Jesus of Nazareth

HOLY WEEK: The Love Story that Built Western Civilization

Shrouded In Darkness: The Passion Proven By History

In Persecution Hold High the Cross!

Christ Crucified

Even in Time of Persecution 

Let the Cross 

be Your Joy

From the Catecheses by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop

The Catholic Church glories n every deed of Christ.  Her supreme glory, however, is the cross.  Well aware of this, Paul says: God forbid that I glory in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!

At Siloam, there was a sense of wonder, and rightly so.  A man born blind recovered his sight.  But of what importance is this, when there are so many blind people in the world?  Lazarus rose from the dead, but even this only affected Lazarus.  What of those countless numbers who have died because of their sins?  Those five miraculous loaves fed five thousand people.  Yet this is a small number compared to those all over the world who were starved by ignorance.  After eighteen years a woman was freed from the bondage of Satan.  But are we not all shackled by the chains of our own sins?

For us all, however, the cross is the crown of victory!  It has brought light to those blinded by ignorance.  It has released those enslaved by sin.  Indeed, it has redeemed the whole of mankind!

Do not, then, be ashamed of the cross of Christ; rather, glory in it.  Although it is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, the message of the cross is our salvation.  Of course it is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it was not a mere man who died for us, but he Son of God, God made man.

In the Mosaic law a sacrificial lamb banished the destroyer.  But now it is  the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Will he not free us from our sins even more?  The blood of an animal, a sheep, brought salvation.  Will not the blood of the only-begotten Son bring us greater salvation? 

He was not killed by violence, 

he was not forced to give up his life.  

His was a willing sacrifice.  

Listen to his worn words: I have the power to lay down my life and to take it up again. Yes, he willingly submitted to his own passion.  He took joy in his achievement; in his crown of victory he was glad and in the salvation of man he rejoiced.  

He did not blush at the cross 

for by it he was to save the world.  

No, it was not a lowly man 

who suffered but God incarnate.  

He entered the contest for the reward he would win by  his patient endurance.

Certainly in times of tranquillity the cross should give you joy.  But maintain the same faith in times of persecution.  Otherwise you will be a friend of Jesus in times of peace and his enemy during war.  Now you received the forgiveness of your sins and the generous gift of grace from our king.  When war comes, fight courageously for him.

Jesus never sinned; yet he was crucified for you.  Will you refuse to be crucified for him, who for your sake was nailed to the cross?

You are not the one who gives the favor; you have received one first.  

For your sake 

he was crucified on Golgotha.  

Now you are returning his favor; 

you are fulfilling your debt to him.

Be a Knight for Christ

Explanations of the Psalms by St. Ambrose

From the Explanations of the Psalms 

by St. Ambrose, bishop

The Appeal of the Book of Psalms

Though all Scripture is fragrant with God’s grace, the Book of Psalms has a special attractiveness.

Moses and the parting of the Red Sea

Moses wrote the history of Israel’s forefathers in prose, but after leading the people through the Red Sea—a wonder that remained in their memory—he broke into song of triumph in praise of God when he saw King Pharaoh drowned along with his forces.  His genius soared to a higher level, to match an accomplishment beyond his own powers.

Miriam too raised her timbrel and sang encouragement for the rest of the women, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has cast horse and rider into the sea.

Miriam praising God

In the Book of Psalms there is profit for all, with healing power for our salvation.  There is instruction from history, teaching from the law, prediction form prophecy, chastisement from denunciation, persuasion from moral preaching.  All who read it may find the cure for their own individual failings.  

All with eyes to see can discover in it a complete gymnasium for the soul, a stadium for all the virtues, equipped for every kind of exercise; it is for each to choose the kind he judges best to help him gain the prize.

King David

If you wish to read and imitate the deeds of the past, you will find the whole history of the Israelites in a single psalm; in one short reading you can amass a treasure for the memory.  

If you want to study the power of the law, which is summed up in the bond of charity (Whoever loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law), you may read in the psalms of the great love with which one man faced serious dangers single-handedly in order to remove the shame of the whole people.  You will find the glory of charity more than a match for the parade of power.

Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God

What I am to say of the grace of prophecy?  We see that what others hinted at in riddles was promised openly and clearly to the psalmist alone: the Lord Jesus was to be born of his seed, according to the word of the Lord, I will place upon your throne one who is the fruit of your flesh.

In the psalms, then, not only is Jesus born for us, he also undergoes his saving passion in his body, he lies in death, he rises again, he ascends into heaven, he sits at the right and of the Father.  

What no man would have dared to say was foretold by the psalmist alone, and afterward proclaimed by the Lord himself in the Gospel.

St. Ambrose, 4th Century Church Father

 Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours for Friday, 10th Week in Ordinary Times

Tribulation & Trials by St. Bernard, abbot

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

I am with him in tribulation

From a sermon St. Bernard, abbot

I am with him in tribulation, says God.  Shall I then seek anything here below apart from tribulation?  For me it is good to cling to God, and also to put my hope in the Lord God, because he has said: I will rescue him and glorify him.

I am with him in tribulation.  My delight, he says, is to be with the sons of men—Emmanuel, God with us.  

He himself descended to be near those 

who are saddened in spirit, to be with us in our tribulation.  

One day we shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord—provided, however, that we are concerned here below to have him with us, as our companion on the journey, who will restore us to our true country or, better, as one who is now our way and our true country hereafter. 

It is good for me to be sad, O Lord, as long as you are with me, rather than to be a king apart from you, to feast without you, to boast without you.  It is better for me to embrace you in tribulations, to have you with me in the furnace, than to be without you in heaven.  For what do I have in heaven apart from you?  What have I desired on earth?  Gold is tested in the furnace, and the just by the trial of tribulation.  There, yes there, you are present with them, Lord.  You are there in the midst of those gathered in your name, as you were once with the three young men in the fiery furnace.

Why are we afraid, why do we hesitate, 

why do we flee from this furnace?  

The fire rages, 

but the Lord is with us in tribulation.  

If God is with us who can be against us?  And if he then rescues us, who will steal us from his hand?  Lastly, if he honors us, who can dishonor us?  If he honors us, who can humiliate us?

I will fill him with length of days.  It is as if he said more clearly:  I know what he desires, I know what he thirsts for, and what he likes.  He likes neither silver nor gold, pleasure nor curiosity, nor any of the honors of the world.  All this he considers as loss; all this he despises, counting it as dung.  He has totally emptied himself, and he does not allow himself to be concerned with things he knows can never satisfy him.  He knows in whose image he had been made, of what greatness he is capable; he does not strive to raise himself up only to be cut down from the highest state.

So I will fill him 

with length of days, 

for only the true light can refresh, 

only the eternal can fill him.  

Indeed this length of days 

has no end, 

this light knows 

no setting, and 

this fullness can never 

turn to disgust.

Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours, According to the Roman Rite, Ordinary Time, Catholic Book Publishing Corp.  New York, 1975

Christ's Passion Foretold - Psalm 22

Christ Crucified

Psalm 22: 2-23

My God, my God why have you forsaken me?

You are far from my plea and the cry of my distress.

O My God, I call by day and you give no reply.

I call by night and I find no peace.

Yet you, O God, are holy,

Enthroned on the praises of Israel.

In you our fathers put their trust;

They trusted and you set them free.

When they cried to you, they escaped.

In you they trusted and never in vain.

The rabble mock and ridicule Jesus Crucified

But I am a worm, and no man, scorned by men,

despised by the people.

 All who see me deride me.

They curl their lips, they toss their heads.

“He trusted in the Lord, let him save him;

Let him release him if he is his friend.”

Yes, it was you who took me from the womb,

Entrusted me to my mother’s breast.

To you I was committed from my birth,

From my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Do not leave me alone in my distress;

Come close, there is no one else to help.

Many bulls have surrounded me,

Fierce bulls of Bashan close me in.

Against me they open wide their jaws,

Like lions, rending and roaring.

Like water I am poured out,

Disjointed are all my bones.

My heart has become like wax,

It is melted within my breast.

Parched as burnt clay is my throat,

My tongue cleaves to my jaws.

Christ nailed to the CrossMany dogs have surrounded me,

A band of the wicked beset me.

They tear holes in my hands and my feet

And lay me in the dust of death.

I can count every one of my bones.

These people stare at me and gloat;

They divide my clothing among them.

They cast lots for my robe.

O Lord, do not leave me alone,

My strength, make haste to help me!

Rescue my soul from the sword,

My life from the grip of these dogs.

Save my life from the jaws of these lions,

My poor soul from the horns of these oxen.

I will tell of your name to my brethren

And praise you where they are assembled.

Easter homily - St. Melito of Sardis, bishop

The Lamb Who was slain for us

The Lamb that was slain 

has delivered us from death 

and given us life

From an Easter homily by Saint Melito of Sardis, bishop

Saint Melito of Sardis, bishop died c180

There was much proclaimed by the prophets about the mystery of the Passover: that mystery  is Christ, and to him be glory for every and ever. Amen.

For the sake of suffering humanity he came down from heaven to earth, clothed himself in that humanity in the Virgin’s womb, and was born a man.  Having then a body capable of suffering, he took the pain of fallen man upon himself; he triumphed over the diseases of soul and body that were its cause, and by his Spirit, which was incapable of dying, he dealt man’s destroyer, death, a fatal blow.

He was led forth like a lamb; he was slaughtered like a sheep.  He ransomed us from our servitude to the world, as he had ransomed Israel from the land of Egypt, he freed us from our slavery to the devil, as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh.  He sealed our souls with his own Spirit, and the members of our body with his own blood.

Pharaoh and his dead son - The Last Plague

He is the One who covered death with shame and cast the devil into mourning, as Moses cast Pharaoh into mourning.  

He is the One who smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring, as Moses robbed the Egyptians of their offspring.  He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into an eternal kingdom, who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be his own for ever.  He is the Passover that is our salvation.

It is He who endured every kind of suffering 

in all those who foreshadowed him.  

In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, 

in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, 

in Moses exposed to die.  

He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, 

persecuted in David, 

dishonored in the prophets.

It is he who was made man of the Virgin, he who was hung on the tree; it is he who was buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and taken up to the heights of heaven.  He is the mute lamb, the slain lamb, the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe.  He was seized from the flock, dragged off to be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night.  

On the tree no bone of his was broken; 

in the earth his body knew no decay.  

He is the One who rose from the dead, 

and who raised man from the depths of the tomb.

CHRIST IS RISEN!!!!

Palm Sunday -- Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem

Christ's Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem -- Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday) 

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! 

Blessed is the king of Israel!

St. Andrew of Crete

From a sermon by Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop

Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives.  Today He returns from Bethany and proceeds of His own free will toward His holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation.  He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with Himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of His own free will to make His journey to Jerusalem.  He comes without pomp or ostentation.  As the psalmist says: He will not dispute or raise His voice to make it heard in the streets.   

He will be meek and humble, and 

He will make His entry in simplicity.

Let us run to accompany Him as He hastens towards His passion, and imitate those who met Him then, not by covering His path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before Him by being humble and by trying to live as He would wish.  Then we shall be able to receive the Word at His coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.

In His humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world and He is glad that He became so humble for our sake, glad that He came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to Himself.  And even though we are told that He has now ascended above the highest heavens—the proof, surely, of His power and godhead—His love for man will never rest until He has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with His own in heaven.

So let us spread before His feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in His grace, or rather, clothed completely in Him.  We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before Him.  Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of His victory.  

Let our souls take the place of 

the welcoming branches as we join today 

in the children’s holy song: 

Blessed is the king of Israel!

Through Deeds - Not Words

From an Easter letter by Saint Anthanasius, bishop

We keep the coming feast of the Lord through deeds, 

not words

The Word who became all things for us is close to us, our Lord Jesus Christ who promises to remain with always.  He cries out, saying, “See, I am with you all the days of this age.  He is Himself the shepherd, the high priest, the way and the door, and has become all things at once for us.  In the same way, He has come among us as our feast and holy days as well.  The blessed Apostle says of Him who was awaited: Christ has been sacrificed as our Passover.  It was Christ who shed His light on the psalmist as he prayed: You are my joy, deliver me from those surrounding me. 

True joy, genuine festival, 

means the casting out of wickedness.  

To achieve this one must live a life 

of perfect goodness and, 

in the serenity of the fear of God, 

practice contemplation in one’s heart.

This was the way of the saints, who in their lifetime and at every stage of life rejoiced as at a feast.  Blessed David, for example, not once but seven times rose at night to win God’s favor through prayer.  The great Moses was full of joy as he sang God’s praises in hymns of victory for the defeat of Pharaoh and the oppressors of the Hebrew people.  Others had hearts filled always with gladness as they performed their sacred duty of worship, like the great Samuel and the blessed Elijah.  Because of their holy lives they gained freedom, and now keep festival in heaven.  They rejoice after their pilgrimage in shadows, and now distinguish the reality from the promise.

When we celebrate the feast in our own day, what path are we to take?  As we draw near to this feast, who is to be our guide?  Beloved, it must be none other than Jesus Christ.  He says: I am the way.  As blessed John tells us: it is Christ who takes away the sin of the world. It is He who purifies our souls, as the prophet Jeremiah says: Stand upon the ways; look and see which is the good path, and you will find in it the way of amendment for your souls.

In former times the blood of goats and the ashes of a calf were sprinkled on those who were unclean, but they were able to purify only the body.  Now through the grace of God’s Word everyone is made abundantly clean.  

If we follow Christ closely, we shall be allowed, even on this earth, to stand as it were on the threshold of the heavenly Jerusalem, and enjoy the contemplation of that everlasting feast, like the blessed apostles, who in following the Savior as their leader, showed, and still show, the way to obtain the same gift from God.  

They said: See, we have left all things and followed You. We too follow the Lord, and we keep His feast by deeds rather than by words.

St. Joseph, A sermon by St. Bernadine of Siena

St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus

The Faithful Foster-Father and Guardian

From a sermon by Saint Bernadine of Siena, priest

There is a general rule concerning all special graces granted to any human being.  Whenever the divine favor chooses someone to receive a special grace, or to accept a lofty vocation God adorns the person chosen with all the gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill the task at hand.

This general rule is especially verified in the case of Saint Joseph, the foster-father of Our Lord and the husband of the Queen of our world, enthroned above the angels.  He was chosen by the eternal Father as the trustworthy guardian and protector of His greatest treasures, namely, His divine Son and Mary, Joseph’s wife.  He carried out this vocation with complete fidelity until at last God called him, saying: Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.

What then is Joseph’s position in the whole Church of Christ?  Is he not a man chosen and set apart?  Through him and, yes, under him, Christ was fittingly and honorably introduced into the world.  Holy Church in its entirety is indebted to the Virgin Mother because through her it was judged worthy to receive Christ.  But after her we undoubtedly owe special gratitude and reverence to Saint Joseph.

In him the Old Testament finds its fitting close.  

He brought the noble line of patriarchs and prophets 

to its promised fulfillment.  

What the divine goodness had offered 

as a promise to them, he held in his arms.

St. Joseph and Child Jesus

Obviously, Christ does not now deny to Joseph that intimacy, reverence and very high honor which He gave him on earth, as a son to his father.  Rather we must say that in heaven Christ completes and perfects all that he gave at Nazareth.

Now we and see how the last summoning words of the Lord appropriately apply to Saint Joseph: Enter into the joy of your Lord.  In fact, although the joy of eternal happiness enters into the soul of a man, the Lord preferred to say to Joseph: Enter into joy.  His intention was that the words should have a hidden spiritual meaning for us.  They convey not only that this holy man possesses an inward joy, but also that it surrounds him and engulfs him like an infinite abyss.

Remember us, Saint Joseph, and plead for us to your foster-child.  Ask your most holy bride, the Virgin Mary, to look kindly upon us, since she is the mother of Him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns eternally.  Amen.

St. Augustine commentary on the Passion of Christ

The Passion of the Whole Body of Christ

From the commentary on the Psalms 

by Saint Augustine, bishop

Lord, I have cried to you, hear me. This is a prayer we can all say.  This is not my prayer, but that of the whole Christ.  Rather, it is said in the name of His Body.

Christ's Agony in the Garden

When Christ was on earth He prayed in His human nature, and prayed to the Father in the name of His Body, and when He prayed drops of blood flowed from His whole body.  So it is written in the Gospel: Jesus prayed with earnest prayer, and sweated blood.  What is this blood streaming from His whole body but the martyrdom of the whole Church?

Lord, I have cried to you, hear me; listen to the sound of my prayer, when I call upon you.

Did you imagine that crying was over when you said: I have cried to you? You have cried out, but do not as yet feel free from care.  

If anguish is at an end, crying is at an end; 

but if the Church, the Body of Christ, 

must suffer anguish until the end of time, 

it must not say only: 

I have cried to you, hear me; 

it must also say: 

Listen to the sound of my prayer, when I call upon You.

Prayer rises to heaven as incense

Let my prayer rise 

like incense in your sight; 

let the raising of my hands 

be an evening sacrifice.

This is generally understood of Christ, the head, as every Christian acknowledges.  When day was fading into evening, the Lord laid down His life on the cross, to take it up again; He did not lose His life against His Will.  

Here, too, we are symbolized.  What part of Him hung on the cross if not the part He had received from us?  

How could God the Father ever cast off and abandon His only Son, Who is indeed one God with Him?  

Yet Christ, nailing our weakness to the cross (where, as the Apostle says: Our old nature was nailed to the cross with Him), cried out with the very voice of our humanity: humanity: My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?

The evening sacrifice is then the passion of the Lord, the cross of the Lord, the oblation of the victim that brings salvation, the holocaust acceptable to God.  In His resurrection He made this evening sacrifice a morning sacrifice.  

Prayer offered 

in holiness 

from a 

faithful heart 

rises 

like incense 

from a holy altar.  

Nothing is more fragrant 

than the fragrance of the Lord.  

May all who believe share in this fragrance.

Therefore, our old nature, in the words of the Apostle, was nailed to the cross with Him, in order, as he says, to destroy our sinful body, so that we may be slaves to sin no longer.

Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours Tuesday, 2nd Week of Lent

 

St. Augustine,  354 –  430 AD