The Catholic Church in East St. James Parish

Just trying to run our own lives, we can find ourselves making choices contrary to God’s will.  But sin is not the final answer.  By acknowledging our sin, we can receive the forgiveness of Jesus.

View the video: Fr Vincent's reflections on Tuesday of Holy Week

Read his reflections:

Tuesday 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 to this ongoing video reflection series for Holy Week.  If you missed any of the earlier videos, you can find them on the Cluster website.  It is probably best if you watch them in sequence.

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

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

                    Almighty ever-living God

                    grant us so to celebrate

                    the mysteries of the Lord's Passion

                    that we may merit to receive your pardon.

                    Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your 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 Gospel of Tuesday’s Mass, taken from St. John.  If you want to look it up in your Bible and follow along, it is John 13:21-33, 36-38, (please read the scripture before continuing).

The Gospel setting, of course, is the Last Supper.  These are the 12 Apostles, those closest to Jesus, which includes Judas.  Be careful not to fall into judgmental hindsight and think that Judas was always evil.  Judas loved Jesus like the rest and followed Him for the three years; he listened to Jesus teach and watched his miracles.  Judas just couldn’t let go of his earthly concerns – remember yesterday’s reflection that self-centeredness can lead to sin and rejection of God.  And we see that Peter, too, ends up being more self-absorbed, wanting to protect himself even to the point of denying his relationship with Jesus.

I believe in God; I love Jesus; I want, with all my heart, to serve Jesus in every way possible.  But, I still find myself at times, maybe even more than I care to admit, weighing what that love demands of me, and like Peter, choosing myself over Jesus.  Wow, that’s not so easy to hear, is it?  Yet, it’s  still the truth.  I am not always as committed to Jesus and my relationship with him as I should be.

Today, Tuesday of Holy Week, as we move closer to our celebration of the Sacred Triduum – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter – I, you, need to take a good, hard look at my life and how well or how poorly I keep that faith-commitment.  We know that Judas gave up completely, but that Peter made a return to the Lord.  I hope we all choose to model Peter!  How do I model Peter?  With an open and honest heart, admit to Jesus my weakness and failure; ask for His help to see it in the stark reality of the sin it is.  Then, allow Jesus to touch that weak and wayward heart; hear His promise to be with me always, because I will need His help time and time again!  But, today, I can feel him with me helping me to re-commit myself.

Some are preaching that this pandemic is God’s judgment on an evil and sinful world, the time of reckoning.  Don’t believe them!  This pandemic IS a consequence of humanity’s arrogance and our belief in our own invulnerability.  It is the truth that we have turned from God, wanted to be the “Lord” of our own lives; our choices as a species fall back upon us.

But we should not compound humanity’s folly by turning into our own Judge, Jury, and Executioner, claiming we deserve this for all we’ve done wrong and give up like Judas did.  NO, God calls us back, to be more thoughtful of His will and to live better the message of the Gospel.

Lent is a time to consider how we have filled our lives with things that cannot save us, cannot get us to Heaven, and to seek what we are truly missing: that relationship with Jesus based on following His Gospel.

Let’s end this video together, reciting the Act of Contrition.  I cannot offer Absolution, so this is not the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but it is a spiritual moment to pray for peace and freedom from the weight of sin on our souls.  I invite you to make a promise to yourself and God to seek out the Sacrament of Reconciliation at your earliest opportunity.

           O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you,

           and I detest all my sins because of your

           just punishments, but most of all because

           they offend you my God, who are all good

           and deserving of all my love.

           I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace,

           to sin no more, and to avoid the near

           occasions of sin.  Amen.

Please come back tomorrow, and I hope the rest of this Holy Week through to Easter Sunday.  There is much God wants for us this week even if we cannot gather together in church to celebrate the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus!