Today we celebrate Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday with a very special liturgy1. For one thing, we have two Gospel readings today, one at the beginning of Mass and another one at the usual time. Secondly, you’ll also be able to enjoy two homilies from me this morning. But I promise you, both of them will be as short as possible.
Now I have a question for you. You didn’t think you were going to get away without a question, did you? My question is this: When does Lent end? Some old-timers might say, “noon on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter.” For many of us growing up as Catholic kids, that was when fasting ended. You could start to eat meat for Saturday lunch. However, “noon on Holy Saturday” is not the right answer.
Lent officially ends this Thursday, Holy Thursday, when the great Triduum begins. Triduum is an old Latin word which means “three days.” Three days which are so important they make up their own part of the liturgical year. These are the three days when each one of us is invited to share in the celebrations which mark our beginnings as a Christian community.
First, there’s Thursday evening at 8 o’clock. On Holy Thursday, we celebrate the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper. It’s the only Mass allowed on this day, no matter how large the church. In a very special way, this liturgy celebrates the institution of the Eucharist. The service includes the Gospel of John and how Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and instructed them to do the same. And so we do. Those who attend this Thursday service are not forced in any way to participate in this part of our celebration of the Eucharist. However, if you accept the invitation to participate, it’s suggested you wear shoes and socks that are easily removable2. The service concludes with a special procession in which all of the remaining hosts consecrated at this Mass are carried into the chapel.
Friday, of course, is Good Friday. For a lot of us, we have the day off from work. It’s part of a long weekend. And what do you do on a long weekend? Work around the house? Catch up on all those important things you couldn’t get to for the last month? Maybe do some last-minute Easter shopping so you’ll look good on Sunday? Well, we have an alternative for you. It’s called “Stations of the Cross.” The service begins at 2:30 in the afternoon of Good Friday. But there’s no prohibition about coming early to pray on your own or staying later.
Then there is our Good Friday evening service which begins at 8:00 p.m. There is no Mass on Good Friday. It’s the only day of the year when Mass is not allowed to be celebrated. Instead, we are invited to focus on the Veneration of the Cross. We are given an opportunity to meditate on the suffering our Redeemer undertook for our sins. For those who wish, communion will also be distributed, using the bread consecrated on Thursday evening.
Then comes Holy Saturday. At noon there will be a blessing of bread or other food which you might have for your Easter meal. But the main celebration is Easter Vigil which begins at 7:30 p.m. This liturgy is the major celebration of the Christian Church. It includes many symbols and rites, from the blessing of the new fire and the baptismal waters to welcoming the Light of Christ, in song and multiple scripture readings. Our catechumens will be baptized at this celebration and they and our other candidates will be confirmed and will receive their First Communion.
Then, of course, there is Easter Sunday. And now I have a warning for you. So, if the people next to you are napping, now is the time to wake them up. The warning is this: next Saturday morning at 2 a.m. we change from standard time to daylight savings time. Our first Easter Mass, our Sunrise Mass, will begin at 6:30 a.m. Daylight Savings Time, which would be 5:30 a.m. Standard Time. Our sunrise service is outside, so, if you plan to attend, please bring lawn chairs or blankets to sit on, and probably wear a jacket.
On Easter Sunday we will have Masses both here and at the Jewish Community Center next door. They have just completed their new worship space and we’re looking forward to using it3. The times are in the Sunday bulletin for services here at Good Shepherd and at the Jewish Community Center. And if you forget the times for the Triduum services, you’ll find them in the bulletin, too.
Holy week is about to begin. We, indeed, hope it is a truly blessed time for each one of you. As we begin our liturgy for this Palm Sunday, you are invited to gather in the hallway to be part of our special procession. And in the days ahead I would encourage you to be part of our celebrations and really pack this holy place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Please join with us now for our procession. Today’s Eucharistic celebration is about to begin.
Well, you’ve now heard the so-called “long Gospel,” which is read every Palm Sunday. This year’s account was taken from the “Passion According to Mark.” You heard it but did you really listen to it? Have you been changed? Or when it began, did you tune it out as a re-run? Since you’ve heard it all before, did you start thinking about what important things you need to do this afternoon? The places you have to be. The tasks you have to accomplish.
On the other hand, if you really listened to it, did you really feel it? Were you changed? Did you feel the anguish of a mother who sees her son brutally beaten, with thorns pressed into the flesh of his forehead, hanging there, naked and bleeding, the people spitting at him and calling him names? If you are a parent, how would you feel, holding your child’s lifeless body in your arms?
Did you feel the terror of seeing a friend put on trial and not defended by anyone, even by you, when you had promised this man you would die for him? Can you weep tears of shame at your own cowardness?
Imagine yourself as a Roman soldier who captures this man whom the authorities say is a danger to the state and to civil well-being. A soldier who strips this man of his dignity, who beats him, mocks him, who hammers nails into his bleeding hands and then, in a blinding flash of lightening, suddenly realizes what he has done and cries out: “Clearly, this man was the son of God.” Can you join with this Roman soldier in his declaration? Or are you one of the crowd, who, one moment sings out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” and then, so soon afterwards, screams out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Did you listen to a mere re-run or to part of the “greatest story ever told?” Did you listen? Did you feel? Were you changed?
Almost forty days ago, I was the homilist for the First Sunday of Lent and asked you questions about temptations and testing. At the beginning of today’s liturgy, I asked you another question: When does Lent end? For some, the question may be: when is Lent going to start? When is my time of preparation for Easter Resurrection really to begin?
It is still not too late. Today we begin Holy Week. The great three days are still ahead of us. On Friday evening we will hear another “long Gospel,” the one according to John, who as a teen-age boy, loved and idolized this man called Jesus the Christ. Who rested his head on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper and who stood there weeping with his friend’s mother, there at the foot of the cross, who stood there with his own, new mother, looking up at his friend and brother, as he died before his very eyes. When you, again, hear his story, what will you feel?
And if for some valid reason, you cannot stand here on Friday before his cross, I urge you to take out your Bible sometime that day and read any of the four accounts of the Passion of our Lord as recorded by any one of the Gospel writers. Put yourself back in time. Read and feel the suffering of this Servant of God, this Son of God. The season of Lent begins with the words of Jesus the Christ: “Repent. Change your lives. The Reign of God is at hand.” There is still time for each one of us to listen to these words and to prepare ourselves to be, truly, Easter people.
Passion Sunday; March 18, 1994
Mt 21:1-11; Is 50:4-7; Phil 2:6-11; Mt 26:14 – 27:66
- Today’s liturgy began with the “exhortation for Holy Week,” i.e. an outline of the services and an encouragement for the people to participate in the events of the Triduum. This presentation preceded the reading of the entrance Gospel and the procession of the palms. It was followed by a homily for Passion Sunday.
- All members of the congregation are invited to participate in the foot-washing. They come forward individually or in family groups. “Stations” matching the ones usually assigned for Communion are established with chairs, basins, towels and pitchers of warm water. The pitchers are refilled by volunteers who also empty the basins as they become filled. Usually over 95 percent of those in attendance at the Holy Thursday service actively participate.
- The congregation of Jewish Community North (JCN), a synagogue built on property adjacent to Christ the Good Shepherd, used our church building for its own Saturday evening Sabbath services during the period during which their own facilities were being constructed. From 1994 until 2005, when the new General Instructions for the Roman Missal were implemented excluding Catholic services in non-Christian worship spaces, the JCN reciprocated by offering its worship space for two Masses on Easter Sunday, when there was a surplus of worshiping Catholics. For some twenty-five years previously the congregation from JCN joined with others from the local Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Church of Christ congregations for a combined inter-faith service on the morning of Thanksgiving Day. This service was held at CGS, since our structure had the largest of the sanctuaries among the participating communities