Approaching the Paschal Mystery

MARCH 5  AT THE TRANSFIGURATION JESUS SHOWS THE FULLNESS OF HIS MISSION

Gn 12:1-4A; 2 TM 1:8B-10; Mt. 17: 1-9

The juxtaposition in the Gospel between Jesus’ first indication to his disciples as to the nature of his mission and the Transfiguration reflects both the intentionality of Jesus and the subsequent insight of the evangelists. The disciples are unprepared for the totality of what is about to unfold before them and must be overwhelmed with Jesus speaking of betrayal and death instead of the fullness of life. The Transfiguration reveals to his innermost circle – including the one who on the one hand rejected the mission, and on the other, denied even knowing him, the fullness of the promise to come.

MARCH 12  WATER RUNS DEEP IN OUR RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS AND IMAGINATION

Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5: 1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19B-26, 39A, 40-42

The Egyptian people have lived for thousands of years along the narrow stretch of the Nile River. It was and remains the source of their fresh water supply, and the essential means of

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irrigation for agriculture. They are able to flourish even in a harsh desert. When the Israelites left Egypt and entered deeper into the wilderness, they often struggled to find enough fresh water to care for themselves and their limited livestock. Water, then, is important within their religious and cultural imagination. Jesus, in encountering a woman at a well, taps into this imagination as he offers her the promise of eternal water.

MARCH 19  THE BLIND MAN AT SILOAM SEES THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

1Sm 16:1B, 6-7, 10-13A; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:141 or 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38

The essential elements of baptism are clearly manifested in the healing of the blind man at the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. Unlike most of the miracles of Jesus this man is healed, not because of his own faith, but as a demonstration of Jesus’s power over sin. This man, blind from birth, waits by the pool hoping for God’s mercy in his life. Jesus, confronted with the question of sin, restores this man’s sight by having him wash in the pool. Jesus uses this miracles to teach two things: he is the Light of the world, and he has the power to wash away our sins. These same elements are expressed in the baptismal waters.

MARCH 26  JESUS DESTROYS DEATH FOREVER

Ez, 37:12-14; Rom 8:8-11; Jn 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33B-45

No other miracle than the raising of Lazarus from the dead defines Jesus and his ministry. By this point in his ministry Jesus has performed countless miracles. While each miracle carries with it multiple layers of meaning, and all of them ultimately point us towards the full restoration of reconciliation as accomplished through the Paschal Mystery, none of them encapsulates this reality as poignantly and dramatically as does this miracle. Jesus showed to his disciples that his power is not only over life and the healing of the living, but that his power extends even to death itself. This power over death, unheard of and awe-inspiring, is only a mere foreshadowing of the complete subjugation of death through the Resurrection of Jesus.

Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.

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