The Fellowship of St. Columbanus

Epistle: Hebrews 9: 11-15 Gospel: StJohn 8: 46-59 The importance of the ceremonies of Passiontide and Holy Week is hard to overestimate. It would be no hyperbole on anyone’s part to say that in this season, we, Christians, are given the occasion to meditate and truly commune with the central mysteries of our faith: hoc opus nostrae salutis ( literally “ this work of our salvation ”) [1] . The conditional statement (one of a series) of the Apostle is well known: “ If Christ be not risen, your faith is in vain; ye are yet in your sins ” (1 Cor 15:17). But, for there to be any resurrection at all, there needs to be death, and suffering and passion to precede it. And Christ’s death was not natural – he did not fall asleep, nor was he taken up without suffering or dying, as those in error would have it. Rather, he was bound, judged, mocked, tortured and led to a most violent death upon a cross: “ he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter ” (Isaiah 53:7). ( Pange Lingua with

II Chronicles 36:14-16; 19-23 Psalm 137 Ephesians 2:4-10 St. John 3:14-21 "The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.)" David Roberts (1850) This week's lessons revolve around the themes of sin and exile, appropriate to the season of Lent. Our Old Testament lesson describes the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of her people as a result of their sin (II Chr. 36:14-16). The Temple especially is mentioned, (vv. 18-19), as the emblem of the sight of God's presence in Israel, and the emblem of the covenant between God and people (see I Kng. 8:27-30). The Exile makes concrete what the Church claims about sin: that it estranges us from God. Sin creates distance between God and the sinner, and impairs our communion with him. This heart-rending condition is evoked so well in our psalm, "how shall I sing the song of the Lord upon alien soil?" (v. 4) Alienated from God and his sanctuary, the Psalmist cannot even sing the hymns of prai