Monthly Archives: March 2017

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

The Lord says this:  I am now going to open your graves;  I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and led you back to the soil of Israel … And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live … “ (Ezek. 37:12 ff)

Jesus cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!”  The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with strips of material and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’ (Jn. 11:43)

In Jesus’ raising of Lazarus to new life we see the prophecy of Ezekiel being fulfilled:         ‘I shall raise you from you graves … and you will live’.    

The story of Lazarus is a story of a man with a real identity: he is the brother of Martha and Mary and a close friend of Jesus.  It is a story about sickness and death, sadness and joy.  It is a story about dying and coming back to life. 

It is also a story that points to us being unbound from our sins, from all that estranges us from God and separates us from our neighbours. It is a story of being unbound from our fears and doubts and from all the things which prevent us from being our true selves.  It is a story of stepping over the bindings, being freed from death (- the death of sin -) and standing in the light of the Lord and walking with newness of life. 

Didn’t Jesus say to his Apostles, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Mt.18:18)?   So, whenever we repent and confess our sins to a priest who is acting in persona Christi, we will hear those words of “loosening” and “freedom”:    ‘I absolve you of your sins …’  And in hearing those words, Jesus’ command to unbind Lazarus and set him free, become a reality in our own lives.

Let us examine our consciences.  Let us examine our lives and ask the Lord: ‘Lord, how have I offended you?’  ‘Lord, tell me what are the sins that I have committed which have bound me and kept me in darkness?’ 

Fr Philip Sainter

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Some Signs and Symbols of Passiontide and Holy Week

As we are nearing Passiontide and the celebration of the Sacred Triduum, it is good for us to consider the meaning of some of the liturgical signs and symbols we will encounter during this period in the church and during the ceremonies.

Firstly from the Fifth Sunday of Lent, it is traditional to veil the statues, pictures and crucifixes in the church in purple with the exception of the Stations of the Cross. They remain veiled until the uncovering of the principle crucifix during the Sacred Liturgy on Good Friday. According to Abbot Gueranger, “The interpreters of the liturgy tell us that this ceremony of veiling the crucifix during Passiontide, expresses the humiliation to which our Saviour subjected Himself, of hiding Himself when the Jews threatened to stone Him, as is related in the Gospel. ‘They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple (John 8:59)’.”

On Holy Thursday we celebrate the Mass of the Last Supper (Missa in Coena Domini) when Our Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist and ordained the Apostles as His first priests, and so the colour of the Mass is white. Bells are rung at the Gloria and then remain silent until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil. In place of the bells is used a ‘crepitaculum’ or a noisemaker which indicates that this is also a period of mourning for the Church – the night Our Lord was betrayed, abandoned by His disciples and imprisoned before being put to death the next day. Neither is the sign of peace given on this day, since Judas the traitor “profaned the sign of friendship by making it an instrument of death.” Following the procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose, the altars in the church are stripped to show that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is interrupted and will not be offered again until Saturday evening.

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Come to the Source of Life – The Spring of Living Water

Jacob’s Well provides the backdrop for the great Christological and indeed Soteriological insight in today’s gospel passage: the ego eimi / the “I am” of v. 26 and the realisation that Jesus is far greater than Jacob, because he is our Saviour and the source of life.

The well – dating back to Jacob’s time – was right in the middle of Samaritan territory on the western side of the main route north from the Dead Sea to Galilee.  It was about 100 ft deep and required a long rope and bucket to extract the water.  Occasionally though, miraculously, the water would “bubble-up” and overflow the sides of the well.  Lots of people knew of this “so-called miracle” and so it’s of little surprise that Jesus should so readily adopt the phrase (in v 13) ‘the water I will give will “well-up”, “bubble-up” inside you’, for the important truth he wants to impart.  The truth he wants us to hear is this:  He will give living, flowing, effervescent, life-giving water – the kind that purifies and revives (cf Jer. 2:13. 17; Ps 36:8) which is very different from the still, flat, life-less water that we normally associate with cisterns or wells which rely on rain water to fill them. 

And there, at Jacob’s well we hear Jesus offering the Samaritan woman “life-giving water” that will “well-up” and “bubble-up” inside her, satiating her thirst for ever. But it’s important to remember that the woman Jesus is speaking with represents not only the person she is – a woman with a “reputation”! –  but also the whole of humanity. She is a “sinner” in more ways than one and what Jesus offers her, he is also offering to you and me: living–water which will give us new life and purification from our sins. He is offering everyone living, flowing, effervescent, life-giving water – the kind that really and truly purifies and revives (cf  Jer & Ps op cit).

So, come to these waters all who are thirsty.  Come.  Listen now my people, and come to me.  Come to me, and you will have life!  says the Lord. (Is 55:1-4)

Fr Philip Sainter

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Lord Jesus think on me … point thou the heavenly way  

Our Lenten resolutions to live better lives by commitment to prayer, by denying ourselves of luxuries, by restraining from excesses and self-centred behaviour, by being focussed on God’s love for us and translating that love into active love for our neighbour, isn’t as easy or as straightforward as we may have expected!  Neither was Jesus’ forty day “desert experience”!

Abram too was “tested” when God called him to leave his native land, all his property, security and family to journey to an unknown land.  Yet “it was by faith that Abram sojourned in the Promised Land [all the time] looking forward to the well-founded city ( – the heavenly Jerusalem) designed and built by God.” (Heb. 11:8-10)  

As the “children of Abraham” – as God’s adopted sons and daughters – our life’s journey will include moments of darkness and perplexity, testing and transgressions and failures, but also of transcendent, transformative light, happiness, peace and contentment!  This was Jesus’ lesson to his chosen three. 

Lord, strengthen my faith and point thou the heavenly way.
Let me thy loving servant be and taste thy promised rest.
(c.f. Hymn: Lord Jesus think on me, Laudate 204)

Fr Philip Sainter

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FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

As we begin our Lenten journey we remind ourselves that not only is this an important time for prayer, fasting and good works, this season also provides us with the opportunity to reconsider the importance of listening to and meditating on the Word of God in Scripture.

Last Thursday we heard these words:  “I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse.  Choose life, then so that you and your descendants may live … obey [God’s] voice and hold fast to him; for in this life consists.” (Gen 30:15-20)

“In this life consists”: Listening to God’s voice, his word (the words of scripture) and holding fast, holding onto Him !

So, if we wish to live – in the spiritual and physical sense – we have to listen to and receive and ponder God’s Word – his voice – and we have to make it our own, welcoming God’s word into our hearts and speaking of what we have come to know. Have we received that Word today?

The Word of God MUST be deeply rooted in our lives.  It must be in our hearts and minds and on our lips.

May I suggest this thought:  How about us prayerfully reading the scriptures each day of Lent, meditating on them, pondering them, savouring them, recalling a phrase or an image throughout the day.

Fr Philip Sainter

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