There are many scenes in the Passion account from the Gospel of
Matthew which we have just proclaimed. This year, a particular scene keeps
recurring to me. The scene is not on Golgotha, but in Jerusalem, in the Temple.
The time in at 3 in the afternoon at the moment that Jesus dies. The readings
said that there was an earthquake, and the curtain of the Temple was torn in
two. What was this curtain, and how is its tearing significant? The
curtain was the barrier between the Holy of Holies representing where God dwelt
and the rest of the Temple representing where man dwelt. When Jesus died on the
Cross, the barrier between God and man was destroyed. The Holy of Holies was
also the place of the major sacrifices of the year, mostly slaughtered animals.
There would no longer be a reason for man to make burnt offerings. Jesus’
sacrifice made these types of sacrifices absurd. In fact, there would no longer
be a need for a Temple. For now,
God’s People, united to Christ, would be the Temple.
The Passion reading began with Jesus proclaiming a new
covenant that was being made between God and man, a covenant of blood made by
His sacrifice. It is easy to get caught up in the emotions of Passion Sunday
and of Good Friday. We want to feel
sorry for Jesus suffering as He did. But He does not want our sympathy. He
wants our union with Him in a world transformed by His Love, sacrificial love.
He wants our fidelity to the New Covenant.
So this week, Holy Week, we focus on our sharing in the
Blood of the New Covenant, our sharing in the sacrifice that formed a new
temple, our place in the People of God.
Let us unite our heart to the hearts of the whole Church on Thursday evening as we celebrate the solemn
Mass of the Lord’s Supper, on Good
Friday, the most solemn day of the year –a day of fasting and abstinence, a
day of prayer- with the beautiful Liturgy of the Veneration of the Cross: The
Tree of the Cross is a Tree of Life, not a tree of death. On Easter Sunday we will celebrate that
the fruit of the cross is the Life of the Lord, given to the world in general
and to each of us in particular at our baptism.
My prayer today is that we all have a real Holy Week and may
we discover that Our Lord wants our union with Him in a world transformed by
His Love, sacrificial love. He wants our fidelity to the New Covenant ■
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