Category: Bible Reading & Meditation
“I had rather one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” –Psalm 84:11 The first Holy Saturday was a day without Jesus. He was buried in the tomb and, because of the sabbath, His body could not be anointed (Lk 23:56—24:1) or possibly even visited (Mt 28:1). Today the Church relives that first Holy Saturday without Jesus. The Blessed Sacrament does not reside in the tabernacle today. There is no Mass during the day. We identify with Jesus buried in the tomb (see Rm 6:3-4). Mary Magdalene spent the first Holy Saturday waiting. She longed for the day to...
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“He became the Source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.” –Hebrews 5:9 When we venerate the cross today and kiss the wounds of Jesus, may we be totally committed to Him, repentant of all sins, and zealous for everyone to know our crucified Savior’s love. If obedience, repentance, and evangelization are not our responses to Jesus’ sacrificial death, the cross of Christ is “rendered void of its meaning” (1 Cor 1:17). The Lord wants us to leave church today willing to suffer anything so as to lead as many as possible to Jesus (1 Cor 9:19). After what...
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“As I have done, so you must do.” –John 13:15 The night before He died, the Lord instituted the way He would remain with us forever. He could have remained with us in awesome majesty, in fire and cloud, as He did with the Israelites (Ex 19:16ff; 40:34-38). Instead, Jesus set aside His majesty and humbled Himself (Phil 2:6-8). He decided to remain with us in His Eucharistic Body and Blood. Jesus’ Last Supper took place on the eve of the Jewish feast of Passover. The first Passover brought freedom from physical slavery and from the tyranny of Pharaoh (Ex...
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“From that time on [Judas] kept looking for an opportunity to hand [Jesus] over.” –Matthew 26:16 Judas Iscariot spent some of Holy Week with his eyes fixed on Jesus (Heb 3:1; 12:2). But Judas wasn’t watching Jesus for the purpose of growing as His disciple, though outwardly Judas was an apostle. In fact, Judas was apparently a powerful enough apostle that when Jesus mentioned at the Last Supper that one of the Twelve would betray Him, none of the other eleven disciples thought to accuse Judas of being that betrayer. Instead, they considered themselves more likely to be the betrayer,...
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“No sooner had Judas eaten the morsel than he went out. It was night.” –John 13:30 Jesus died during a darkening of the sun (Mk 15:33). Jesus died when mid afternoon seemed like midnight. He died because of the night of our sins which the prince of darkness (see Eph 6:12) used to crucify the Light of the world (see Jn 8:12). When we betray, deny, ignore, or disobey Jesus, we turn out our light and enter into the night (Jn 3:19ff). However, when we repent, give ourselves totally to Jesus, and live our Baptisms, we too are the light...
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