Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Happy Easter to you! and all that means as we continue to run together on that road from Emmaus back to the apostles in the upper room, as we claim together, “We have seen the Lord.” Coming from places of doubt and discouragement, having learned from Jesus himself what all of this has to do with him and how great is the call that he has come to bring us back, let us focus our eyes on him now, and allow all the attention that we give to ourselves turn to him.

During this Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday I have intended to give the same homily through the different lenses of Jesus’ Passion on Palm Sunday, his self-gift at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, is offering of love, the same self-gift, now given to the Father on Good Friday, and the joy we know that he did all this so that we might put on Christ as we watch the miracle of baptism continue to live in those we welcome into the Church this Easter Vigil. That was us, once, even though most of us were not old enough to make that commitment for ourselves.

I’m writing my five points here, again.

He made us so that we can be here, right now. There are no accidents. Each moment is an opportunity for mercy and forgiveness and unconditional love. It is assured with God, if we tune our hearts to the melody of his creation. His love reaches out to all he has made to gather it back to himself.

This is how God saves what is lost. He himself comes looking, sending his only begotten to become one of us. He becomes human so that we can become divine, nothing less. We become him. Saint Augustine said, “Let us rejoice and give thanks that we have become not only Christian, but Christ.”

All of this is for you. The plan of God before time began, the forming of covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and now Jesus -- all of this is for you. Can you feel it? Theologians say that if you were the only person on this earth, the Son of God would still come and die for you. The Gospel we hear: the angry mob, the torture, the blood, the ignominious death. All of this, for you, so you don’t have to endure it. What wondrous love is this?

Even in Jesus’ humanity we see the tension between love and obedience. “Father, take this cup from me...” if that is your will. But your will be done. He was resolved, not resigned to this. Committed, not compliant. He could have shut down the whole thing at any minute if that was his preference.

God is love, and he has no other desire that you thrive. Here’s how, he shows us, in Jesus his Word. It’s the cross. From the world’s perspective it doesn’t make sense if you don’t see the resulting beauty and joy.

You are the Body of Christ. Born in the cold world, exiled, persecuted, dismissed, rejected, judged, scourged, crucified. It is the story of centuries of martyrs, and not just the ones whose stories are public. You are is passion and death.

We do this at Mass every time we gather, don’t we? We join him on that cross, we offer our self-gift to the Father in love. “Do this in memory of me.” Saint Augustine says that the true measure of time is our inner memory. You decide that the saving act of Jesus is not in the past, or something to hope for. It is now. So, we remember. Like the thief on the cross, “Jesus, remember me...” This day, Jesus says.

There is no other place we are to be at this time that at the Mass. The instrument of the gift that saves the world. Is there a more important role anywhere in the world?

The Lord be with you,

Today's Live-Streamed Mass

Worship Aid for Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord 

 THANKS! If you haven’t already, please complete your commitment to the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal. As of March 3, we are at 73% of our goal with 10% of households participating. Take a pledge envelope from the church or go online to make a gift or pledge. The funds from the BLA provide a way for leaders of all ministries, volunteers and people from all walks of life to grow as a community, enrich parish life, teach the faith, and help those in need. You may make a gift at: www.arlingtondiocese.org/BLA 

 HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

Palm Sunday, March 24

• Vigil Mass on Saturday, March 23 at 5pm
• 7am, 9am, 11am, and 5:30pm Mass in English
• 1pm Mass in Spanish

Holy Thursday, March 28

• Office of Readings and Morning Prayer at 8am
• Mass of the Lord's Supper (bilingual) at 7:30pm, followed by a procession to the Altar of Repose
• Night Prayer at 11:45pm

Good Friday, March 29

• Office of Readings & Morning Prayer at 8am
• "Tre Ore" -The 7 Last Words of Jesus in mediation & song, 12-3pm (Limited confessions will be available)
• Stations of the Cross in English at 3pm
• Via Crucis en Español a las 4pm
• La Pasión y Veneración de la Santa Cruz en Español a las 5pm
• The Passion & Veneration of the Holy Cross in English at 7:30pm

Holy Saturday, March 30

• Office of Readings and Morning Prayer at 8am
• Easter Foods Blessing at 10am
• The Vigil of the Resurrection of the Lord (bilingual) at 8:30pm

EASTER SUNDAY, March 31

• 7am, 9am, and 11am in Englsih. There is NO 5:30pm Mass.
• 1pm en Español

CONFESSION Opportunities 

• Saturday, March 23, 3:30-4:30pm
• Wednesday, March 27, 6:30-8pm
• Friday, March 29, 12-3pm (limited confessions available)
• No confession on Saturday, March 30

 Please return your Rice Bowls. We would appreciate it if you could change the coins and bills into a check, but we will accept coins.

The ECHO Yard Sale returns to the school gym on Saturday, April 6, starting at 8 am. 

 The Knights of Springfield are sponsoring a shred event open to the public on Saturday, April 6, between 10am-Noon in the parking lot. 

 Have you purchased your ticket to the 23rd Gala and Live Auction on  April 20, 2024. ? Our Biennial Auction is generously supported by our entire Saint Bernadette Community. Buy a Gala Ticket TODAY!

Thank you to all of the volunteers who made our Spring Cleaning Day a tremendous success. The church looks fresh and clean as we enter into our Easter celebrations.

Parish Offices will be closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

Over the centuries Good Friday and the story of Jesus and the “Jews” has sparked some tragic anti-Jewish events in world history and the Church has been coming to terms with the ways in which our observances may have been complicit, if not responsible, in these segregations and pogroms.

The U.S. bishops’ conference announced recently that it will require a pastoral note on antisemitism to be placed in worship aids and pew missals ahead of all Good Friday passion narratives, beginning this year. The new requirement was announced last year in a memo from the heads of USCCB Committees on Divine Worship and Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs to publishers of missals and worship aids. The Conference has previously provided guidance on homilies and a similar statement for the Good Friday passion narratives in the 1990s and 2000s.

The goal of the statement, the newsletter said, is “to help ensure that the proclamation of the Lord’s Passion is not misused to promote anti-Jewish sentiment.” The note on antisemitism, which is available in both English and Spanish, reads:

“The passion narratives are proclaimed in full so that all see vividly the love of Christ for each person. In light of this, the crimes during the Passion of Christ cannot be attributed, in either preaching or catechesis, indiscriminately to all Jews of that time, nor to Jews today. The Jewish people should not be referred to as though rejected or cursed, as if this view followed from Scripture. The Church ever keeps in mind that Jesus, his mother Mary, and the apostles all were Jewish. As the Church has always held, Christ freely suffered his passion and death because of the sins of all, that all might be saved.”

The text is drawn from the Second Vatican Council’s Nostra aetate and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches explicitly that “Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus’ death.”

“[W]e cannot lay responsibility for the trial on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole,” it says. “Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different times and places.” (The Pillar, March 12, 2024)

Our focus this weekend and Good Friday then, as we listen to the account of Jesus’ suffering and death, is not “Who is responsible for this?” There were people at the time who committed evil, as there are today, leaders whose control was threatened by this Jesus that they didn’t (and maybe didn’t want to) really understand. That kind of threat is something that is irrational, and all it took was a mob to manipulate to get what they wanted.

Our focus this weekend and Good Friday is on the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, could have shut this down at any moment along the way to Galilee, to Jerusalem, or to Calvary, but he chose freely to submit to oppressors so that his free sacrifice of himself could attone for your sins and mine. It isn’t about who did it to him, but the love with which he embraced this offering for himself, so they by dying we could rise with him.

To really feel the Easter joy next weekend, we -- all of us -- need to acknow-lege this darkness and not lay blame on anyone but ourselves, so that we can appreciate the full impact of what his forgiveness from the Cross means.

The Lord be with you,

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

It might seem to some that the word “synodal” or “synodality” is something that has crept into Church culture in the past few years with the prominence placed on it by Pope Francis. Actually, it is the ancient process of the Church. It is still the practice today in the ancient Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Rite Churches. The Church is not just the clergy. The Body of Christ coming to full stature will not happen unless all of our voices are heard. The pathway of the Church is not determined by the vision and creativity of only priests!

We hosted one of the diocesan synodal listening sessions recently, and I still don’t think we have the process figured out. Perhaps in the interest of keeping the size of the session manageable (or maybe to assure that at least a certain number of people attended), each pastor was to choose four lay members of their parish to speak about what was on their mind. Our four parishioners represented differing viewpoints and social diversity, but it seemed that what was said at the listening session was more an extension of the pastors themselves because they chose the participants. I don’t believe a report sent to Rome about us based on that meeting would really represent us.

Particularly during this season of Lent, this synodal spirit is important: only by “walking together,” as Pope Francis says, will we find the kind of transformation that the Church needs so much. The journey through Lent to Easter is not a solo sport but a path that we are called to walk together. First of all, we walk together with God. It is Christ who leads us and goes before us. We learn to follow him more closely and realize more deeply how close he is to us. At the same time, walking with Christ opens us up to one another. Being a disciple is not only about following Jesus but about following him with others, just like the first Apostles that Jesus gathered around himself. They walked around Galilee and Judea together for three years. They listened to Jesus and each other. They weren’t walking around as individuals but as part of a community on a journey. That’s what the Church is, too.

How easy it is to see Lent as our own private journey in which each one of us strives to make our own individual efforts. But Lent is not meant to be experienced alone, just as Easter is not meant to be celebrated alone. Lent and Easter are the journey of the whole Church through the desert to the promised land, from death to new life, from sin to salvation, from the Cross to the Resurrection.

This brings us to the transformation that the Church needs so much. Our experience of Lent and Easter are meant to transform us, and so too is the path of synodality. The two go hand in hand. As we know, Lent is a time of conversion: to prepare ourselves for Easter, to open our hearts, and to let ourselves be changed by God. Jesus invites us to focus ourselves on Him and on others, overcoming our temptations to remain centered on ourselves.

Our mission as a Church is to share with everyone the joy of Easter, Christ who is truly risen and present in our midst. Walking with the world is the path by which we can live out this mission in the 21st century. Spread the joy of Easter more widely this year, especially with those who are on the margins. Perhaps invite someone from outside your family circle to join you for Easter or reach out to a relative that you have lost contact with. Let yourself be transformed by the experience of walking together with others in the light.

The Lord be with you,