Palm Sunday

HOLY WEEK begins on Palm Sunday morning with the triumphal entry of Christ the King into Jerusalem. With our palms and cries of Hosanna we set out amidst the crowd to accompany him. The atmosphere is charged with excitement and expectation: the long-awaited Messiah is coming at last. The church doors become for us the gates of the Holy City itself, opening in welcome to greet him.

Yet as our procession enters the church the festive mood is tempered by a note of apprehension. The veiled crosses, blood red vestments, the solemn passion Gospel; these tell us of a King whose triumphal procession will lead him to a destination outside the gates of Jerusalem. Jesus looks beyond the cheering crowd, his gaze travels towards the hill of Calvary. Here, on a Cross, the King of Kings is to be enthroned.

 

 

Christ Church celebrates Palm Sunday with the other churches in the immediate vicinity of Brunswick, as part of an ecumenical sharing of this important day. Normally we have a donkey present, as a symbol of Christ's triumphant ride into Jerusalem but, due to the Black Saturday bushfires on 7th February 2009, the donkeys were moved to greener pastures this year. Palm Sunday 2009 was at St Ambrose's Catholic Church in Sydney Road.

Pic 1 - Fr Philip, Bishop James, Colin, Ian & Fr Robert with some of the St Ambrose's congregation.

Pic 2 - Fr Robert & Ian, with Colin masquerading as a palm tree.

Pic 3 - Fr Robert and St Ambrose's Fr Michael Casey lead the prayers.

 

Maundy Thursday

HOLY THURSDAY is traditionally called Maundy Thursday – and for good reason. The word Maundy derives from the Mandatum Novum – the New Commandment given by Jesus at the Last Supper to his disciples: they are to love one another as he loves.

In the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday evening, the love of Jesus himself is revealed transparently as utter humility and absolute self-giving. He gathers with his closest friends in the atmosphere of the Passover and under the shadow of the Cross. He longs to share this Last Supper with them that they may enter into the mystery of his own self-offering. It is an occasion of the greatest intimacy and tenderness; of foreboding too, for shortly they are to betray and desert him. For the disciples, there is sheer bewilderment. They are unable to grasp the significance of what Jesus is saying and doing. The sacrifice of the Cross, however, will make this clear. Taking a towel, he stoops before each of them in turn and washes their feet; this is the way they must follow if they are truly to be his disciples.

Tonight we gather with that band in the Upper Room with our Lord and God. We too wash feet, take Bread and Wine as he commanded and make Eucharist with him. Embodied thus, he stoops down to us and we reach out our hands to him. We beg for his cleansing touch, his empowering life, that we may keep his new commandment and love as he loves.

In this unfolding of unbelievable condescension, tonight, above all nights, we long to remain with him. We stay behind to watch and pray silently in the Garden, entering a little more into the life and love of God embodied there in Jesus our Master and our Lord.

 

Good Friday

GOOD FRIDAY, the most solemn day of the Church's year, sees our churches stripped bare for the drama of Salvation which we are to celebrate - the passion and death of Jesus Christ. This is no mere commemoration of a past event on a day of the year so strangely called "Good". It is a celebration in the present of a God who was always willing to die for us and who at a particular time and place did so. Such is the enormity of his love for us; such too is the enormity of our sin which led him to be crucified. Through our tears we see him and rejoice that the enormity of our sins cannot outweigh the enormity of his love.

We come on our knees to venerate the Crucified; not as spectators but as participants, seeking to enter into and share the mystery of his redeeming death. We do not come to mourn a tragedy or lament a defeat but to partake in the overthrow of the forces of darkness and evil and the triumphant vanquishing of death itself. Christ's bitter death on Calvary embraces the agony and alienation of all mankind and in that moment of time he offers it up to God. So God enters into the suffering and death of every man through this point of human access.

In awe and wonder we gather around the altar of the Cross to feed on the broken Body and poured out Blood of Christ crucified. We come to share in the life that died; we go to live out his costly death in a suffering world that still awaits the redemptive touch of his Body.

The liturgy for Good Friday falls into four distinct parts:

The lessons.
The solemn prayers.
The veneration of the Cross.
The administration of Holy Communion.

 

 

Easter Eve (or Holy Saturday)

The Liturgy of the Easter Vigil is the most exciting, as well as the most profound and ancient of the Church's annual celebrations. Tonight we plunge into the depths of our Christian origins. The movement of Christ's own life from Good Friday to Easter, through death to resurrection, is actualised in the liturgy. The celebration of Christian death and rebirth in the baptismal mystery lies at the very heart of the Vigil rite and the recreative purpose of the crucified and risen Lord is identified here in the making of Christians.

The first part of the Vigil liturgy confronts us starkly with the darkness of the tomb into which the miracle of new light is to be born. The Paschal Candle then spreads the light of the New Fire throughout the Church to illuminate us for what follows: the celebration of Christ's, and our own, rebirth from the tomb.

The second part sets before us a series of Old Testament lessons which present us with the grand design of God's creation and the unfolding of his plan of salvation through the people of Israel.

The third part, the Liturgy of Baptism, takes us in company with all the saints on pilgrimage to the font. Here Christ, the Fountain of Living Waters, comes to beget us anew. Through his death and resurrection, he invites us to celebrate new birth with him by water and the Spirit. Blessed are those who are bathed in the new Life of Christ through baptism at the Easter season. We join them around the font, reaffirming our own baptismal promises, celebrating with them our blessedness too in the miracle of Christian beginnings.

As always, but above all on this holy night, the Eucharist catches us up into the very life of Christ. The fourth part, the Vigil Eucharist, binds us to him by the power of his death and resurrection. The Good Shepherd bursts forth from the tomb to greet us, breaking out through Bread and Wine to share his new life with us. Wonder and amazement at the stupendous Easter event sweep over us. Alleluia! Alleluia! He is risen indeed. Yet stop, look closer, mark his wounds. Here is the Lamb of God, who has died to give us his life.

Joy to thee, O Queen of Heaven, alleluia; He whom thou wast meet to bear, alleluia; As he promised, hath arisen, alleluia; Pour for us to him thy prayer, alleluia; Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia; For the Lord hath arisen indeed, alleluia.

 

 

Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament

Benediction (or Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament) is a service which is closely linked to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The climax of the Eucharist is in the Eucharistic Prayer itself - that long and dignified payer, with its roots reaching back into the Jewish prayer tradition in the thanksgiving for food at Passover - when in the concluding doxology the host and chalice are raised together and all signify their assent to this prayer which the Celebrant makes on behalf of all present - everyone saying "Amen". There is a pause - a moment's silence. What else could be our response in the presence of so great and tremendous a mystery, the sacramental presence of the Lord - "the real presence of the Church's Lord in the material elements consecrated in the Eucharist" *. But we cannot tarry or pause for very long, much as we may wish to contemplate there and then this wonder which the Father has bestowed upon us. Hence the service of Benediction, in which the primary emphasis must be contemplation. In other words, Benediction is a time when we can at once catch breath and take in and apprehend the splendour and the glory which is revealed - the glory of the One who is the only - begotten of the Father's glory. It is a further feeding upon, a chewing over, a digesting of that good and eternal life which we receive in Holy Communion - "he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed" (John 6:53-55). The bread of eternal Life is placed in the Monstrance and set forth, to be seen and apprehended by all present - just as in the elevation in the Eucharistic Prayer, the Host is lifted high for all to see. The emphasis during Benediction then is upon silence and contemplation, of receptivity and openness to the activity of God in oneself and one's life, in the church and in the world. Here is no "wafer worship", no idolatry; as Professor Macquarie# reminds us "we are men and not angels, we have need of an earthly manifestation of the divine presence;... he, in his grace and mercy, has promised to grant us his presence in this particular manifestation and in this particular meeting place."

Remember that it is in and through the Sacrament that we adore Christ, and it is through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Spirit, that we sing our praises to the Triune God. Thus all our prayer in Benediction, like the Eucharistic Prayer itself, is directed towards the Father, in praise and adoration and thanksgiving. It is a moment of glory and joy before the Father into which we are caught up and in which we are privileged to share. "Glory let us give and blessing to the Father and the Son; Honour, might and praise addressing, while eternal ages run; Ever too his love confessing. Who, from both, with both is one." it is at this point that the climax of the celebration is reached - the sacramental blessing of the people as the priest takes up the Monstrance, turns and makes the sign of the cross with the Host over the people. Now the meaning of the blessing in this act of devotion is clear - God is always there, ahead, waiting for us, his arms open wide to receive us, our worship is simply response. He takes the initiative and reaches out towards us before ever it has struck us that we ought sometimes to be turning towards him: the Lord is risen: he goes before us. All the fullness of blessing of the age to come is intensely focused then as we conclude the service. We leave the church and go out into the streets, into the city, into the world, with the praise of the Almighty ringing in our ears, our hearts rejoicing within, reminding and challenging us that it is right where we are in the thick of it day by day that we need to keep the perspectives and priorities right - focussing upon God, and the struggle into which we are pitched - the accomplishing of his Kingdom and the doing of his will, the establishing of freedom and dignity and justice for all mankind.