Mass was offered this morning at the high altar for the repose of the soul of George Flint (+), and for the his family and friends, those who love him so. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.
As we move closer to Good Friday and Holy Saturday, our minds rest more and more on the extraordinary sufferings of Christ, His Passion. They are extraordinary not because of their own nature and extent, but because of Who He was, Who He claimed to be. For even if our breaking a bone in our bodies is to us a relatively small source of pain discomfort, to Him Who was Life itself, Who was Being itself, it would be a ground-shaking event. And if you consider that, you realise why the Church considers not only his final suffering and death to be redemptive and beneficial to us, but his Life, Death and Resurrection, as we say in the prayer after the Holy Rosary.
Christ compared His own persecution by the religious authorities in Jerusalem to the travails of the Hebrew prophets, who desperately tried to draw the people back to faithfulness to God, and so to draw them back from the suffering their carelessness would bring them.
"'And now, behold, I am sending prophets and wise men and men of learning to preach to you; some of them you will put to death and crucify, some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; so that you will make yourselves answerable for all the blood of just men that is shed on the earth, from the blood of the just Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Believe me, this generation shall be held answerable for all of it. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, still murdering the prophets, and stoning the messengers that are sent to thee, how often have I been ready to gather thy children together, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings; and thou didst refuse it!'" - Gospel of S. Matthew 23: 34-37
Clearly, Christ will soon proceed to sending out Christian prophets and wise men, who will suffer at the hands of his own persecutors, and suffer as he did. And we know how the Church did suffer for years after the Resurrection. The great prophet of lamentation is S. Jeremias, from whom we would hear very much in the next ten days, if we tried to follow the words of the Mass and other services. Our first reading at Mass today was from him and in his voice we hear a distant echo of Christ, for he says:
"For me, danger everywhere; so many crying, Denounce him, and that contemptuous cry echoed by all the companions I trusted, ever at my side: Denounce him we will; he may be fooled yet! Then we can overmaster him, and take our vengeance! But the Lord stands at my side, a strong champion; fall and fail they must, my persecutors, and be disappointed of their hopes; fools, that cannot foresee shame eternal, shame indelible, awaiting them!" - Jeremias 20: 10-11
We can hear the frustration of the prophet in Christ's own experience of persecution in the chapters eight of the Gospel of S. John, which we have had at Mass this week. If you love God, if you were children of Abraham, you would love me, He said, but you are trying to kill me. They were very good at picking up rocks to throw at people they didn't like, those men who hounded Christ. Again they do this, at the top of our Gospel reading today, from chapter ten of the Gospel of S. John. These men were not in darkness about Christ's claim; they were clear that He was identifying Himself as both the Messiah and as being God, and they were trying desperately to have him sentenced to death for blasphemy. Fall they must, His persecutors, and be disappointed of their hopes; fools that cannot foresee the shame they bring upon themselves and their nation. Within forty years of the Ascension of Christ into heaven, Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed and the people of Judaea dispersed all over the known world.
You may find the Mass readings for each day at the excellent website of the Catholic bishops of the United States. If you haven't yet seen the film the Passion of the Christ, see if you can find a recording for next week. It is, be forewarned, quite realistic and can be disturbing indeed, but even children watch worse things these days in horror films and while playing video games.
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