CHARLOTTE — Holy Week is a time for us to grow closer to Jesus Christ – following Him during His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, through to His Passion and death on a cross, Bishop Peter Jugis preached as Holy Week began with Palm Sunday March 25.
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The entire story of Jesus’ sacrifice is summarized and relived during the Palm Sunday liturgy, Bishop Jugis noted in his homily at St. Patrick Cathedral.
The start of the Palm Sunday liturgy, when people process into the church carrying palm fronds, re-enacts how people joyfully greeted Christ upon His entrance into Jerusalem.
“The people know who Jesus is and they are proclaiming Him the savior, they are proclaiming Him the Messiah,” Bishop Jugis said, but “Jesus knows what’s about to happen to Him.”
“Jesus knows what He has to do as the Messiah, as the savior,” because His sacrifice was prophesied in Scripture, the bishop explained. Jesus knew the ancient Biblical prophecies and He knew the psalms, because He is the Word of God made flesh.
The words of the psalmist chanted in the liturgy’s Responsorial Psalm (from Psalm 22) – “they have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones.” – foretell Jesus’ Passion and death, Bishop Jugis noted. “What else would that refer to but a crucifixion?”
He continued, “The devil is always trying to disfigure the beautiful things that God does.”
“The hands of Jesus that healed the sick and blessed the crowds and multiplied the bread and fish for the people – those beautiful hands – the devil sees to it that those hands become disfigured by being pierced with nails,” he said. “Those feet of Jesus that walked all over Israel to bring the Good News of salvation and the kingdom of God to the whole countryside, the devil sees to it that those feet are pierced through.”
But what the prophet Isaiah writes in the liturgy’s first reading (from Isaiah 50:4-7), Jesus fulfills: “…I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”
“‘He was pierced through for our offenses,’ … and He ‘was crushed for our sins; upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by His stripes we were healed,’” Bishop Jugis then quoted from Isaiah 53, which will be read at the liturgy on Good Friday.
He prayed, “Let us use this Holy Week to develop a deep love for Jesus and grow in our friendship with Jesus. Yet, at the same time, let us have a deep hatred for sin because sins disfigure us, as they once disfigured Jesus in His Passion and crucifixion.”
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor
Mass at Old St. Joseph Church marks annual celebration of St. Patrick’s Day
Mass at Old St. Joseph Church marks annual celebration of St. Patrick’s Day
MOUNT HOLLY — Continuing its annual tradition, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians gathered at Old St. Joseph Church in Mt. Holly for the annual St. Patrick Mass on Friday, March 16, the vigil of the feast of St. Patrick.
Father Joshua Voitus, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Charlotte, offered the Mass and preached on the example that St. Patrick provides the faithful in spreading the Gospel with zeal in today’s world, which is often hostile to Christ and his teachings.
He then exhorted the attendees to be heroic like St. Patrick, and spread the Gospel to those around them while seeking recourse to St. Patrick as a powerful intercessor.
The annual blessing of the gravesite of Father T.J. Cronin, the church’s first pastor who died in 1842 shortly before the church building was completed, preceded the Mass.
St. Joseph Church, built in 1843, was founded by Irish gold miners along the Catawba River and is the oldest standing Catholic church in North Carolina.
The AOH, which sponsored the Mass, is a Catholic-Irish fraternal organization whose goals are to promote friendship, unity and Christian charity; foster and perpetuate Irish history, culture and traditions and to protect and defend all life.
For details visit: www.aohmeck2.org.
— Mike FitzGerald, correspondent