Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

John 18:1-19:42:

Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley
to where there was a garden,
into which he and his disciples entered.
Judas his betrayer also knew the place,
because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards
from the chief priests and the Pharisees
and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him,
went out and said to them, "Whom are you looking for?"
They answered him, "Jesus the Nazorean."
He said to them, "I AM."
Judas his betrayer was also with them.
When he said to them, "I AM, "
they turned away and fell to the ground.
So he again asked them,
"Whom are you looking for?"
They said, "Jesus the Nazorean."
Jesus answered,
"I told you that I AM.
So if you are looking for me, let these men go."
This was to fulfill what he had said,
"I have not lost any of those you gave me."
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it,
struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear.
The slave's name was Malchus.
Jesus said to Peter,
"Put your sword into its scabbard.
Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?"

So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,
bound him, and brought him to Annas first.
He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year.
It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews
that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.
Now the other disciple was known to the high priest,
and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.
But Peter stood at the gate outside.
So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest,
went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter,
"You are not one of this man's disciples, are you?"
He said, "I am not."
Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire
that they had made, because it was cold,
and were warming themselves.
Peter was also standing there keeping warm.

The high priest questioned Jesus
about his disciples and about his doctrine.
Jesus answered him,
"I have spoken publicly to the world.
I have always taught in a synagogue
or in the temple area where all the Jews gather,
and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me?
Ask those who heard me what I said to them.
They know what I said."
When he had said this,
one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said,
"Is this the way you answer the high priest?"
Jesus answered him,
"If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong;
but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?"
Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm.
And they said to him,
"You are not one of his disciples, are you?"
He denied it and said,
"I am not."
One of the slaves of the high priest,
a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said,
"Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"
Again Peter denied it.
And immediately the cock crowed.

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.
It was morning.
And they themselves did not enter the praetorium,
in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
So Pilate came out to them and said,
"What charge do you bring against this man?"
They answered and said to him,
"If he were not a criminal,
we would not have handed him over to you."
At this, Pilate said to them,
"Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law."
The Jews answered him,
"We do not have the right to execute anyone, "
in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled
that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
So Pilate went back into the praetorium
and summoned Jesus and said to him,
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered,
"Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?"
Pilate answered,
"I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
Jesus answered,
"My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to him,
"Then you are a king?"
Jesus answered,
"You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

When he had said this,
he again went out to the Jews and said to them,
"I find no guilt in him.
But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.
Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"
They cried out again,
"Not this one but Barabbas!"
Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,
and clothed him in a purple cloak,
and they came to him and said,
"Hail, King of the Jews!"
And they struck him repeatedly.
Once more Pilate went out and said to them,
"Look, I am bringing him out to you,
so that you may know that I find no guilt in him."
So Jesus came out,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
And he said to them, "Behold, the man!"
When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out,
"Crucify him, crucify him!"
Pilate said to them,
"Take him yourselves and crucify him.
I find no guilt in him."
The Jews answered,
"We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God."
Now when Pilate heard this statement,
he became even more afraid,
and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus,
"Where are you from?"
Jesus did not answer him.
So Pilate said to him,
"Do you not speak to me?
Do you not know that I have power to release you
and I have power to crucify you?"
Jesus answered him,
"You would have no power over me
if it had not been given to you from above.
For this reason the one who handed me over to you
has the greater sin."
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,
"If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar."

When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out
and seated him on the judge's bench
in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
And he said to the Jews,
"Behold, your king!"
They cried out,
"Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!"
Pilate said to them,
"Shall I crucify your king?"
The chief priests answered,
"We have no king but Caesar."
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself,
he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,
in Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they crucified him, and with him two others,
one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.
It read,
"Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews."
Now many of the Jews read this inscription,
because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;
and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
"Do not write 'The King of the Jews,'
but that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews'."
Pilate answered,
"What I have written, I have written."

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
they took his clothes and divided them into four shares,
a share for each soldier.
They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from the top down.
So they said to one another,
"Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, "
in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:
They divided my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
This is what the soldiers did.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son."
Then he said to the disciple,
"Behold, your mother."
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

After this, aware that everything was now finished,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
Jesus said, "I thirst."
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
"It is finished."
And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.


Now since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
and that they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
he knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may come to believe.
For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled:
Not a bone of it will be broken.
And again another passage says:
They will look upon him whom they have pierced.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea,
secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus.
And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night,
also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes
weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus
and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices,
according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for the tomb was close by.

Church History (Holy Thursday)

It has been awhile-over a month, since I have posted to this blog, and for that I apologize to those off you who are taking the time to read it. I've had a busy month, however, and with Holy Week (Holy Thursday) now having arrived, I think it prudent to share a little bit about what our formation weekend in March was like.

I was very much concerned when class began on Friday evening after we had originally been told that we might have a pop quiz, because Bishop Martino (by his own admission) talks quickly, but this isn't only a matter of habit-I think in his mind he had a good reason to move at a relatively brisk pace through the material. Not only was he being recorded, but he was also merciful enough to us to present us with two very good outlines-one for this past month and one for our session upcoming-of the material we would be covering. Deacon Tim Elliott, our Director of Deacons, told me not to worry about a pop quiz, but to listen to Bishop Martino...for this, I was much relieved.

Since I am admittedly a history nerd, I enjoyed the material greatly, and I just ate up getting a hold of new material that I hadn't previously been familiar with before (and getting a new spin on some things that I already knew. The most impressive and enjoyable thing about the entire weekends, however, was Bishop Martino himself. I was pleased to be able to sit near him (as were the rest of the fellas in the front row) during one of our breaks when His Excellency shared some of his experiences in ministry with us, including his belief-one that I share-that we need to do a better job keeping the interest of catechumens and potential candidates, as we often lose them in waiting for RCIA to begin as much as we might after the process is over. Of course the Obama Administration's ungodly HHS mandate on Catholic institutions was also a matter of discussion, with Bishop Martino saying that he believes we could be entering a time of persecution, or at least a time when it won't be a very popular thing to be a faithful Catholic.

The thing that most exuded from the way His Excellency carries himself is what I would call holiness in humility. He seems grateful that the Holy Spirit chose him for the ministry that he has, he blesses others by the exercise of that ministry, and is a good example of how someone who has been gifted with Holy Orders should be gift to others-in retirement, he is ministering to us in imparting knowledge as well as wisdom to us.

I really look forward to our next session with His Excellency this coming weekend.

I am praying for all of you who read, and all of my Brother Aspirants as I pray the Liturgy of the Hours each day. May you have a Blessed Paschal Triduum.

Church History and real support

I'm really excited about this month's deaconate formation. It will focus on a topic that has always been a personal favorite and a fascination of mine-Church history.

Our instructor is His Excellency Bishop Joseph Martino, the Bishop Emeritus of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Since I learned last month that we would have a retired bishop come to instruct us, I've read up a bit on His Excellency. If any of the things I've read are even remotely true, then this man of God strikes me as a man of great zeal for the Church, as as a soldier of the Truth. I am eager to sit under his instruction, and I am wondering if this is going to be one of those classes where two months of this won't be enough to do anything but whet my appetite and I am going to be begging for more.

I want to thank everyone for their continued prayers, and again put in a good word for my wife, who has not only been extraordinarily patient with me throughout the discernment process, but she is eager to help. She enjoys our deanery workshops greatly, and afterwords has a lot to say to me. Nicole is often known for her very quiet demeanor-she doesn't stand out much, and tends to speak only when she has something she thinks is greatly important to say (yes, Brother Aspirants, that makes her my polar opposite!), but just as I couldn't continue in the program without the support of Steve Helmbrecht and Don Griffith, my fellow Aspirants here in the Five Rivers Deanery who are from St. Mary's in Johnson City who have made sure I make it to class, I would be even less able to do this without my wife.

We all know we need our wives' permission to enter deaconate formation and to continue in it. I have come to understand why that is in spades over the last seven months. Thank you sweetheart for accepting God's call for me, and for believing in me.

Beware of foot-in-mouth disease

Over the weekend I managed to greatly offend and even hurt someone that I never intended to offend at all. I did so by recalling something that happened several years ago as what I thought would be a light-hearted and funny joke-a moment of levity. I didn't even necessarily think the original incident (as I remember it) was a bad thing at all. I remembered it as somewhat ironic and, yes, a bit funny-at least to me.

Well, as it turned out, the person to whom I addressed what I thought was a piece of old humor had different memories of the day in question (hence, my decision not to argue the point about what actually happened-I quickly made the call not to wake further sleeping dogs that may lay by the rivers of time), and was obviously greatly bothered by what I had said.

As is often the case when I screw up, it was Nicole who called my attention to the offense that I had created, and I might not have ever known had she not done so. I apologized to the person who I had so deeply offended, but I felt absolutely awful about it, and I take the blame entirely for what happened. I still feel terribly about it, but I also know that-short of the invention of time machines-I can't undo what I had done to begin with, I can only seek forgiveness for it. I am confident in the Lord's forgiveness, as I always am, but I also pray that the person who I hurt-whatever my intentions might have been at the time-will find it in their heart to forgive me.

Nicole pointed out to me: "I know you, and I know you were joking, and I understand your sense of humor [I appreciate irony and often find humor and see irony in things that others may not, a trait my wife appreciates], but [the person in question] does not. You have to apologize, you came across in a way you never intended, and the words were yours."

She was right, of course, and I knew it...

The whole incident caused me to once again take a very deep lesson in humility. It also reminded me of the words accredited to Solomon in Proverbs 23:21:

Those who guard mouth and tongue guard themselves from trouble.

I did not, as the writer would say, guard myself from trouble. I will not only let this serve as a kind of divine warning to me, but let it be a lesson to my brother Aspirants and all who are discerning a vocation: The world is watching us, and they see our successes and they mark our shortcomings. Our lips can serve to bless others, but also to harm them without intent...we all have to be careful, and like St. Paul, I will count myself as chief among sinners, especially in this regard.

Remember you are dust...

Of all of the readings from the Divine Office or from the Mass for Ash Wednesday, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 has always been my favorite:

Brothers and sisters:
We are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Working together, then,
we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says:

In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.

Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.

 Today we are reminded of our own mortality, that as we feel the ashes placed upon our foreheads we are either told "remember you are dust, and to the dust you shall return" or "turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." We are always being called, whatever the season of the year, to do just that, but Lent reminds us that fidelity to the Gospel and to, dare we say, Gospel values, is our first call as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is a time each of us are asked by the Church to, through our actions and especially in a spirit of penance and with childlike faith, fast remembering those who cannot eat, deny ourselves some of our creature comforts remembering those who are deprived, to give of our time and treasure and talents in the best way that we can remembering that our Church, our community, and even people in other parts of the world need us. Perhaps most important of our Lenten disciplines ought to be an increased life of prayer. We are all sinners, but we are striving to be saints, and it is through prayer that we can truly orient our lives in God's direction and put God first in our personal life, our homes, our work and public life, and even our social life.

Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters speak of the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You won't find that phrase in scripture, of course, but we know there is something legitimate to it theologically. For some people, they have come to believe that they develop this personal relationship by responding to a call by a preacher or a minister to come forward, but a one-time shot isn't how that relationship is developed. The only way that a person can truly develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ-that is, to know him more intimately and fully as we would our friend or brother, is through a deepening life of prayer, and Lent may be the best time to make the changes we need to in order to make our prayer life a better one in order that we can deepen our relationship with Jesus. He certainly wants that, because we can't even begin to fathom the depth of His love for us or, as the old hymn tells us, the wideness of His mercy.

I can tell you that deaconate formation has certainly brought me into a deeper relationship with Christ, with His Mother, with the communion of saints than I have ever had before. I know that is part of the formation process, to bring us closer to Christ and into a deeper union with Him as we explore and discern our vocation, and whether we are being called to Sacrament of Holy Orders. Jesus and His Mother don't just want men on a journey of Aspirancy to the deaconate to come into a deeper relationship with them and a closer union with Christ, we are all called to that deep relationship, and as part of that, to a deeper unity as the Body of Christ.

Let us commit this Lent to a life of prayer for deeper unity of the Church and a deeper relationship with Christ through the Eucharist and through His Church.

Door-to-door Catholicism?

While doing some research for our forthcoming paper in deaconate formation yesterday, I happened upon the front page of New Advent, where I happened to find a link to an article in the National Catholic Register about Catholics who have taken a cue from the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses and are taking the Truth of Holy Mother Church door-to-door:

“On our first day out, at the first house we knocked, we spoke with an 80-something-year-old Lutheran and his wife who was a former Catholic,” said Cruze.

“After introducing ourselves, he said, Catholics, huh?! We’ve had Jehovah’s, the Mormon boys and even Assemblies of God. We ain’t never had any Catholics here before. Where ya been?” recalled Rosenthal.

“We go door-to-door to plant seeds,” added Rosenthal. “To give others who may not otherwise have been given the invitation to come to Mass and to explore the richness and beauty that we enjoy in the Catholic faith. We hope that sooner or later they will choose the fullness of Christianity — in the Catholic Church.”

A similar effort took place in Colorado. Lyn Rooney helped create a pilot door-to-door effort at her parish, St. Francis of Assisi in Colorado Springs, Colo. The effort was the outgrowth of an apologetics group Rooney has been a part of for eight years.

“A Jehovah’s Witness had come to my door,” said Rooney. “We talked for about an hour, and I spoke about the Catholic faith. In the end the Jehovah’s Witness said, ‘If this is really the Church that Jesus founded, why aren’t you out doing what we’re doing?’ That was compelling.”

Certainly, going door-to-door is often ridiculed as an ineffecive way of evangelizing. After all, how many times have we been caught right in the middle of our daily routines by tha pesky Mormon or Jehovah's Witness at the door? Yet, many times when you talk to fallen away Catholics, one of the chief complaints that is heard is that they never hear from anyone that they would otherwise go to church with, or they were new to a neighborhood and no one from the nearest parish paid them a visit. The worst stories I have heard have been of those who were sick or homebound and no one paid them a visit or brought Our Lord to them in the Holy Eucharist. Those kinds of situations not only happen, but they are all too common, and were so well before HIPPA became the law of the land.

Of course there are parishes and Church orgaizations that have great outreach programs, but every parish should have those kinds of programs, and not just for those who come asking or needing our physical help, but for those who need our spiritual help. Many times people just need to know we are here and that we are praying for them. Someone may need a ride to Sunday Mass who otherwise wouldn't be able to go, or want to participate in a parish activity but they need a helping hand to do so.

And then there are the unchurched...

We tend to believe that since we live in the "Bible Belt" that most people have a place of worship or a set of firm religious beliefs, but we are potentially losing an entire young generation of potential converts because of this false assumption. Increasingly, younger people are far less likely to embrace the faith of their parents, and some in our midst were raised with no practicing religious faith at all-we as a Church need to reach out to the current generation and let them know we are here, especially in this part of the country.

I don't think that a door-to-door approach is good in every case or among all people, but it may surprise those who participate in this kind of outreach just how many people are hungry for the truth if only someone would take the time to share it.

The gates of Hell will not prevail against it...

I don't normally share my political column here because this blog is meant as a way to share my experience in Aspirancy to the deaconate, not to talk about political things. However, today's column is worth posting here because the subject matter should be important to every Catholic.