FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT – Passion Sunday
Mar 25
am: Ps 118
pm: 145
Exod 3:16-4:12
Rom 12:1-12
John 8:46-59
LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: When the term Passion Sunday is applied to the fifth Sunday of Lent, it marks the start of a two-week sub-season often referred to as Passiontide (and the formal name for it in the Roman Catholic calendar was actually the First Sunday of the Passion, in Latin Tempore Passionis). In the lost rites of this calendar are is the veiling of statues and sacred images (except for the Stations of the Cross) with purple cloth beginning at the Vespers of Passion Sunday, and they remain covered until the Gloria of Holy Saturday, at which point Lent ends and Eastertide begins.
Some suggest the veiling of the statues and icons stems from the Gospel reading of Offices assigned for this day (John 8:46-59), at the end of which the Jews take up stones to cast at Jesus, Who hides Himself away. The veiling also symbolizes the fact that Christ’s Divinity was hidden at the time of His Passion and death, the very essence of Passiontide.
In Anglican churches that chose to follow the Sarum Rite crimson vestiture are often used with or replacing the Lenten array. Since Passion Sunday is no longer widely used to connote Lent V, crimson has more often been worn during the Holy Week. The entire week beginning with the fifth Sunday of Lent was called Passion Week prior to the liturgical reforms and Passion Sunday thereafter became applied to mean Palm Sunday.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY : How can anyone who hears this Gospel not be captivated by the very clear statement from Jesus:” Amen, amen, I say to you: If anyone keeps my word he shall never see death”. You would think in the western culture which fills itself with escapism from age, sickness and death this passage which change the very spirit of who we are and yet for many it does not. This fear which grips so many has less to do with self-preservation and more to do with an uncertain future, fear of change, and perhaps most importantly, fear of facing one’s life squarely head on. Maybe the real fear there is facing the essence of our lives and sees that we may be coming up empty-handed.
If we could recognize that we all have a limited future in this life a few things in our life may change. # 1: Our world view about God and grace could shift into a grace filled encounter. #2: Perhaps we can engage in a more reasonable valuing of things and not valuing or loving them over people love for the things we have. But to do this we must take Jesus word’s in the Gospel to heart. Sounds simple but perhaps the words of St. Augustine of Hippo are particularly pertinent for our age and culture when he said to a friend: Familiarity with the thought of death is hardly compatible with noisy and busy meetings or with endless running to and fro. And so we must meet the challenge to let ourselves be transformed by God and convert our life so that the transformation through His Word and saving act is evidenced on our own conversion so can we share in this transforming “victory”
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “ So blind are we in this mortal life, and so unaware of what will happen, so uncertain of even how we will think tomorrow, that God could not take vengeance on a man more easily in this world than by granting his own foolish wishes”. — St. Thomas Moore
Lenten Discipline – Read the Ten Commandments as a preparation for a Lenten Confession and Examination of Conscience. Assess yourself by commission and omission on each one. Try one a day for the leading up to the Triduum. Start today with answering how you have honored the Sabbath each week of Lent?