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Posted on April 5, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope Passiontide Chronology: Walking with the Lord on Monday of Holy Week According to Matthew 21:10-17, Mark 11:15-17, and Luke 19:45-46, Jesus returns to Jerusalem today. Seeing shameful practices in the Temple area, He cleanses it. The Gospels also recount His weeping over Jerusalem and His cursing of the fig tree. Matthew and Mark relate that He returned to Bethany that night.Prelude: The Scriptures record that Jesus went to Bethany on the Sunday evening after His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday):[Jesus] went into the temple courts. He looked around at...

“Fear Not, Daughter of Zion; Behold, Your King Is Coming!” (John 12:12-19) I don’t know about you, but these last couple of weeks I’ve been watching the daily briefings from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. I find these briefings fascinating. Not only do they provide information on the virus itself and how to slow the spread--I’ve become familiar with terms like “mitigation,” “models,” “flattening the curve,”; “granular” is the latest one--not only do I find that part fascinating, but it’s also interesting to see how the government responds to calls for help from around the country. “New York, you...

Posted on April 19, 2019April 19, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Where Is Jesus Between His Death and Resurrection? Where is Christ after He dies on Friday afternoon and before He rises on Easter Sunday? Both Scripture and Tradition answer this question. Consider the following excerpt from a second century sermon as well as this meditation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday (ca. 2nd century A.D.):Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because...

“Behold the Man: A God Who Bleeds, a God Who Dies” (John 18:1 – 19:42) “Behold the man!” So Pilate said as Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. “Behold the man!” “Ecce homo” in the Latin. “See, I find no guilt in him.” Nevertheless, Pilate delivered Jesus over to be crucified. So now: Behold the man on the cross! This is his purpose. This is why God became man. This is why the eternal Second Person of the Trinity has taken human flesh. This is the reason. Behold the man on the cross, bleeding,...

“Behold the Man: A God Who Loves” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35) If Jesus’ incarnation teaches us anything about love, it’s that love is not the stuff of mere sentimentality. Love is more than warm fuzzy feelings. On the night when he was betrayed, the one who had all the power of God, who, as the song goes, “has the whole world in his hands,” used his hands to pick up a bowl of water, wrap himself in a towel, and scrub the dirt from the feet of his disciples. And then he gives them--and us--a new commandment: Love like this. Love...

Today is Spy Wednesday, when the Church traditionally remembers the initiation of the betrayal of Jesus by his apostle, Judas Iscariot. It is interesting in the Gospel of Matthew that Judas approaches the chief priests with his proposal of conspiracy immediately after Our Lord rebukes the disciples for false compassion: And when Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, There came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table. And the disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying: To what purpose is this...

“Blessed Is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:1-9)Here comes Jesus, riding into town. Like a boss. Well, maybe not like a boss. More like a servant, sitting on a donkey, a beast of burden, rather than on a war horse. Yet as he enters Jerusalem, Jesus is greeted like a king. Which he is, only not the kind you would expect. There are a lot of people pouring into Jerusalem at this time. There’s a big holiday coming up, Passover, and all the Jews are supposed to go to Jerusalem and to the temple for...

By my mother’s reckoning, Lent is over tomorrow at noon, after which we can eat meat, drink, and well, put our Lenten abstentions away for another year. As a family, we observed three hours of silence every Good Friday from noon-3, the traditional time Our Lord and Savior was hung on the Cross. Mom maintained (and enforced) all fasting and abstinence laws from midnight Holy Thursday through Holy Saturday at noon. On Holy Thursday, all Catholic Churches in our town maintained all-night vigils with litanies and novenas. The physically able participated in the traditional Holy Thursday Seven Church Walk, during...

“Love Received, Love to Give” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35) “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Yes, Jesus did that. And he also tells his disciples: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” And so our message tonight is all about love: The love with which Jesus loved us, and then the love he would have us give to one another. “Love Received, Love to Give.” First of all, love received. Love his disciples received...

Passiontide Chronology: Walking with the Lord on Monday of Holy Week Msgr. Charles Pope • March 25, 2018 • According to Matthew 21:10-17, Mark 11:15-17, and Luke 19:45-46, Jesus returns to Jerusalem today. Seeing shameful practices in the Temple area, He cleanses it. The Gospels also recount His weeping over Jerusalem and His cursing of the fig tree. Matthew and Mark relate that He returned to Bethany that night.Prelude: The Scriptures record that Jesus went to Bethany on the Sunday evening after His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday):[Jesus] went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything,...

Saint Alphonsus in Holy Week: III - Feria Tertia (Holy Tuesday): Consumed for Love MEDITATION  for Holy Tuesday Jesus upon the Cross I. Jesus on the cross! Behold the proof of the love of a God; behold the final manifestation of Himself, which the Word Incarnate makes upon this earth, - a manifestation of suffering indeed, but, still more, a manifestation of love. St. Francis of Paola, as he was one day mediating upon the Divine Love in the person of Jesus Crucified, rapt in ecstasy, exclaimed aloud three times, in these words, “O God – Love! O God- Love!...

“Annunciation, Acclamation, Crucifixion” (Luke 1:30-33; Mark 11:1-10; 15:1-39) Today is a day in the church year that goes by two names, “Palm Sunday” and the “Sunday of the Passion.” This is Palm Sunday, the day when our Lord Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem, and the crowd spread palm branches before him and acclaimed him as their coming king. But today also serves as the Sunday of the Passion, the first day of Holy Week, looking ahead to Christ’s suffering, which will culminate in his crucifixion on Good Friday. The Scripture readings we have had so far in the service today...

“The Suffering, Sacrificing, Saving Servant” (Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12) “Behold, my servant,” says the Lord. Yes, behold him today. Behold the servant of the Lord serving in a most unexpected way: serving by suffering. Today on this Good Friday we behold Jesus Christ, the Lord’s faithful, righteous servant, suffering a death he doesn’t deserve. But because he does, you will receive what you don’t deserve. And that is good news on this Good Friday. So now behold Jesus Christ, “The Suffering, Sacrificing, Saving Servant.” “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be...

Writing Straight with Crooked Lines - A Passion Week Meditation Msgr. Charles Pope • April 13, 2017 • During Holy Week, we ponder the events that led to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Among the things to reflect upon is a dramatic moment in the trial before Pilate, when the people present utter a curse upon themselves.When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” And all the people...

“The Catechism in Six Parts: The Sacrament of the Altar” Tonight we conclude our series on “The Catechism in Six Parts.” So far in the Catechism we’ve looked at the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, and Confession. That brings us tonight to the Sacrament of the Altar--and fittingly enough, on Holy Thursday, the night in which this sacrament was instituted. Everything we want to say about the Sacrament tonight we find in the words with which Christ institutes this holy meal. These words: “Take eat; this is my body, which is given for...

Pope Francis is helping to open Cuba to the outside world, but that could change the influence of the Catholic Church in the long-isolated island nation. At Cuba's first major rock-n-roll concert Friday night, the Rolling Stones played to an estimated 500,000 Cubans, many of whom were lifelong fans. Some of these Cubans once risked re-education on a work brigade for secretly listening to pirated vinyls when the Communist government banned such music. "To me, this is a consecration," Juan Carlos Leon, age 57, told Reuters. "I've waited my whole life for this. The Stones are the greatest." One major...

“Not One of His Bones Will Be Broken” (John 19:31-37) It’s Friday, and darkness falls over the land. On a cross, a man who has been nailed there is dying a shameful and agonizing death. Yet this is no criminal. This is the most righteous and innocent man who has ever walked the earth. Indeed, this is the very Son of God, come in the flesh. Why is this happening? Why is God allowing this to happen? And couldn’t this man Jesus, who displayed such amazing power on other occasions--couldn’t he have stopped this? So was this one gigantic screw-up...

“Love One Another, as I Have Loved You” (John 13:1-17, 31b-35) “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” So said Jesus to his disciples on the night when he was betrayed. “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” So says Jesus to his disciples here on this night, as we are gathered in his name and he is here with us. Thus our theme for tonight, Jesus’ commandment to his disciples both then and now: “Love...

It is one of the oldest offices in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. It features some of the most beautiful music ever written. So why have so many of us never heard of it?Why am l completely in the dark about Tenebrae?During Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum, the three days leading up to Easter, English Catholics have a wonderful selection of Masses and services happening in the traditional rite across the country. Looking at the list though, l realised that Tenebrae — sung from ‘Spy Wednesday’ in Holy Week — has completely passed me and l suspect many...

It’s Holy Week and while no media is calling your attention to it, our Savior is calling to you to walk along the way with Him to Calvary It is Holy Week, the week leading up to the Passion of Christ, but don’t expect any media to draw your attention to it. They’re too busy drawing public attention to the Herods and the Pilates of the current day and even seeming to relish in it. Mainstream media hero President Barack Obama is in Cuba where pictures of him and his smiling family members travel the Internet even though dozens of...