The Catholic Church in East St. James Parish

Our world feels overwhelmed with evil and sin, but God sent His Son to recreate our lives and world in self-sacrificing love.  He asks us to receive and to share that love.

view the video: Fr Vincent's reflections on Monday of Holy Week

read his reflections:

Monday of Holy Week 2020

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

The Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

           the Love of God our Father

           and the Communion of the Holy Spirit

           be with you all.

Thank you for coming back for another video reflection for Holy Week.  If you missed Saturday or Sunday’s video, you can find them on the Cluster website.  You might want to watch them in sequence, if you can.

Let us begin with the Our Father.  Our Father who art in heaven . . . .

We start today with the Opening Prayer for the Mass for Monday of Holy Week: 

             Grant, we pray, almighty God,

             that, though in weakness we fail,

             we may be revived through the Passion of your 

             Only Begotten Son.

             Who lives and reigns with you in the unity

             of the Holy Spirit,

             one God, for ever and ever.

Now, let us listen to the First Reading of Monday’s Mass, taken from the Prophet Isaiah.  If you want to look it up in your Bible and follow along, it is Isaiah 42:1-7, (please read the scripture before continuing).

God created humanity as an act of love.  And He gave us this world in which to receive and share His love.  However, sin entered through the self-centeredness, the selfishness of humanity.  Sin is our refusal to conform our will to the Will of God – we’ve all been there.  Praise God, because that is not the final word.

Jesus entered this world, filled with sin and death, to recreate us in God’s love.  His Passion, His self-sacrifice in the face of worldly selfishness teaches us the power of God’s love even today.  Jesus asks us to choose this self-giving love over our earth-bound concerns which limit us and add to our own suffering and that of others.  When we choose to follow Jesus, we leave the selfishness of this world behind and embrace a vision of God’s presence and generosity.  Of course, the world will continue to beat us down – it did that to Jesus – but God’s loving presence will help us to persevere through whatever this world tries to do to us.

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How has this pandemic spread?  Good people, like me and you, failing to heed the warnings; we have failed to take all the necessary precautions.  There are few malicious people intent on doing harm.  It’s just a lot of self-absorbed people choosing their own freedom and comfort without considering the impact on others.  With the love and grace of God, we can turn this around.

What does God ask of us?  Stop holding on to this world as if this is all that matters.  Make the sacrifices we are called on to make now for the love of others.  Someone sent me a short video of a guy going to a store only to find everything he wanted to buy gone.  In desperation, he asked people as they exited the store if they could share any of their purchases; he went home with everything he needed!  Not that I recommend doing this, but it proves we know how to love, to sacrifice, and to share.

Look at those who risk their own lives to care for our needs, from the medical professionals on the “front lines” fighting against this disease, to the store clerks exposing themselves to so many people, just so we can overstock on hand sanitizer and toilet paper!

Holy Week is a chance to experience the sacrificial love of Jesus and accept the opportunity to empty ourselves, copying His model of love in so many of the daily moments of our lives.  Jesus makes this week Holy, but so can we by our choices to be self-giving.

After this video ends, I ask you to seek out a family member or friend, either in person or by phone, text, or however, and let them know how much they mean to you; share your love, because Jesus shared his love with you.  Amen.

Please come back again, tomorrow, if this is helpful for you.  Warning: it will be a tough lesson because we need to admit we don’t always like the path God plans for us, but this Holy Week is a time to accept that plan, that path, and make the changes we need to make, for the sake of our ultimate union with Jesus Christ.