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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings: March 16, 2008
By Sharon K. Perkins
Catholic News Service
March 16, Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion.
Cycle A, Readings:
Procession: Matthew 21:1-11
1) Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
2) Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Matthew 26:14 to 27:66
A few years ago I received a plastic bag with a lump of unbaked dough -- a "starter" for what an acquaintance called "friendship bread." The idea was to incorporate the lump into a new batch of bread dough so that the entire mass would rise. At least this was the theory; in reality, the contents of the bag went sour, smelled rotten, and turned the whole batch into a gray, watery mess. I had no choice but to throw it in the garbage and give up on the bread, if not the friendship.
In Matthew's Gospel, written for a Jewish-Christian community, the evangelist is careful to note certain important details connected with Jesus' suffering and death which escape most of us contemporary Christians. The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, which coincided with the annual Jewish feast of Passover, began with the avid search for and ceremonial removal of every trace of leavened bread from the home. This action symbolized that the "leaven" -- which in Jewish tradition stood for the contaminating effects of sin, decay and death -- would be purged anew from the community to make way for the unleavened bread of holiness and purity of heart.
It was this kind of bread -- not ordinary leavened bread -- that Jesus identified at the Last Supper with his body, given as the beginning of a new covenantal relationship between us and God.
The entire season of Lent has been a preparation for this most holy of weeks that culminates in the great feast of Easter. Through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we have been encouraged anew to seek out and remove the contaminating "leaven" of sin from our lives.
As we meditate upon the sacrifice of Jesus our paschal lamb in the days ahead, we prepare to celebrate the freedom from sin and death that he brings, in the same way that Israel celebrated their liberation from Egypt the night of their first Passover.
It is no accident then that we use pure, unleavened bread in our celebration of the Eucharist. It is the bread of a renewed relationship -- the true "friendship bread" that unites us with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
QUESTIONS:
What sorts of "leaven" have you needed to sweep from your life this Lent? How do you anticipate renewing your friendship with God this Holy Week? Is participation in the Eucharist a part of this renewal?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples approached Jesus and said, 'Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?'" (Matthew 26:17)
END
Copyright © 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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