01 April 2010

Exodus 12:1-4 [5-10] 11-14
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (13)
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

I have it on good authority – from my former dissertation director – that one of the better scoring Scrabble words that one can put together is syzygy – S-Y-Z-Y-G-Y – You Scrabble fanatics have probably already added up the numbers – syzygy is worth 25 points -- then hit a triple word square – and you can really clean up – and in spite of what Spell-Check says, it’s a real word, one that denotes the phenomenon of two separate and sometimes opposite things coming together or lining up to form a single unit. This day and date may be an example of syzygy. It’s April first – All Fools’ Day – and it’s also Maundy Thursday, the beginning of the Triduum, the Three Holy Days, during which we gather together to hear again the story of the Last Supper, and of the betrayal, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Emanuel, God with us in the flesh. At first blush, it would seem that the coincidence of All Fools’ Day with the beginning of our High Holy Days is anything but an example of syzygy. On the other hand . . . . . . .

17 April, 2011

Matthew 21:1-11 Procession with Palms
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 27:11-54

Born in a cave among chickens, cows, and sheep, to a young, unwed woman of low degree, the Holy Family far away from home; and Himself, worshipped by poor, migrant workers; sung of by the angel host and proclaimed by the Spirit as God’s Beloved One. He blessed the poor; embraced the outcast; healed the sick; taught, included, and respected women. He fed the multitudes; proclaimed the love of God for every people apart from the religious practices of the Temple; and became the servant who washed the feet of the undeserving. And all that comes down to a last meal shared with cowardly, denying, deserting, betraying companions; to a sham and rigged trial; mockery and cruel torture at the end of a whip; and the instrument of his own death placed on his shoulders to drag through the streets, to a place outside the city walls, a place of utter degradation; sentenced to die as a criminal hanged upon a tree in the heat of the noonday sun atop a hill of garbage.

10 Arpil, 2011

Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
John 11:1-45

In the beginning, God created the heavens, the earth, and the seas and filled them with a vast multitude of creatures both great and small. And finally on the sixth day God created humankind. God saw everything that God had made and indeed, it was very good. And in return humankind created religion and a god in the image of their own image of themselves, and indeed, it was very, very bad.