“He Loves His Own to
the End” by Beth DeCristofaro
"This day shall
be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with
pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution." (Exodus 12:14)
"This day shall
be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with
pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution." (Exodus 12:14)
Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on
the night he was handed over (said) …
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the
death of the Lord until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-24, 26)
Before the feast of
Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the
Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)
Piety
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
(Psalm
116:12-13)
Study
We have walked with Jesus through Lent much
like the Chosen Twelve. They were and we
are querulous, jealous, forgetful of our pledges, misunderstanding of the signs
we witness, returning again and again to our personal woes and
distractions. But walking on, turning
again and again to ask “what do you mean by this Lord” and “I’ll be with you to
the end, Lord.” We try and we hang in
just as they did.
The Jewish Passover begins tomorrow evening
when Jews celebrate God’s redemption of
His people from slavery in Egypt. We
begin our pass-over by sharing with Jesus the Nazorean through the holy supper
table, through the agony of betrayal and murder during his self sacrifice. We culminate our journey at Jesus the
Christ’s Resurrection and triumph of life over death. We are invited to share in the cross at this
holy meal again and again For as often as
you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until
he comes. We relive the Cross by
dying to ourselves, dying to the choices rooted in temporal rewards, hoping in
the presence of God when mortal life is too hard to bear. He loves us to the end.
Msgr. John McIlhon wrote “Jesus embraced the
discipline of the cross so that human nature might be restored to its original
purpose and plan. Christ was sent to
draw us to the Father. … It is not enough to long for a new center in
one’s life. If repentance is the
decision to arrange one’s life around a new (Jesus) center, then conversion,
with its discipline, is the day-by-day process whereby patterns of living are
rearranged and the aspirations of baptism become a reality.” [i]
Lent has been an opportunity to make this passage to the new center. The disciplines of Lent, the disciplines of
conversion, can continue to center us in Jesus who loves us to the end.
Action
Practice the discipline of being on the
lookout today for moments in which Jesus invites you to partake in the feast of
his body and blood by what you encounter and who enters your environment. By our actions and responses what do we say
to Him?
At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, what will
you intend as you accept the cross bearing his body and blood through the taste
of bread and wine?
[i]
From “Give us This Day Daily Prayer for Today’s Catholic”, March 2018,
Liturgical Press, pp. 314-315.
No comments:
Post a Comment