Dr. Ted Sri on Catholic Holy Week | The Augustine Institute Show with Dr. Tim Gray

[Music] on palm sunday we just heard the longest reading we're going to hear in the liturgical year for the entire year the gospel of mark and we really start with mark chapter 11 went almost all the way through chapter 15 of the gospel of mark reading and hearing the entire passion narrative you know when somebody asked me why why do we read the entire passion narrative on palm sunday when it's not until good friday in holy week that jesus dies well one of the reasons for that is that palm sunday will be the last sunday before easter and so the church wants to make sure that everybody hears the entire story of jesus passion and every sunday gives us the readings for the entire week in other words it's kind of like the the overview of what every day's readings are going to be during holy week and so it's really important that we hear the entire passion story but there's a whole story to holy week where we follow the last six days of jesus's life during holy week and it's so important what follows from palm sunday so important that what we find and what we read in the gospel of mark is the last third of the entire story of jesus and so in other words mark when he wrote the gospel of mark spent 30 of the gospel story of jesus whole life on his last seven days and those seven days are so incredibly important and those last seven days are holy week so what we're going to talk about tonight is the importance and meaning of holy week which caps off the liturgical year of lent and the whole season of lent but most importantly the climax of jesus entire life's work that's what we're going to talk about [Music] next [Music] when we talk about holy week there's just so much meaning behind this and if you've been getting ready for lent you know we really spend the first five weeks of lent getting geared up getting prepared for holy week in fact you know i used to think that you know lent is just a preparation for easter but what i realize now is that the church has really given us those first five weeks of those first five weeks of lent is preparation for holy week and now we enter into holy week and this week is so important because it's going to really be the climax of jesus ministry and life and i'm really excited to have a special guest on tonight to discuss and talk about the importance of holy week in jesus life ministry and i mean for us to practice holy week in a special way so that we can get the deepest meaning and value out of this week to really prepare for the triumph of easter with greater joy and peace and so my special guest is dr ted sri who's a very dear friend of mine dr sri has been a professor here at the augustin suit since really the second year that we founded the august institute you came in and was a key really kind of almost a co-founder of the augustine suit the way i see it ted and then you've always been involved with focus and so now the last couple years you've been really focused on as a vice president for focus on their formation and their training and doing a lot of great things for the focus missionaries over at focus working with our good friend curtis martin so ted thank you so much for joining us tonight oh good to be with you here oh it's a joy well you know ted when people hear you know that long reading they're like oh it must be palm sunday because that gospel reading goes on and on and on and uh tell us talk about how important palm sunday is and its role for setting us up for the rest of holy week yeah it's the markers we're reaching the highest point of the whole church year right this is the week of all weeks this is where you know if there's ever a week where you want to really be focused and give your hearts to the liturgy and heart and prayer it's it's right now and so i think we have these dramatic scenes that we celebrated in the liturgy this last sunday right you have the we started the back of church we didn't we don't do that normally right we usually start up at mass and hear oh there's some extra gospel reading and then we're processing in with the palms and then as you pointed out there's this really long reading and and it's a reading that we participate in we actually say some of the lines that normally doesn't happen in the gospel reading so it's really it's really kind of like signaling to us this is different this sunday is different this week is different now it's time to enter in and and i think we we have the long reading to put before us right because it is the it is the sunday leading into this but i think it's also it's because the church wants us to actually participate in christ's passion and so it lays out before us the whole story all at once you get the full big picture and we should really be spending the rest of this week going back to the gospels and reading the passion narratives so that the passion narrative can be written in our heart one thing i always like to think about is something beautiful saint john paul ii once said is that in in christ's passion in the story of christ's passion we encounter the fullest revelation of god's love and certainly all the whole bible right is a revelation of god's love it's love letters from our heavenly father it's beautiful right but but this is the this is where we're going to encounter that love the most and so as we're pondering what happened to jesus and the suffering he endured and and all he took on for our sins we should remember it's meant to be an encounter with his amazing love for us and he wants to to live that love in us and through us through through our own life as christians i like your idea that the subplot here that we can't lose is this love of god that's coming out manifest and i i think that as you mentioned the big picture is given with this great gospel reading on sunday on palm sunday but then every day we're going to take a little piece of that reading of that story and break it open in a different way and uh because there's just so much to digest we can't digest this all on palm sunday and so every day of the holy week is really an opportunity to do that and i want to invite our audience to join with questions you have about holy week whether it's about holy thursday holy monday holy saturday send send us your questions and you can do that simply on the form platform you can on on the comment section you can put a question or a comment for us that would be helpful we'll take those questions and then also you can you can text us a question on our text line and that is six 720-6500 zero zero one hundred and so you can just text and just say you know i'm mary from indiana and here's my question we love to get uh just a first name and where you're from and uh maybe you're from toronto i know we get people from all over it's really great that internationally we get a lot of people from all over so let us know where you're from and then let us know your question and join the conversation well ted as we look at you know palm sunday one of the things that confuses people is that first reading that you mentioned you know before we begin with this procession and the priest goes in and then every all of us have our palm branches right uh because that's what the disciples did they had their palm branches for jesus as he uh is led in procession into jerusalem and you know a lot of people think well why why do we have a gospel reading there and then a later gospel reading but really that first gospel reading fits the day it's palm sunday and it's jesus triumphal procession into jerusalem and up to the temple and of course he'll do his demonstration the temple later the the second gospel reading that long one is about what's going to happen during the week and that is the whole passion of jesus so let's go to just the palm sunday briefly here what's the highlight what's a takeaway for people that think about the meaning of palm sunday jesus's procession into jerusalem in the temple oh there's so many things here you know one thing i like to think about is how how they welcome him as king you know jesus has been telling the apostles don't tell anyone i'm the messiah but all of a sudden all these people are just shouting out you know hosanna to the son of david a royal title uh blessed is you comes in the name of the lord we're quoting from psalm 118 and then and then they kind of put out the royal treatment for them right they you know they put their coats on the ground like a royal carpet coming up before him uh they're claiming him as a king and you're wondering well what happened like i thought jesus told everyone to keep quiet was there a leak in the administration like peter just couldn't contain himself you know um and as you know it all has to do with jesus's choice that day to go in on the donkey uh that there's this profound symbolism from the you know the prophecy of zechariah 9 9 that foretold that one day the king would come to jerusalem writing on the donkey and the full of an s and so you know jesus you know knows that prophecy you know he's god he wrote the prophecy so he's intentionally in this symbolic action demonstrating to everyone i really am the king and you know early in his public ministry he wanted to keep that tone down because he wasn't ready to die yet and the king has to die in jerusalem that's where he's going to establish his kingdom and he wasn't ready for that yet he still had more work he needed to do with the disciples and building up the church but now this is a bold moment he's boldly i mean i like to always say shouting out without saying a word by writing on that donkey that symbolic action i am the king and in a few days he's going to pay the price for that yeah that would be the charge on the cross won't it king of the jews and in a sense uh you know jesus seems to keep that title quiet because he knows it's going to cause him political trouble exactly he's not ready to die earlier in his ministry right exactly yeah that's that's the reason why he's often kind of trying to keep it on the down low is because the the false understandings of messiah that were out there that you know christ was not a real threat to the roman empire in in terms of a political military movement uh but if you go around saying you're a king you're a messiah that that you know you're going to be put in that category and then all these people will rally around and he he wasn't ready for that yet but now that's why i like to say again as he goes in on this point this is why now they're going to take this charge and and put it against him one of our viewers texted a question you know how long how long has the church been doing holy week and practicing holy week and uh this is not a new thing right the church practice only weekend i mean this is going back really to the earliest liturgical attacks we have i you find this idea of easter and easter is already a really important marker and what's the update easter and the third and fourth century i mean anything yeah well i would say what i know from the history of this is that the whole idea of even just the lenten season and all they clearly are celebrating remembering jesus his death and resurrection right there in the second century i mean we have texts from irenaeus and others that are describing this and it really becomes more solidified as you get into the later 200s and by the time you get to nicaea they set the date and here we go you know but there was already in the 200s there was already this and even 100 there was some fasting leading up in the in the in the day before like a 24 hour fast in some regions sometimes it was a three-day fast and eventually you know that what what happened is the church you know after nicaea and all they start pondering well jesus fasted for 40 days that's where he got 40 days and you get gregory the great comes and says well but we don't fast on sundays you know so those days don't count so it's really okay if it's six weeks it's only 36 days we better add four days on the front and that's where we get the idea of ash wednesday so it's a fascinating history what i don't know offhand is exactly the context of the details of holy week itself like when did they start doing palm sunday and holy thursday i i think that that's starting to emerge again and taking shape after nice yeah it's a great question i mean that first marker is easter that's the first one and then everything starts to build around that but it's a beautiful development but it's an early development this is something that christians felt was important for uh christian life to imitate and the liturgical year really is about following the life of christ isn't it maybe that's worth oh yeah the whole liturgical year i mean is about primarily this mystery here the death and resurrection of jesus and all throughout the year we're celebrating it the whole mystery and even broader than the death and resurrection of jesus we're thinking of the incarnation which we just celebrated with the annunciation recently the birth of jesus for remembering his ascension to heaven his giving the holy spirit at pentecost remembering the great saints throughout the year and the work of salvation that he won for us in his death and resurrection as applied to saint teresa of latius saint john paul the great saint ignatius of antioch so all the saints we celebrate throughout the years are all it all is about this paschal mystery we describe and it's in this one week that everything we're thinking about throughout the year is concentrated and then but the mystery's so big that we we really need the whole year to think of all the of the great good things that god does for us in this plan of salvation as holy week develops uh the first really key parts of holy week uh that develop is gonna be good friday and already the christians are learning to fast on fridays so the good the friday fridays is good friday before easter and uh so you get good friday you get then a holy thursday with the last supper and of course holy saturday with the idea of jesus being in the tomb and so the what we call the tridum right those three days uh climaxing with the easter celebration on saturday night uh you know late at night uh those are the first but let's talk about holy monday holy tuesday and holy wednesday because a lot of people those kind of the the tritium and what we mean by tritium is those you know anything else you want to say to define what tritium is and then we should go to monday tuesday and wednesday because i think those kind of get you know uh neglected a bit yeah they don't know what to do you laid out the true to them really well and it'll be fun to get into that as well but yeah but the monday tuesday wednesday it's not like okay palm sunday and then okay we take three days off and we'll pick up again thursday night yeah you don't know we should be really you know i i think to be pondering the pa the the passion narratives all this week but if you really want to be a go-getter i think to start like i love what you said is you know let's just start with that entry into jerusalem let's read mark's gospel this week and follow the story of there's a lot of drama that happens in this week as jesus is the the battle is heating up between him and the jewish leaders in jerusalem right it's getting intense you're seeing the you know the lock away he does a temple action he's got you know we had the reading yesterday on monday of of mary you know pouring the the oil and and judas being upset about i mean these are these are things that we are really the church is holding up for us to to take to prayer to understand like what was happening leading up to his death and resurrection so i i think whether it's just reading the gospel reading of that day would be a wonderful thing to do to really spend some extra time doing some lectio on that uh or going through and just maybe picking up your gospels you could pick up and i think that's so important for people to read the gospels and the passion narrative ted and i think you know one of the things i like is you know obviously the church reenacts palm sunday the procession with the palm branches but then you know holy monday it's late at night on palm sunday jesus looks at the temple but he doesn't do the demonstration of the cleanse of the temple because it's late he wants there to be the crowds he wants people to see what he's going to do so the next day on holy monday he cleanses the temple and he does the demonstration of the temple so let's just talk about what's what's a takeaway for people to think about for the meaning of holy monday in terms of jesus's temple demonstration oh so much there and um i have a friend who did his doctoral dissertation on some of this brother but yeah i mean it's an act it's a symbolic act of judgment right it's um uh it's the prophets would do certain acts like you know jeremiah takes the potter's jar and smashes it and everyone's what does this mean well that's what's gonna happen to the temple in 586 bc when god will come and bring allow babylon to come and destroy the temple the people carried off into exile prophets communicated their message not just in words but in these symbolic gestures like the writing on the donkey talked about well this is the supreme symbolic action of christ coming into jerusalem and by turning over the money changers tables that was the first step that you do at the temple and when you were going to go worship for passover or any feast you had to go exchange to get the local currency then you go buy your animal you bring the animal to the priest the priests will offer it up and sacrifice for you well by one action jesus brings the whole temple system to a dramatic halt i mean it's intense uh and so they've been shocking though the sacrifices are going to cease for maybe a few hours that afternoon but it was a foreshadowing of how the the sacrifices are going to cease forever after 70 a.d it's it's a judgment on the temple foreshadowing how rome will come in 70 a.d destroy the temple and the temple will never be rebuilt there won't be political pre-sacrificing animals again because christ is the new passover lamb he's the new priest and there'll be a new liturgy yeah so that's in jesus's symbolic action and judging the temple is already kind of for sure where the holy week is going to end with jesus's death that will be the ultimate sacrifice and there no there needs to be no more animal sacrifices no more bloodshed besides jesus in the future so then on holy tuesday after he goes back in the morning you know the chief priests come to jesus and say by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority so they've been you know kind of sitting on that for a day and their rage has been building that how dare jesus make a demonstration of a cleansing in the temple and then that leads them to ask jesus by what authority does this and then they put three tests to him i always call it testing tuesday because they put jesus to the test three times you know and uh and so that's something that we could reflect on on today which would be testing tuesday i would call it holy week what would stand out you know again there's so many different pieces here but on testing tuesday well let's just take those three tests what i love to think about is jesus has been tested three times before yeah and he's gonna be tested three times again so you think about what what happened at the beginning of lent right the first wrestling reading is always the three tests of jesus in the desert by the devil so the devil is testing him it's the same word right you know so when you read about the pharisees the sadducees kind of ganging up on jesus with these three tests it's reminiscent of the devil and i think what what we want to take away is with we're going to see this you know conspiracy the pharisees the sadducees then working with the romans and you could look at it and go man it was just you know you know this perfect storm and poor jesus gets crucified it wasn't just a random storm there is someone orchestrating behind the scene the real enemy attacking christ in this day is the devil so it's reminiscent of that and it's also foreshadowing what's going to happen on the cross because on the cross you're going to see the people that are walking by and mocking jesus there are they're going to there's going to be three groups of people you see the people passing by are going to mock jesus and you're going to see the the chief priests are going to mock jesus and then the the two robbers the those the ones being crucified are going to mock jesus and what are they saying so there's three people mocking him and they're going to say things like well if you are the son of god oh if you're the son of god you know does your father come down and rescue well who does that remind you of that's what the devil said right exactly the devil said the same thing if you are the son of god come down and so it's they're echoing the words of satan so it's satan mocking jesus satan attacking jesus satan plotting against him ultimately so i think that's one one thing we can we can take away from this testing tuesday i like that name well then you know wednesday comes and i think of mark chapter 14 gives two incidents back to back one is the the costly nard the way men of jesus as as mark will say preparing his body for burial ahead of times and um and so you get that costly nard and then one of the disciples or the disciples rebuked this woman who does this john in john 12 tells us it was mary the sister of martha who poured out the ointment and uh and that it was judas who uprates her right and it's judas who says this money could have been spent and given to the poor for 300 days wages and so you you get that and of course it's known as spy wednesday and the more recent tradition because judas is going to be spying out a way to betray jesus but what do you think about this idea of judas you know chastising mary and then jesus rebukes judas for saying she has done a beautiful thing let you know leave her alone she's done a beautiful thing for me the poor you will always have with you but me you will not always have and you can always do good to the poor but you can't always do good with for me and and then the next thing that happens and this kind of is interesting is that judas goes out to to the chief priest to sell jesus and to betray him so that kind of is the last straw for judas he and then john tells us he's been a thief he's been stealing from the money bag but now he he escalates his his betrayal to jesus isn't simply selfish stealing but it's really going to be selling jesus out do you think there's a relationship between those two events oh absolutely yeah i mean there's so many things in this and i think it's beautiful thing but first of all let's let's let's look at the beautiful model of what mary does i mean she gives up everything it means like three hundred already different days ways years of work you know so this is incredible she's holding nothing back and it's a great model for what god wants us to do to give everything you know which is in stark contrast to what judas has been doing i mean judah's been having doubts ever since a year ago in the bread of life discourse right john chapter 6 tells us that that judas already is kind of being singled out for what he's going to do so there's been a year of something brewing in judas and you know they're coming into jerusalem and he sees this he's frustrated with it he kind of gets that reprimand from jesus i mean subtle but it's there and and and now he's like you know he wanted that money for himself he's you know so he's a thief he can get some money from the chief priests but he's not just trying to get money he's mad at jesus i think so he's mad at jesus mad that jesus isn't the kind of messiah i think that he wanted you know because way back in john 6 you know they're like hey we're going to make him a king and you picture judas you know he's probably pretty excited about that and then he has to teach on the eucharist and jude is like what are you doing you lost everybody they all left you this day uh and i think there's a little bit of kind of he's upset with jesus and that's been stirring for a year and now you know when he's reprimanded i think it's okay i'm done i'm i'm going yeah i think one of the questions that we have uh why do we condemn judas so harshly for betraying jesus if it was necessary for our salvation that jesus would suffer and die did you just really have a choice okay yeah this question always comes up yeah you know way i think about it is this is like look the chief priests and the pharisees i think they were going to get jesus they didn't need a judas to do it i think they were so dead set against him they would have found some other way if they had to now judas made it easier to find the secret spot to do in the middle of the night where there's less crowds that made it a lot easier but they were i mean remember what caiaphas said way back even before judas has this conversation with the chief priest caiaphas already told the whole sanhedrin that it's better that one man died for the sake of the nation yes so he's already saying let's get rid of this one jesus so they were already planning on doing this so in other words i think sometimes people think well they had to be a judas well they didn't have to be i mean i think they would have found some other way to get him judas freely chose to participate in this and that's why he is you know he never gets a halo when you see him depicted and there's good reason for that you know one of the things ted i think that people struggle with is this idea of free will um you know the idea that god has a plan and judas is in that plan if judas is in god's plan then judas judas can't have free will i think we forget that god is god's agency and transcendence is so great that he can move free agents freely respecting their freedom but still within his plans yeah and it's also that god knows he can't he knows what judas is going to freely choose to do so judas is totally free god did like i said god didn't need to have a judas they would have gotten him anyway you know um but god knows that judas is going to go in this direction that's why it's it's foretold in earlier chapters well you know then we move on to holy thursday and holy thursday is going to be the last supper and there's so much we could say about that we can never do that justice but let's just go to the one action because you mentioned this idea of jesus doing a prophetic word teaching and a prophetic action because prophets as you said speak a word and then they oftentimes do an action that embodies that word so the action of holy thursday that it's going to stand out liturgically for everybody is the washing of feet so the priests are going to wash the feet of 12 people just as jesus washed the feet of the twelve apostles so that's the deed of jesus and the word of jesus uh in john's gospel in john 13 he's going to give them a new saying a new thing you want to tell us what those that oh and what should we follow right on i love this that it's it's the word and the action right there right so jesus gives you know on holy thursday night there's three things we always celebrate and two of them we know about everybody knows about the gift of the eucharist right that's that's that's primary right but we won't have the eucharist without the second gift and that is the gift of the priesthood you know so jesus instituted the priesthood that night but there's this third gift that we we celebrate and contemplate and that is the new commandment when jesus says love one another as i've loved you which is wow that's that's really tall i mean great saints like therese were completely overwhelmed by this commandment because it's not just love your neighbors yourself you know that's pretty i mean that's intense that's true but to love is jesus loves to love perfectly laid down his life on the cross like that selflessly that's what he wants us to do and so we're like whoa and and those disciples if they would just hear that message they would go why would you love like you well what does that mean and then he shows them and so for him to go down and do this again another prophetic gesture he's going to do the most menial of all tasks you know and if you think about it like if anyone was going to do the washing of fetus should one of the apostles should have volunteered you know not let the son of god have to do it but jesus goes and he does his lowest of all tasks and it's showing his humility i mean really living out philippians 2 you know that he's in the form of god but he didn't deem equality got something to be grasped at so he comes down humble taking on the form of a slave yeah let me let me move on because i i we can keep talking about that but it's so beautiful uh this this call for um a new commandment love one another as i have loved you and he just demonstrates that in the washington defeat in such a humble way as you say but good friday again this is overwhelming that we can't cover the passion and death of jesus and do justice to it but there's one interesting liturgical thing that's unique to this day and that is and i remember as a kid one petition after another petition after another petition when you gather for the church service that day and so we pray for everybody and everything uh and i remember as a kid thinking oh my gosh one of these petitions going to end and there was a different person coming up from the congregation reading each petition why does the church on good friday focus on petitionary prayer in a way she doesn't for the whole other year i mean this is like this is the day of petitionary prayer for the church why oh well first of all my kids are they're like oh no it's that long fair and you're standing and you're kneeling it's like can we just be taught and there's no short form they're going to go through all this you know well i mean this is the day of christ i mean there's a couple angles on this one is it's the day of christ sacrifice you know where you know he offers his life for our salvation and it's from the power of the cross that all petitions yeah find their strength and all so that's why we're going to pray for the church you know we're going to pray for the jews we're going to pray for the atheists we're going to pray for all government you know it's like we want from from the power of the cross may god's grace go out and touch and transform at all sectors of the world that's one piece you know it's interesting that when we pray for those that are not a part of the church though i think that's interesting too and i think about how you know we on on good friday we remember how we brought christ to the cross uh in our sinfulness and you know so i just think about how can we bring our separated brothers and sisters our protestants you know or the atheists or the our jewish brethren how do we bring them to the cross that's i think it's just an opportunity it's huge as you said it's a huge opportunity to pray for those that you know are falling away from christ uh you know go to that service on good friday and go into all of good friday with a list of all the people you want to pray for because this is the day where the father's mercy will be poured out generously lavishly because of the death of his son and so jesus is the high priest interceding for us and that's why the church you know says let's make all the petitions we can the church comes eager making it eagerly to make petition because this is a moment of grace it's a day of grace because it's a day that christ has died for us and i know there was a question you know did jesus know he was going to die yes he did which is what makes it so remarkable and you read the gospel of john chapter 12 and 13. he knows what's ahead of him and yet he goes there anyhow because of love for us as you said ted the whole subplot to all the story is god's incredible love for us and uh you know it's it's hard to do justice thank you for joining ted because i can't believe we're already at the end of our time there's so much more we could say but i think you've done a great job of laying this out for us and next week it's going to be exciting because it'll be easter week and we've got a good friend of ours father brian larkin who's going to be coming out as well my pastor your pastor who is a phenomenal homilist and uh wonderful wonderful priest and he's going to talk about the meaning of the resurrection and we have a eight day octave for easter so easter is not just easter sunday we're going to talk about the meaning of the octave and how we celebrate easter for those eight days of the octave and then easter tide which is a much longer season than a lot of people don't know about so we're going to talk about that next time so i hope you can join us and i want to thank everybody who supports us uh through the mission circle and any of our benefactors thank you for your support we're deeply grateful you're helping us reach the world with the good news of jesus christ thank you and god bless you all [Music] you

Channel: Augustine Institute

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Keywords: augustine institute, ted sri, catholic, holy week, spirituality, Tim gray

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Length: 31min 16sec (1876 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021