The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, April 6, 2004
Tuesday of Holy Week

Scripture from Tuesday's Liturgy of the Word:
Isaiah 49:1-6
Psalm: 71:1-6,15,17
John 13:21-33,36-38

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Time is so precious and our use of it even more so! As we draw closer to Good Friday our gospel reading turns to the Last Supper. As Christ is telling His apostles about His impending death He is very aware of time and states “My little children, I will be with you only a little while longer.”(John 13)

It is interesting to reflect on Christ’s use of time at this point. He continued His role as teacher, almost in a prophetic manner as He interpreted for the apostles what was going to happen over the next several hours. He showed great love and humility through His act of individually washing the feet of those men who had been His followers. He also asks that they treat others as He has treated them.

At that point, Jesus went to the garden to pray to the Father. Prayer seemed to be the culminating action of the evening, and we can determine from the action of the apostles that His prayer, as at other times, was lengthy. (It was long enough that the apostles went to sleep several times)

So to summarize, Christ showed great love and humility, He continued to teach about His role and theirs in the kingdom, and He spent lengthy time in prayer. These are Christ’s prime choices for the use of time. What are our choices?

- Joan of Jesus, ocds
(jmurphy at utica dot edu)

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posted by joachim at 4:48 AM