DRINK JESUS’ CUP

“Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?” – John 18:11

I thought that the opposite of love was hate. That when love is no longer there, hate will replace it. However, experience has taught me that even in the worst hatred, there lies a small spark of love somewhere within the person.
      Thus the saying goes, “the more you hate, the more you love.” The author of The Road Less Travelled, Scott Peck presents a different but real opposite of love. For him, the opposite of love is not hate but laziness. When one is no longer interested to exert any effort to make another person grow, then that’s the full opposite of love – an act worse than hatred.
      Uncaring people have this habit: “Enjoy now and endure later.” Conversely, I and my wife, Joie, claimed another principle in life: “Endure now and enjoy later.” Even if the “feelings” elude us, we continue and endure serving, listening to and caring for one another and our son Rob. At the end of each day (or month or year) that’s when we truly enjoy.
      I agree with Dr. Peck when he said, “Our finest moments... occur when we are uncomfortable, when we’re not feeling happy, or fulfilled, when we’re struggling and searching.” One will have to choose daily: Is it the easy road of indifference or the hard road of committed love? Drink Jesus’ cup now! Cheers! Obet C.

REFLECTION:
Do we see glory beyond the cup of sorrow?

Not my will, but Your will be done, O Lord!

P S A L M

Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25

R: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

1 [2] In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. In your justice rescue me. 5 [6] Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. (R) 11 [12] For all my foes I am an object of reproach, a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends; they who see me abroad flee from me. 12 [13] I am forgotten like the unremembered dead; I am like a dish that is broken. (R) 14 [15] But my trust is in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God. 15 [16] In your hands is my destiny; rescue me from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors. (R) 16 [17] Let your Face shine upon your servant; save me in your kindness.” 24 [25] Take courage and be stouthearted, all you who hope in the LORD. (R)

2nd READING

Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews assures us that Jesus is truly human and knows what it means to live a human existence. It is this coming together of both the divine and the human that makes it possible for Jesus to redeem us. It is the fact that He, as God, willingly undertook the task of our redemption in the form of a human person, that His passion and Death and Resurrection can be applied to all humanity.

 14 Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. 16 So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help. 5: 7 In the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; 9 and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

G O S P E L

John 18:1—19:42

Once again we reflect upon the Passion of Jesus. Let us not dismiss the text from our lives but allow the reality of what it portrays to sink in to our psyche as there it will have the opportunity to bring change to our lives – change so that we will be more perfectly conformed to the image of God. St Alphonsus Ligouri recommends that we meditate on the Passion of Christ daily in order that we never forget what Christ has done for us. This is a good thing to try and put in place in our lives.
  
1 When he had said this, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered. 2 Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. 4 Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them,“Whom are you looking for?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them. 6 When he said to them, “I AM,” they turned away and fell to the ground. 7 So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.” 8 Jesus answered, “I  told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill what he had said, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.” 10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. 11 Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?” 12 So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus, bound him, 13 and brought him to Annas first. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. 14 It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the people. 15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus. 16 But Peter stood at the gate outside. So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in. 17 Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, “You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was also standing there keeping warm. 19 The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. 21 Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.” 22 When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” 24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. 25 Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm. And they said to him, “You are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” 27 Again Peter denied it. And immediately the cock crowed. 28 Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring [against] this man?” 30 They answered and said to him, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” 31 At this, Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.” The Jews answered him, “We do not have the right to execute anyone,” 32 in order that the Word of Jesus might be fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die. 33 So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” 37 So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in him. 39 But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 They cried out again, “Not this one but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. 19: 1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, 3 and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly.  4 Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” 8 Now when Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid, 9 and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer him. 10 So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered [him], “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” 12 Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!” 15 They cried out, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered,”“We have no king but Caesar.” 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. The Crucifixion of Jesus: So they took Jesus, 17 and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.” 20 Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. 24 So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be,” in order that  the passage of scripture might be fulfilled [that says]: “They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots.” This is what the soldiers did. 25 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. 28 After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” 29 There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. 31 Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, 34 but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. 35 An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may [come to] believe. 36 For this happened so that the scripture passage might be fulfilled: “Not a bone of it will be broken.” 37 And again another passage says: “They will look upon him whom they have pierced.” 38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. 39 Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds. 40 They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. 41 Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. 42 So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.
  
my reflections
think: Leaders are not only called to love those whom they lead but to suffer for them as well.

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God’s special verse/thought for me today________________

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T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST

Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________

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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR 2 Kings 16-18

GETTING TO KNOW THE SAINTS

Saint Isidore of Seville

Saint Isidore was born in 556 A.D. to a brood of religious brothers and sisters — Leander and Fulgentius became bishops and saints, and Florentina, a nun, was also a saint. The young Isidore received a first-rate education. His brother Leander supervised and pushed him to study. He used this as sacrifice to the Lord. As a result, he later believed that every diocese must have a seminary and a Catholic school for advanced learning.

The saint succeeded the bishopric of Seville, Spain from his brother Saint Leander. He served the people and the Church for thirty-seven years. Among his accomplishments as bishop were the following — he and his brother led in the conversion of the Visigoths in faith; he directed two important Church Councils, leading to the Church s stronger union; he wrote a dictionary and numerous books on the history of the Goths and about Bible heroes and heroines.

Saint Isidore died in 636. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1722 by Pope Innocent XIII.

http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/saintday/m4.html

Saint Benedict the Black

Benedict the Black, also known as Benedict the Moor or Benedict the African, was born on 1526 at Messina, Italy. 

His parents were slaves who were brought from Africa to Sicily. Benedict was released from slavery when he was 18. He worked as an employee of his former master. He joined a group of Franciscan hermits near Palermo where he served as a novice master and superior of the friars. At the end of his term, Benedict returned in the friary kitchen. He provided the people his gift of prayer and the guidance of souls. His humility and cheerfulness led to the order s reform.

When Benedict died in 1589, King Philip III of Spain prepared a special tomb for him. According to reports, the body of Saint Benedict the Black was found incorrupt when checked several years later. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV on May 15, 1743 and canonized by Pope Pius VIII on May 24, 1807.

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintb20.htm

Today is the most solemn day of the Church’s year as we reflect upon the death of the Son of God on a cross. This remarkable event signals for us the final act of the drama of our salvation as it is won for us by Christ. His death catapults the world into crisis – what have we done in crucifying the Son of God? Yet, too little attention is given to this question today. Where is our wonder and amazement at the birth of Christ in the midst of the materialism of Christmas? It seems we lose the mystery of the Incarnation in the midst of  the busyness of tinsel and glitter, food and reunions, giving and receiving. And today the mystery is much deeper and far more profound in that it ushers in the reality of our salvation from sin! It would seem that there is little hope that we will properly reflect upon the significance of the event we celebrate.
      Yet there are signs of hope. The Churches are packed for Palm Sunday as everyone seeks a splash of the holy water for their palm branch and their bodies. However, these external realities will not satisfy the hunger within that yearns for reconciliation with our Creator. The call to repentance and conversion must take center stage if we are going to satisfy that hunger; and if we do not satisfy that hunger, our souls will continue to cry out in travail for the mercy and redemption of our God. This is a time to stop what we are doing and ask ourselves whether or not we have our focus in life right. It is a time to ask ourselves about the meaning of our lives and whether there is anything there.
      The celebration of the death of Jesus is an event that we should keep close to our hearts and reflect upon daily in our minds and prayer, says St. Alphonsus de Ligouri. He is right, as without the decision to keep the cross at the forefront of our thoughts, it will recede to the back and become one of the forgotten and defunct memories. Our faith demands a significant place. Today’s celebration more than any other is worthy of all the time and energy we can give to it! Fr. Steve T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Have I prepared well for the Easter celebrations this year or have I let other things in life govern my attention? Have I neglected my faith in the past year?

Lord Jesus, you are the Redeemer of the World and the Lord of my life. Help me to set aside the time necessary to nourish my relationship with You properly.
  
St. Winebald, hermit and abbot, pray for us.