Holy Week Monday

In the mystery of salvation, Jesus’ violent death was not a mere coincidence but part of God’s plan, while those involved still acted freely rather than as passive players in a predetermined scenario. God’s eternal plan includes each person’s free response to his grace, and, for our salvation, he permitted the acts flowing from human blindness. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, fulfilling the prophecy of the suffering Servant and offering a universal redemption from slavery to sin. In loving solidarity with sinners, Jesus was given up for us so that we might be reconciled to God. For our family’s prayer and reflection, these passages invite us to remember God’s benevolent love: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and he suffered for every human person without exception.

In these paragraphs, we reflect on the profound mystery of Jesus’ Incarnation and redemptive mission. From the first moment of his Incarnation, Jesus embraces the Father’s plan of salvation and lives to do the will of the One who sent him. John the Baptist points to him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and Christ’s whole life expresses his mission to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Out of love for the Father and for those the Father desires to save, Jesus freely accepts his Passion and death. At the Last Supper, he offers his body and blood for the salvation of men and institutes the Eucharist as the memorial of his sacrifice, including the apostles in his offering and bidding them perpetuate it. As we pray with these passages, families can contemplate Jesus’ faithful love, his obedience to the Father, and his free gift of himself.

The Church is the profound mystery through which Christ fulfills and reveals God’s plan to unite all things in him. Saint Paul describes the union of Christ and the Church as a “great mystery,” and the Church, united to Christ as her bridegroom, bears the hope of glory. As a sacrament, the Church is a visible sign and instrument of communion with God and of unity among all people. She contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies, serving as Christ’s instrument for salvation and as the visible plan of God’s love for humanity. The Church is the assembly gathered by God’s Word into the People of God and, nourished by Christ’s Body, becoming the Body of Christ. Both visible and spiritual, human and divine, she already begins the unity of the human race and awaits her perfection in heaven as the assembly of all the redeemed.