sense of the sacred: 40th days of Christmas and Easter

Sunday, January 23, 2011

40th days of Christmas and Easter

"For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf..." (Hebrews 9:24)

The novena in preparation for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the Purification of our Lady begins. With this novena, we prepare to end the extended celebration of Christmas. I could not help but notice the parallelism between the 40th day of Christmas and the 40th day of Easter. On the 40th day of Christmas, the Child Jesus entered the temple. On the 40th day of Easter, the Christ entered into Heaven which is the true sanctuary which was copied by the Temple. On the 40th day of Christmas, the Child Jesus was brought into the Temple to be presented to the Lord. On the 40th day of Easter, Jesus entered Heaven so "that he might appear before God on our behalf."

1 comment:

frandy16January 24, 2011 at 2:21 AM
Good day po Father Zerrudo! Ask ko lang po ano pong Misa sa Linggo, January 30? 3rd Sunday after Epiphany po ba o External Solemnity of the Purification of Mary? Salamat po! God bless!
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We ought to get back the dimension of the sacred in the liturgy. The liturgy is not a festivity; it is not a meeting for the purpose of having a good time. It is of no importance that the parish priest has cudgeled his brains to come up with suggestive ideas or imaginative novelties. The liturgy is what makes the Thrice-Holy God present amongst us; it is the burning bush; it is the Alliance of God with man in Jesus Christ, who has died and risen again. The grandeur of the liturgy does not rest upon the fact that it offers an interesting entertainment, but in rendering tangible the Totally Other, whom we are not capable of summoning. He comes because He wills. In other words, the essential in the liturgy is the mystery, which is realized in the common ritual of the Church; all the rest diminishes it. Men experiment with it in lively fashion, and find themselves deceived, when the mystery is transformed into distraction, when the chief actor in the liturgy is not the Living God but the priest or the liturgical director. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Chile, 1988)

Do we still need sacred space, sacred time, mediating symbols? Yes, we do need them, precisely so that, through the "image," through the sign, we learn to see the openness of heaven. We need them to give us the capacity to know the mystery of God in the pierced heart of the Crucified. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Spirit of the Liturgy )