Paschal Triduum 2014

Holy Thursday

As we begin our celebration of the greatest of all feasts allow me first to remind you that we are celebrating an anniversary.  This is not a simple commemoration but an anniversary.  We can commemorate something anytime of the year – we can commemorate the death of a loved one anytime of the year or a wedding anytime we like.  But to celebrate it as an anniversary we have to more or less approximate it to the exact day and time it happened.  It may not be very precise but it has to come approximately within the time it happened.  What are these anniversaries which we are celebrating beginning today?

From the Jews, our elder brothers in the faith, we celebrate three anniversaries:  first, the anniversary of the Passover with its Passover meal, second, the anniversary of the creation of the world, and third, the anniversary of the entry of the chosen people into the Promised Land when they were finally allowed to cross over the river Jordan. 

It was however when the Jews were celebrating these anniversaries more than 2,000 years ago that the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus also happened, thereby augmenting, and even replacing and superseding the anniversaries that they, the Jews, celebrated.  Now as followers of Jesus, we celebrate the Passover with its meal, however this time with Jesus as the Paschal Lamb, with the Eucharist replacing the bread of affliction. 

Secondly, we are celebrating on these three days no longer just the anniversary of the creation of the world but the anniversary of its re-creation, the day when Jesus made us a new creation with his death on the cross. 

And finally with the resurrection of Jesus we celebrate the anniversary of our crossing over the waters baptism, from the slavery of sin to the land of promise in order to live in the freedom of the sons and daughters of God. 

This is what we are celebrating as an anniversary and it is good to be conscious of these anniversaries as we go through the celebrations in these three most sacred days.  Again allow me to remind you that these are not separate anniversaries but one single anniversary which will take us three days to finish.

Today we begin with the celebration of the anniversary of the Passover Meal with Jesus as our paschal lamb and it might be good to begin this by talking about food and meals.  What makes food taste good?  What is good food?  My brothers cook very well.  I can attest to that and people can attest to that.  But when I go home on many occasions I am served, or should I say I prefer to be served with home cooked food.  Sometimes these will be slipped surreptitiously on my plate, sometimes quite openly for all to see but only for me to touch.  Are they better tasting food?  For me, yes.  And what made them better tasting food?  Ingredients, spices, timing, sauces?  No.  Memories.  They taste good because they taste familiar and they taste familiar because they bring memories.  Consciously and sometimes unconsciously, there are food that are eaten because of the memories they evoke.

Our first and second readings are examples of these meals.  In our first reading God commanded the Jews to eat the Passover meal yearly to remember the sufferings and afflictions they endured in the land of slavery and how the Lord saved them by passing over their houses.  This is the Passover meal, the supper that Jesus ate with his disciples.   

In our second reading Jesus, as recalled by Paul, commanded his disciples to celebrate this meal of bread and wine in his memory, to remember the bitter affliction that he underwent that we might be saved from our sins.  This supper is the Eucharist, the supper that we the disciples of Jesus now partake.

These are meals that continue to be celebrated even today because of the memories they bring, and they are not just any memories.  Specifically, they are memories of suffering, affliction, pain, betrayal, loss and the hope of salvation.

Why is this so?  Why is our meal of memory one of affliction and suffering?  Do we not have better memories to remember about Jesus, more happy memories to celebrate about his life?  Why would God make us recall, why would God want us to remember suffering, loss, betrayal and pain? 

I believe this is because of what suffering does to us.  When we recall our past and talk about them we don’t only recall our happiness.  We also recall and talk about our ordeals and difficulties, and if you notice, we always talk about these in a more profound way.  Why, because we feel formed by suffering.  We are ennobled by suffering.  We are shaped by suffering.

When we suffer sickness or when we suffer a loss, we are thrust into another part of ourselves that we thought was never there, and we are forced to confront the fact that there are things that we cannot control and determine. In suffering, people find that they are not who they believed themselves to be.  Try as I might, I can’t tell myself to stop feeling pain. Try as I might, I cannot stop missing someone who has just died.   And when relief comes, it is not even clear where it comes from and how it came about.  Suffering makes us always aware that we are part of a larger, much wider providence that directs our lives. 

Most of us do not come out of our suffering healed, but we do come out different, we come out different, we come out called to something higher.

This is what the memories of this meal which is the Eucharist evoke in us.  It makes us aware of what suffering does to us, how difficulties transform us, how pain ennobles us. Loving too will always be difficult, washing each other’s feet will always entail swallowing one’s pride, and stooping down to a level which may well be beyond us.  But as always it is not what we do that makes us good, but it is what suffering and difficulties do to us that make us into the persons God wants us to become.

Good Friday

In this second day of re-living an anniversary, we focus our hearts and minds on the self-offering of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, so that on the day when the Jews were celebrating the anniversary of the creation of the world, Jesus re-created the world by his passion and death.  Jesus created the world anew when he suffered and died on the cross. 

Rightly then Jesus is called by St. Paul as the new Adam or the second Adam.  Just as the old Adam brought sin into the world by his disobedience, so the new Adam, Jesus, brought redemption and restored grace by his obedience.  Later the Fathers of the Church would attach to the new Adam the new Eve, the church, born at the side of Christ.  In the same way that Eve was made from the side of Adam while he was sleeping, so the New Eve, the Church, was borne out of the side of Christ, the new Adam, while he was sleeping on the cross.  From his side flowed blood and water, St. John said.  Blood and water are symbols of the church, the new Eve.  And this New Eve will become the mother of all the living.  We are all children of the New Eve, we are all children of the church through baptism and the Eucharist, we are the new man and the new woman born from the side of Christ when he died on that first Good Friday afternoon.   This is what we celebrate today.  We have to measure this day through a complicated formula of equinoxes and full moons, using both lunar, solar and the seasonal cyclic positions of the earth vis-à-vis the sun, because we want to get in touch with that very day when the world was created by God, and recreated by Christ re-creating the old world into the new heavens and the new earth.

Yesterday we affirmed the power of suffering and sacrifice, of what it can do for us, of what it can make us.  Our first reading today underlines the fact in the life of the suffering servant that suffering can heal another, pain can transform, that the door to new life is weakness and vulnerability.  Our second reading today presents the example of Jesus, when the letter to the Hebrews says, that he was made perfect because of what he suffered, and because of what he suffered, he became the source of eternal salvation.  In Jesus the cross became the way of suffering love.

This is how we were re-created, this is how we became the new man and the new woman in Jesus – we were re-created by his act of suffering love on the cross. 

This then is the invitation.  We can only become the new creation, we can only usher in the new heavens and the new earth when we are willing to embrace vulnerability and weakness, when we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the consequences of suffering love. 

For many, forgiveness is weak, revenge and getting even is power.  In the new creation we go the way of weakness, we go through the difficult task of forgiving, of swallowing one’s pride and even self-worth. 

For many, giving, sharing is a waste, accumulating is security, hoarding is taking precautions and making self-assurances.  In the new creation we go through the way of generosity and sharing, we go the way of detachment, trusting in God’s loving providence.

For many of us control is important, the need to determine outcome is important, we want to be in total control of our lives and even the lives of our children, and we thought we have all our bases covered.  But many times in the new creation we are called upon to let go, to learn to embrace failures and defeat and to face the harsh reality that not everything works according to plan.
We are sons and daughters of the new Eve born out of the blood and water that gushed forth from the side of Christ, the New Adam, as he slept the sleep on the cross.  Our God is a Good Friday God and we affirm that only a suffering God can save and only suffering love can recreate us anew.

Paschal Vigil

Today is the third and last day of our celebration.  We have completed the celebration of the   anniversaries of the greatest moments of our faith.  We have celebrated on Holy Thursday the anniversary of the Passover Meal with Jesus as the Paschal Lamb.  Yesterday, on Good Friday, we have celebrated the anniversary of the creation and re-creation of the world in Christ, the new Adam.  We have revisited the day when from the side of Christ, dead on the cross, we became the new man and the new woman, transformed by his suffering love.

Today, on the vigil of Holy Saturday, to culminate these great anniversaries, we celebrate the crossing over to the Land of Promise.  Like the chosen people of old we leave behind the slavery of Egypt which is the slavery to sin and the seemingly aimless wanderings in the desert, to finally cross the waters so as to live in freedom.  This crossing over, our crossing over is marked by the resurrection of Jesus. 

St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians calls the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits.  Curiously Paul does not call it the end, or the final moment or the culmination of a life or a graduation to something.  Rather he calls it the first fruits.   When a tree bears fruit it has come to the fulfilment of all its potential as a fruit tree.  It has reached its full purpose.  It has finally succeeded in becoming what it should be from the time it was a seed, to the time it became a sapling, to the time it became a tree.  Jesus has reached that full stature, that full potential of his humanity and his incarnation.  Thus his resurrection is the fruit, and it is the first, for ours will follow his. In Jesus death is no longer the end for in Jesus the resurrection becomes the completion, the fulfilment and the realization of the full potential of human life – it is the fruit. 

So what is the invitation for us now?  How can we experience the resurrection of Jesus?

When Fr. Ronald said mass at the wake of my mother in our home he asked those who attended the mass kon sin-o sa ila ang luyag magpalangit.  Of course sin-o abi sa aton ang indi luyag magpalangit.  Duha man lang na ang pilili-an mo, indi bala?  - mapalangit ka ukon mapaimpierno.  So, ang tanan siempre luyag magpalangit.  Pero siling niya, antes kita magpalangit dapat anay kita mapatay, so sin-o ang luyag mapatay?  Wala na may luyag.  But we need to die if we want to rise again.  This will always be the pattern of our crossing over – we need to die in order to live.  And to experience the resurrection, this crossing over while I am still alive something in me has to die.

Allow me to share something personal.  They say that the best example for something is one’s own experience.  My mother died just last month and for several weeks after I was quiet listless, sometimes thinking that I was only dreaming all these series of events.  It was only in this holy week that I begun to order my thoughts and put things in a perspective.  In doing so I realize that it was not only my mother who died but also part of me was dying beginning when she was hospitalized last February.

When she was confined in the ICU for what was a mild stroke I noticed that she could no longer remember certain things.  And so I asked her, Ma, kilala mo ko?  She said huo e, kilala ta ka.  Ti ma, sin-o ako?  Gintulok niya ako sing madugay kag nagsiling.  Si Fr. Kenneth ka.  (Si Fr. Kenneth by the way is the chaplain of the hospital.)  So siling ko sa iya, Ma indi ako si Fr. Kenneth, si Fr. Andy ako.  But she insisted, indi a, si Fr. Kenneth ka.  Ma si Fr. Andy gani ako.  And the next reply is the bombshell.  She said, Indi ka ya si Fr. Andy kay ka gwapo sa imo.  Bombshell.  Bisan tuod nagatalikod sila bal-an ko gid nga pati ang mga nurses utoy-utoy kadlaw.

In this particular episode of my life this was the first dying.  It dawned on me.  One day we will forget.  One day we will be forgotten.  Even the good that we do, even the good that was done to us.  Even our mothers will forget us.  Many times we have this indecent preoccupation on how we would want to be remembered, how we want to be known, the achievements that we need to do to reach recognition so that we can be immortalized.  But then one day, we will be forgotten.  And worst, one day we will forget.  Then I realized the truth of the prophet Isaiah.  Can a mother forget her child, even so, the Lord will not forget.  Only the Lord remembers, forever, only the Lord.  If the Lord alone remembers forever then I should only work to be remembered by the Lord.  That is the first dying and rising.

The second death happened when we were so secure that she would go home after a month in the hospital.  My brothers and sister had the house repaired, she had a new room with a garden, she had a hospital bed, the wheel chair had been ordered, a ramp had been made, her nursing aid had just been hired.  Then when we were about to go home she died.  We were so sure, we had plans, and worst for my personal neglect to her through all these years, I planned to makeup; I planned to go home at least twice weekly and even to say mass to her every Sunday.  But that was not to be.  We go through these situations every now and then in our lives.  We don’t want this and yet it happens, we avoided it and yet we encounter the very thing we were trying to avoid; we asked and prayed fervently for something and yet the opposite happens; we planned for this and that, and in an instant those plans were completely changed.

It is in situations like this that God allows us to come to terms with what we don’t want, with what we don’t want to undergo or even face.  It is in situations like this that God gently coaxes us to accept a change of plan.  It is in situations like this that God widens our horizon to the possibilities of his will and purpose for each one of us.  That was the second dying and rising.

There are still other dying and it is ongoing.  I have to go through all these because this is the only way I can rise again, this is the only way I can cross the water.  You have also your own stories – stories of suffering love, stories that brought death to some part of you so that you may be transformed, so that you may be resurrected.  Christ is risen, alleluia, alleluia.  Death, dying is not the end.  The resurrection is the fruit and so we become complete when we rise and live again.  Amen.

Easter Sunday Morn

The holy week is celebrated at a time when the day is getting longer and the night is getting shorter.  The holy week is celebrated at a time when the night is brighter because of the presence of the full moon.  The holy week is celebrated at a time when the moon rises even before the sun sets, and the sun rises even before the moon sets – thus it is celebrated when there is an uninterrupted succession of sun and moon.  And so because of this the light of the sun during the holy week intermingles with the light of the moon.  It is always brighter when we are in the Holy Week.  Do you know that? 

When I say this during seminars on the church calendar, all of a sudden people start noticing saying, ay tuod no, ay amo na gali, ay tingala ko man.  Many of us especially us city dwellers no longer notice the sky and the sun and the moon and the stars.  Our eyes are glued on our televisions and on our computer screens.  But in ancient times from which these ancient rituals begun, nature was a sign and even the place itself of divine intervention and of human encounter with God.  We encounter God in the changing of seasons, God intervenes in our lives through water and fire, we are catechized by the moon, the signs in nature make it easier for us to understand God, and enable us to relate with God and God with us.

This is nature’s message during the holy week.  We are no longer sons and daughters of darkness but of light.  Just as there is an uninterrupted succession of the sun’s and the moon’s light our life must be fully lived in the light without any mixture of darkness.  Wala sang bisan isa lang ka minuto nga nadulman ang kalibutan, tungod kay wala pa gani nakapanaog ang adlaw nagsaka na ang bulan, kag wala pa gani nakapanaog ang bulan nagsaka na ang adlaw.  Tani siling sang mga santo amo man ina ang aton kalag, wala sing instance nga nadulman, wala sing corner ukon bahin nga may kadulom.  It is all in the light, no longer made upo f the yeast of malice and  wickedness.

In our gospel today Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning while it was still dark.  It was still dark but there was already the promise of the morning.  Naga-agaw-agaw ang kasanag kag ang kadulom.  Siling sang mga tigulang amo ini ang tigpululi sang mga tamawo.  Sa ciudad damo tamawo, naagahan sa diskohan.

But you see the play of contrast in the gospel – the scene at the time of the resurrection – light and darkness are struggling, pulling and pushing each other.  In the gospel last night the beloved disciple on seeing the linens lying on the floor saw and believed – he saw and he believed.  Peter saw the same thing but he remained quiet.  Mary Magdalene saw but she interpreted it differently saying that somebody stole the body of Jesus.  Darkness and light are still struggling, as faith and doubt do, belief and incredulity, certainty and skepticism.  Many times ang aton pagtuo kasubong pa sini.  There are those among us who are strong in faith, there are those who are still struggling and there are those nga sala-sala man sa gihapon.  Peter took some time to believe.  Mary Magdalene need to be called by name kay pati si Jesus ginhimo niya hardinero kag ginsal-an pa niya nga nagkawat sang bangkay ni Jesus.  Sige lang. This is our situation, like the personages in the gospel each of us is struggling at different levels, at different capacities.

Resurrexit sicut dixit.  This the Latin of our prayer and greeting today.  He has risen as he has said.  Our faith in the resurrection is not just he is risen.  Our faith is he is risen as he has said – sicut dixit.  And what does that show - Jesus is reliable.  He promised that he will rise and he did.  Jesus promised too that he would have us rise from our graves.  We will also share in his triumph, one day we will share in his victory, we will share in his life.  Jesus is reliable because resurrexit sicut dixit, he has risen as he has said.