9781644135945

The Light of the World
DEUS MEUS, RESPICE IN ME
Passiontide
Today we enter a new phase of the holy season of Lent. From Septuagesima until today we
have striven to purify our own life. The liturgy has directed us toward this end during the last
seven weeks. By disciplining our passions, by mortification, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, we
have prepared ourselves for the great task that now awaits us. We are to share in the death and
resurrection of Christ. This theme pervades the liturgy throughout Passiontide. Our hearts now
long for the graces which this season will provide.
During Passiontide the cross occupies the central place in the liturgy. We must learn to love,
understand, and reverence the cross, for it is the source of our salvation. The tree of Paradise
brought forth death, but the tree of the cross gives life. By means of the tree in Paradise, Satan
overcame men; by means of the cross Christ overcame Satan (Preface of the Holy Cross). In
understanding and loving the cross of Christ, we must learn also to understand and treasure
our own cross. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and
follow Me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it; and he that shall lose his life for My sake,
shall find it” (Mt 16:24 f.).
“Behold, in the cross all doth consist, and all lieth in our dying; and there is no other
way to life and to true interior peace but the way of the holy cross and daily mortification.
The more one dies to self, the more one lives to God. If indeed there had been anything
better and more beneficial to man’s salvation than suffering, Christ would certainly have
shown it by word and example.” 12 Passion Sunday
The Mass
Today we see Christ beginning His sacrificial mission. With loving understanding the Church
presses close to Him that she may accompany Him through the ordeal of His passion and death.
She dons her mourning apparel; she hides the beauty of her ornate crosses and images, and
even omits the Gloria Patri from the Mass. In the breviary the series of readings taken from the
books of Moses are interrupted to make place for the writings of Jeremias, who gives us a vivid
picture of the sufferings of Christ. Holy Mother the Church cries out repeatedly to the Father,
“From the mouth of the lion deliver me, O Lord.” She lives and shares intimately the suffering
of her beloved Savior. This spirit must fill our heart during Passiontide.
12
Imitation of Christ, bk. 2, chap. 12.
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