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| Dear Parishioners: ENCYCLICAL
LETTER OF POPE JOHN PAUL II The hour of our redemption. Although deeply troubled, Jesus does not flee before his "hour". "And what shall I say? `Father, save me from this hour?' No, for this purpose I have come to this hour" (Jn. 12:27). He wanted his disciples to keep him company, yet he had to experience loneliness and abandonment: "So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Mt. 26:40-41). Only John would remain at the foot of the cross, at the side of Mary and the faithful woman. The agony in Gethsemane was the introduction to the agony of the cross on Good Friday. The holy hour, the hour of the redemption of the world. Whenever the eucharist is celebrated at the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem, there is an almost tangible return to his "hour", the hour of his cross and glorification. Every priest who celebrates holy Mass, together with the Christian community which takes part in it, is led back in spirit to that place and that hour. "He was crucified, he suffered death and was buried; he descended to the dead; on the third day he rose again." The words of the profession of faith are echoed by the words of contemplation and proclamation: "This is the wood of the cross, on which hung the Savior of the world. Come, let us worship." This is the invitation which the church extends to all in the afternoon hours of Good Friday. She then takes up her song during the Easter season in order to proclaim: "The Lord is risen from the tomb; for our sake he hung on the cross, Alleluia." "Mysterium fidei!" "The Mystery of Faith!" When the priest recites or chants these words, all present acclaim: "We announce your death, O Lord, and we proclaim your resurrection, until you come in glory." In these or similar words the church, while pointing to Christ in the mystery of his passion, also reveals her own mystery: ecclesia de eucharistia. By the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the church was born and set out upon the pathways of the world; yet a decisive moment in her taking shape was certainly the institution of the eucharist in the Upper Room. Her foundation and wellspring is the whole triduum pashcale, but this is as it were gathered up, foreshadowed and "concentrated" forever in the gift of the eucharist. In this gift Jesus Christ entrusted to his church the perennial making present of the paschal mystery. With it he brought about a mysterious "oneness in time" between the triduum and the passage of the centuries. |
