1 April 2021, Holy Thursday
• Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14 • Psalm 116 • 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 • John 13:1-15 •
TITLE: April 1. The Foolishness of God.
[__01__] This day – Holy Thursday – the start of the 3 solemn days of the Easter Triduum (“Triduum” means 3 days) is a new start. (Re-booting?)
Our first Easter / celebration in 2 years.
Holy Thursday in 2019 was Thursday
April 18, 2019. Mass was also in the evening (at 7 pm). Were
you there ? There’s a Jesus / Gospel / Calvary song in there
somewhere…
[__02__] Today is also historically – culturally –
called “April Fool’s Day”
Some historians say that April Fools’ Day
dates back to the 1500’s (circa 1582, “European
Renaissance”) when the country of France
switched from the “old” Julian calendar to the “new” Gregorian calendar, as
called for by the Catholic Church / Council
of Trent in 1563. In the “old” calendar – the Julian Calendar, “New Year’s Day” the new year began April 1
and the spring equinox.
But, in the new calendar, “New Year’s
Day” is where we have it now: January 1st.
But, some people were slow to comprehend
the new “new year’s day”. No internet in the 1500’s ! “Social media / wi-fi” consisted of neighbors
talking to each other
Some people were “fooled” = not getting the info
and did not realize – foolishly – that the new year had started on January 1.
They thought the new year was April 1.
So..they were the original “April
fools” not knowing what day it was. In
our pandemic experience of sheltering in place and going to school, to
the doctor, and to work “online” or via tele-medicine, we may also wonder what
day it is.
[__03__] Perhaps, those who thought April 1st was New Year’s Day could teach us
something, help us remember something about this year’s April 1st.
That this is a new year for us, that
God’s love and Jesus’ life, death and resurrection renews us, helps us to start
over every morning, noon and night with Him and God’s love at our side.
[__04__] What is love? We know – from the New
Testament – that God is love. And, this
has deep roots in the original covenant:
[ At times, God’s love to his people
is likened to a father for a son or a mother to her child: “I will make them
walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born” (Jeremiah 31:9, 20).
“Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should have no compassion on
the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isaiah
49:15; 66:13). ]
(https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-meanings-of-love-in-the-bible)
[__05_] RE. LOVE
And, if there is any topic or subject or category or goal that
can make us “foolish” or feel “foolish” – it is LOVE.
[__06_] What
is love? St. Thomas Aquinas gives this succinct definition that love means to
will the good of another person. But who is that other person?
That other person might be someone causing
you difficulty. While some people are easy to love, I am aware that I am not
always easy to love.
In a reflection on the meaning of LOVE
and the thinking of St. John Henry Newman, I was reminded that Love is always
about a concrete – real-life – individual.
And, that is why loving appears to be
foolish.
[__07_] PETER KREEFT
Peter Kreeft, Boston College Philosphy
professor, makes this observation, asks this question:
But how can we love someone if we don't like him? Easy — we do it to ourselves all the time. We don't always have tender, sweet, comfortable feelings about ourselves; sometimes we feel foolish, stupid, asinine, or wicked. But we always love ourselves: we always seek our own good. Indeed, the only reason why we feel dislike toward ourselves and berate ourselves is precisely because we do love ourselves! We care about our good, so we are impatient with our bad.
[__08_] And, we might say that Jesus loves us so much that he is also “impatient” with our bad, and eager for us to turn back to him.
He loves us so much that he is willing
to die for us.
[__09_] For Holy Thursday April 1, 2021 is a new beginning, a new start.
On the first Holy Thursday, the
disciples were struggling to grasp this – at times – they appear to be foolish
to be tricked, to be “hoodwinked.”
St. Paul reminds us in 1st
Corinthians that that there is a wisdom in the Gospel that will appear to be
not very wise or smart or intelligent to others.
RE.
CONTROL For example, there is a wisdom in recognizing that we are not
completely in control of our lives, but yet God also expects us to take
responsibility and ownership of what we can control, that we cooperate with his
grace.
As Paul says, the foolishness of God
is wiser than human wisdom
RE.
FORGIVENESS There is a wisdom in recognizing that we can forgive others
who have trespassed against us, though we may receive neither the apology we
had hoped for nor have we witnessed the change in heart we expected in the
offending / other person.
So, we exercise our “superiority” by
withholding forgiveness, by staying angry.
That’s human wisdom! Sometimes, I feel pretty
smart taking this approach.
Yet, forgiveness of those who have
hurt us is good for our own souls. And praying for those who cause us
difficulty does help us to love God, love neighbor and to love ourselves.
It may appear, at first, foolish but
the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.
[__10_] The Mass and Holy Communion remind us of love and God’s love, and reminds me also of my priesthood, the sacrament of ordination I have received and my responsibility and gift in praying for you – even when we are not together physically.
In the past year of 2020, there were many
days on which Mass was offered at this
altar - including Father Jim Chern, Father Bob Suszko, Monsignor Robert Coleman
(priests who say Mass here) and myself – who offered Mass for you – for your
intentions at an altar with no people in the “assembly” - with no one physically seated and facing the
altar.
Not
even a camera or microphone.
But,
the priest is not alone at these moments.
I was also reminded that this is not
foolish, this is wisdom.
For my prayer at the Mass is both for
your salvation and for mine, for my own conversion and change and turning back
to God.
The foolishness of God is wiser than
human wisdom.
[__11_] I’d like to conclude with this example of
priestly sacrifice and what “foolishness” transformed to wisdom:
Vietnam priest/bishop
I read this on CATHOLIC.ORG.
I think this was written several years BEFORE the
coronavirus and COVID-19 and “sheltering in place”
What
would happen if you were in a prolonged situation where you did not have the
regular availability of a priest? What would happen if even Sunday Mass was no
longer accessible?
Many
of our brothers and sisters throughout the world experience these kinds of
terrible situations. One example can be found in the life and Catholic priesthood
of Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan.
Francis
was a Catholic priest from Vietnam. He was ordained a priest, became a bishop/AB
in 1975, and later a cardinal. Only a few months after his appointment as
bishop, he was arrested and imprisoned by the Vietnamese government / police for
13 years. 9 of those 13 years were spent in solitary confinement!
In
year 2000, JP2 invited him give “meditations” at a Lenten retreat in Rome / Vatican. Father Nguyen (now Cardinal
Nguyen) gave what he called his "Testimony of Hope".
In
one meditations, Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, movingly describes
what it was like – in prison - not to have the Eucharist readily available and
what he had to do to celebrate Mass and how this happened without others physical
present.
"When
I was arrested by the police, I had to leave immediately with empty hands. The
next day, I was permitted to write to my people (parishioners) in order to ask
for the most necessary things: clothes, toothpaste. I wrote – in a
kind of secret code of my religious wish -- , 'Please
send me a little wine as medicine for my stomachache.'
The faithful [people] understood
right away.
They
sent me a small bottle of wine with a label that read, 'medicine for
stomachaches.' But it was not for stomachaches but for Mass. They also sent
some Communion hosts, which they hid in a flashlight for protection against the
humidity. The police asked me, 'You have stomachaches? Yes. Here's some
medicine for you.'
I
will never be able to express my great joy! Every day, with three drops of wine
and a drop of water in the palm of my hand, I would celebrate Mass. This was my
altar, and this was my cathedral! It was true medicine for soul and body,
'Medicine of immortality, remedy so as not to die but to have life always in
Jesus', as St. Ignatius of Antioch says.
Each time I celebrated the Mass, I had the
opportunity to extend my hands and nail myself to the cross with Jesus, to
drink with him the bitter chalice. Each day in reciting the words of
consecration, I confirmed with all my heart and soul a new pact, and
eternal pact between Jesus and me through his blood mixed with mine. Those were
the most beautiful Masses of my life!" (p. 131)
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