The Significance of Passiontide
Summary of Headings
Theological Virtue of Faith
Role of Iconography
During Passion Tide, we cover all of the statues and all of the images, and even the crucifix, because the Church wants to remind us of a couple of different things. The first thing, of course, is that we must live by faith, and faith is not born of sin. It is not born by the eyes. It is not born by what we can see, or feel, or touch, or sense. Faith is something that is more than that. It is a virtue. It is a theological virtue, which means that it can only come from God. And its only true destination, its only true end, is God himself. So therefore, faith depends upon us only to some degree. We have to be open to it. We have to feed it. We have to protect it, and we have to try to live it. But it is a gift from God. It is not something we merit. It is not something we earn. It is not something that we take. It is something that belongs to God, and in his infinite wisdom, he gives to us. And so therefore, that is something that we're going to have to learn. But also that, while our senses may encourage our faith, may strengthen our faith, and may give us some sort of a context to our faith, to help us live it, they are not supposed to be the things upon which our faith is built upon. On the contrary, we are supposed to be rather skeptical of giving our faculties too much power over the faith. That includes our reason, but most specifically those of the eyes and the physical senses. We are supposed to surrender ourselves to the faith, not try to control it or maneuver it, not try to discipline it, not try to use it for our own benefit. But rather, we are supposed to surrender to it. When we look upon the image of our faith, of our Lady of Victory, for example, right here, well, generally speaking, there is a devotion that we have to her. We have a reminder of her holiness. We have a reminder of her as our mother, as the one who conquers for us, the one who is the victorious, the one who fights our wars and battles. And that brings us great comfort, and it brings us great strength, and everything else. That's one of the reasons why it's important to have this iconography in our churches. However, when we start to formulate these kinds of devotions, it's easy for us to lose sight of what the devotion is supposed to serve. These devotions are supposed to serve to augment our faith in the essential form of faith, which is the absolute and total sacrifice of ourselves to the will of God. This is why she is covered. Not because we are discouraging devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, not because the Church wants us to turn away from her, not because we want to be a part of her, not because we want to be a part of her. It's because she puts one of the most important feasts of Our Lady during this time, precisely. The Church wants us to have a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but subordinated always to that essential devotion, which is the holy sacrifice of the Mass. The one thing that is not covered is the altar. Even the crucifix is covered. The image of what goes on on the altar, the sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ, even the image of that is covered, because the Church wants us to believe not with our eyes. We don't need visual aids to know what goes on in the Mass. We know what goes on in the Mass. You may not see... Excuse me. I'm going to nail that down, I swear. You may not see everything that the priest does on the altar, what I should say Christ does through the altar, what I should say through the priest on the altar. You may not see it. And you're not supposed to see it. Even the servers can only see a little bit. And if they get a smaller priest, they can see a little more. But the fact of the matter is, again, they're not supposed to see it. But even if you could see it, and those who cheat and watch on the camera can see a little bit more, but even if you could see everything that was happening, all you would see is still symbolism and mystery hidden behind veils. You would not see the reality that is actually being performed. We don't see the Eucharist as it really is. We don't see a Eucharistic miracle. We don't see the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ except behind the veil and appearances of bread and wine. When we receive Communion, it still tastes like the Host. This is in part to protect us, but also it is in part also to encourage us to have faith more than our eyes. So the Church covers those fruits of our faith that we see people who have been faithful to their mission and their goals and have been faithful to the calling of God, and they have been able to achieve salvation. But we cover them up for this time so that we can focus on the one thing that is truly essential. We rely instead of our senses, we rely upon faith. For this time especially. During Lent, we have a time of penance, a time of penitence where we are supposed to be offering parts of ourselves up to God constantly. But during the time of the Passion, the target especially is our faith. We are supposed to purify our faith, purify our intention, so that we are no longer dependent upon our senses for the faith. Or at the very least, not so dependent that it becomes a problem when that faith is, when that, those senses are removed from our faith. Because each and every one of us at some point in our lives should go through what is referred to as a night of the soul. It is a time when, for some reason or another, we suddenly stop feeling any sort of sensorial reward for our faith, or for prayer, or for a sacrifice. We suddenly feel very distant from God. Our senses tell us that we no longer have that easy access to God that we had before. We feel as if nothing we are doing spiritually is right. Or whatever it may be, whatever form it takes. Usually it takes a form that causes us to despair, or get discouraged, or be afraid. Whatever it may be. Whatever form it takes, it is there to help us purify our faith, so that our faith is strong without. Looking for any sort of reward for ourselves, without feeling close to God. Without being able to see the evidence of God's presence. But rather, we have to fight for our faith. We have to struggle just for the continuity in what we know we are supposed to be doing, in our day -to -day duty. Just that much. That purification is necessary for our spiritual life, for our spiritual growth. Fr. Gary Good -Lagrange, the greatest Thomist of the 20th century, insisted that this is how we convert from one level of the spiritual life to the next. Is that we have to be purified. And that purification oftentimes, almost always, takes the form of some kind of a night of the soul. A moment where we feel like God has let go of our hand, and now we are lost. A night where we are in the middle of the desert at night, and we can't see any way forward. Or we're in a storm, and we can't see the stars for guidance, or for navigation. So what do we do in those circumstances? Well again, this is what these covered statues represent for us. We go to the crux of the matter, to the essence of the matter. We stay focused on what is truly essential and truly important for our spiritual life. The Mass, the Sacraments, the Sacrifice. True confidence in God, even when He is insensible to us. True confidence in God, even when everything that our human nature tells us says that we should not trust Him, or that He doesn't exist, or whatever else may be the case. It doesn't matter. We still believe, we still trust, and we still move forward. When sailors get stuck in the middle of a storm, and they cannot see the stars to guide themselves out of the storm, they continue on the same course they're on. They try to slow themselves down, but they do not at all try to change course until something clearly tells them to do so. Some landmark, something or other, some glimpse of the stars tells them to do so. But they stay on course. That's what we have to do as well. We don't change anything. We don't become frantic. We don't become worried or concerned. We don't let this distance from God, this sensorial distance from God, change our perspective even a little bit from what we need to do. On the contrary, we double down, and we try to do everything that we have already been doing, but do it better. Sometimes this is necessary for our spiritual growth because of what we are called to do. Saint Teresa of Avila suffered a dry spell, a night to the soul, for 27 years. She was incapable of feeling as if she were saved. She was incapable of feeling as if she had hope of salvation. She was incapable of feeling as if she really was doing any good in this world. Saint Teresa of Avila. But of course, because precisely she was able to go through all of that because she was Saint Teresa, and because so much was kind of on her back already. She had to do so much work that God asked her to carry the extra load so that her faith was so much stronger by that prolonged purification, because she was able to go through all of that. But she had to carry the faith of pretty much all of Spain at that time. She had to carry all of the efforts of everybody that was going into the Counter -Reformation in Spain at the time. The purification of the religious orders throughout all of Europe. It was all on her. So her faith had to be that strong. So she was called specifically for that. So she was given such a huge purification, such a huge test of faith. But she never changed, and she never wavered. That is the truth. That is the example we must follow. Thank God we're not like her. We're not going to have anything near that long or that difficult. But still, it is something that we have, is the example we must try to follow. So the first reason for the covering of the images is to remind us to strengthen our faith through purification. To refocus everything from, to recontextualize every aspect of our faith, every devotion, every work that we do, and to recontextualize it into the Mass. And to remind ourselves that this is the essence of what we do and why we do it. That the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the only thing that actually gives merit to all these other devotions. Even the Blessed Virgin Mary would not be who she is if it were not for the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even her holiness is impossible to reach without our Lord Himself giving her that possibility by His sacrifice. That sacrifice is the source of all holiness. And that is what we have the gift to be able to witness each Sunday. The second reason, and something that I think we all need to carry very close to our hearts, especially in our day and age, is a distraction. Now these devotions that we have to these saints and to the Blessed Virgin are not distractions. They are not in and of themselves distractions. They are supposed to be, shall we say, access keys. To be able to access the Mass and the mysteries of our Lord Jesus Christ, we go through people who are little -known, or shall we say, relatable. Our Blessed Mother, the saints. But, us being very human, we tend to not see things as we should. We tend to put too much emphasis on one thing and we tend to ignore the other. And that is something that we cannot do. So the Church, in a certain sense, is redirecting our gaze. Yes, we can still look upon Our Lady in our mind's eye, but only to see our Lord. Adies in per Maria, to Jesus through Mary. We can go to Our Lady, but to get to Jesus. We can go to any saint, but always to achieve holiness, which is unity with our Lord. It's a redirection, a re -clarification. But also, it's an elimination of other distractions. Just as we cover these images and statues, so that we can focus better on the essence of the faith and the core of the faith, which is the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, so also it is important for these last two weeks of Lent to really make sure that we refocus all of our energy into everything that is not a distraction from God. The world loves noise and disruption. So this time especially, it's necessary for growth and strength and purification of faith that we not get distracted. Not get distracted by all the news, by all the reports, by all the conspiracies, by all the fury and upset that are in the world. Because any sin that is done in this world can only be solved by one thing, and that is the holy sacrifice of the Mass that our Lord Jesus Christ gave us. Any wound, any wound, any evil that exists in this world can only be healed by the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Any evil in this world can only be conquered by the holy sacrifice of the Mass. And it's time we remembered that. Instead of looking into all these things and spending so much of our time and energy in these things, which are frequently just there to enrage us or to make us despair or get frustrated with the state of the world, we need to go to the one thing that can actually make a difference, and that is the Mass. With all of our heart, with all of our intentions, with the purity of our faith, with everything that we can possibly muster into it, the Mass needs to be the sole point of concentration for every part of our lives, for every particle of the world. The only answer to everything is the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ in an unbloody fashion, the exact same sacrifices, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Mass. And that is what is the solution to everything, and that is the only thing that gives sense to it. So let's try to utilize this time of the passion to refocus and to purify all of our faith and intentions, to churn ourselves instead of outward to everything going on, instead of to the multitude of devotions we may have, to focus all things and concentrate them where they need to be, which is on the altar with our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we can participate in the mysterium fidei, the mystery of faith, and we can be eternally united to God in heaven. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Purification of Faith
Focus on the Mass
Summary
During Passion Tide, we cover all of the statues and all of the images, and even the crucifix, because the Church wants to remind us of a couple of different things. The first thing, of course, is that we must live by faith, and faith is not born of sin. It is not born by the eyes. It is not born by what we can see, or feel, or touch, or sense. Faith is something that is more than that. It is a virtue. It is a theological virtue, which means that it can only come from God. When we look upon the image of our faith, of our Lady of Victory, for example, right here, well, generally speaking, there is a devotion that we have to her. We have a reminder of her holiness. We have a reminder of her as our mother, as the one who conquers for us, the one who is the victorious, the one who fights our wars and battles. And that brings us great comfort, and it brings us great strength, and everything else. So the first reason for the covering of the images is to remind us to strengthen our faith through purification. To refocus everything from, to recontextualize every aspect of our faith, every devotion, every work that we do, and to recontextualize it into the Mass. And to remind ourselves that this is the essence of what we do and why we do it.