Holy Week - March 28 - April 3, 2021 Holy Week is the week before Easter Sunday, beginning seven days before with Palm Sunday. It ends with Holy Saturday. Easter is not part of Holy Week, but rather the beginning of the Easter season of the Liturgical year. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. On this day, we celebrate the triumphant entry of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, into Jerusalem, riding a donkey. On that day, the people laid palms before Him, a gesture reserved for triumphant leaders. We celebrate this at Mass by distributing palms to the faithful who may keep them for a time for use as devotional objects. The palms are blessed at Mass. The faithful sometimes craft portions of palm fronds into crosses. Eventually, these palms are returned to the Church where they are burned. Traditionally, their ashes are saved and distributed at next year's Ash Wednesday services. Later, when Jesus entered the Temple, he angrily drove out the money changers who had turned the Temple court into a place of business instead of devotion. Once the court was cleared, Jesus began teaching the masses. Meanwhile, His enemies drew plans to kill Him. The next major event in Holy Week is Holy Thursday. On this day, Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with the disciples. We know this feast as the Last Supper. This is the night He was betrayed by Judas and arrested. The Last Supper is celebrated at every Mass, and especially on Holy Thursday. After supper, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and prayed. From this event comes inspiration for our practice of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, where we are invited to spend one hour in prayer with Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist; Body, Blood, and Divinity. Jesus was arrested on the night of Holy Thursday. The next day is Good Friday, and on this day, we commemorate the trial, punishment, and crucifixion of Our Lord. On that morning, Jesus was brought before Annas, a powerful Jewish cleric who condemned Jesus for blasphemy. From there, Jesus was presented to Pilate for trial. Although Pilate found no guilt in Jesus, he agreed to have him crucified to appease the crowd of people and prevent a riot. Christ was stripped, flogged, and crowned with thorns. He was then forced to carry His Cross to the place of His execution. There, He was nailed to the Cross between two thieves who were likewise crucified. Late that afternoon, seeking to ensure Christ's death, a Roman guard stabbed him in his side with a spear. When Jesus died, an earthquake is said to have occurred as well as a great darkness which covered the land. Suddenly, many people knew Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus was taken and laid quickly in a borrowed tomb, in accord with Jewish law, which required the dead be buried by sundown before the Sabbath. In our churches, the Tabernacle is left empty, to show that Christ is departed. On Holy Saturday, there is no Mass. Parishes may hold services, but there is no distribution of Communion. On Holy Saturday, we remember that Jesus was descended into hell where He preached the Gospel to those who died before and opened the way to heaven for all those who were worthy. This concludes Holy Week. The following day is Easter Sunday, the day on which it was discovered the Tomb was empty, and our Lord was resurrected, triumphing over death once and for all time.

Lectionary: 11 Reading 1 2 SM 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16 When King David was settled in his palace, and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!” Nathan answered the king, “Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you.” But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?’“ "'It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth. I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance. Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old, since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you. And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.'” Responsorial Psalm PS 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29 R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. The promises of the LORD I will sing forever; through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”; in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness. R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: Forever will I confirm your posterity and establish your throne for all generations.” R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. “He shall say of me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock, my savior.’ Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him, and my covenant with him stands firm.” R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. Reading 2 ROM 16:25-27 Brothers and sisters: To him who can strengthen you, according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested through the prophetic writings and, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen. Alleluia. LK 1:38 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 1:26-38  The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. My dear Holy Family family, I’d like to discuss Mary’s role in salvation history. The Gospel today gives us a snapshot of that pivotal moment when Gabriel pops the biggest question of all time to Mary. But let’s look at who Mary was, her background, was and what she was eventually called to do. This will help us to understand Mary much better. First, Mary was a member of the school of Temple Virgins in Jerusalem that formed an altar guild whose job it was to fulfill many of the necessary tasks at the Temple which included most importantly, liturgical prayer . Tradition holds that this school for Israelite virgins was completed by marrying at the age of about 14. From birth, we know that Mary was born without Original Sin and did not sin in her lifetime. What effect did this have on Mary’s dispositions? St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, says that says people who sin become emotionally, spiritually and physiologically dull. In other words, sin dulls our senses, our intellect and even affects our longevity Mary, born without original sin, spent her entire life growing in virtue, to exceed even the virtue of every created thing, including the angels in heaven themselves. This means Mary did not have any dullness of senses, intellect or emotions in the way we experience them. So, Our Lady, without original sin, grew continuously in virtue and had perfect acuity of the senses. This means her physical body could sense and feel things far more acutely than we can. Emotionally, her emotions were perfectly subordinated to reason because she had perfect virtue. She had no motivation at all except that of Jesus, her Divine Son. She had none of what we usually call emotions. In fact, although her emotions were perfectly subordinated to reason, this meant her emotions were actually far more intense than ours because her sinless state meant that there was no dullness of mind or body, no selfishness to act as a type of insulation against hurt or evil. She could feel pain, joy or delight FAR more intensely than we can even comprehend. So, when Jesus is suffering in His passion and on the cross, what Mary is going through interiorly is on a COMPLETELY different level than we can even understand. Now my dear family, since Mary was in the school of temple virgins, she would have known the scriptures very thoroughly. She would have known of the prophets who proclaimed a coming Savior, and she would have known very well the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. How does the Book of Genesis fit in to Mary’s story? Well, Mary would have known that, after Adam and Eve sinned, God told Adam (and by extension, Eve) are told “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” And the Lord God said to Satan the serpent, “upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life”. What’s in common here? Both the serpent and Adam & Eve are to experience dust in their lives. Remember the words from Ash Wednesday "remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return”? Living in dust has a rather specific theological meaning and I feel sure Mary knew it very well: Satan and all his fallen angels were condemned by God to live with us humans on earth, all together, for as long as we humans are here. Hence the need for the savior that Mary heard the prophets foretelling in the readings of the scrolls in the Temple. Mary likely felt sure a Savior was coming any time, as many people did back then. Mary surely pondered these prophecies too, unaware that she would be asked to play a pivotal part in them. Now that we know Mary’s background, I’d like to fast-forward in time and look back on Mary’s most fateful answer. In retrospect, here’s what Mary actually assented to and the consequences of her “yes”: Mary “undid” what Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Eve assented to Satan’s lies, thus introducing sin into the world. By contrast, Mary said “yes” to the archangel Gabriel, thus allowing our Savior to be born, live and die for us, thus allowing for our salvation by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Hence one of Mary’s titles is the “New Eve.” So, in effect, Mary paid the price for Eve’s sin: she bore Christ who became the new Adam. Jesus atoned for Adam and Eve’s (and our) sins and opened the gates of heaven just as Adam closed the gates of heaven in the Garden of Eden Next, Just as Adam and Eve were collaborators in sin, Jesus and Mary were collaborators in our salvation and the undoing of sin. The collaboration went like this: Mary felt perfectly what Jesus felt. Jesus, God the Son, was perfectly in tune with God the Father. This is why we say that, with Mary’s emotions perfectly subordinated to her reason, she was in perfect consonance with God’s will. This allowed her to give birth to, raise and subordinate her life entirely to Jesus’ mission. His life was her life. His death, in a sense, was hers too: she suffered more extraordinarily that we could, or can even imagine. This is much of the reason Mary is exalted in the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary is “Queen of Heaven and Earth”. She has virtue above the angelic and human realms. In Heaven, she retains her earthly perfections, so she still feels with perfect acuity what her Son feels. When we sin, we stain our hearts but Mary suffers with God, her Son. Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with you. Let us bow our heads in prayer… Mary, you responded to Gabriel’s visit with courage and fearlessness. Please help us to have that same fearlessness in our life’s work and in the purification of our eternal souls. We pray that you come upon us to give us the faith and courage to face the difficulties in our lives. We ask you to ask Jesus to intercede for us. Most of all Mary, we thank you for making the decision that cost you so much while you lived on earth. We thank you for the open gates of heaven and ask you to please guide us there at then end of our lives. Amen.

Definition of “Harbinger" 1a: Something that foreshadows a future event : something that gives an anticipatory sign of what is to come. The messianic Rabbi-Pastor Jonathan Cahn has been warning about the calamities befalling the United States and other nations around the world. He has done this in a number of books including, but not limited to, his New York Times Bestsellers: The Harbinger and The Harbinger II. In essence, there are a number of warnings that God has given us in America. Pastor Rabbi Cahn is asking us to pay close attention to these warnings. If we do not heed the advice, we may see more “shakings” that are much more nefarious, ominous and threatening to our country and to the world at large. Rabbi-Pastor Cahn often sites 2 Chronicles 7:14 in terms of a prophetic word for our nation: 14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. It is clear that this passage—should we decide to be mindful and attentive to it—will require us to: a) Humble ourselves; b) Pray; c) Seek His face; d) Turn from our wicked ways (i.e.; repent)