Sunday Meditation: Holy Week and the Institution of the Eucharist

I’ve had several posts on Palm Sunday over the years.  The latest from Year A was three years ago where you could hear Dr. Brant Pitre explain Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and about the two donkeys of Matthew’s version.  Or you can hear Fr. Geoffrey Plant explain Palm Sunday on a Year C Gospel reading.  Or you can just search all my “Palm Sunday” blog posts to pull them all up. 

Today I want to focus on Holy Week and the Institution of the Eucharist.  The Passion reading stretches across the week and includes Matthew’s version of the Institution narrative.  But I want also post a summary of the Holy Week Gospel events.  This is a simplified listing of the salient events.  It is not comprehensive.

 

Jesus Raises Lazerus	Week Prior to Palm Sunday
Jesus Retreats to Ephriam	Week Prior to Palm Sunday
Jesus Travels Back to Bethany	Week Prior to Palm Sunday
Mary Anoints Jesus	Saturday Before Palm Sunday
Jesus Enters Jerusalem	Palm Sunday
Jesus Cleans the Temple	Holy Monday
Jesus Sermon on the End of Times	Holy Tuesday
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus	Holy Wednesday/Spy Wednesday
The Last Supper	Holy Thursday
Jesus’s Anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane	Holy Thursday Evening
Jesus is Apprehended	Holy Thursday Evening
Jesus’s Trial Before the Sanhedrin	Holy Thursday Evening
Jesus’s Trial Before Pilate	Early Good Friday Morning
Jesus is Scourged, Crucified, Dies, and Buried	Good Friday
Jesus’s Harrowing of Hell	Holy Saturday
Jesus’s Resurrection	Easter Sunday

 

 

 

Here is the Institution Narrative from Matthew’s Passion.

 

 

While they were eating,

Jesus took bread, said the blessing,

broke it, and giving it to his disciples said,

"Take and eat; this is my body."

Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,

"Drink from it, all of you,

for this is my blood of the covenant,

which will be shed on behalf of many

for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine

until the day when I drink it with you new

in the kingdom of my Father."

Then, after singing a hymn,

they went out to the Mount of Olives.

~Mt:26:26-29

 

I will start with a pastoral homily first this Sunday.  Fr. Thomas McCarthy of the Order of St. Augustine—the same Order from which Pope Leo XIV heralds—explains Palm Sunday and the Institution of the Eucharist.

 

Fr. Thomas McCarthy:

It was at that meal that he instituted the priesthood and the Eucharist by taking bread and saying, "This is my body. Do this in memory of me." By taking the chalice filled with wine and saying, "This is my blood. Do this in memory of me. As Catholics, we say those words every time we go to mass. We are doing exactly what Jesus said. He did not say this is a symbol.  He did not say this is kind of almost/sort of/like/maybe. He said this is my body. This is my blood. Do it in memory of me. And so that's why as Catholics we believe in the real presence that the Eucharist is not a symbol. It is not a reenactment. is not a kind of sort of like almost maybe. And so it all happened at the last supper. And it was also at that last supper that Jesus humbled himself, took the form of a slave and washed his disciples feet.

So what are we to do this week?  Fr. Thomas says, “This holy week begins today and I hope that all of us will take time to truly celebrate and prayerfully be attentive to what's happening this week.  So my friends, how good it is that we are here. And I just want to encourage us all to really live out this this week.

To explain Holy Week, I found this new YouTube channel called Catholic Snack that explains Catholic theology and Catholic news of the day.  Here is the video on the Holy Week events.

 

Catholic Snack:

This is Holy Week. And if you've never understood what really happened during those eight days, stay with me because this story will change the way you see everything.  Every year, Christians around the world enter into a sacred season called Holy Week, the final week of Lent leading up to Easter Sunday. But for many people, sit can feel like a blur of church services, prayers, and traditions without fully grasping the weight of what actually happened. Holy Week is not just a religious calendar event. It is the story of God stepping fully into human suffering, betrayal, abandonment, agony, death, and then doing something no one expected. It is the greatest story ever told. And it happened in real time over eight unforgettable days. So, let's walk through it together, day by day, step by step.

That is pretty good for a “snack.”  I wonder why they named themselves that.  I have not found any background on this channel.  I found this part on Holy Saturday profound.

Catholic Snack:

We live so much of our lives on Holy Saturday, in the in between, after the loss, before the answer, in the silence where God seems absent, but is in fact working. The church's tradition tells us that on this day Christ descended to the dead, reaching even into the depths to bring light where there had only ever been darkness.  In the silence of Holy Saturday, God was not absent. He was at work in the places we couldn't see.  This is the day of waiting, of darkness before dawn, of faith without sight. And sit is one of the most important lessons of Holy Week. Because most of us know this place. Most of us have sat in this silence. And Holy Saturday tells us, "Hold on. Morning is coming, Sunday.

I loved this as a conclusion.

Catholic Snack:

Holy Week is not a story that happened 2,000 years ago and stayed there. It is a story that is still happening in every person who carries a cross they didn't choose.  In every moment of betrayal, grief, and silence, in every mourning that arrives when you thought the darkness would never end, Jesus walked through all of it. He didn't observe it from a safe distance. He entered it fully, flesh, blood, tears, nails, and all so that no human experience would ever be outside the reach of his presence. When you are in your Palm, Sunday, joyful, full of hope, he is there. When you are in your Gethsemane, afraid on your knees, asking God to take the cup away, he is there.  When you are in your Holy Saturday, silent, waiting, uncertain, he is there. And he is always, always moving toward Easter. This Holy Week, I invite you not just to observe the liturgy, but to enter the story, to let it find you where you are, to allow the passion of Christ to speak to your own.  Because that is what Holy Week is for.  Not to make us spectators, but to make us witnesses.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father."

 

This is supposed to be a traditional hymn for Palm Sunday, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.”

 

All glory, laud, and honour

to you, Redeemer, King!

To whom the lips of children

made sweet hosannas ring.

 

You are the King of Israel

and David's royal Son,

now in the Lord's name coming,

the King and Blessed One.

 

ll glory, laud, and honour

to you, Redeemer, King!

To whom the lips of children

made sweet hosannas ring.

 

The company of angels

are praising you on high;

and mortals joined with all things

created make reply.

 

All glory, laud, and honour

to you, Redeemer, King!

To whom the lips of children

made sweet hosannas ring.

 

Sunday Meditation: Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

We arrive at Holy Week and Jesus’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, known as Palm Sunday.  Today at Palm Sunday Mass, sitting next to Olga, who serves as our Eucharistic Minister, she made a palm cross for me.  She is an expert on making these.

 

Thank you Olga.  God bless you.

I have posted quite often on Palm Sunday, and you can peruse the various Palm Sunday posts here.  There is a lot of good stuff in the various posts over the years.  I will try to make this post contain fresh and new material.  First the Gospel reading for Year C.  I cannot post the entire Passion narrative from Luke, but I will post the Gospel reading. 

 

Jesus proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.

As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany

at the place called the Mount of Olives,

he sent two of his disciples.

He said, "Go into the village opposite you,

and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered

on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here.

And if anyone should ask you,

'Why are you untying it?'

you will answer,

'The Master has need of it.'"

So those who had been sent went off

and found everything just as he had told them.

And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them,

"Why are you untying this colt?"

They answered,

"The Master has need of it."

So they brought it to Jesus,

threw their cloaks over the colt,

and helped Jesus to mount.

As he rode along,

the people were spreading their cloaks on the road;

and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives,

the whole multitude of his disciples

began to praise God aloud with joy

for all the mighty deeds they had seen.

They proclaimed:

"Blessed is the king who comes

in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven

and glory in the highest."

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him,

"Teacher, rebuke your disciples."

He said in reply,

"I tell you, if they keep silent,

the stones will cry out!"

~Lk 19:28-40

Fr. Geoffrey Plant has a wealth of information on Palm Sunday.  So do you know which of the four Gospels is the only one that mentions palms for the entry into Jerusalem?  Find out.

Fr. Geoffrey quotes Hans Urs von Balthasar : “Through the cross and only through the cross will the gates of the kingdom be opened.” 

 

Along those same lines of the cross, Bishop Robert Barron gives a homily that knocked my socks off.  This is a must watch.

That is one of the best pastoral homilies I have ever heard.  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

 

Sunday Meditation: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest."

 

For the hymn, let’s double up on the good thief’s contrite words, performed by Taizé. 

 

The images to go with the music are as spectacular as the musical rendition.

Sunday Meditation: At the Procession with Palms

We finally come to the Passion Week, and of course we start with Jesus entering Jerusalem in triumph on what has become to be called Palm Sunday.  Mass starts with the short narrative of the entry into the city.

 

When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,

to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,

he sent two of his disciples and said to them,

“Go into the village opposite you,

and immediately on entering it,

you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone should say to you,

‘Why are you doing this?’ reply,

‘The Master has need of it

and will send it back here at once.’”

So they went off

and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street,

and they untied it.

Some of the bystanders said to them,

“What are you doing, untying the colt?”

They answered them just as Jesus had told them to,

and they permitted them to do it.

So they brought the colt to Jesus

and put their cloaks over it.

And he sat on it.

Many people spread their cloaks on the road,

and others spread leafy branches

that they had cut from the fields.

Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:

    “Hosanna!

        Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

        Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!

    Hosanna in the highest!”

~Mk 11:1-10

The Gospel passage continues with the long Passion narrative starting with the Wednesday evening at Bethany to the arrest, the torture, the crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus.  It is too long a narrative (Mk 14:1 to Mk 15:47) to quote, so I’m only going to provide the scene with Mary anointing Jesus.

 

The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

were to take place in two days’ time.

So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way

to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.

They said, “Not during the festival,

for fear that there may be a riot among the people.”

 

When he was in Bethany reclining at table

in the house of Simon the leper,

a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,

costly genuine spikenard.

She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.

There were some who were indignant.

“Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?

It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages

and the money given to the poor.”

They were infuriated with her.

Jesus said, “Let her alone.

Why do you make trouble for her?

She has done a good thing for me.

The poor you will always have with you,

and whenever you wish you can do good to them,

but you will not always have me.

She has done what she could.

She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.

Amen, I say to you,

wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,

what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

~Mk 14:1-9

Fr. Geoffrey Plant provides an understanding of the narrative.

 

Second, Bishop Robert Barron provides the more theological implications of the passage.

 

I think between Fr. Geoffrey’s and Bishop Barron’s homilies one understands the fullness of the Passion Week.

 

Meditation: “She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.”

I close with a musical antiphon for the day.

 

“Palm Sunday Entrance Antiphon" by Sarah Hart, Curtis Stephan and Steve Angrisano.  Happy Palm Sunday.

Music Tuesday: Fox TV’s The Passion

This was on TV Sunday night, Palm Sunday, and I missed it.  I didn’t know about it, but I did see the blog posts Monday Morning.  It’s a musical narrative of Christ’s last week leading to the Resurrection.  Kathy Schiffer, the producer of the show, writes about it on Aleteia.  

“I didn’t want to create a show just for believers. I wanted to reach those who know nothing!”

Adam Anders is talking about his latest project, The Passion, a creative and contemporary retelling of the Gospel narrative which will be broadcast live from New Orleans on Palm Sunday. Anders is executive producer and executive music producer for The Passion. At Fox’s New Orleans studio, he talked to reporters about the project.

Here is the trailer:

Kathy continues on how the idea came about:

Anders first got the idea for The Passion after he was invited to attend a similar large-scale production in Holland. In that country, he reported, only 7 percent of the population goes to church. In contrast, since the musical production of The Passion was introduced there in 2011, it has been viewed by more than 50 percent of Holland’s populace. Anders was excited to realize that this performance could bring the Gospel to people who might otherwise know nothing about it.

“The Catholic Church [in the Netherlands] got behind it, helping to fund and promote it,” Anders told me. “It just took the country by storm. So when I saw that response in a country that’s largely atheist, I thought This is perfect! We’ve got to get it here!”

What a fantastic idea, and New Orleans is a great selection for the host city.  Kathy continues:

The procession will originate at New Orleans’ iconic Superdome, where thousands of displaced persons took refuge during Hurricane Katrina. The relevance of New Orleans as a “resurrected city” is not lost on Anders. “Tyler Perry, who grew up in New Orleans, will talk about it,” he told me. “The Superdome, where this starts, has become a symbol of suffering. There is, in people’s minds, that powerful visual of people trapped by the swirling floodwaters. So many lives have been changed — for better and worse. The city lost thousands of people, some who died and some who left and never came back. My own brother lived here and never returned after Katrina. Now he’s back here for the first time — he’ll be playing in the band.”

So who is in it? 

The Passion features a star-studded cast from a wide range of musical genres. Tyler Perry is the host and narrator. Cuban American singer/songwriter/actor Jencarlos Canela will play Jesus, clad in a beige trenchcoat. Chris Daughtry stars as Judas, and Trisha Yearwood portrays Jesus’ mother, Mary. British singer/songwriter Seal steps into the role of Pontius Pilate. Christian artist Michael W. Smith plays a disciple. And Nischelle Turner, entertainment correspondent for CNN and anchor/correspondent for Entertainment Tonight in effect plays herself — as a reporter on the streets of New Orleans, interviewing people from the crowd during the live procession. Three musical groups — a band from Los Angeles, a New Orleans jazz band and a choir of voices from local churches — will perform, and there will be an appearance by New Orleans’ famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

To be honest, other than Seal, I don’t know any of them, but don’t go by me.  I’m pop culture illiterate.  Christopher Rossi gave it a fine review on his blog, Christopher Closeup:  /

The use of modern songs as the heart of the production showed that God (or at least a spiritual subtext) can be found in popular culture if we open our eyes and ears. Jencarlos Canela as Jesus singing “Calling All Angels” in the Garden of Gethsemane was especially fitting. (“When there is no place safe and no safe place to put my head / When you feel the world shake from the words that are said / And I’m calling all angels / I’m calling all you angels.”). And his duet with Prince Royce as Peter on the Phillip Phillips hit “Home,” brought a new dimension to the song when thought of from the point of view of how Peter felt when Jesus told him he would be the head of His church. (“Settle down, it’ll all be clear / Don’t pay no mind to the demons / They fill you with fear / The trouble—it might drag you down / If you get lost, you can always be found / Just know you’re not alone / ‘Cause I’m gonna make this place your home.”)

Now if you missed it like I did, you can still watch it on streamed at Fox.com, here. 

I’ve been watching it and I love it.  It’s gospel and very American music.  I also love the scenes of New Orleans French Quarter.  I’ve only been there once (actually a few months before Hurricane Katrina) and I recognize a number of the wonderful city visuals.