Afleveringen
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Mary of Magdala was weeping inconsolably. An angel asked her for the reason. Jesus asked her too, without her knowing it was Jesus asking. Why are you weeping? She did not know where the Lord's body was. Well and good, right? As in our case, we have different reasons why we are moody, why we are weeping, why we are troubled, etc. Many times it is not because we were looking for Jesus Christ.
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With the resurrection of Jesus, the Apostles preached this awesome truth far and wide. With this great miracle of resurrecting, the Church proceeded to sail outwards to teach this and other teachings of Jesus Christ.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Life has conquered death! Jesus resurrects, as He had prophesied. This last miracle proves to be the greatest of them all. He dies and He rises from the dead. He is divine. He is divine! The Church has been proclaiming this truth through the centuries. She brings up this truth to encourage herself, to energize her missionaries and members to go for the goal, namely, eternal life. Death had always been the greatest answer of the Devil to stop the advance of Christians. But now, death itself can be looked in the eye. Death is not a threat anymore. We die? So what? We will rise to eternal life! The closer we are to Jesus in His suffering, the closer we will be to his resurrection!
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The Church is very silent today because its Founder has died. Today is a great day to let our contemplative gaze at the Lord's last hours of life on earth. He truly died because the Roman soldiers usually made sure they executed the condemned criminals. The Sabbath was about to fall on them, and they pushed for the crucified persons to be brought down and buried. They broke the legs of the thieves to hasten their deaths. When they came to Jesus, a soldier pierced His side with a lance. Our Lady was the custodian of the Church in those moments.
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The Church today contemplates the dead body of Jesus on the Cross. There is silence among us. We almost cannot believe man has done this to Him, who was so good to us, who respected us, loved us, cured us, been patient with us, and so forth. How ungrateful have we been!
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The first reading tells us the background of today's feast among the Jews. They celebrated the holy Passover. God had instructed the Israelites to slaughter a lamp with certain characteristics and use the blood to mark their doorposts to tell the avenging angel to preserve the occupants. The Egyptians were struck by that Angel. All first-born of man or beast perished. So, the Lord had His Last Supper where He instituted the Holy Eucharist. Here we have the Blood of the new Lamb of God who thus would be saved and brought to eternal life.
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We read in the first reading of the mass of Holy Wednesday liturgy another text about the Suffering Servant from one of the four songs about his Servant. Only from the point of view of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that this Servant is Jesus Himself. Emphasis is placed on the tongue of the disciple. The disciple learns to listen and to transmit what he learns. He speaks when he needs to and keeps silent when the need of that appears.
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This law of the universe is universal. We find it in the plots of all our movies stories, or plays. There is a status quo of order and then the plot thickens when there is a disruption of the peaceful status quo. Thus, the tendency is to restore the original state of things. Thus, when one sins, he needs to be responsible to answer for that sin and make amends for it. So, these days of Holy Week, we will witness God paying the price of our sins by offering his Life on the Cross. This does not exempt us from doing our share in paying for sin. Jesus' action is perfect and overpays the price for sin. We need to do our share since we were the ones responsible for them. After Jesus' sacrifice, we need only collaborate with Jesus to get back his image in ourselves. This will not happen if we do not suffer the consequences of our offenses.
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The Church introduces us to the Week of the Lord's Passion by celebrating Palm Sunday. It is called this way because of the palms and branches people waved to Our Lord as He made His way to Jerusalem on a donkey. They laid their clothes and other garments on the path of this lowly animal, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel!" Hosanna was meant to be a praise of God. Here the people recognize Him as the Messiah. In fact, etymologically, hosanna is an appeal to God for deliverance. Ironically, however, the same ones who hailed Him that way, then changed their tune in a few days when they screamed that Jesus be crucified.
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The reading of today's mass, Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, tells us of God laying claim of His people in Israel. This membership used to be by blood and circumcision. After the Lord Jesus Christ's redeeming death on the cross, we become part of His Chosen People if we do His Will. We affirm this in the Our Father when we say, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven..."
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The first reading of the mass today, Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, reminds us of the example of Jeremiah. This Old Testament prophet of God complained to God about how he was received by the people of God. Such animosity against him stemmed from his fidelity to God's instructions. Jeremiah prophesied disaster befalling the Israelites if they do not repent. The people did like to be reminded of their sins and their need to repent, otherwise, they would suffer destruction. They hated Jeremiah for this. He complained to God. But he did so with a trusting disposition. He placed his trust in God all the time. Why don't we complain like this?
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Jesus is the Messiah promised of old. God had promised Abraham to make his descendants as numerous as stars in the night sky or the grains of sand in the seashore. It is among his descendants that the Messiah will come forth. Jesus Christ is the son of Joseph, who is of the line of David. Just as Jesus is a descendant of David, not by hereditary rules because Joseph was only the putative father of Jesus. Jesus being born of Mary having Joseph as her husband saved the sanctity of Mary and the line of generation from Abraham to Jesus passing through David and Joseph. We should be more aware of our being a descendant of Abraham. We are among the stars of heaven or the sand grains at the seashore.
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Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of St. Joseph. He is a model for us Christians, especially his example regarding how he let God use him to accomplish His plans. It is amazing that God who can do things on His own, chooses to need each of us to collaborate with Him to accomplish His purposes.
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We take a break today from Lenten penitence and focus on the excellent creature in St. Joseph, the Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We will recite or sing the Gloria in mass in his honor. Rightfully so! He cannot be overemphasized in his crucial role as the protector of the most Blessed Virgin Mary and her Son, Jesus Christ. The first reading in the mass tells us about the promise of God to send a descendant of King David. He had wanted to build for God a Temple. He was told by Nathan, the prophet that, it will be God Himself who will build a House of David, that will never be destroyed and that would last forever. This house is the House of David. Here in this house, the Messiah will be born. The Christ is a descendant of King David. This is the definitive House of David!
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We read about the experience of Susanna in the first reading of today's mass on Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent. She was unjustly accused of the grave sin of adultery and infidelity. Two elders had prurient desires for her. They made their move, threatening her, falsely accusing her of having a tryst with a young man. She instead wanted to fall into the complication of being accused falsely. She screamed, and the two men screamed as well, claiming they witnessed her sin. Furthermore, she was condemned to death, but God heard the prayers of those who pitied Susanna. Daniel was roused to protest the unjust sentence. He had the two criminals separated and questioned them individually, and he asked them under what tree they saw the claimed crime. They gave different answer and their false testimony was discovered. The two men ended up being killed. This case contrasts with the case of Jesus Christ, who was also accused falsely. Jesus was condemned, and they succeeded in eliminating Him via a crucifixion. But Jesus' death, even when it was a terrible evil, produced so much good because we were saved from our sins. God is so powerful that with evil from the bad use of human freedom, He is able to get good.
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The second reading comes from the Letter to the Hebrews. It contains a description of Jesus having a hard time during the Agony in the Garden. He agonized because it was truly difficult to obey His Father to suffer and die on the Cross the next day. But He obeyed! And thus, we were saved from our sins. This means that we can go to Heaven and enjoy God for eternity. This all means that we need to learn to obey God's Commandments and His Will. Otherwise, we would be like the bad angels who told God that they would not serve Him. Hence, Hell began!
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Farmers are familiar with this frequent occurrence. Seeds stop being seeds when they change into seedlings. The sown seed turns into a new plant. Death leads to life. Jesus uses this analogy to explain to His listeners the need to be ready for sacrifice to attain something worthwhile. Athletes sacrifice partying every weekend to train for the Olympic Games and to win a medal. Soldiers undergo difficult training programs to become elite warriors.
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We need to practice meekness because Jesus Christ lived meekly. He invited His listeners to learn from Him who was meek and humble of heart. He lived meekness even when He knew that He was going to be killed. Usually what people do is to struggle and do violence to preserve his life. What ones wants to preserve may not be his life but something of great value in his being, like limb. We can also mention daily experiences regarding others who in a manner of speaking threaten us or our comfort and self-satisfied condition. Many times we react with vengefulness, with violence, with curses, etc. Our Lord invited us to be meek. Blessed are the meek, He said.
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The first reading brings us a text from the Old Testament book of Wisdom. It is difficult to read because these lines are a prophecy of what the scheming Jews were thinking and going to do with Jesus. At the end of the day, they reason maliciously. They intuit who Jesus is, and that He is divine, but because of envy, they want to test whether Jesus is truly able to be what He claims to be. Because God respects our freedom, He does not thwart their plot to murder the Son of Man.
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