“Good Friday” Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC 2020
Good Friday: Veneration of the Cross 2019: Photo by: John Goddard
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Washing of the Feet: Holy Thursday 2019: Photo by: John Goddard
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
“Master, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later.”
Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”
Simon Peter said to him,
“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”
Jesus said to him,
“Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed,
for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all.”
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
Prayers of the Faithful
For the Universal Church, for Pope Francis, bishops and clergy, that we may learn to wash the feet of those who know the effects of long-term poverty, incarceration, illness and severe hardships, so to build the Church on love.
We pray to the Lord.
For all ministers at Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Holy Rosary, that we may learn a new humility in serving people at the Altar of God, in our daily lives, and in our parish outreach.
We pray to the Lord.
For the unity and integrity of all believers even though we are unable to share the Body and Blood of Christ during this year’s Triduum. May we yearn for the Real Presence of Christ in our daily lives.
We pray to the Lord.
For our alcohol addicted children, for those who ponder suicide, for those who have been abused, and for our families who are starving for hope and comfort. We pray for all people suffering from COVID-19, and for all who have lost jobs.
We pray to the Lord.
For our young people and adults who desire to receive Eucharist for the first time during the Easter season, that they may be converted to serve people in need, to feed people who are starving for daily bread. We pray for our worried children during this time of pandemic.
We pray to the Lord.
For our desperate poor, our terminally ill, our family members without hope, our loved ones who are estranged from us, our friends who no longer pray, our neighbors who cannot support themselves, that our faith even in the absence of the Eucharist may challenge us to serve tirelessly.
We pray to the Lord.
For our beloved dead, for our families who still grieve this night, that we may receive a new hope of eternal life. May those who have died of COVID-19 find comfort in eternal life.
We pray to the Lord.
“My appointed time draws near” Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC 2018
CLICK HERE to listen to today’s homily
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
“What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?”
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?”
He said,
“Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
‘The teacher says, “My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples.”‘“
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
“Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
“Surely it is not I, Lord?”
He said in reply,
“He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
“Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”
He answered, “You have said so.”
“Jesus the Master, and The Lover and The Betrayer” Finger Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC 2020
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,
was reclining at Jesus’ side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him,
“Master, who is it?”
Jesus answered,
“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.
So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him,
“Buy what we need for the feast,”
or to give something to the poor.
So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.
When he had left, Jesus said,
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
You will look for me, and as I told the Jews,
‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”
Jesus answered him,
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.”
Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”
Finger Painting: This dinner is an intimate experience. Jesus gathers those he loves, the people who will continue his message of the Kingdom. John lays his head on Jesus’ chest. Judas and Peter will betray and deny him. Those experiences of love and betrayal live within us. In this simple painting, we see ourselves as we long to be closer to the Master. Love and Betrayal become hope for us today. My finger paintings this week try to get at an immediate experience of expression. We do not know what is happening in our world, we have little control, we only have this moment. I want to express through paint on my fingers the immediate, the now experience, of faith and trust in the Master in this week we call holy.
“Mary took perfumed oil” Finger Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC 2020
Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came,
not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus,
whom he had raised from the dead.
And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,
because many of the Jews were turning away
and believing in Jesus because of him.
I dipped my fingers in paint to create this image last week. I am filled with anxiety that overflows my heart which no alabaster jar could contain. Mary holds the lavish expression of care and consolation not in a jar but in an awareness of Jesus. She knows who Jesus really is for her and Lazarus. She is one of my most beloved characters in the gospels. I wait every year for this Monday of Holy Week to listen to Mary’s encounter one more time. She prepares my heart so I will be able to hear the rest of the story this week. I want to pour out what is in my own heart to the Once who faced condemnation from those who loved him. I ache to bend down to anoint the feet of the Master, the Beloved, because he has first forgiven me and set me free. This is behind the paint I dabble on paper.
Palm Sunday 2020: “Praying for you…”
Palm Sunday: Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC
CLICK here to listen to this weekend’s homily
When Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem
and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives,
Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,
“Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tethered,
and a colt with her.
Untie them and bring them here to me.
And if anyone should say anything to you, reply,
‘The master has need of them.’
Then he will send them at once.”
This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Say to daughter Zion,
“Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.
They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them,
and he sat upon them.
The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
while others cut branches from the trees
and strewed them on the road.
The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is the he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
And when he entered Jerusalem
the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?”
And the crowds replied,
“This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL:
For our Universal Church, that we may embrace the mystery of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection in humility, self-sacrifice and tenderness.
We pray to the Lord.
For family members who carry emotional burdens, especially the weight of depression and loneliness, that they may find healing and support.
We pray to the Lord.
For people suffering humiliation or injustice, that they may receive comfort and peace through their trust in God’s love.
We pray to the Lord.
For our parish communities during this Holy Week, that we may walk the journey from embracing the cross to celebrating Easter joy even though we are not together. For our conversion in mind and heart, that hope may bear fruit in our world.
We pray to the Lord.
For our families and friends, that we may bend our knees to the name of Christ our Savior, that we all may learn to serve Christ from a rich humility and compassion in these days of need.
We pray to the Lord.
For those who bear the weight of loneliness and isolation during this time of COVID-19. May those who are ill discover our care and love. Let us grieve the dead with compassion and live without fear.
We pray to the Lord
For those who have died that they may be at peace in the glory of God’s Kingdom.
We pray to the Lord.
“Mary and John at the Foot of the Cross” Finger Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC 2020
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees
convened the Sanhedrin and said,
“What are we going to do?
This man is performing many signs.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,
and the Romans will come
and take away both our land and our nation.”
But one of them, Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year, said to them,
“You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you
that one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish.”
He did not say this on his own,
but since he was high priest for that year,
he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
and not only for the nation,
but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.
So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews,
but he left for the region near the desert,
to a town called Ephraim,
and there he remained with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near,
and many went up from the country to Jerusalem
before Passover to purify themselves.
They looked for Jesus and said to one another
as they were in the temple area, “What do you think?
That he will not come to the feast?”
Finger Painting: I can’t image the deep emotion Mary and John felt as they stood at the foot of the Cross. Mary, the Sorrowful Mother, must have gazed in love and disbelief at her son’s body. John, must have looked away, unable to gaze on Jesus’ dead body. John must have clung the memory of resting his head on Jesus’ chest at the dinner on that sacred night. It was entirely too much for both of them to behold the death of Jesus. In this painting, the chaos of his death and the emotions of Mary and John come through my fingers. I know this scene from struggling to find Jesus myself.
“The Holy Prophet” Finger Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC
The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
The Jews answered him,
“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”
Jesus answered them,
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.
He went back across the Jordan
to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.
Many came to him and said,
“John performed no sign,
but everything John said about this man was true.”
And many there began to believe in him.
Finger Painting: I painted this image in just a couple of minutes or less. My entire being knows this image. I don’t need to have anyone tell me that it should look a certain way. For the transformation of dying and rising happens within our souls over and over again. We all know this image within our hearts but we also spend our lives not wanting to accept it. We fear death and the process that comes with dying to ourselves and living in Christ. The entire purpose of Lent is to pattern our lives in the dying and rising of Christ. This is not only our true identity, it is essential in discovering the love God has for us in our human frailty. I desire to know Him not only in my heart and through my fingers covered in paint, but to find his everlasting grace and tenderness for the souls of world and for my own.
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Dear Followers of the Crucified,
This week plunges us into the depths of Christ’s Paschal Mystery. His passion, his death and his resurrection become the core of our faith. This process of dying and rising is the pattern of the Christian. This letting go, this dying to self, and being raised up in Christ, becomes our life as the baptized. This week is the most important week in our liturgical year. In this week we find the face of our Savior, and the reality and the truth of our own lives.
I invite you into this week of prayer even though we will not be together! The virus has shut the doors of our churches, but not our hearts. We are committed to these liturgies even when we have to watch them on the internet or television. So, I want to remind you of the importance of these liturgies. I also invite you to make sure you are following Holy Week the best you can through the resources of our diocese and beyond.
I realize we are all distracted by life. Sometimes we feel lost in the unbelievable difficulties in life, including our survival from this pandemic. This week demands our attention. This is the week where the lost find Him. This is the week where the weak find strength. This is the week where we rest our shame, our sin, and our guilt at His feet. This is the week of love.
The Paschal Triduum begins on Holy Thursday. The Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper takes us back to the night before Jesus died. He gathered his loved ones around a meal. He lifted up bread. Jesus told his disciples to always break bread in his memory. He promised to be with us forever. He held the cup in his hands. Jesus promised that his bloodshed would redeem the world. He also took the feet of his disciples into his hands. He told them that love is also real when we learn to serve. When we get out of the way, when we let go of our prejudice, our misogyny, our homophobia, our xenophobia, we then learn the core of hospitality among the stranger. “The other” no longer becomes a source of fear, but a living reality that all people belong in Christ Jesus. The Last Supper becomes food of our redemption and the source of love to embrace people. This link of prayer and service becomes the mission of the Church.
Good Friday, also called Friday of the Passion of the Lord, digs deep into our human longing for Christ. Christ’s death teaches us to move beyond fear. The redemption of the wood of the cross reveals that all suffering shall find a home in Christ Jesus. His blood on the cross cleanses all our sins, our divisions, our hatred and false power. We all ache to let go of our shame, our guilt, our ill will and pretentious speech at the altar of the cross. We are called to surrender to Christ. We allow him into our despair. Our longing is more than our selfishness. On Good Friday, remember the last time that you came to reverence or kiss the cross. Were you searching to belong? At the cross we discover our own faith in Jesus who takes us by the heart so that we will ultimately surrender to such love. We also realize that death does not have the last word.
On Holy Saturday, we celebrate the Easter Vigil. Here the Church ignites new fire so that we may not be lost in the dark. The Light of Christ reveals our path in the darkness. We listen to the scriptures of our salvation history. This story reveals to us that we are a continuation of such beauty and love. We crack open the gospel of Christ’s Resurrection. This is the place of freedom. Christ is living and real. This is normally the time that we welcome our Elect to the font of Christ Jesus. However, this year it has been postponed.
We explore the wonders that we belong together in Christ, that love is the real identity of us who believe. Someday soon, we will celebrate the Eucharist and be together again. Someday soon, we will initiate our Elect and celebrate Sacraments of Initiation for our children, young adults and those waiting for baptism. In the meantime, praise God for this week, for this is the week we call holy.
Blessings to you in this Holy Week,
Fr Ron
Broken But Not Divided 