Some thoughts for this Sunday
This Sunday we read the Passion of the Lord from Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew depicts the loneliness of Christ on the cross. The crowd gathered there jeer at Him, mock Him and taunt Him. For them, the fact He is on the cross is a sign of failure. Even Christ’s words on the cross seem to confirm their view: ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’
Yet Matthew indicates that something very different is going on. At the moment of Christ’s death, he writes, “Jesus yielded up his spirit.”
Jesus doesn’t just pass away on the cross; death doesn’t just happen to Him. He gives Himself up completely. He willingly breathes forth His spirit – and He has done this not to stop the suffering He is going through, but rather to bring it to completion.
St. Paul writes: “For the sake of the joy which was still in the future, Jesus endured the cross, disregarding the shamefulness of it.” In other words, he actively engaged in the whole of His suffering and death on the cross for the sake of the joy which lay ahead. What was that joy? Well, here it would be worth looking at those words that Jesus cries out on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” Jesus was, as you know, quoting Psalm 21.
Why not have a look at it in your bible today? You will find that it is a complete prophecy of the death of Christ.
When Jesus said those words on the cross He wasn’t crying out in some kind of despair. He was living out the words in the Psalm that prophesied this death. The Psalm passes from words of pain and desolation to words of triumph, of exaltation and resurrection:
I will tell of your name to my brethren
and praise you where they are assembled. (v.23)
All the earth shall remember and return to the Lord. (v.28)
Here is the joy that lies in the future: Jesus will assemble all His brothers and sisters around Him and the whole world will return to the Lord.
The word for “the assembly” of His brothers and sisters is the word we use for the Church. We - the Church – we are the joy which lay in the future; we are the joy for whose sake Christ yielded up His life on the cross. We are His brothers and sisters not because we belong to the same nation but because we are assembled by Christ and joined to Him through our faith and baptism. The Mass is the great moment when the Church, the being assembled by Christ, happens most of all.
At the moment we are unable to be physically at Mass. But each time it is celebrated, we are there spiritually, and we are assembled together by Christ. Presently we are participating spiritually. Maybe we are learning a little more how to participate not just externally at Mass but internally as well – offering our lives and selves together with Christ, worshiping in spirit and in truth.
We all look forward to the joy of being assembled again at Mass physically. Hopefully this lockdown is helping us to renew our appreciation of the importance of the Mass for our lives. The Mass is the joy which lay in the future for Jesus. Every time we are there, we take part in the offering of Himself that He made on Calvary – and we receive Him in Holy Communion: the whole Christ, the real Christ.
Maybe we do not find much joy in this lockdown. But we can look forward to the joy of being freed from it and of being able to come to the Mass again to participate fully. Like Jesus, we can endure this time of isolation and make it our offering in love to the Lord: our worship, our sacrifice. All for the joy that lies in the future. That joy will come. That joy is Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus.
Fr. Patrick
Holy Week Liturgies Available Online
The Cathedral Clergy will celebrate Mass in the Cathedral on Palm Sunday and next week on Easter Sunday. You can attend Mass with us virtually either on the Cathedral website or on Facebook page (@edinburghcathedral). Father Jamie will celebrate Mass online on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week and you can participate spiritually in these Masses again on either our website or our Facebook page.
The Archbishop will celebrate the Easter Triduum from his Chapel at St Bennett’s. The liturgies for Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil will be available on the Archdiocesan Website.
During Holy Week, the Cathedral Clergy will also be offering short daily reflections on the readings of the day in order to help you to stay in touch with the liturgy and to remain spiritually united with the Parish. Please visit the Cathedral Website or Facebook page to listen to them.
☎️ Telephone Apostolate ☎️
The programme, sponsored by the Parish Councils of the Cathedral and St Andrew’s, Ravelston, is up and running since the 1st of April. We already have a team of 47 volunteers from both churches. Chris McCabe, our Safeguarding co-ordinator, has been working hard to get all of the volunteers not already registered and approved onto our system, since the Catholic Church’s strong commitment to safeguarding continues also during this time. If you also would like to volunteer, please contact the Parish Office.
We have already contacted many of our parishioners at home and many more will be added in the coming weeks as they programme develops. If you are at home, self-isolating or feeling lonely and would like to receive a friendly call from one of our volunteers, then please let us know.
Or perhaps you have a relative or friend whom you think would benefit from such a call? Please pass on that information through the parish website or via the Parish Office.
Although we cannot meet face to face during this time, we hope that this apostolate will become an important way for us to stay in touch with each other. We believe that God can make all things new and create good even out of evil. Hopefully this time offers all of us an opportunity to grow closer together as a parish community.
Preparing Your Children Spiritually for Easter
The Catechetics Commission at the Archdiocese has put together an excellent daily guide to help families prepare their children spiritually for Easter, find it here.
Cathedral E-Newsletter
Join hundreds of Cathedral parishioners and friends of the Cathedral across the world in receiving the latest Cathedral news and spiritual reflections straight to your inbox. Since the Cathedral closed, we are contacting our parishioners more frequently by email as a vital means of staying in touch with our community. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of any page of the Cathedral website.