover meal.”  Isn’t that what Jesus says to us when He appears in the person of the guest, the stranger: “Where is your guest room, where may I eat?”

I think back to 1959-60 when our original wood-frame convent-home building was condemned by the fire department.  The local community responded with generous hearts when we asked, “May our Sisters and academy girls live with your family and on the third floor of Saint Anthony School until we can build a new house.”  We certainly felt “welcomed as Christ” – the people saw it as a privilege to meet our need.  Over the course of this year we will have our turn to return the favor.  Gradually we will begin to open our doors wider.

Today, each and every day Jesus asks each of us … “have you reserved a guest room for Me in your heart?  Where I may rest, where I may eat a meal with you?  Our corporate commitment continues to challenge us to “respond with the compassion of Christ to the hungers of God’s people.”  I envision Jesus, his cloak open wide, to envelope all creation – no space between peoples – ALL persons gathered with, and into, Christ.

Pondering the significance of this feast (other than curlers in my hair), it strikes me that with Christmas we are touched with joy and awe at the birth of Christ.  At Easter we explode with ALLELUIA at the resurrection of our Savior.  The Ascension leaves us quietly looking upward, waiting in expectation for “what’s next?”  Then, comes the solemnity of the Trinity – the mystery that baffles us … that God is so great, so awesome that only in three persons can all the divine manifestations be expressed.  And today; the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ – this touches, awakens in us feelings we can hardly express – that our God, our Jesus, our Savior would choose to gift us in such a personal, intimate way.  The Psalmist knew a close relationship with God.  Sometimes on a 1:1, face-to-face basis.  In Psalm 103 we pray, “The Holy One enfolds us in tenderness, fills our life with richness, renewing our youth like an eagle’s.”  We, who live since Jesus’ coming on earth … how privileged we are!  Our God and Savior chooses to be assimilated within the body of the creature.  His body and blood become, over and over, absorbed into my body – His blood courses in my veins.  Did you ever wonder how an aspirin knows where you ache?  Or an antibiotic knows what to attack?  Is it heresy to say: Jesus attaches himself to every fiber of my being?  When the Eucharistic minister and I look each other in the eye, the minister says: “Body of Christ.”  Note the minister does not say “This is the Body of Christ.”  No, it is greeting that the minister and communicant exchange.  The one greets us: “Body of Christ” – it’s a greeting not an announcement.  Our one-word response, AMEN, acknowledges, “You, too, are the are the Body of Christ. AMEN!”

Some of you have heard this story from my first year as a CCD teacher.  Sister Rosaria, the pastor and I were unsure if Jimmy had sufficient reasoning to make First Communion.  (How little we understood!)  On First Communion Sunday, following the Consecration, when the priest elevated the Host, the child’s voice could be heard by everyone in the church.  With awe in his voice he said aloud: “Here He comes!”  A lesson to us all.  Yes, here He comes!  He is only depending on us to make room in our hearts, in our lives to respond generously and unhesitantly to his query: “Where is your guest room?  Where may I rest; where may I eat a meal with you?”

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading:  Exodus 24:1-6
Second Reading:  Hebrews 9:11-15       Gospel:  Mark 14:14:12-16; 22-26
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“Walk While You Have the Light”

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Let’s step back a moment to recall the setting for this Gospel; maybe settle yourself into it.  It is six days before Passover.  We’re in Bethany, at the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus.  The three siblings are sharing hospitality with Jesus, his disciples and some other guests.  We are reclining at the dinner table with them.  Martha is busy in the kitchen with the many hostess’ pre-dinner tasks.  Lazarus is keeping the conversation flowing among the guests hoping to keep they unaware of how late it is getting.  Mary hesitantly approaches Jesus to sit at his feet.  This is the occasion when Mary poured aromatic oil on the feet of Jesus and dried them with her long-flowing hair.  (I wonder how long that sweet smell will linger in her hair.)  Judas, the one who would later betray Jesus, muttered a snide remark (probably under his breath) about the wastefulness of such extravagance.  (Remember, he was the one who had charge of the groups’ money bag.)  Jesus was exasperated, he had had it with Judas.  “Leave her alone.  The poor you have always with you.  Tonight you have me.  Let her do this in anticipation of my burial.”

In his narrative, John moves to his abbreviated account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem riding a colt – the Palm Sunday narrative – that we will celebrate next weekend. 

So, back to our dinner.  The evening grows long, the dessert’s been served and the after dinner libation; chatter’s winding down.  We become aware that a crowd is gathering out in the yard.  Folks have heard Jesus is inside.  They’re hoping, too, to see Lazarus.  Word had spread that Jesus had recently raised him from the dead.  Some guests approach Philip.  (And, my goodness, talk about an unspoken chain of command!)  The Greeks spoke to Philip: “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”  Phillip spoke to Andrew, then Andrew with Phillip in tow, went and told Jesus.  Jesus’ reaction did not disappoint.  He must have raised their hopes.  Sounds like he could have said: “Your timing is good.”  Yes.  “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

The guests may have experienced a bit of puzzlement or some trepidation, when Jesus continued speaking: “Amen, I say to you: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.”  But, hope must have risen up in them as Jesus continued: “But, if it dies, it produces much fruit.”  Then hope bounces around on the seesaw of mystery as Jesus continues: “Whoever loves his life loses it; whoever hates life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”

What IS this man talking about???  He closes the gap when He tells them: “Whoever serves me must follow me.”  Now, that made sense.  Of course, if you want to serve, you’ll be a follower.  You’ll listen to every podcast, follow every eblast and purchase all their books.  It only makes good sense if you want to absorb the flavor of your hero’s life.

John, the beloved disciple, changes gears at this point in his Gospel.  In the retelling of his memories, John, in his tenderness for his intimate friend –  recalls Jesus saying: “I am troubled now.”  I wonder did Jesus pause at this point in time to ponder the source of his uneasiness?  “I am troubled now.”  He questions, “Yet what should I say?  Father, save me from this hour?”  Then, it is like he straightens himself up, thinking aloud: “Why should I ask the Father to save me from this?  It was for this very purpose that I came to this hour.”

You could hear a pin drop.  Is that thunder we hear in the distance; now it’s closer.  Some say it’s the voice of an angel.  Jesus speaks: “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. … When I am lifted up, I will draw everyone to myself.”  Over 2000 years later, from our side of the story, we know Jesus was indicating the kind of death he would die; and his resurrection.  Our Easter!  Our understanding of Jesus’ remark, and the events commemorated during Holy Week, will always be colored with an assurance of a good ending, of Easter and resurrection.

A few lines later in his Gospel John will remind us of Jesus’ promise, (similar of the words he had said to Judas).  “The light will be among you only a little while.  Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you.  Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going.  While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light.”

At this point in my preparation, I took a break and turned to my Lenten booklet.  This was the lesson God had planted there:  A young girl was watching her father, a pastor, preparing his Sunday sermon.  She knew she should keep quiet but curiosity won out.  She asked: “Daddy, how do you know what to say?”  “Why, God tells me,” her father replied.  “Ohhhh, then why do you keep crossing things out??”  Now, I love the techie computer function of “block, copy, cut, paste or save.”  But it was time to stop trying to refine what I had on paper.  So I looked to the Responsorial Psalm for a closing line: “Give me back the joy of your salvation, a willing spirit sustain in me.”  The church says:  AMEN.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

Today I wish  you a happy Saint Benedict’s day.  Benedict is the patron of a peaceful death – let us remember in particular all those who have died, or will die, during this time of pandemic.  May they, and all the departed, rest in peace.

Prayer to St. Benedict:  O, holy father Benedict, blessed by God both in grace and in name.  Who, while standing in prayer, with your hands raised to heaven, most happily yielded your angelic spirit  into the hands of your Creator, and promised zealously to defend against all the snares of the enemy, in the last struggle of death those who shall daily remind you of your glorious Father, this day and every day by your blessing that we may never be separated from our blessed Lord, from the society of yourself and all the blessed.  Amen. 

For information on the life of St. Benedict you may wish to refer to the Dialogues of St. Gregory, volume 2  https://www.osb.org/gen/greg/  For details about the circumstances that surrounded his death, refer especially to the final chapter on the aforementioned website. 

Have a good week and we prepare to slide into Holy Week next Sunday. 

 

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