Holy Week 2013

As we begin our observance of Holy Week, I thought I would offer our readers a selection of seasonal archived articles and posts I have composed in recent years:

Holy Week Festivities

Merry Chrism Mass! This year’s Chrism Mass will be celebrated tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:00 a.m. at Savior Pastoral Center.

Choosing the Twelve, Again

Sheep and Goats

To Whom Shall We Go?

Meditation for Good Friday

He Descended into Hell

He Is Alive!

In addition, the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provides a helpful Q & A regarding the celebration of Holy Week liturgies. Be sure to consult your parish’s bulletin and/or website for the days and times of the special Holy Week and Easter services.

On behalf of everyone here at the chancery office of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, I want to wish and your loved ones a meaningful and blessed celebration of the mystery of God’s love for us as it unfolds in Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection!

The Time Is Now

While getting some exercise I often get my “sports fix” by watching ESPN’s Sports Center. As I do, sometimes I wonder about how “unreal” it is.

I’m not talking here about sports’ inflated significance in our culture. After all, in the shopping mall of life, sports is the toy store, or maybe Aunt Annie’s Pretzels–surely not the end-all we make it out to be.

Rather, what I’m getting at is that while I’m watching Sports Center, there is no sporting event going on at all. Rather, we keep moving back and forth from the past (statistics, rankings, scores of previous games, etc.) to the future (upcoming games, fantasy drafts, predictions, etc.). Sure, those things have a place, but it′s interesting how caught up we can get in the past (What was their record last year?) and future (Will the Chiefs draft a quarterback in the first round?), almost to the exclusion of the present.

The same is true in all areas of life. How often do we dwell on past glory or setbacks, or on future worries that may never materialize? All the while, life happens in real time. And what is real time? It’s the present moment. And because it’s the only time that’s completely real, it’s where we encounter God, where we receive actual grace, and where we respond in Christ-like fashion to others.

A little story from my young adult years will illustrate this point:

Merry Chrism Mass!

This week, the bishop of each respective Catholic diocese throughout the world, in the company of many of his priests and deacons, will celebrate the Chrism Mass. This Mass typically takes place at the cathedral or some other central location that will accommodate a large number of concelebrants. Archbishop Naumann will celebrate the Chrism Mass for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:00 a.m. at the Savior Pastoral Center chapel.

At the Chrism Mass, the bishop blesses the oil of the sick, the oil of catechumens, and most notably the chrism that will be used throughout the diocese in the coming year.

Our family likes to attend this Mass whenever we can. Not only does it prepare us for the rest of the Holy Week liturgies, but it is a singularly beautiful manifestation of the local Church in all its splendor and richness. I recommend it highly to you and yours.

And if you are unable to attend this year, it still might be fruitful to privately contemplate some of the prayers and blessings used at this Mass. Just to give you a taste, here is just one of the forms of the consecratory prayer used in blessing the chrism:

Rite of Consecrating the Chrism

Let us pray that God our almighty Father will bless this oil so that all who are anointed with it may be inwardly transformed and come to share in eternal salvation.

God our maker, source of all growth in holiness, accept the joyful thanks and praise we offer in the name of your Church.

In the beginning, at your command, the earth produced fruit-bearing trees. From the fruit of the olive tree you have provided us with oil for holy chrism. The prophet David sang of the life and joy that the oil would bring us in the sacraments of your love.

After the avenging flood, the dove returning to Noah with an olive branch annouced your gift of peace. This was a sign of a greater gift to come. Now the waters of baptism wash away the sins of men, and by the anointing with olive oil you make us radiant with your joy.

At your command, Aaron was washed with water, and your servant Moses, his brother, anointed him priest. This too foreshadowed greater things to come. After your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, asked John for baptism in the waters of Jordan, you sent the Spirit upon him in the form of a dove and by the witness of your own voice you declared him to be your only, well-beloved Son. In this you clearly fulfilled the prophecy of David, that Christ would be anointed with the oil of gladness beyond his fellow men.

And so, Father, we ask you to bless + this oil you have created. Fill it with the power of your Holy Spirit through Christ your Son. It is from him that chrism takes its name and with chrism you have anointed for yourself priests and kings, prophets and martyrs.

Make this chrism a sign of life and salvation for those who are to be born again in the waters of baptism. Wash away the evil they have inherited from sinful Adam, and when they are anointed with this holy oil make them temples of your glory, radiant with the goodness of life that has its source in you.

Through this sign of chrism grant them royal, priestly, and prophetic honor, and clothe them with incorruption. Let this be indeed the chrism of salvation for those who will be born again of water and the Holy Spirit. May they come to share eternal life in the glory of your kingdom.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Died for Me

closing scene, Saving Private Ryan

My daughter Gianna, like her brother before her, had a rare genetic disease called Mitochondrial Depletion Disorder. Essentially, the cells in her liver could not make the energy they needed to stay alive, so her liver started to shut down. As a result, the doctors recommended a liver transplant. The chances of her getting a liver were slim (she needed half of a toddler’s liver, as she was only 3 months old) and the long term outcome of the risky surgery was questionable at best for her diagnosis. But it was the only chance we had, so we waded through all the blood tests and paperwork and waited for the phone to ring.

What Happened to the “A” Word?

Before Lent, my family hangs a string of letters that spell A-L-L-E-L-U-I-A. Then on Fat Tuesday we put all the letters in a sack, only to take them out at Easter. Why does “Alleluia” go into hibernation for forty days?

We encounter several changes in the Mass during Lent. Probably the most distinctive liturgical change during the season of Lent, however, is the removal of “Alleluia” from any and every celebration. Both Advent and Lent share the same liturgical color (purple), and both drop the Gloria from the seasonal Masses, but only Lent forbids the use of “Alleluia.”

We notice this change most especially before the Gospel, when we sing “Glory and Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ” or some other alternative to “Alleluia.” Yet this ban also applies to liturgical music as well as the Liturgy of the Hours.

Alleluia, or “Hallelu-yah” is of Hebrew origin, meaning “Praise Yahweh.” It occurs frequently in Scripture, particularly in the Psalms, and is associated with the praise and jubilation of the choirs of angels around God’s throne in Heaven. In the Mass, we enter into the praise and joy of angelic worship as we receive a foretaste of heavenly glory.

Because of the penitential character of the season of Lent, singing or saying the word “alleluia” has traditionally been suspended during Lent’s forty days. During this season we reflect on our need for repentance to the extent we have fallen short in living out our baptismal faith.

The omission of alleluia during Lent goes back at least to the fifth century in the West. The hymn “Alleluia, Song of Gladness” contains a translation of an 11th-century Latin text that compares an alleluia-less Lent to the exile of the Israelites in Babylon. The text then anticipates the joy of Easter when glad alleluias will return in all their heavenly splendor.

At the Easter Vigil, the priest or deacon will chant a triple Alleluia before he reads the Gospel, and everyone present will respond with a triple Alleluia. The Lord is risen; the Kingdom has come; our joy is complete. In concert with the angels and saints, we once again greet the risen Lord with shouts of “Alleluia!”

And then our family will come home and roll away the stone in our Easter scene and celebrate the feast of Our Lord’s Resurrection.

And somewhere along the line we will once again the string the A-L-L-E-L-U-I-A across our mantle!

Back in the Pink

This coming Sunday is Laetare Sunday, which is the popular name for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Its name comes from the first word of the introit (“entrance antiphon”) for the Mass, taken from Isaiah 66:10-11: “Laetare Jerusalem,” which means “Rejoice, Jerusalem.”

Because the midpoint of Lent is the Thursday of the third week of Lent (today!), Laetare Sunday has traditionally been viewed as a day of celebration, on which the austerity of Lent is slightly relaxed, because today we’re given a glimpse of the joy of Easter. The passage from Isaiah continues, “Exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her.” It is a day of joy and exultation!

On Laetare Sunday, therefore, the purple vestments and altar cloths of Lent are set aside, and rose ones are used instead. Flowers, which are normally forbidden during Lent, may be placed on the altar. Traditionally, the organ is not played during Lent, except on Laetare Sunday.

The custom of rose vestments is tied to the so-called “station churches” in Rome. The station for Laetare Sunday is the Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, where the relics of Cross and Passion brought from the Holy Land by St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, were deposited. On this day, the popes customarily blessed roses made of gold, which were sent to Catholic royalty. The biblical reference is Christ as the “flower” sprung forth from the root of Jesse (Is. 11:1). Thus, the day was also called Dominica de Rosa, or “Rose Sunday.” From there the idea of rose-colored vestments developed. This Roman custom eventually spread to the whole world.

Laetare Sunday has a counterpart in Advent: Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, when purple vestments are also exchanged for rose ones. The point of both days is to encourage us as we progress toward the end of each respective penitential season. For those who get the two days confused, remember that “Lent” and “Laetare” both begin with “L.”

Reflections on Fasting

How’s your Lenten fast going? Is it getting tough? Are you steadily holding firm? Have you given up? Or maybe you are starting to lose your attachment to what you gave up.  Wherever you are at with your fast, I want to share a little bit about what I have been reflecting on as I fast this season.

Remember for whom you fast.  My dad is a pilot and can get passes for my family.  He recently gave up a whole day to take my son out east to visit.  He had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch a flight to KC, and due to a flight delay, he didn’t get back home until around 9pm.  He endured a long, boring day of sitting on airplanes and in the KC airport, but did it without a second thought in order to spend time with his grandson and to save us the airfare.

Have you ever had someone do you a favor like this? Conversely, have you ever had someone do you a favor with such a bad attitude that you would have rather done it yourself? In either circumstance, you know how important the disposition of the giver is.  When we are fasting, it’s good to keep in mind that we are doing this for someone, not just gritting through something uncomfortable just for the heck of it.  We fast for Jesus, who gave up so much more for us than we can imagine.  How can I complain about passing up a bowl of ice cream when the one I offer the sacrifice for shed every last drop of blood for me? We want our sacrifice to be a joyful gift to Jesus.

Fasting as bonding.  When my son Peter was critically ill and it was obvious that he would die, friends of ours drove from Minnesota (where we lived) to St. Louis (where he was in the hospital) just to be with us.  They knew they couldn’t “do” anything for Peter, but they wanted to share in our sorrow, so they came. Then, they returned home a day before us and cleaned my whole house since I had left it in a hurry and it was in no shape to host my whole family who would be coming up for the wake and funeral.  In the following months they continued their love and support.  I now live 6 hours away from these people, but they will be lifelong friends.  Our friendship was tried in fire.

These friends came to mind when I heard a talk recently.  The speaker mentioned that when Jesus allows suffering in our lives it is out of a desire to grow closer to us by being together with us in our pain.  Jesus didn’t want my son to die, as death was never part of his original plan for mankind.  But he was glad to be closer to me than my friends from MN, or my family or anyone could have been.  And through that experience, I have grown deeper in my relationship with Him.  I think that when we fast, we are returning the favor.   By giving up something we like, we are saying to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, or on the Cross that we want to suffer a little bit with him.  We not only want to think about his passion, but enter into it in some small way.

Fasting is decadent.  Every once and a while in my house we run out of Tupperware.  When that happens, I will scratch my head wondering who didn’t return a container or if there are gnomes that roam our house at night searching for the plastic stuff.  Then, I clean out the fridge and my supply is magically replenished! In this analogy, if we don’t clear out the putrid, rotting leftovers in our lives, there is no room for storing the freshly baked muffins.

The connection to fasting is this.  We often cling to things that keep us from receiving all that God has for us.   Fasting helps us to empty ourselves of not only nasty stuff, but of things that are good, but get in the way. So often we focus our fasting on being sad for losing the things we liked.  How much would we benefit from focusing on all the good things God will fill us with instead!

At this halfway point in Lent, things can start to drag a little.  My prayer is that we all gain a spiritual “second wind”, and wherever we are in our Lenten observances, renew our efforts to grow in love of God in this holy season.

Taking Our Medicine

All of us have had the experience of realizing that we have sinned. We understand that what we did was wrong, and we can readily discern the negative effects of our actions. We then sincerely ask the Lord for His mercy and we try to make things right with anyone we may have hurt.

As Catholics we appreciate the gift of divine mercy and peace that is ours through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which “offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1446). In other words, we realize we’re spiritually sick, and so we desire the appropriate remedy.

During this Lenten season all the parishes in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas are offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Wednesday evenings, in addition to the usual Confession times. We do well to take advantage of this archdiocesan initiative, and we may want to visit the archdiocesan website for a variety of resources on Confession.

As we make our Act of Contrition after confessing our sins, we “firmly resolve with the help of God’s grace to sin no more.” We’re banking on God’s help, but in this prayer we’re telling Our Lord that we are absolutely serious about avoiding sin in the future.

In other words, we’re committed to doing whatever we can to help reverse the cycle of sin in our life, to wipe it out at the source.

Given our commitment to “sin no more,” it would be extremely helpful to have some understanding of the underlying causes of our sins. I’m sure we all ask ourselves on occasion, “Where did I go wrong?” Surely we’re all prone to sin because of our fallen nature, but it’s also true that sin isn’t all that innovative or trendy. My sins and your sins are not all that original. Ask any confessor! It’s actually quite possible to trace most of our sins to some very basic moral errors.

That’s why paragraph no. 1792 is one of the most enlightening entries in the entire Catechism. It lists some of the main reasons why we go astray. Here’s what it says:

“Ignorance of Christ and His Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one’s passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church’s authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.”

Several of these items jump off the page to me. Doctrinal dissent has consequences in the moral life. My bad example (known as “scandal”) can lead others to sin. Ignorance is not “bliss” when it comes to the Gospel. And this Catechism quote makes abundantly clear that an erroneous approach to conscience leads to errors in moral judgment.

Conscience is vitally important. It’s God’s way of revealing His truth to us in concrete circumstances, so that we can choose the good He desires for us. So having a well-formed conscience is about doing what God wants, not what “I want.” There are many voices–internal (for example, our own preferences, memories, motivations, and disordered desires) and external (for example, family, friends, and the media)–competing for our attention. We need a certain interiority to be able to hear the Shepherd’s voice, to discern God’s law that is already on our hearts.

Too often we do whatever is expedient, agreeable, or enjoyable, and then we claim that we’re just following our conscience. All we’re doing then is adopting a relativistic–and ultimately atheistic–mindset and giving it the veneer of religiosity. The rejection of the objective moral law is not an exercise of authentic freedom, but rather is the submission to slavery. As the Catechism teaches, this is nothing other than the licentious assertion of one’s autonomy from God and from the moral order.

In number 1792, the Catechism, gives all of us a firm basis for examining our consciences. It leads us to ask these and similar questions of ourselves:

• Am I ignorant of Christ and His Gospel?
• Do I seek the Lord’s guidance through regular, humble prayer?
• Do I assiduously study and internalize the Bible as well as other reliable sources of Catholic teaching and spiritual wisdom?
• Do I gravitate toward people who aren’t good for me?
• Do I too readily follow others rather than act as my own person?
• Am I too concerned about what others think?
• Is a shared belief in Jesus Christ and His Church the most important factor in choosing my friends and associates?
• Am I a slave to my passions?
• Am I mired in habitual sin?
• Do I overindulge or pamper myself?
• Do I try to justify conduct that Our Lord considers sinful?
• Is there a part of my life that I haven’t turned over to God?
• Are there Church teachings I refuse to accept?
• Do I strive to form my conscience based on the firm foundation of Catholic truth, or do I look for teachers who will “tickle my ears” (2 Tim. 4:3)?
• Do I strive to see Christ in those around me, especially the poor and the annoying?
• Do I really take to heart the fact that all men and women have God-given dignity and value?
• Do I treat others with basic kindness, patience, and respect?
• Do I serve only myself?

The Divine Physician doesn’t expect us to overcome these perennial difficulties on our own. In fact, we can’t. However, if we can diagnose the sources of our particular sins, we can better seek out and apply the right spiritual medicine this Lenten season.

Listen to Your Lawyer

“Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”

This admonition of Our Lord in today’s Gospel reminds me of my years as a civil litigation attorney. Lawyers get a bad rap, and rightly so, but even we “get” what Our Lord is saying here, at least on a human level.

I must have worked on hundreds of cases during my legal career, and maybe a dozen went to trial. The overwhelming majority of cases eventually settle.  On the eve of trial, after months of futile negotiations, the parties see things more accurately and realize that they are much better off settling than incurring the costs and risks that come with having one’s day (or week or more) in court.

Okay, but what does all this have to do with today’s Gospel?

Living (Room) Stations of the Cross

Many of us may be familiar with “living” Stations of the Cross, in which actors (often high school students or members of the youth group) dramatically reenact Our Lord’s Passion. This can be a very powerful experience for all involved. I also recall the Passion Plays performed by Doug Barry with RADIX, which has come to so parishes around the country.

In addition, during Lent we are accustomed to the Stations of the Cross devotions that typically take place on Friday evenings in our parishes. These celebrations take place all over the world, culminating in the Holy Father’s celebration of the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday.

I’d like to suggest another manner of celebrating the Stations of the Cross, which we do as a family in our own home, or “domestic Church.”

During Lent, we strategically place pictures that depict the 14 Stations of the Cross around our house. Over time and with practice we have figured out the best places to put them. On Fridays during Lent, often with another family joining us, we will have our meatless soup and bread dinner followed by the Stations of the Cross in our home, during which all of us process from one station to the next.

We have collected different Stations of the Cross prayerbooks over the years and have settled on the ones that seem to work best for us and allow for the active engagement of our children. (Click here for more resources on praying the Stations of the Cross with children.)

I’m all for larger celebrations of the Stations of the Cross, but after a busy week of work and school it’s nice to be able to stay home and pray the Stations in a more intimate setting. Plus, it is one further, tangible way to teach our kids that the Christian life isn’t just about what goes on over at the church building. Rather, our own “way of the Cross” is lived each day in the world–and in our homes.

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).