A LENTEN MEDITATION

*Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.* Matthew 26:41

"Non sit vobis vanum mane surgere ante lucem, quia promisit Dominus coronam vugulantibus Lenten Invitatory on Psalm 95 (v94) Let it not be vain for you to rise up early before light, For the Lord has promised a crown to those who watch.

So from Ash Wednesday through Saturday before Passion Sunday, we frame the recitation of the Matins Psalm. It is an appropriate theme we sound here: rise up early and watch! Lent is a time of watching, waiting and watching. But, what for?

Lent comes from an Old English word *lencten* meaning *springtime*. It was used to translate the Latin *Quadragessima*, meaning the 40th day,* viz*. the 40th day before Easter. This dating excludes the Sundays which are in Lent, but not "of it." Lent is a season of fasting, and all Sundays, as commemorations of the Resurrection, are to a greater or lesser extent, feast days. From early times, at least as early as the early 4th century, this forty days has been kept as a fast, preliminary to Easter. We learn from a letter of St. Athanasius that, by 339, during this period, "all the world is fasting." The forty days comes directly from our Lord's 4o days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness, between his baptism and his active ministry that led, in three short years, to his death, for us men and for our salvation, and his Resurrection from the dead.

During these forty days, the Church relives with our Lord his forty days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness. ( Matthew 4:1-11). When Jesus had thus fasted and so was hungry and physically week, the Devil came to him and tempted him, first, to end his hunger with a miracle, by turning rocks to bread. "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." You will remember that we began our prelenten celebration with the reading of Genesis. It will be well to recall here an earlier temptation: the primordial one of Adam and Eve. You will remember that the Devil began his temptation of Eve by getting her to question the words of God. "Of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die, and the Serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. For, God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and YE SHALL BE AS GODS. knowing good and evil! " (Genesis 3:3-5)

Well, from that heady promise, it was a small step to get Eve to see how much pleasure she could derive, both lower ( good for food . . . pleasant for the eyes) and higher (desired to make one wise, ) V. 6 from disobeying God.

Now God did not forbid all pleasure. Indeed, man was permitted everything *except* that single tree. What was forbidden was pleasure that God, in his wisdom, saw would focus man, not on his relationship with his Divine Creator, but rather on the pleasure derived directly from the creature. The notion that life without limits is good is one of the central errors of modern culture. From Epicurus to Freud, the *pleasure principal* becomes a dominant motif in and a central threat to civilization. *Freedom* and *pleasure* are indeed, as God explained to Adam and Eve, preludes to death, whether of individuals or cultures.

Now, you will note that Jesus precisely reversed Eve's (and Adam's ) disobedience with his own obedience. Eve prefered the satisfaction of her desires to God's commandment; Jesus prefered the "word of God." to the satisfaction of his desires, even though his hunger was both real and natural.

Having failed on his first temptation, the devil then tempts Jesus next, to presume on the promises and mercies of God, to make daring display of his religion. The not very subtle effect of this is to draw worship to personality and "personal magnetism." This is the religion of all who pursue the various "personal power cults." It is also the religion of those to whom "success" becomes the dominant god of their life, that to which, and for which, they make sacrifice and take trouble.

When that failed too, the Devil promised Jesus, real power, the power that comes from achieving status and possessions. This is a temptation that still whispers to us about how we could do much good, if we possessed great power. We live in a society in which it is usual for families and individuals to go into debt with mortgages and credit cards, where both parents work, leaving children to raise themselves, all to have more possessions and more amusements.

Neither possessions nor power are evils *per se*. They, like pleasure and personality, become evil when they become the dominant focus of life, for then they lure us from our relation with God, from our eternal connection and destiny to a contentment with the temporal. Is it not a very serious silliness to beome so satisfied and sated with *hors d'oeures* that we are not able to enjoy the main courses and desserts? So, whatever faith we profess, the preoccupation with pleasure, personality and power becomes an implicit denial that anything beyond this poor mess exists. But a still small voice, a thirst that is not satisfied with these ephemeral satisfactions, tells us there is more; there is a beyond. The mild fasting and abstinence that Christians practice during Lent is a reminder that we are citizens of a "better country," and are called to seek, not earthly, but heavenly satisfaction.

So on Ash Wednesday, we begin our fast with ashes smeared on forehead and the reminder: "Remember O man that dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return." and in the *Introit* we sing: "Thou hast mercy upon all, O Lord and hatest nothing that thou hast created." In the Lesson, God speaks to us and says: "Turn ye unto me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning and rend your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God." (Joel 2:12ff)

But, we began with the Invitatory reminding us that the crown. symbolic of eternal--not temporal-- joys, is for those who rise up early to watch. So let us close where we began, with a few thoughts on watching. We know indeed, that as our text says: "the flesh is weak." What is the remedy? "Watch and pray!"

Our Lord's temptation is the primary pattern for our lenten fast, but there are three other 40day periods of fasting in the Old Testament that are interesting. The first two are fasts of Moses. When he went up to receive the Ten Commandments, the Moral Law of civilization, he relates: "I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water. . . . and it came to pass that at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the Covenant." (Deuteronomy 9:9-11)

Perhaps you remember that when Moses came down with these Tables, he discovered that the People of God had backslidden: they had made new Gods of gold in the shape of a fertility icon and were dancing and singing, in worship of this deity of immediate satisfaction and temporal enjoyment who did not impose limits on their "freedom".

So God would have destroyed this rebellious and stiff-necked people, except that Moses pulled another fast of 40 days.

"Thus, I fell down before the Lord 40 days and 40 nights, as I fell down at the first; because the Lord had said he would destroy you. I prayed therefore unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God destroy not thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. . . . Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm." (Deuteronomy 9: 25,26,29)

From Moses we learn that, in this fast, we are not only to turn from our sins, as represented by the Tables of the Covenant, given by God as the fruits of Moses' first fast, but also that we are to intercede for God's people, for they have fallen and do fall into sin. Yet they are his redeemed, and so we are called upon to bring this to God's remembrance and to plead the blood of Christ to offer and to pray in and with the Holy Sacrifice, that God will once again, spare his people.

The third Old Testament pattern is that of Elijah. After Elijah had challenged and destroyed the priests of the native fertility cults of the Baalim of Canaan, the heathen Queen Jezebel was pursuing him, to kill him. So Elijah fled into the wilderness and prayed God to take his life. He fell asleep and presently, an Angel awoke him and said " Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for thee!"

So it is for us my brethern; the journey through the wilderness is far too great for us, in our human weakness; we must rise and eat the Holy Feast, our good Lord has prepared for us, for, "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."

The story of Elijah continues: "And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat forty days and nights unto Horeb, the mount of God." ( I Kings 19: 1-8 )

Let us then watch and pray, let us confess our sins and intercede for our brethern; let us fast that we may maintain our focus on the things above, not on the things of this world which pass away. Let us pray and feast on our Lord in the Holy Sacrament, that we may go in his strength and not our own for, "the journey is too great," for us. Let us arise then, eat and so journey to the Mount of God.

"So Lord at length when sacraments shall cease, May we be one with all thy Church above, One with thy saints in one unbroken peace, One with thy saints in one unbounded love: more blessed still in peace and love to be One with the Trinity in Unity. Amen"
Latin Hymn 1661, translated by J. Athelstan & L. Riley 1906

STAGES IN OUR LENTEN JOURNEY

LENTEN EMBER DAYS

Wednesday, Friday & Saturday of the first week of Lent are special prayer-days called Ember Days. They are fast days within a fast season and so are sometimes observed with a special degree of strictness, but they are principally days set aside for special prayers and special concerns. *Reminiscere miserationum tuarum, Domine* , "Call to remembrance, thy tender mercies, O Lord, and thy loving-kindnesses, which have ever been of old. So we chant the beginning of Holy Mass for this Wednesday. Then after singing *Kyrie eleison* we pray to God: "Stretch forth the right hand of thy mercy against all things that may hurt us!" And well might we cry out: for our politicians parading their immorality hurts us. But, instead of self-examination and repentance--after all we elected them--we have acquiesence and laughter. Our doctors, aided and abetted by our judges and our politicians, hurt us; they slaughter the unborn and instead of electing officials who will change the laws and the judges, we elect the same ones who condone the slaughter of the innocents. Our children too hurt us; they slaughter each other in school rooms and and on play grounds and instead of loving discipline and Christian teaching, we offer blame for the dumb weapons they use to shoot their friends.

The first lesson of this Mass is from *Exodus* and tells of Moses' experience in the Mount: "The Lord said unto Moses, come up to me in the Mount. . . and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written: that thou mayest teach them unto the children of Israel." Well, these are the commandments the teaching of which has been outlawed in schools and proclaimed by judges who should know better as a violation of the US Constitution. How dare we ask, naively, why our children shoot each other in our schools! How dare we, like some primitive tribe, try the weapon, pronounce the weapon guilty, and ask for laws against guns, while pronouncing the teaching of God's Law against murder, unconstitutional. We have substituted "values clarification" for the laws of God, and our own "feelings" about what is good for God himself. We must ask ourselves hard questions: Do Christians have any business voting for politicians who believe a mother has the "right to choose" to have her baby murdered while in her womb? Should Christians send their children to schools where God is not honored and where the Ten Commandments are off limits?

This lesson from *Exodus* concludes with an awful--full of awe-- picture of the glory of God : "And the sight of the Glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount." This is a vision that we need badly to recapture today. We have so domesticated God that we have lost the sense of what the German scholar, Rudolph Otto called *mysterium tremendum* We have, instead, taught our children the Hindu doctrine: "Brahman is Atman; Aatman is Brahman." We are God, and God is us. Nature, man and God are a continuum. In the name of multi-cultural tolerance, every religious notion can be taught, except the Judeo-Christian notion of a God who makes demands, the failure to live up to which is sin and subject to punishment. We need to recapture the vision of God who is "like a devouring fire." Perhaps such a vision will drive us to our knees in repentance. Perhaps such a vision will make us and our children fear, lest we offend by sinning against his law. We have forgotten the Scripture that says "The FEAR of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

Well indeed do we sing in the Gradual, after the lesson: "The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: O Lord bring me out of my troubles" Have we not learned yet that we cannot bring ourselves out, not with metal detectors nor self expression nor values clarification nor "tolerance" of different view points. Only God can bring us out and only when we continue, as in this gradual, to sing from the depths of our being to the God who made us: "Look upon my adversity; and forgive me all my sin."

In the Offertory we sing, from Psalm 119, "My delight shall be in thy commandments, which I have loved exceedingly: my hands also will I lift up to thy commandments which I have loved."

Yes, wisdom does indeed begin in fear, but it ends in love. But how can we learn to love his commandments? Surely this limitation on our behavior is not something that we naturally love. No for we are "born in sin, " and naturally prefer our own way.

On Ember Friday, we hear the Gospel of the sick man who lay all day by the healing waters of the pool, Bethesda. When Jesus came to him and asked: "Wilt thou be made whole?" he replied. "Sir I have no man to put me into the pool."

In the collect for the following Sunday we confess to Almighty God, "that we have no power of ourselves to help our selves."

So we stand in need of the amazing grace of God. He gives us this grace chiefly in the sacraments. In Holy Baptism, we are given a new nature and made sons of God, and given the grace to delight in HIS ways, to please our Father. In Holy Mass, we offer ourselves, our souls and bodies, to him in union with his great sacrifice of love on Calvary and receive God himself into our being to strengthen us and to remake us in his will.

But, you say, "I was baptised, but I have strayed; I do not delight in my Father's will nor do I love his commandments. " You must regain the vision of God who is a consuming fire, whom you fear to displease. You must go again in your spirit to that place where fear and love meet, at the foot of the cross. You must see the price of your sins in the death of him who knew no sin of his own but willingly died for yours and trembling with guilt you must die for love, die to self and your desires, your ways, your will, for love of him who died for you.

Go to your priest and open your heart to confess your sins and receive at his hands the forgiveness of the Father whose love you have so despised. Thus, when Easter comes, you too may sing the alleluias of the redeemed. Lent is a season of grace given us that we may repent and turn again unto the God who made us, unto the Father who loves us.

LAETARE SUNDAY

We have reached the midpoint and so we sing *Laetare Jerusalem!* "Rejoice ,O Jerusalem, and come together all ye that love her; Rejoice for joy, all ye that have mourned, that ye may be glad . . ." There are outward signs of this rejoicing--such is the Catholic way-- magnificant sounds from the organ, the fragrance of flowers, often roses, the splendor of rose vestments, rose of rejoicing, replacing, for this one day, the purple of penance. From the color of vestments, and ( and from the golden rose the Pope used to send to Catholic Kings) the day is sometimes called *Dominica de Rosa*, Rose Sunday.

Thus far we have come in our lenten discipline, thus far with our fasting and prayers. But, we still have a ways to go and, frankly, the "journey is too far for us." So we must cry to the Lord for strength to continue our journey. This lenten journey is, of course, a microcosm of our life: we must continually cry to God for strength and grace to go on our way, that "so we may obtain what he has promised, we may love what he has commanded."

As our help in this journey, to direct and aid us, our gracious Lord has given us the Holy Church and the Holy sacraments. In the Gospel,for this day we read the story of the great crowd that had followed Jesus and listened to his message and were now hungry. "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" Jesus asks his disciples. "There is a lad here," says Andrew. "who hath five barley-loaves and two small fishes. But," he adds, "what are they among so many?" Jesus then commanded to make the men sit down and took the loaves and blessed them and distributed them and this vast crowd was filled and, there were fragments left over.

So it is that we bring what we have to Christ in this Holy Sacrament of the Mass. We bring our failings and our joys, whatsoever good we have tried to do and whatsoever evil we have endured, all this we offer to our Lord and he blesses it in union with this re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary: the passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension of our Blessed Lord. And he gives himself, his Body and Blood, in return, so the "life which we live in the flesh we live no longer unto ourselves; but in Christ within us, the hope of glory!"

The Blessed sacrament is profered to us by Holy Mother Church, who nourishes us as a true mother. In the epistle, we hear St. Paul compare the Church to the old Holy City Jerusalem, "which is," he says, "the Mother of us all." Thus, the day is also called *Mothering Sunday*. And, this Holy Supper is indeed a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem. This idea is beautifully summed up in John Mason Neale's translation of Peter Abelard's great hymn in which Jerusalem( the Church ) yearns for the Holy Jerusalem (the heavenly city).

Truely Jerusalem name we that shore, Vision of peace that brings joy evermore; Wish and fulfilment can sever'd be be ne're Nor the thing hoped for come short of the prayer.

(And so *Laetare Jerusalem*! Rejoicing Sunday is an anticipation of this eternal joy. )

There where no troubles distraction can bring, We the sweet anthems of Sion shall sing; While for thy grace, Lord their voices of praise (*Laetare!*) Thy blessed people eternally raise.

(But, we are not there yet.)

Now in the meantime with hearts raised on high, We for that country must yearn and must sigh, Seeking Jerusalem, dear native land, Through our long exile on Babylon's strand.

(In traditional typology, the seventy days , from *Septuagesima* until the Saturday after Easter, carry the mystical meaning of the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity. So the *Septuagessima* introit from Psalm 18: "The sorrows of death compassed me, the pains of hell came about me; and in my tribulation, I called upon the Lord," reminding us of the song of the exiles in Psalm 137 (V. 136): "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Sion. . . . How shall we sing the Lord's Song [ the *alleluia*, now banished til Easter ] in a strange land? If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning.

And so the symbolic captivity of the Church lasts until on Low Saturday, *Sabbato in Albis*, the second Exodus, the return of the exiles from Babylon, is symbolized by singing in the Introit complete with the return of the "Lord's song," i.e. the *alleluia*: "The Lord hath brought forth his people with joy, Alleluia and his chosen with gladness, alleluia, alleluia. " So we conclude by bowing in praise before the Most Holy Trinity from whom all our help must come, if we are to reach our true home safely. )

Low before him, with our praises, we fall, Of whom, and in whom, and through whom are all O whom, the Father; and in whom the Son; Through whom, the Spirit, with them ever One. Amen

Copyright by David A. E. Horsman, 2001

PASSIONTIDE

Passiontide consists of the two weeks between Passion Sunday and Easter. The first week is called simply PASSION WEEK, the second is called Holy Week. During this season, it is customary to veil all statues, icons and crosses, except those on the Stations of the Cross. The crosses remain veiled until Good Friday; the statues and icons until the *Gloria in Excelsis* of Holy Saturday. Another signature of the season is the use of two office hymns, by the 6th century Bishop, Fortunatus. At Matins, the hymn *Pange Lingua* is sung: Sing my tongue the glorious battle, sing the winning of the fray. Now above the Cross the trophy, Sound the high triumphal lay! Tell how Christ, the worlds Redeemer, as a victim won the day.

And for Evensong, throughout the season, is sung the *Vexilla Regis*: The Royal Banners forward go, the Cross shines forth in mystic glow. Where he as man who gave man breath, now bows beneath the yoke of death.

Thus every day, there are repeated the twin paradoxes of the season: 1) The Friday on which our Lord died , is yet called "Good," because, although he was the intended victim, "crucified, died and buried," Jesus Christ was the true Victor, because by dying, he destroyed death and won for mankind the redemption from sin and death that was the inheritance from Adam. As John Henry Newman put it in his hymn: "A second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came." 2) The Creator of the World, he, without whom "was not any thing made that was made," he who was very God of very God, who breathed into man the "breath of life," was here , on cruel Cross, put to death. And yet, what a pyric victory for death, and Satan, it was; for, it was indeed, a death that destroyed death.

So, as its name implies, this is a time given over to meditation upon the passion and death of our Lord. The introit on Passion Sunday is from Psalm 43 (42) *Judica me Deus*: Give Sentence with me O God and defend my cause. This psalm, sung here, is not used, as at other times, in prayers at the foot of the Altar, before Mass. As befits the more somber tone of the nearer approach to the sacred days of our Lord's Passion and Death, the concluding *Gloria Patri* for psalms is also eliminated.. In the Collect, we beseech , "Almighty God, to look upon thy people: that by thy great goodness, they may be governed and preserved, both in body and soul." The lesson is from the Epistle to the Hebrews ( C 9 ), in which Christ is proclaimed as, "an High Priest of good things to come . . .neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by *his own blood * he entered once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." Thus did our Lord sum up and fulfill all the sacrifices of all the world's religions and, specifically, became the anti-type that had been typified by the annual Day of Atonement ritual, when the Jewish High Priest entered into the inner chamber of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat. "For if," the lesson continues, "the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heffer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the *blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? " "How much more," indeed! There is, my brethern, no need to mope around with consciences burdened by dead and killing works: Christ, by his death has freed us from this burden, not so we could live after our own desires and pleasure, not to "do our own thing," not to follow the "devices and desires of our own hearts,"but, rather, "to serve the living God." Only God himself could meet the demands of justice, to free man of sin; nothing merely human would suffice. So the Gospel for this Sunday ( John 8 ), announces very clearly Christ's unique qualifications as both Priest and Victim for this impending offering: "If a man keep my sayings he shall never see death." said our Lord. "Abraham is dead," replied the Jews,"art thou greater than our Father Abraham?"

This is one of those great dramatic moments, when all history waits, with breath held, and when you could hear the proverbial pin drop, waiting for the answer. "Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad." Christ responded. " Then said the Jews unto him: thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them: verily, verily I say unto you before Abraham was, *I am.* " Perhaps it is unclear to some modern theologians and exegetes what our Lord meant, but it was perfectly clear to the Jews: " They took up stones to cast at him." Death by stoning was the penalty for blasphemy. When Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am," Jews knew he was claiming identity with the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, before the Exodus, and when Moses asked "What is his Name?" the Almighty replied: "I am that I am: and he said thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto thee. . . This is my name forever "(Exodus 3 ).

The Jews understood that Christ was here claiming identity with the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. What they did not understand, what not even the Apostles quite understood yet, was that he was proclaiming the verge of a new and greater Exodus: an Exodus not just for one nation, but for all people, everywhere and forever, eternal redemption from the yoke of sin and death, which Adam's flesh is heir to and which we all join in perpetuating by sinning daily in "thought word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone," for that is our nature. But Christ by his offering, "for us men and for our salvation," on the wood of the Cross, the Cross we aptly hail in the hymns of Fortunatus, has died for us, has paid the penalty for our sins.

So, on MONDAY, we can sing with warrent, in the Introit for the Mass, "Be merciful unto me O Lord!" And The Lesson is about God's mercy: the story of Jonah's preaching to Nineveh ( C 3) and their repentance, in sack cloth and ashes for their sins. Thus we are made clear that, although God-in-Christ has paid the debt for our sins, we must yet repent, and claim his shed blood for our pardon. The Ninevites were given "forty days" to repent--a type of Lent-- Let us, brethern, make as good use of our forty days as did this people. They repented in earnest and , "they turned from their evil way: and the Lord our God had mercy on his people." In the Gospel,( John 7 ) we remember that, " the Chief Priests sent officers to take Jesus, Then said Jesus unto them; Yet a little while am I with you: and then I go unto him that sent me." And so we remember again how close we are coming to the time of our Redemption.

On TUESDAY, we enter Mass singing, " O tarry thou the Lord's leisure, be strong and he shall comfort thy heart." The lesson is the familar story of the deliverance of Daniel (C 29 ) from the lions' den, whither he had been cast for his faithfulness to God. It ends with the King, whose order had cast him into the den, exclaiming: "Let all the inhabitants of the whole earth fear the God of Daniel, for he is the Saviour, working signs and wonders in the earth: who hath delivered Daniel from the lions' den. " Already in Jonah's mission, a reluctant mission, you may remember, we see salvation offered beyond the Jewish nation. We have here prefiqured a Saviour, not only of the Jews, but of the "inhabitants of the whole world." In the Gospel, ( John 7 ) we are told that "Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him."

On WEDNESDAY, we sing in the Introit, ( Psalm 18 ) : "The Lord is my stony rock, my defense, and my Saviour." The Lesson from Leviticus 19, reminds us of God's commandments and concludes, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord; ye shall keep my statues, for I am the Lord your God." In the Gospel for the day, ( John 10 ), the Jews seek more evidence for their charge of blasphemy: "If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." Our Lord does not disappoint: "I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him." And, in the Offertory, we sing from Psalm 59: "Deliver me from mine enemies, O God, defend me from them that rise up against me, O Lord."

On THURSDAY, we begin by admiting: "Everything that thou hast done to us, O Lord, thou hast done in true judgment: for we have sinned., and not obeyed thy commandments." and in the Gospel from Luke 7. we hear our Lord, say to a woman who anointed his feet, anointed them in anticipation of the impending death, "Thy sins are forgiven."

FRIDAY after Passion Sunday, commemorates the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It begins by remembering the scene at the Cross: "There stood by the cross of Jesus his Mother." In the Collect, we recall the Presentation in the Temple of the young Christ Child, and Simeon's prophesy about the "sword of sorrow," that would pierce her soul. The Lesson recalls a type of the Blessed Virgin in Judith ( C 13 ) "O daughter, blessed art thou of the most high God, above all the women upon the earth."

And the great sequence hymn is sung: "At the Cross, her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping where he hung, the dying Son."

And the Gospel recalls again the scene, and we hear Jesus, say to his Mother, "Woman behold thy son." and we know that he speaks not only of John but of us as well. Then, when he says to John, "Behold thy Mother," we know he speaks not only to the Blessed Apostle but, to us, as well.

SATURDAY begins with the lament from Psalm 31: "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble, save me and deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me." And we recall, in a Lesson from Jeremiah ( C 18 ), a type of Jesus, in the persecution of Jeremiah, "In those days, the wicked Jews said one to another: Come and let us devise devices against the righteous."

The theme of the Saviour coming, not only to the Jews, but to Gentiles as well is continued in the Gospel ( John C 12): "The Pharisees therefore said among themselves: perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold the world is gone after him. And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. the same came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee: and desired him, saying: Sir we would see Jesus."

So must we pursue our devotions, desiring above all things that in the coming days: we, too, "would see Jesus."

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HOLY WEEK

The second week of Passiontide is called simply Holy Week. We are on a count-down to the Cross and the Resurrection: the great days when the salvation of our race was wrought.

The week begins with a procession, the first of many: the greeting of the King of the Jews by the people of Israel. This procession is re-enacted by Christians throughout the world. It begins with the antiphon sung by those Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover:
"Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, O King of Israel: Hosanna in the highest. As with everything this people did during this week, they knew not what they did.

They believed that Jesus had come to overthrow the Roman power and to restore the throne of David. Well, indeed, he had, but in a far deeper sense than they suspected. Perhaps the disapointment with Jesus' failure to take political power as his agenda was one thing that made it so easy for the Jewish leaders to turn this band of well wishers into a lynch mob, in just six short days.

We must remember that these Jewish enthusiasts ,with their praise songs and shouts of joy, represent not just the Jewish people but us as well, for we too lose the things eternal in the things temporal; we too lavish our hopes on the things seen and forget the things unseen; we too get so caught up in life's transient dream that we miss the eternal reality thus concealed. So we too bless branches and process around Church or out doors , sometimes making a station at a churchyard cross, singing our praise, just as did the Children of the Hebrews. We too shout Hosanna to Jesus as our King and Lord: it is easy to get caught up in the enthusiasm: "Glory Laud and honor to thee Redeemer King!" Palm Sunday should teach us to beware a little of our enthusiasm. Praise is easier than obedience, but, as we shall soon discover, the lamentation of sacrifice is more lonely than the song of praise.

The Introit of the Mass quickly returns us to a more sober mood: "Be not thou far from me O Lord. . . haste thee to help me!" And the promise of God's answer to this cry for help is chanted in the Collect for this day: Almighty, everlasting God who didst cause our Saviour to take upom him our flesh and to suffer on the Cross . . ." Ah, here, not in the procession and posession of earthly power and pomp, but in the humiliation of God's condescension to take upon him our sinful flesh and to offer himself as a sacrifice on the cruel Cross: here is the answer to man's need.

So the Lesson exhorts us to: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God . . . humbled himself and became obedient, unto death, even the death of the Cross." Our Lord's obedience is thus a *reversal * of Adam's disobedience. Adam, being in the form of a man, in pride, strove to become God, through disobedience; Jesus, being in the form of God, in humility, stooped to become man, through obedience. Which example, are we most enclined to imitate?

The Gospel is the* Passion according to St. Matthew.* We hear again the familiar story of betrayal and sacrifice. Those people who had enthusiastically praised and sung Hosanna to the Lord, now cry "crucify him!" He had disappointed them; his Gospel was not one of "success"; his Kingdom was not one of earthly power, and so "crucify him!"

So the earth grew dark at that awful event but the veil of the Temple was rent and the way for man into the Holy of Holies was purchased by that only offering perfect in the eyes of God: the immortal sacrifice of the Son of God.

MONDAY

Unfortunately, not many can or will, even of the devout, attend Mass for the next three days of Holy Week. On Monday, we pray to God that, "We who in so many adversities fail, by reason of our weakness; may be renewed by the interceeding passion," of our Lord. We hear a lesson from Isaiah 50, in which Jesus speaks in prophetic anticipation of that passion: "I gave my back to the smiters . . . I hid not my face from shame and spitting. . . ." FOR YOU, he endured these indignities.

On TUESDAY, he speaks again in Jeremiah 11: " I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter" In the Gospel for that day, *the Passion according to St. Mark,* we see these things fulfilled in the description of Pilate's command for the scourging of Jesus--for our healing, beloved, he endured those strokes of the whip that tore that sacred flesh, for your healing--and in the mocking of the soldiers who, "platted a crown of thorns and put it about his head: and began to salute him: hail King of the Jews!"--an ironic twist to the enthusiasm of Palm Sunday-- "And they smote him on the head . . . and did spit upon him." Pause awhile to take that in. Imagine someone important to you, a teacher, or your mother being so foully treated. But this, beloved, is the very Son of Almighty God.

On WEDNESDAY, we have two Lessons: in the first, from Isaiah 62 & 63, we hear "Thus saith the Lord God: say ye to the daughter of Sion behold thy salvation cometh . . .I have trodden the winepress alone. " The other is the majestic passage, one of the most beautiful in the Bible, from Isaiah 53. I cannot read about the "Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief," without hearing Handel's music, from *Messiah.* Indeed, with the banishment of the King James' Bible from most churches, Handel's music is often the only place where our children can hear again those great words:
"Surely he hath born our grief and carried our sorrows: Yet we did esteme him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him, the iniquity of us all."

"The iniquity of us all!" What a breathtaking thought is that. Mine alone, ( or yours ) would have been sufficient indignity, but there was laid upon him, "the iniquity of us all."

The Gospel is the * Passion according to Saint Luke.* There are some unique touches in this Gospel: Only from Luke, do we hear that during the Agony in the Garden, before Jesus' trial, that, as he prayed, "Father, if thou be willing, , remove this cup from me: never the less, not my will but thine be done, there appeared an Angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was, as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." "Never the less, not my will. " Again, Jesus reverses Adam's willful disobedience by his willing obedience. As Saint Paul put it: "As by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. (Romans 5:19) The strengthening Angel and the bloody sweat are found only in Luke. And, only in Luke, do we find the dying thief's plea: "Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom." and our Lord's response: " Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise."

MAUNDY THURSDAY There is an echo of the absolution of the dying thief in the Collect for Thursday: "O God from whom both Judas received the punishment of his guilt, and the thief the reward of his confession, grant unto us the effect of thy propiation: that as in his passion Jesus Christ, our Lord, gave unto each the divers rewards of his merits; so he may deliver us from the transgressions of our old nature, and bestow upon us the grace of his Resurrection. " But, it is from the Antiphon sung after the Gospel ( John 13: 1-15 ), that this day gets its name. The Antiphon is from this same Chapter of the Gospel, Verse 34: "A *new commandment* I give unto you; that ye love one another, as I have loved you." The Latin for "New Commandment" is *mandatum novum.* The Gospel describes Christ's washing of the Disciples' feet and during the singing of the Antiphon quoted above (and others ) it is customary for the ranking clerics to wash the feet of lesser clerics or of representatives of the laity. This act is a sacramental of Christian humility and love.

The Epistle, read earlier, is from I Corinthians 11. It describes a event much more important than the footwashing, the tradition of the institution of the Holy Eucharist and, in the same event, the institution of the ministers of that Eucharist, the Christian Priesthood. So, in the words of institution, in the Mass this night, after saying, "For in the night in which he was betrayed," the Priest adds the words: "that is on this night--" .

And, indeed from early times, it has been the custom to celebrate Mass on this day in the evening. There is another displacement of observance sometimes practiced during this time. Matins, is done later in the day, so that more people might attend. Since in Northern Europe it gets dark early at this time of the year, the services for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are called *Tenebrae* (darkness). The usual introductory and closing formulae and office hymns are omitted and along with the Psalms and proper lessons, there are sung each day the beautiful *Lamentations* of Jeremiah. Another feature is the gradual extinction of fifteen candles arranged on a triangular candlestick, as the service proceeds. By the end of the singing of the *Benedictus*, there is only one candle left: the topmost candle, representing Jesus. This is taken down and hidden behind the Altar, until the conclusion of the service, when it is restored to its place accompanied by a loud noise, symbolic of the great desturbance of nature at the death of Christ.

There are special customs for this Mass: it is celebrated in white vestments and the *Gloria in Excelsis* is sung--it has been suppressed since Septuagessima--with much ringing of bells. After this, both Gloria and bells are again suppressed until Easter Eve.

Another special custom is the consecration of the Holy Sacrament in extra amount to be used in the Mass of presanctified on Good Friday when there is communion but no consecration. At the end of the Mass, there is another procession: while the faithful sing:
"Now my tongue the mystery telling, of the glorious Body sing, and the Blood, all price excelling, which the world's eternal King in a noble womb once dwelling, shed for this world's ransoming,"

the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession to a separate Altar or Chapel where it is enshrined in a garden of floral display, emblematic of the garden in which our Lord prayed after he instituted the Holy Mass. Remembering our Lord's question to the Apostles, when he arose from his prayers to find them sleeping-- "Could you not watch with me one hour?" -- in many places, the faithful take turns watching, for an hour or so, in groups of two or three, all night.

The final act of this night is the "stripping, "removing all vestments and adornments from the sanctuary, and the washing of the Altar, while the Choir sings Psalm 22, with the Antiphon from Verse 19: "They part my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots."

GOOD FRIDAY

The Altar for this service is completely bare, without linen, cross or candle sticks. The ministers, vested in albs amice and girdle, with black stoles for the Deacon and Celebrant, process into the Church in silence, reverence the Altar and prostrating themselves, lie in silent prayer for a while. The Celebrant rises and says the Collect:

Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the Cross: who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen

The Collect is followed by alternating Lessons, Responsories and Collects, first from Hosea 6 -- "Come and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn and he will heal us; he hath smitten and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight."-- the second from Exodus 12, the institution of the Passover-- "the lamb shall be without blemish . . . kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two door posts." Then is chanted the Gospel for the day: * Passion according to St. John.*

The Gospel done, a cloth is spread on the Altar and the solemn Collects are prayed. These are very old going back to the early days of the Church, intercessions for the Church and the world.

Next a veiled Cross is brought out and, while chanting, "Behold the wood of the Crosss, whereon was hung the world's salvation; O come let us worship,"the Cross is gradually unveiled. After it is unveiled first the clergy and then the people, come forward, "creeping to the Cross," to adore, kissing the feet on the cross, while there is sung the beautiful *Reproaches --
"O my people what have I done unto thee: or wherein have I wearied thee: Answer me! Because I brought thee forth from the land of Egypt: thou hast prepared a Cross for thy Saviour; Followed by a refrain in Greek--a sign of the very ancient origin of this rite-- Hagios O Theos, Holy God

Hagios Ischyros,
holy Mighty

Hagios Athanatos, Eleison humas,
Holy and Immortal. have mercy upon us.

C. S. Lewis said of this service: "The body must do its homage." Indeed it must, and with the body our souls must here be offered a living sacrifice in union with his Sacrifice--but there is no Mass today. Still, the Blessed Sacrament is brought back in solemn procession, singing: "We adore thee O Cross and we bless thee because by the Cross thou hast redeemed the world."

The Celebrant says a confession, the Lord's prayer, Prayer of Humble Access and, after making his own communion, distributes to the people, in one kind. Communion done, the Celebrant says three collects and everyone departs silently. The first of these sums up the devotions of the week, quite well; it must be our devout prayer for this season :
We beseech thee, O Lord that upon thy people, who with devout mind have recalled the passion and death of thy Son, may descend thy plenteous benediction, thy pardon given, thy consolation granted, their holy faith increased, their eternal redemption made sure, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen

A PASCHA MEDITATION

EASTER AND PASCH

*Easter*, the Venerable Bede tells us comes from the name of a Tutonic goddess of the rising light and Spring named Estre. Perhaps he was right; Bede was a very learned as well as a very saintly man. However, I do not know of any other attestation of this derivation. Perhaps both terms are derived from the Old English *east*, which indicates the place of the rising sun and early-on was associated with the risen Son, the Son of righteousness who rose from death, with healing for the mortal wound of diobedience, the original sin with which our father Adam infected our poor race. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." (I Cor 15:22 ). The tradition of the Church placed, both the lost Paradise of Eden and Christ's Ascension in the east. The Vulgate translation of Psalm 67:33 -34 ( KJV 68) goes : *Psalte Deo, qui ascendit super caelum caeli. ad orientem!* ( Sing to God who ascended above the heaven of heaven to the east. ) So, from earliest days, Christians have prayed facing East, waiting for the return of our Lord in Glory. "As the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west; so also the coming of the Son of Man shall be." ( Matthew 24:27 ) Thus also, in the old liturgies ( e.g., St. Basil and St. Mark ) there is the recurrent cry of the Deacon befor prayers: * "eis anatolas blepsate!" * (Look to the east ) This cry and its obedience was, in much of Eastern and Anglican Christendom still is, an outward and visible sign of the Church waiting in expectation for our Lord's return.

The term more often used for this great feast, in the East is *Pascha*. This name connects the Resurrection with the experience of the Children of Israel in their Exodus, their coming out of their captivity in Egypt. The name, *Pascha*, comes, you will remember, from the sacrificial meal eaten "in haste," before the departure. (Exodus 12 ) The center piece of this meal was a "lamb without blemish," slain and and eaten with blood smeared, "on the two side posts and on the upper door posts," so that when the death angel passed through Egypt, slaying first-born of both man and beast, when I, saith the Lord God, "see the blood, I will *pass-over* ( paska ) you. The word in Greek was easily connected with the verb *pasko* meaning to suffer. The Johannine tradition put the time of Christ's death at the time of the slaying of the young lambs for the Passover. Thus, Christ was seen as the Passover Lamb, the *Agnus Dei * who took away the sins of the world. ( I Peter 1: 18-20 ) A most interesting passage in this connection is the Pericope of the Transfiguration in Luke 9:28-31. Jesus took Peter, James and John into a Mountain to pray. Whilst he prayed, " the fashion of his countenance was altered and his raiment was white and glistering and behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory , and spoke of his decease which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. " The Greek word translated here " decease," is *Exodus* and it can mean death, but it can also mean way out or *exodus *. So we could read it that Christ talked with Moses about his own *Exodus* ! How rich these associations between suffering and passover and exodus and death.

ALL THINGS NEW

"And he that sat upon the throne said: Behold I make all things new." (Rev 21:5 )

As the Exodus was the beginning of new life for the people of Israel, so the exodus of our Lord was and is the beginning of new life for Christians. Let us look at the Pasch, the Vigil and the first Mass, more closely as the time when all things are * made new* .

THE NEW FIRE

As we sit waiting in dark church, waiting at the Vigil--for that is what a vigil is, a waiting-- waiting for the Resurrection, suddenly, the darkness is pierced by a voice from the back of the Church: "The Lord be with you." We respond: "and with thy spirit." The Celebrant prays:

"O God who through thy Son, the cornerstone, hast bestowed upon the faithful the fire of thy brightness: sanctify this new fire, now struck from the flint stone."

The new fire of Spring is an old pre-Christian custom in Europe. It was baptized by the Church and, as we shall see, given new associations. The first, we already see in the collect: Christ the cornor stone ( I Peter 2:6 ), has indicated the replacement of flintstone for the wood friction, more common with the pagans. The stone rolled to the door of the tomb was also a factor here. After the new fire is blessed, a great bees-wax candle, called the *Paschal Candle * is brought forward and blessed. First , the Candle is marked with a cross: a verticle line while the Celebrant says:"Christ, yesterday, and today." and then, a horizontal, "the beginning and the end;" atop the vertical line, the Greek letter *alpha*, and beneath, * omega ,* upper left, the number "2" "His are the times;" upper right, the number "0", "and ages" ;lower left, another "0", "To him be glory and dominion;" lower right the number "1". "throughout all the ages of eternity, Amen." Next five grains of blessed incense are placed at the etremes of the incised Cross, while saying: "Through his holy, and glorious wounds, may he guard, and preserve us, Christ the Lord. Amen" ThePaschal Candle is lighted from the new fire, incensed and processed by the Deacon through the Church singing thrice, each time with higher tone: "*Lumen Christi!"( Light of Christ ) to which each time, the congregation responds. "Deo Gratias!" (Thanks be to God ). The lights on the Altar and elsewhere in the Church as well as candles held by the congregation are lit from the Paschal candle, en route, the Church gradually bursting into a blaze of light. On reaching the Choir, the Deacon censes the lectern from which he is next to read and then the Candle itself and finally sings the *Praecomium Pascale * a beautiful Canticle to, the Paschal Candle, to Christ the Light of the World." " Now let the Angelic host of heaven rejoice; let the divine mysteries rejoice; and for the victory of the mighty King let the trumpet of salvation sound forth. Let the earth also be glad, illumined by the rays of this great brightness; and enlightened by the splendor of the eternal King, Let her know that she hath put away the darkness of the whole world. Let our Mother the Church also rejoice, adorned with the brightness of so great a light: . . . "

After an introduction similar to that used at Mass in the Sursum Corda he continues:
It is very meet and right that we should with the whole affection of our heart and mind, and with the service of our lips, give praise unto the invisible God, the Father almighty, and unto his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. who paid for us to the eternal Father, the debt of Adam's transgression: and with his dear blood wiped away the reproach of our former offences. For this is the very Paschal feast wherein the very Lamb is slain by whose blood the doorposts of the faithful are made holy. This is the night, wherein of old thou didst lead forth our fathers, the children of Israel, out of Egypt and didst make them to pass on dry land through the Red Sea . . . ."

Thus are all the Paschal associations to which we have referred, brought together in this marvelous piece of Christian liturgical poetry. To which, must be added burning bush wherein God revealed his sacred Name to Moses Ex 3 )and the pillar of fire that led the Children of Israel through the wilderness journey ( Ex 13: 21-22 ).

Let us remember that Christ is both the Light and the Way and so we must walk in that light which we are promised will lead us into all truth. But we too are "lights of the world," ( Mt 5:14, 2Cor 4:4 ), lit from the Great light, as the small candles from the Paschal Light, we are to be witnesses to the Truth and Way that is Christ. May God grant us so to shine in his Light. that the darkness around us may be dispelled.

THE NEW WATER

After lessons and prayers, the new water for the baptismal font is blessed, recalling not only the Spirit of God brooding over the waters of creation from Genesis1:2 , but also the flood waters of Genesis 7, in which a few souls were saved in the arc. ( Cf. 1 Peter 3:20) This water is the water of regeneration in which the blood of the Paschal lamb is applied to the washing away of our sins, for "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. "(John3:5 ). Jesus Christ came, "not by water only but by water and blood, and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one." ( I John 5: -8 ) The baptismal water is living water in which we are reborn to new life.

THE NEW CREATURE AND NEW LIFE

"Therefore if any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things become new." (2 Cor 5:17) "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Eph 4: 24 ) This new identity comes about when the Holy Ghost regenerates us, brooding over the waters of baptism , as in the original creation. For in these mystical waters we are, as St. Paul tells us, "baptized INTO JESUS CHRIST . . . therefore we are buried WITH HIM by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. " (Rom 6:3-4 ) Please note, that this life which we now live, is a life IN CHRIST. The "righteousness" in which God creates us is NOT our own righteousness, but, as St. Paul reminds us, we are to " be found IN HIM, [ i.e. IN CHRIST ] not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. " ( Phil 3: 9 ) "IN CHRIST JESUS , who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." ( 1 Cor 1:30 ). In fine, "not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the WASHING OF REGENERATION, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus 3:5 )The Church's baptism of infants is a constant witness to this mercy and grace of God wherein he bestows his gifts upon little children, as helpless to actuate their second birth as they were their first, testifying that it is "not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us!" Thus we are incorporated into the Church which is the Body of Christ. and, after Baptism , anointed and sealed by the Holy Spirit, ( Eph 1: 12-13 ) and in this sealing given a new name.

THE NEW NAME

It is at baptism that we are given our name. If we are adults and have not a Saint's name already given, it is customary to take such, a new name, for our patron, in our journey through the wilderness of this world toward our promised home. For our Lord says. " to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna [ more on this later ] and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a NEW NAME." ( Rev 2:17 )

With the baptisms, we have accomplished the chief task of the preparation for the great Resurrection Feast; that is, we have built up the Body of Christ in adding new members, who now in the first Pascha Mass are to be nourished as new born babes. In some places, the 23rd psalm is used as a processional hymn for the newly baptized, as they come for their first Communion.

THE NEW SONG

"O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things!" and indeed he has, both in his redemption wrought on Calvary and in its sacramental re-presentation in the washing of regeneration in Baptism and in the Sacrifice of the Mass in which we may join ourselves to his offering that we may receive very God of very God, "the Body and Blood of Christ, and be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him." And so these newborn babes sing, " as it were, a new song, before the throne. . . " ( Rev 14: 3 ) as they approach to receive this new food.

"The Lord is my Shepherd; * therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, * and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul, and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for his Name's sake. . . . . Thou shalt prepare a table before me . . . thou hast anointed my head with oil and my cup shall be full. . . "

NEW FOOD

"Your fathers, did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die, I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. . . .except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." ( John : 51-53 ) Indeed this is true for the new Children of the Font, but, dearly beloved, it is true for all of us who are therein united to Christ. Yes we have been grafted into his body, i.e. INTO CHRIST and made new creatures, but, if we are not to cast away this great gift, we must ever abide in him and bring forth fruits of this new life, permitting Christ to work in us his will and way and this we cannot do in our own strength: we must "eat his flesh and drink his blood," if we are to continue to have his life in us.

NEW CITIZENSHIP

Born to new life we must, as do all God's people, "seek a country and truely if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out [ that is the Egypt of sin and worldly desires and ambitions ] they might have had opportunity to return [ they surround us on all sides, do they not? ] but now they desire a better country, that is an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city." Hebrews 11: 14-16 ) Every Eucharist is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and we are "strangers and pilgrims on earth," ( Hebrews 11 : 13 ) and so we are admonished by the Apostle Paul: " Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." In this transformation, frequent and regular prayer and the sacraments are indespensible, for these are the contacts with our true native land whilst we are pilgrims in this world. And so brethern, let us take diligence to make our calling and election sure. If, dear creature of God, you have heard his voice but have stood waiting at the gates of salvation, seek out some godly priest and make known to him your need of salvation, so that you may not let this season of opportune grace pass you by:

" The Spirit and the Bride [ the Church ] say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is athrist come and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

EASTERTIDE

"They entered in and found not the body of Jesus. And it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold two men stood by them in shining garments: and as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them: why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!" Luke24: 3-5

A TIME FOR REJOICING

This great event, the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, began a new chapter in the the Salvation History of our race. As St. Anselm argued persuasively, in * Cur Deus Homo *, the Incarnation, the en-fleshment, of our Lord was necessary, because the atonement that his death made, demanded that he be both man-- for man owes the debt of sin-- and God--for only God can pay such a debt. But the atoning death would, in its turn, have been in vain, without the Resurrection. It would have been a great example of sacrificial love, but not the completion of redemptive love. It would have showed us the way to live, but not given us the enjoyment of everlasting life.

There have been many attempts to have a form of Christianity without the risen Christ. Theories have been promologated of the "not quite dead," or the "spiritual vision" or the "with us in living spirit" variety since early times. But ,in the final analysis only two theories make any sense at all: either the Resurrection was a deliberate pious fraud, which we should condemn along with its perpetrators, or it was a true,actual bodily resurrection from the dead, and we should believe it: As Saint Paul put it: "If Christ be not raised your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. . . . If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen and become the first fruits of them that slept." ( I Corintiians 15:17-20 ) Thus, in Baptism, we were indeed, "baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death. " (Romans 6: 3-4 ) But "buried with him in baptism, wherein ye are also risen with him through the faith of the cooperation of God who hath raised him from the dead." ( Colossians 2:12)

So, for believers -- and I use the term advisedly, in its full sense, this is a time of rejoicing. If one does not believe in the reality of the Resurrection, there is neither point nor reason to the rejoicing. But, as believers, we sing in the Easter gradual from Psalm 118: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!"

Eastertide then is first of all forty days , from Easter to Ascension, of festal rejoicing, to balance the 4o days of fasting and waiting of Lent that preceded Easter. There are many other signs of rejoicing: the more glorious white or gold vestments replace the somber purple and black; the * Alleluia * not only returns but is, if one might so put it, indulged. Seldom is Psalm verse heard without a concluding or prefacing single, double or triple *alleluia*. Through out other times of the year, *asperges me Domine,

"Thou shalt purge me, O Lord, with hyssop and I shall be clean; Thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than snow, " accompanies the sprinkling of holy water. But during this season, the sprinkling is accompanied by the joyful *Vidi aquam egredientem*: "I beheld water issuing out from the temple, on the right side alleluia; and all to whom that water came were saved, and they shall say: alleluia, alleluia! O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious because his mercy endureth forever."

In the morning office, the* Te Deum * is heard: We praise thee O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord! In the evening, the joyful antiphon to the Blessed Virgin * Regina caeli laetare *is heard:

"O Queen of Heaven, be joyful, alleluia; because he whom so meetly thou barest, alleluia; hath arisen as he promised, alleluia.

A TIME FOR RE-ORIENTATION

When one is sailing without landmarks, it is very necessary to frequently re-check the compass, or the stars: to check one's place in the scheme of things. We have begun this during Lent and especially into Holy week, as we see the death of our Lord as the price of our sins. We have seen our Divine Lamb sacrificed for us; We have surveyed the wondrous Cross: we "see from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down." And as we kneel, on Good Friday, to adore the wooden cross, we cannot, if we have kept faithfully the devotional exercises of the season, we cannot but say: "Love so amazing so divine demands my soul, my life, my all." We hear the whispered call to holiness: "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price!" ( I Corinthians 6:19-20 ) The modern attempt to have Easter without Good Friday is a vain dream. Lest we forget the price paid, even in this season of rejoicing, we sing for the first eight days, the beautiful sequence hymn:

"Christians to the pascal victim offer your thankful praises. A Lamb the sheep redeemeth: Christ who only is sinless, reconcileth sinners to the Father. Death and Life have contended in that combat stupendous: the Prince of life who died reigns immortal."

Well, there is the turn: died--reigns immortal! So the next verse goes straight to the Resurrection morn:

" Speak Mary, declaring what thou sawest wayfaring. The tomb of Christ who is living: the glory of Jesu's Resurrection. "

On Holy Saturday we have renewed our baptismal vows, abjuring the world, the flesh and the devil and have been, in spirit, plunged with the neophytes, as they are newbaptized, beneath the waves that wash from sin. And . . . Remembering our own bath of regeneration, we have risen to new birth.

Very well, we have come now to see whither we must point our little craft, if we would safely sail the tempestous sea of this vain, proud and passing world, a sea full of mirages of mischief concealing dangerous shoals on which we could easily sail to shipwreck, full of dizzying attracting whirlpools of pleasure and power that would pull us down to destruction. St. Paul puts it:

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above . . . set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God."

A TIME FOR RESUME

In the Gospel for Easter Monday, we read the beautiful story of the encounter of the disciples with the risen Christ, on the road to Emmaus. The told him of their astonishment at the report of the women, concerning the empty tomb. He does not yet reveal his identify, but he cannot let them simply ramble on.

"Then he said unto them: O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into glory? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24: 13ff )

This same theme of the resume of Scripture, appropriating it to Christ is found in the Gospel for Easter Tuesday, this time from Verses 44 & 45 of the same Chapter of Luke from which the Gospel on Monday was taken. This time, our Lord appears to the Apostles. He first disproves the "spiritual " Resurrection theories, that deny or doubt the bodily, physical nature of the Resurrection. He shows them his hands and feet--" A spirit hath not flesh and blood as ye see me have."-- and asks for food--"have ye any meat?--which they gave him, and he ate it before them. Then,

"He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures."

The Apostles needed this Resume of the "Words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you," because they had not yet seen the Risen Lord, indeed, had not yet understood the nature of his death, when they first heard this teaching. The early Church used to expound the nature of the Sacraments and salvation during this period, adding to the elementary instruction begun before Baptism.

Are not we like the Apostles often forgetful? Is it not true of us, as of them, that we often don't "get it."

Let us make these great forty days a time when we learn to read Scriptures, especially the Psalms, and Isaiah, to see Christ speaking in them, for truely then he will open our understanding.

TO PART 2