I wanted to combine the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth station because it is that transition from this life to the next. Jesus takes His last breath on the cross and dies, then He is taken down from the cross and placed in the arms of His Mother, Mary. After She holds Her Son, He is placed in the tomb. The end has come to Jesus’ mission here on earth but the mission continues on.
Jesus’ human side can no longer survive the pain and torture of this world and commends His spirit into His Father’s hands. It is His last act before taking His last breath. Jesus may not be physically on earth but His spirit resides in all those who hears His voice and picks up their cross and follows after Him.
His Mother, Mary, watches as Her Son dies for all of our sins. The pain and suffering she felt is unimaginable. Mary waits by the cross and as Her son is taken down from the cross, so She may hold Her Son one last time before being placed in the tomb. We see Jesus as our Savior, yet Mary sees Him as Her only Son.
It is very difficult when we loss those who are close to us. We all suffer during those days that may lead up to their passing and suffer the days that follow the passing. There are no words to express the pain that is felt. We gather together to honor, remember and lay them in peace. We leave them but they never leave our hearts and minds.
We can turn to Mary when we are feeling that loss stronger then other days. She understands what it is to lose and feel pain. She watched Her Son suffer, die for things that He did not do and understood this was to be the path for both of Them. We focus on Jesus’ path to the cross but I always wondered how was that path for Mary. I know painful but what were Her stations of the cross? As Her son fell, did She as well? Who was there to help Mary as Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus? Who wiped Her tears like Veronica did for Jesus?
Jesus is laid in the tomb and many thought that this may be the end of His mission. The mission was not only not over but was just the catalyst and start of the Catholic Church. Those who followed Jesus gathered and waited. What was to come has continued for 2000 years. This should give us all hope. That even though our loved ones are not with us here on earth, that we all will be reunited because Jesus saved us and gave us salvation.
Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may we continue the journey through Lent.
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Lectionary: 237
Reading 1
2 KGS 5:1-15AB
Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram,
was highly esteemed and respected by his master,
for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram.
But valiant as he was, the man was a leper.
Now the Arameans had captured in a raid on the land of Israel
a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman’s wife.
“If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,”
she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy.”
Naaman went and told his lord
just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said.
“Go,” said the king of Aram.
“I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”
So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents,
six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments.
To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read:
“With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you,
that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
When he read the letter,
the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed:
“Am I a god with power over life and death,
that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy?
Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!”
When Elisha, the man of God,
heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments,
he sent word to the king:
“Why have you torn your garments?
Let him come to me and find out
that there is a prophet in Israel.”
Naaman came with his horses and chariots
and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.
The prophet sent him the message:
“Go and wash seven times in the Jordan,
and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.”
But Naaman went away angry, saying,
“I thought that he would surely come out and stand there
to invoke the LORD his God,
and would move his hand over the spot,
and thus cure the leprosy.
Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar,
better than all the waters of Israel?
Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?”
With this, he turned about in anger and left.
But his servants came up and reasoned with him.
“My father,” they said,
“if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary,
would you not have done it?
All the more now, since he said to you,
‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.”
So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at the word of the man of God.
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.
On his arrival he stood before him and said,
“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth,
except in Israel.”
Responsorial Psalm
PS 42:2, 3; 43:3, 4
R. (see 42:3) Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
As the hind longs for the running waters,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on
And bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place.
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!
R. Athirst is my soul for the living God.
When shall I go and behold the face of God?
Verse Before The Gospel
SEE PSALM 130:5, 7
I hope in the LORD, I trust in his word;
with him there is kindness and plenteous redemption.
Gospel
LK 4:24-30
Jesus said to the people in the synagogue at Nazareth:
“Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
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