A Word from Your Pastor - March 24

Dear Parishioners:

Passion Sunday begins Holy Week.  As we enter into this week’s celebrations, all are invited to take time to consider the central Mysteries of our Catholic Faith.  All the other celebrations we experience through the year have their culmination in the Paschal Mystery.

God is worth our time.  We give time to so many other pursuits – work, play, hobbies and interests, and even to standing in line or sitting in traffic for any and all of these.  Can we not let Him and ourselves know that He is really first in our lives by giving Him time during the Paschal Season?

Plan your Holy Week differently.  Allow the events of Passion Sunday to draw you in: the Procession with Palms and the Proclamation of the Passion call for active participation. 

On Tuesday evening, attend the Chrism Mass of the Diocese of Columbus at St. Joseph Cathedral, or at least join with the whole Diocese in spirit as the sacred oils for the Sacraments are blessed by Bishop Campbell.

Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper includes the Washing of Feet and a Eucharistic Procession, with our First Communion Class serving as an honor guard.  Following Mass, we have opportunity for Adoration of the Eucharistic Lord until Midnight.

Good Friday brings the Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion.  Stations of the Cross and a Mediation on the Seven Last Words will be observed between 12 and 3 p.m.

Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil will welcome new members into our Church.  Easter Sunday will include many visitors who come to join us for the beauty and joy of the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord. Come to serve as a welcoming family.

How are you giving God your Time?  At the end of our lives, we will exchange Time for Eternity.  When we celebrate the Liturgy of the Church (the Mass and the Sacraments and the Liturgy of the Hours, the official Prayer of the Church), we are beginning that exchange, so that we can taste Eternity in Time. Do you want to get a good rate?  Then give God your time in Time.   Be extravagant and “waste” more time in Church.

Year of Faith October 11, 2012 – November 24, 2013

We continue our journey through the Year of Faith.  As one way of observing this year, each week a small section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is read before the start of Mass.  This is a small way of offering some food for growth in Faith throughout this year.

Jesus’ ascent to Jerusalem  557 “When the days drew near for him to be taken up Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  (Luke 9:51; cf. John 13:1.) By this decision he indicated that he was going up to Jerusalem prepared to die there. Three times he had announced his Passion and Resurrection; now, heading toward Jerusalem, Jesus says: “It cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.”  (Luke 13:33; cf. Mark 8:31–33; 9:31–32; 10:32–34.)   558 Jesus recalls the martyrdom of the prophets who had been put to death in Jerusalem. Nevertheless he persists in calling Jerusalem to gather around him: “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!”  (Matthew 23:37.) When Jerusalem comes into view he weeps over her and expresses once again his heart’s desire: “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes.”  (Luke 19:41–42.)

Jesus’ messianic entrance into Jerusalem  559 How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and prepares the details for his messianic entry into the city of “his father David.”  (Luke 1:32; cf. Matthew 21:1–11; John 6:15.)  Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation (Hosanna means “Save!” or “Give salvation!”), the “King of glory” enters his City “riding on an ass.”  (Psalm 24:7–10; Zechariah 9:9.) Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth.  (Cf. John 18:37) And so the subjects of his kingdom on that day are children and God’s poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when they announced him to the shepherds.  (Cf. Matthew 21:15–16; cf. Psalm 8:3; Luke 19:38; 2:14.) Their acclamation, “Blessed be he who comes in the name of the LORD,”  (Cf. Psalm 118:26.) is taken up by the Church in the “Sanctus” of the Eucharistic liturgy that introduces the memorial of the Lord’s Passover.

560 Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom that the King–Messiah was going to accomplish by the Passover of his Death and Resurrection. It is with the celebration of that entry on Palm Sunday that the Church’s liturgy solemnly opens Holy Week.

Comment: Pope Francis emphasizes the Mercy of God and looking at others through the eyes of Mercy.  As you reflect upon the Passion this year, consider who responds to Jesus, seeing Him through the eyes of Mercy.