Day 17
A couple of thoughts on today’s reading. The first comes from the words on page 83: “…every truly loving relationship in our lives is stitched together by an endless stream of sacrifices.” Wow! That is such a profound truth. I think about my own parents and what they sacrificed for each other and what they sacrificed for the ten of us kids. 10 Kids raised in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house. Later we added a shower to make it a 2 bathroom house. We not only shared bathrooms, we often shared bathwater! The tub was only emptied after two or three of us bathed. I must admit, I loved the days when I got to be the first bather!
It seems to me that back then sacrifice was so much a way of life that nobody knew we were sacrificing. In hindsight, we know.
The second thought from today’s reading comes from a homily I gave on the Eucharist some years ago. When the Jewish people celebrate Passover, they don’t do it simply as a commemoration of some events that happened long ago. They do it as if they were being saved from death at that very moment. It was made real for them again.
That’s what we talk about when we say each Mass is the sacrifice of Jesus made real for us again. It is not that Jesus is being crucified over and over again. His sacrifice was once for all. It is that we participate in that same sacrifice every time we celebrate Mass.
In that homily, I talked about the fact that we can’t divorce Holy Thursday from Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is one continual action of Jesus giving us His body and blood on Holy Thursday and the pouring out himself on Good Friday so that He can rise on Easter Sunday.
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