The Sacred Triduum--The Three High Holy Days

The Holy Week liturgies have been building a sort of momentum to the final days of Jesus' life. Today is called "Spy Wednesday", since the gospel of today tells of Judas' plan to literally "sell out" Jesus--the Master whom Judas has followed for three years. Why did Judas turn traitor? One indicator is the remark in John's gospel that Judas would steal from the common money bag. Another indicator was that he seemed to have sympathies for the Zealot Party, anarchists set on a violent overthrow of Rome's hold on Israel. Jesus had talked about a kingdom "not being of this world." Judas apparently wanted the Kingdom right here, right now! Matthew's gospel says, Judas left and it was night. Judas chose the dark side, the night to do his evil deed. He walked away from the Light which he had been delighting in for three years. How many times do we walk "into the night"?

Today we held the funeral Mass for one of our Italian born Sisters, Sister Mary Philomena Mattuzzi. Sister was in the USA for more than 50 years. She had become American with the Americans. The very thought of leaving her mission field was hard to even think about. Sister Philomena came from a very small town near Verona, which is famous for two inhabitants, Romeo and Juliet. Sister had a profound impact on all of us who lived with her, especially when she was enjoying relatively good health. She was a prayerful person, yet fun to be with, energetic and apostolic. Flowers were a passion for her. She cultivated them as long as her health permitted. She spent 13 years in Buffalo, New York when snowstorms were as frequent as could be! At that time (1970's and '80's) we never even considered hiring someone to clear the snow from our parking lot. She shoveled often and well! And, so did the Sisters who lived with her. The homilist at today's Mass had asked her at breakfast one day, "What are you planning to do today?" Sister answered immediately, "God's will" would be her agenda for the day. May God's will and the journey of Jesus to Calvary be our agenda as we begin the Sacred Triduum. I promise you my prayers.