visible rhetoric

Holy Thursday              With this mass we end the season of Lent, and at this time, we start the very purpose of Lent.  This feast is called the Paschal Triduum.  The Paschal Triduum is the feast of all feasts.  It is the solemnity of all solemnities.  In fact it is so great a feast that it took us 40 days to prepare for it in Lent, and later it will take us another 50 days to celebrate it in Easter, and now it will take us 3 days to commemorate starting with this mass.  That is how big the paschal triduum is - imagine a feast that will take us three days to finish from Holy Thursday and Good Friday, from Good Friday to Black Saturday and from the vigil of Black Saturday flowing unto  Easter Sunday.  Thus, it is called the Triduum.              Paschal comes from the Greek word pesach or pascha in Latin ukon sa binisaya, paskwa.  Ugaling ang bisaya daw nag-lain ang kah...

I am required to do two homilies today, at least two short ones.  This is the first and this is done outside the church to remember the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem. This is done just before we re-enact this triumphant entry with palm branches and hymns of Hosanna.  The other homily will be done inside the church to remember the passion of the Lord, that is, his suffering and death on the cross.  So we have two shouts today.  A crowd will shout to the top of their voice, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Then not so long later another shout will ensue, “crucify him, crucify him.”  SO which is which - is it a hosanna or is it a crucify him?  If it is confusing to our hearing today, it must have been even more confusing to the crowd in Jesus’ time who shouted and demanded two extremely opposite and contrary things.  When I was a seminarian somebody in the community proposed to name our semi...