Corpus Christi Blog

Like many elements of our Catholic faith, the Divine Mercy devotion is deeply rich and powerful in numerous ways. It is relatively new compared to the rest of our Catholic history, although the message originates with Jesus. For three years, Jesus spent time with His disciples, teaching them, healing the sick, and forgiving sins. In fact, this act of forgiving sins was one of the most shocking things Jesus did! In the Gospel of Mark, we hear:

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Child, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, ‘Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?’” (2:5-7).

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We have spent the last several weeks of Lent looking at the Passion narrative from the perspective of various characters in the story. When you consider each of the different perspectives, you can see how the situation got out of control through sin (Caiaphas), difficult circumstances (Pontius Pilate), or how God still provided blessings in the midst of the pain and chaos (Veronica, Simon of Cyrene, the Centurion, and the good thief). When we consider other perspectives, we can get a clearer sense of the big picture. It is a skill that we can employ, not only when we read the gospel stories, but also in our own lives, today, to give us empathy and understanding when approaching a difficult situation that is imbued with the effects of sin.

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We have finally made it to Palm Sunday and Holy Week, the final week of Lent. Hopefully, you have all done well this Lent and allowed the Lord to transform you through the sacrifices you’ve offered to Him. Did you notice the times throughout the last several weeks in which you struggled, or even fully dropped the ball on your Lenten promises? More importantly, like several characters in the Passion narrative, did you pick yourself up from your stumbles and falls and try again? Like the apostles, perhaps you fell asleep for a moment, but managed to grab a spiritual cup of coffee and woke back up. Perhaps you tried very hard to keep on track and do the right thing in a particular moment, like Pontius Pilate, but found yourself surrounded by opposition, making it very hard to follow through with your best intentions. Regardless of how your Lent has gone thus far, it is not over yet, and you can still make this Holy Week your best one ever. Re-commit to your Lenten promises now and ask God to help you finish strong as you persevere with Christ in His final moments of life.

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Last week, we made a close examination of the darker and more sinful parts of ourselves as we considered the perspectives of Barabbas and the crowd. This week, we will highlight the better and more virtuous parts of our human nature as we consider those who were kind and offered works of charity to our Lord during His great suffering.

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As we continue on our Lenten journey, examining the Passion of Christ through different perspectives, we will spend this week considering the events through the eyes of Barabbas and the crowd that called for his release.

The editors of the Catholic Bible Dictionary rightly found Barabbas a significant enough character to create an entry on him, which provides an excellent summary of who he was:

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This week, we examine the passion of Christ from the perspective of Caiaphas, the high priest responsible for initiating the arrest, interrogation, and crucifixion of Jesus.

Judea was part of the Roman Empire, which is why the Roman governor was sent to govern the area from a civil and political point of view. However, the Jewish people were allowed to continue to practice their religion so long as the Roman government had the authority to appoint a high priest of their choosing. The high priest was then expected to keep the people in line, so to speak, so the Roman government did not have to worry about a religious uprising or revolt. Because of this relationship with the government, the high priest had a great deal of power and influence within the community. The appointed high priest at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion was Caiaphas, son-in-law of the former high priest, Annas.

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As our journey through Lent continues, we will put ourselves in the perspective of Pontius Pilate and his wife in the drama that was the passion and death of Jesus Christ.

Pontius Pilate could be considered one of the most complex characters in this portion of the gospels. He was the Roman-appointed governor of Judea from 26/27 AD – 36/37 AD. During his administration, there was a lot of tension between the Romans and the Jewish people, so when Jesus was brought before him, with the crowd’s insistence that He be crucified, he likely felt a lot of pressure coming from every direction. Certainly many, if not all of us, have found ourselves in situations where discerning the correct answer has been difficult. Perhaps you have had to mediate between two friends or family members. Or perhaps you’ve found yourself voting for “the lesser of two evils” in an election. However, you have experienced these types of difficulties, you are surely aware that often the right answer is not always glaringly obvious in the moment, even if it becomes more obvious in retrospect.

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There are many methods we can use while reading sacred scripture to increase its penetration into our hearts and souls. In fact, multiple methods should be interchanged and used frequently. For example, you can pray scripture, you can meditate on a single phrase or word, you can study its historical context, or you can reflect on a particular passage’s symbolic meaning or spiritual reality. The list of ways to engage with scripture in a very meaningful way is long. For this year’s Lenten reflection series, we are going to employ a technique with which you may be less familiar: placing yourself in the shoes of one of the characters of the story.

We are going to begin this series with Peter and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. After the Last Supper, Jesus specifically invited these three apostles to join Him while He prays in preparation for His coming Passion. At this point, Jesus is overwhelmed with agony and other emotions as He anticipates the terrible things that await Him very soon. He does not hide these feelings from His friends and says to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matt 26:38, Mk 14:34). After going off to pray for a while, Jesus returns to His friends to find them sleeping. He awakens Peter, James, and John and says to them, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:40-41). As Jesus goes back into prayer, the apostles fall asleep yet again.

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Lent begins this week, and we will be kicking it off with Ash Wednesday. However, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is a day that is also steeped in tradition for us Catholics. Tuesday represents the last day of what is typically known as either Mardi Gras or Carnival. The specific day is known by several names including Fat Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday. Today, we probably think of this as a day of indulgence and gluttony and as a way of treating ourselves before heading into 40 days of penance and self-denial, but historically, there is more meaning to the day and the development of traditions that have come from it.

Shrove Tuesday is the last day of what used to be a week-long celebration, called Shrovetide. “To shrive” means to hear confessions. Around the year 1000 AD, a bishop by the name of Theodulphus wrote, “In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do in the way of penance.” Thus, Shrovetide was a way to prepare for the upcoming Lenten season by examining one’s conscience so as to know the best way to focus one’s Lent for the purpose of penance and bettering oneself. If during Shrovetide you find that you are struggling a lot with a particular sin through the confession process, you will have a better idea of what to give up for Lent or what sacrifices you will have to make to help nip that sin in the bud. Shrove Tuesday, then, marks the day of your last hoorah with those particular sins while you head forward into working on the opposite virtue.

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The annual Charity and Development Appeal (CDA) in the Diocese of Phoenix provides opportunities for people like you and me to make a big difference in the lives of people we may never meet. This year, we hear in Saint Luke’s Gospel a beautifully succinct description of the beatitudes.And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

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“Blessed are you who are poor…hungry…weeping. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day,your reward will be great in heaven!”

Luke 6:20-23

The Beatitudes provide us with a roadmap to happiness. Do we see Jesus in the poor, hungry, sad, and excluded? Jesus calls us to tend to one another with dignity and compassion. The Beatitudes teach us about God’s mercy, forgiveness,and our ultimate reward in heaven!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSHQz85TUkY

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(This article includes excerpts from a booklet compiled by John Rajczyk and James Warthman in 2000.)

In June 1987, [35 years ago!] the location of our new parish was changed from the site on San Gabriel Ave. to the new site on Knox Rd and 36^th St. Although our site on San Gabriel was beautiful, it also had insurmountable problems, such as low visibility compared to other parishes and the high volume of traffic in and out of a residential neighborhood. These factors, plus others, dictated that we try to seek another site.

Our thanks go to Frank Labriola and his late wife, Mary, for their generous contribution of land to Corpus Christi Catholic Church. Their donation saved the church a tremendous amount of money. Without their contribution, there would have been a delay in the starting date for the buildings.

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