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While They Were At Supper.... BY SR. PATRICIA O’SULLIVAN G.N.S.H. SR. MARY ELLEN HOEN G.N.S.H. The Passover is a Jewish feast celebrating God’s saving action in the life of His Chosen. The Seder Meal is the focal point of the family’s remembering and reliving of the First Passover. Seder is a feast of freedom. For it was at this moment in history that God fulfilled His promise to deliver His people from the bonds of lavery. The ritual centers on the retelling of the plight of the Jews and their release as described in Exodus. God used drastic means to demonstrate His love. He asked only that they believe and follow His directions. They were instructed to slay a lamb and place the blood on the door posts. This was the mark that would save their first born from the Angel of Death. Their last meal in the land of slavery consisted of unleaven bread (Matzoh), since there was little time for the bread to rise, and lamb. Once freed, Yahweh injoined them to keep this day as a holy remembrance from generation to generation forever. The Seder has the symbolic elements of unleaven bread, a shank bone to represent the lamb, bitter herbs for the time of slavery, salt water for the tears shed, parsley as a sign of new life, charoset (a mixture of apples and nuts) for their labors in Egypt and wine for past joys and future hopes. The meal celebration includes songs and prayers of thanksgiving and praise. This event immerses them in the heritage of their forefathers and in the mystery of God’s never-ending love and mercy. His mandate to remember the Passover was faithful and joyfully kept by the Israelites. In doing the will of His Father, Jesus sat with friends to share the Seder meal before His death. It was at this supper that Jesus brought the Old Testament to it’s richest moment and establishment a new rite. This is MY body . . . This is MY blood. The Mass is a Jesus feast in which we remember, retell and relive God’s saving action in the life of His chosen. The Eucharistic meal is the focal point of the mystery in which we partake of the Lamb, Christ’s gift of Himself. Once again, God used drastic means to demonstrate His love in order to redeem us. “Yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” John 3:16. It is through the sacrifice of this Lamb that we are able to Passover from death to new life. Our ritual includes readings that reveal the healing touch, powerful words and teachings of Our Savior which help us to recall more vividly God’s involvement with us. Songs of praise and prayers of thanksgiving prepare us for the reception of the Lord in the form of unleaven bread. The core of our celebration as Catholics is the Eucharist. It is vital to our growth to become more aware of what Eucharist is and unveil the awesome meaning this gift is in our lives. We have the privilege of partaking in the mystery of Eucharist everyday, which calls forth a worshipful response for what the Father has done for us. The new rite is a family celebration which unifies and strengthens us until He comes again. Through the cup Jesus raised and the bread He broke, He joined for all time the testaments of promise and fulfillment. Thus are we bound to the heritage He cherished, practiced and passed on. Do this in memory of me. “IT WAS AT THIS SUPPER that Jesus Brought the Old Testament to it’s richest moment and established a New Rite of me.” . Do this in memory "Wt&yi. Tl&tl The Silence Group Captain Leonard Cheshire of the Royal Air Force was not I accustomed to the rumbling I* American B-29. For the duration of the war, the British ace had flown the Lancaster Bomber over Germany. f In a hundred successful missions the famed flier had been heroically decorated from head to toe. *' Now he would take his first ride in the bread and butter bomber of the Pacific. He didn’t mind, it would be his first but also his last. It was ' August 6, 1945. ’ Cheshire was the British observer on this hush-hush mission, taking the giant bird of death over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The small group of B-29’s took off. The almost ' defenseless but stubborn Japanese mainland disregarded lone t formations, fearing only the daily saturation - bombing raining down constant death and destruction. Cheshire remembers they arrived at * their destination strangely unopposed. He knew about The Bomb, in the * belly of the plane. It would end the . war. Smugly, he felt, that’s all that mattered. He had experienced enough adventure in the sky. There 1 had been enough death, enough nerve shattering violence. It was time for peace. Hiroshima would bring the ^ war to a firely end. The American commander declared weather conditions perfect *■ over the preferred target. The count * down began; the bombadier readied. Thirty thousand feet up they reached that historic rendezvous and the final ’ words rang out. “Bombs away.” Then the silence. It was that * silence, Cheshire remembers best. 70,000 human beings were wiped away and the most unfortunate of all were the contaminated survivors. But * it was the silence of that single f tumbling terror that Captain Cheshire feverishly remembers. |<i “It was only seconds, I had heard bombs dispatched, a thousand times. But never had the silence of the drop battered my brain before. That \ nightmare-silence was my companion of a thousand sleepless nights.” When the lifeless body blurted out ^ the final drops of blood, the mob was silent. They faded from the small -hill and drifted back to their celebration in silence. The grief of * the few, rolling the stone against the ' tomb, was deep, devastating and silent. The whole city of Jerusalem ^ stalled in a haze of silence. It was as if the roar of the thunder announcing his death, hushed the noises of the world leaving it with only the sounds 4, of silence for three interminable days. But then the silence ceased. As the explosion of Hiroshima l brought plague and an impossible * unhealing wound to the world, the Angelic announcement of the Resurrection brought life and uproarious celebration. f The silence of the tomb is no more for any living believing soul. Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vol. 18 No. 14 Thursday, April 3,1980 $6.00 Per Year AFTER MASS - The parishioners are greeted by the priests of the parish at Sacred Heart in Atlanta as they leave Palm Sunday Mass. Our LATIN AMERICA back page Parish Profile this month features the venerable Atlanta parish celebrating it’s 100th anniversary in April. A Week Of Violence Terrorist violence in Latin America took its toll on the church in the days leading up to Holy Week. The archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, was assassinated, a papal nuncio entered his fifth week of captivity as a hostage of Colombian leftists, and a Jesuit priest-editor in Bolivia was found tortured and shot to death. And as Holy Week began, at least forty people were killed and scores more injured on Palm Sunday when renewed violence broke out at the funeral of the Salvadorean archbishop, Oscar Romero. Archbishop Romero was murdered by an unknown assassin March 24 as he was delivering his homily at a memorial Mass in a hospital chapel. The archbishop, who tried to act as a voice of moderation in the midst of an undeclared civil war between his country’s left and right wings, was the subject of several death threats before his assassination. Earlier in March, he told how 72 sticks of dynamite had been discovered in the sacristy of the San Salvador cathedral. At the outdoor funeral, an explosion and then gunfire erupted Hodges Appointed Cheatham E. Hodges Jr., Executive Director of the Georgia Catholic Conference has been appointed to the White House Conference on Families by Governor Busby. The prestigeous committee will represent the State of Georgia as the nation considers the strengths and weaknesses of the American Family in this year of the Family. Mr. Hodges whose home is in Augusta was also elected Chairman of the Fair Employment Practices Advisory Board which hears the complaints of State Employees. in the square in front of the cathedral, causing the throng to stampede. While some of the deaths were due to the gunfire, many who died were crushed or suffocated in the rush for safety. The government blamed the latest violence on armed leftists, but a group of Catholic and Protestant churchmen and women who attended the funeral contested the government’s version, saying the leftists were respectful and cooperative during the services. Much of the reaction to Archbishop Romero’s death called on the United States to honor the prelate’s request and not send military aid to El Salvador. “There could be no more fitting tribute to the heroic life of this holy man than the fact that as a nation we would follow his advice,” said Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco, president of the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop Romero had written President Carter Feb. 17 asking that the military aid not be transmitted. Pope John Paul II, in an unusual message to the El Salvador Bishops’ Conference, called the assassination “sacrilegious” and asked the people of El Salvador to “put away forever all displays of mean violence and vengeance.” Normally, such cables of condolence are signed by the papal secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli. But this one was signed by the pope himself. In the same week, the pope also sent a personal letter to Archbishop Angelo Acerbi, papal nuncio to Columbia, held hostage in the embassy of the Dominican Republic in Bogota since Feb. 27. “Even more now, as we come closer to these holy days of the Lord’s passion, my presence and spiritual participation in your suffering is particularly intense,” wrote the pope. He said he admired the “example of strength, calm and prudence” that Archbishop Acerbi was setting as the “representative of the pope” in Colombia. A priest who visited the embassy March 28 with the pope’s message was told that all hostages without diplomatic rank would be released during Holy Week. Two of the 29 hostages were released Palm Sunday. The freeing of six or eight more hostages was expected by Easter. The 27 remaining hostages included U.S. Ambassador Diego Asencio and 12 other ambassadors and acting ambassadors, six consuls, four other foreigners, two Colombian civilians and two Colombian protocol officers. The leftist guerrillas are demanding that the government release 28 jailed compatriots in exchange for their embassy hostages. In Bolivia, the body of Jesuit Father Luis Espinal, a critic of rightists in his country, was found in a slum where he had once worked. He had been tortured and shot. The Jesuits in Bolivia said in a joint statement that “we will continue preaching the Gospel for the poor as Father Espinal did.” They demanded “a prompt investigation and verdict” in the murder. Archbishop Jorge Manrique of La Paz condemned the murder and said those responsible were excommunicated. Father Espinal was editor of Aqui, a weekly opinion magazine which backed efforts to move the country from 15 years of military governments to civilian rule, which finally came last November. Church Of Silence Praised By Pope Pope John Paul II opened Holy Week by praising modern-day martyrs in the “church of silence” living under states having obligatory atheism. The pope’s comments on martyrdom at the noon Sunday Angelus (March 30) before a crowd of 100,000 people in St. Peter’s Square alluded also to Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, El Salvador, who was murdered while celebrating Mass March 24. “We cannot forget those who in our day have undergone death for the faith and for love of Christ, and who in various ways have been imprisoned, tortured, tormented and condemned to death,” the pope said. The pontiff mentioned “those who belong to what is usually called ‘the church of silence,’ the church constrained to silence in the conditions of obligatory atheism.” It was also a critical allusion to communist governments which officially proclaim atheism. In his Angelus talk the pope pleaded for several Italian kidnap victims and called for peaceful resolution of the civil strife in Chad. He opened his public Holy Week schedule at 9; 30 a.m. with a blessing of palms and olive branches and an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square. About 20,000 people were in the square as the pontiff entered under leaden skies and went in procession to the square’s central obelisk to bless the palms commemorating Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem a few days before His death. Outside the square, clusters of street hawkers sold palm crosses and elaborately plaited and decorated palm fronds at prices ranging from 60 cents to $6. Within the square, youth groups handed out olive branches free. After the blessing of the palms, the pope returned in procession to the top of the steps in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he began Mass at 10 a.m., flanked by diplomats, church dignitaries and wheelchair victims in reserved places along the sides of the altar. By the time the Mass began, the crowd had grown to nearly 30,000. Despite the gray skies and an occasional drizzle, the crowd continued swelling until there were about 50,000 when Mass ended at 11:30 a.m. In his homily, the pope contrasted the glory of Christ’s tumultuous entry into Jerusalem with His approaching crucifixion. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, the pope said, “only He, Christ, knew at the very depth the truth of His mission . . . Already in this triumphal procession, in His ‘entrance into Jerusalem,’ He was ‘obedient even to death, to death on a cross.’” Among the offertory petitions, given in six languages, was one iii Spanish for Archbishop Romero * “savagely slaughtered like a victim at the altar of the divine sacrifice.” The petition asked God to pardon the killer and let love and justice triumph in El Salvador and “the other countries tormented by every form of violence.” The pope, following his usual custom, personally distributed Communion, assisted by more than 100 priests who fanned out through the crowd. At the end of Mass, the pope waved to the crowds and blessed them and briefly visited with some of the wheelchair victims on the left side of the altar. The crowd doubled in size during the next half hour as the first wave of spring tourists and tens of thousands of Romans packed the square for the noon Angelus. As the pope spoke of present-day martyrs in the church and declared that they were proclaiming the truth of the cross, he was interrupted by prolonged applause. He pleaded for prayers for peace in Chad, a central African country experiencing nearly two weeks of civil war between opposing Moslem factions. (NC) The Resurrection... Reflect... The Great Feast of the Resurrection of Christ should inspire us to reflect on what it means to be a Christian — a follower of Jesus Christ. Saint Paul said it very clearly to his flock at Phillipi, “All I Want is to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and to share His sufferings by reproducing the pattern of His death. That is the way I can hope to take my place in the Resurrection of the Dead.” Easter is a feast of hope, of peace, of joy. But we come to Easter after a season of fidelity to the standards of the suffering Christ. We share in the victory because we have been faithful in the struggle. In an age of shifting standards, it is our place to hold fast to the values of Jesus Christ. In a world of compromise, we are asked to affirm our fidelity to principle. In the Easter season we do well to reflect on the fact that we are called to be Holy so that, in the words of scripture “your light may shine before men and they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to God.” - Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan f