Greetings to our St. Joseph Parish Family!
Though we are unable to celebrate Mass together, we hope you can find some joy in this Sunday edition of our Parish Newsletter. You will find the readings for today's Mass, as well as Fr. Buckley's Homily. Additional information & resources have also been provided, including a link to make online donations to the church. We will be sending out several Parish Newsletters this week as we celebrate Holy Week in this unique way.
May God Bless you today and always.
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"To many, a pilgrimage is a long journey to a new, unknown place, with stops along the way to explore historic and religious sites.
As we prepare for Holy Week 2020, during which we are confined to our homes, it seems hard to imagine being on a pilgrimage this year. Yet, Holy Week is the perfect opportunity for us as a Roman Catholic Family of Faith to embark on a spiritual pilgrimage, an interior conversion of our hearts from the ordinary to the eternal, from despair to hope, from self-interest to care for our brother and sister, and from darkness to the light of Christ.
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of this spiritual pilgrimage. It is Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This liturgical feast is named for the palm branches the crowds spread on the ground, as a sign of His kingship, as Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem.
The Palm Sunday Mass also is known for the recitation of the Passion Gospel, a retelling of the account of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. This year we will hear Saint Matthew’s version of the Gospel. Unique to this liturgy and Good Friday’s, the Gospel is read in three parts: one speaker recites the words of Christ, a second is the narrator, and the third speaks for the crowd.
More than five weeks ago on Ash Wednesday, we heard “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.” The ashes have long been washed away. But the story of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection stays with us – offering silent testimony, bearing witness, calling on us not to forget the One we are called to follow.
As we enter into the pilgrimage of Holy Week, may we, like the crowds, welcome Jesus into our home, and more importantly, into our hearts, so that we may experience a true spiritual conversion that leads to the joy of the Resurrection."
-From the AD Times on April 3, 2020 -
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First Reading
Isaiah 50: 4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
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Responsorial Psalm
Responsorial (R.): My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:
"He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Indeed, many dogs surround me,
a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;
They have pierced my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
They divide my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
"You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!"
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
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Second Reading
Philippians 2: 6-11
Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, He emptied Himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
He humbled Himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted Him
and bestowed on Him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
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Verse Before The Gospel
Philippians 2: 8-9
Christ became obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted Him
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.
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The Gospel of Our Lord
Because today's Gospel is so long, we have included links below to lead you to the passages. T
he Scripture reference for the Passion is: Matthew Chapter 26 verses 14 to 75 and Chapter 27 verses 1 to 66.
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Homily by Fr. Thomas Buckley
Today, we can sympathize with Jesus as the shadows that have been lengthening throughout our Lenten journey with Him have become increasingly dark. For Jesus, the last flicker of light blows out as He hangs between Heaven and earth, held in place by His love for the world, and His obedience to His Father, more than by the nails. Even the sun refuses to shine for three hours at midday, as Jesus hangs on that cruel Cross. It is an instrument of torture, designed by the Persians, and perfected by the Romans. Crucifixion exacts an excruciating pain, piercing vulnerable nerves in the hands and feet, but not puncturing any vital organs, allowing the poor sufferer to live in agony, sometimes for hours or even days, as life slowly drains out. For the Romans, crucifixion was always a public death, designed to warn other would-be enemies of the State of a similar fate.
Death on a cross was the worst imaginable way to die. Surely no one in the first century world would have guessed that Christians would one day make crosses into jewelry, and wear them on necklaces, or adorn the steeples of their churches. But we do so because this darkest of days is not the final chapter of the story of Jesus. Nor are the dark days we are presently experiencing the final chapter of our lives. As bleak as that Good Friday was, as terrible the suffering of the innocent Jesus, and as complete a triumph for evil as it appeared on that Cross outside Jerusalem, we know that God was not finished, nor vanquished. We must remind ourselves of this as we continue to bear our personal crosses during this pandemic knowing full well that God is not vanquished.
Today, we must stare into the dark void of this dreadful moment of betrayal, suffering, and death. We have no Good News to share with the world, no foundation for our hope, if we do not recognize that we are bought with a steep price, a redemption only Jesus could have paid. No matter how many times we read the Passion according to St. Matthew, we are struck with the sadness, the shocking betrayals, the irony of a corrupt justice system, and the determination of Jesus to keep moving forward toward this awful destiny. Surely, He was tempted to “flight or fight.” But instead He submitted to this path of undeserved suffering, with quiet strength and passionate love for humankind - even for the very ones who held the hammer, the ones who mocked Him, and the guardians of the status quo who snickered in smug victory, thinking they had finally silenced this troublemaker from Nazareth.
The four Gospel records give us seven different sayings of Jesus while He was hanging on the Cross. But St. Matthew only records one of those sayings, and it is the darkest sentence of them all. Matthew tells us that about half way through His lengthy ordeal of death, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” Those standing around at the foot of the Cross misunderstood the saying, thinking he was calling on Elijah, since the Aramaic word translated “My God” was
Eloi
. But Jesus was not calling on Elijah. Jesus was calling on a higher power than Elijah. He was crying out to His Father.
And here is the suffering of Jesus at its very darkest. On the Cross He was stripped of His clothing, stripped of His friends, stripped of His dignity, and ultimately would be stripped of His life. But the very hardest part of the suffering of Jesus was the sense of abandonment He felt from His Father. We can only ponder this mystery with awe, and never think we can plumb the depths of the sense that Jesus felt God-forsaken. Any attempt to soften this suffering, this sense of absolute abandonment, is more to do with our discomfort at the thought than anything else. But it is true, Jesus felt forsaken by His Father on the Cross. For His entire life, the intimacy with His Father had always been His guiding star, His sense of identity and strength. It was the Voice of His Father at His Baptism, and again at the Transfiguration, saying, “You are My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” that echoed again and again in His mind throughout His life. But now the heavens were silent as we might feel they are today.
There was no Voice, no heavenly dove, no army of angels, no rescue. And for Jesus, that was a suffering more intense than the nails ripping through His wrists and ankles, or the increasing pressure on His heart as His pericardium slowly filled with fluid. These are the days when we, too, might feel forsaken, leaving us with only a single word to fling toward the silent heavens, “WHY?” If you feel that way, remember that you are in good company, that it is okay to hurl that question against the sky, and that even that brief word is still a prayer, however much it may not feel like one.
But there is one small light of hope still flickering, even on this darkest of days. As Jesus cries out in anguish, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”, He was quoting the first verse of the 22nd Psalm. Isn’t it just like Jesus to quote scripture in the face of the forces of darkness? Remember how He responded to the Devil in His wilderness temptation experience? Could it be, that by quoting the first verse of this Psalm, Jesus is also thinking of the entire Psalm? On the Cross He had to measure His words carefully, since it was so difficult to summon the air to speak under the crushing weight of pain. It was hard enough just to keep breathing, much less use what precious little air was left in His lungs to force out a Word. So, we can understand why Jesus might use a shorthand abbreviation to allude to the entire Psalm 22.
When we say, “Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name,” we certainly invoke the memory of the entire Lord’s Prayer. And every day, faithful Jews recite the
Shema
, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one God”, but in so doing they are recalling the entire body of the commandments, of which that phrase in only the first verse. So, when we read all of Psalm 22, we see how that entire Psalm foreshadows and interprets the suffering of Jesus on the Cross. There is mention here of feeling God-forsaken, yes. And also, to the scorn and mockery of the spectators, the casting of lots for His garments, and the piercing of His hands and feet. But notice how the Psalm ends:
God has not despised or disdained the suffering of the Afflicted One; He has not hidden His face from Him, but has listened to His cry for help…. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him. Future generations will be told about the Lord, and they will proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn.
There it is, the flicker of hope. Could Jesus have been thinking of the end of Psalm 22, as well as its beginning? I think so. In the pitch black of noonday, when the sun refused to shine on the Cross, and when it looked like there was no tomorrow, Jesus may yet have been bearing witness to His Father Who held His tomorrow, and holds our tomorrow, too.
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A Few Reminders...
- The Rectory remains closed to all visitors. Please try to limit phone messages to emergencies only. Phone calls and emails will be answered as soon as possible.
- The Church will remain open from 12PM to 3PM daily, but Adoration will not take place.
- Confessions will be by appointment only. Please call or email Fr. Buckley at the Rectory.
- All Parish events continue to be cancelled or postponed.
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Thank you to all those who have continued to send in your weekly contributions!
In case you missed the last newsletter - there is a new online offertory option available via the Diocese of Allentown website. Information from the Diocese, as well as the link to the giving form, are included below.
For Your Information:
- All gifts made via this site are deposited into a restricted account which has been set up specifically for this purpose. These funds are not intermingled with other Diocesan funds or appeals. All funds will be distributed by electronic deposit or a check written directly to our parish at least once per month.
- Our parish will receive regular and full reports listing our own gifts with complete donor information. Fr. Buckley will enter this information into our own record-keeping systems just like regular offertory.
"Dear Friends,
As we work together to end the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, parishes across the Diocese of Allentown remain a first choice for people in need. As you may already know, parish clergy and staff are responding to calls, coordinating resources, and supporting individuals and communities from home. Our priests continue to say Mass – many newly available online – on our behalf every day. Even without a public celebration of Mass or regular weekly collections to pay the bills, the life and mission of your parish continues.
With that in mind, the Diocese of Allentown has launched a new, online Parish Support initiative so that all of us can continue to support our local parishes. The new site allows individuals to make a one-time or recurring credit card contribution to any parish in the Diocese of Allentown. You can visit the new Diocesan Offertory Form at:
https://www.allentowndiocese.org/parish-support
With the suspension of public Masses, it is critically important that we continue to provide parishes with our regular offertory gifts. In fact, I encourage you to consider increasing your support. Now more than ever, our parish communities are playing a vital role in our personal, family, and community-wide well-being. Across the Diocese of Allentown, people rely on our Catholic family of faith.
I look forward to joining you at a public Mass celebration (and it will be a celebration!) as soon as possible. In the meantime, click here to continue supporting your parish today:
https://www.allentowndiocese.org/parish-support
Yours in Christ,
Paul Acampora
Secretary for Stewardship & Development
PS
- Follow
AD TODAY
for all Diocese of Allentown news. Updated daily at:
https://www.ad-today.com/"
St. Joe's Parishioners are also welcome to mail their regular weekly envelope to the Rectory: St. Joseph Church, 5050 St. Josephs Road, Coopersburg PA 18036
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Holy Week Masses to be Celebrated by Bishop Schlert at Cathedral
The Masses can be seen live at
www.ad-today.com
and on the Diocese’s YouTube channel. They also will be available for later viewing on YouTube.
Here is the livestream schedule for Holy Week:
- Palm Sunday, April 5, at 10 a.m., from the Cathedral.
- Monday through Wednesday, April 6-8, 8 a.m. livestream Mass from the Bishop’s private chapel.
- Holy Thursday, April 9, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, at 7 p.m., from the Cathedral.
- Good Friday, April 10, Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at noon, Bishop’s private chapel; Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, at 3 p.m., from the Cathedral.
- Easter Vigil, Saturday, April 11, 8 p.m., from the Cathedral.
- Easter Sunday, April 12, at 10 a.m., from the Cathedral.
- Monday, April 13, normal Mass schedule from Bishop’s private chapel resumes: 8 a.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m. Sundays.
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Saturday, April 4, 2020, would have been our Annual Easter Egg Hunt for the children of our Parish Family. Please enjoy some photos from past years' Egg Hunt celebrations! More photos appear on our website.
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2019 - The Easter Bunny gets things started!
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2018 - Held inside the Parish Center!
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2016 - The 0-2 year olds are always a joy to watch.
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2005 - Most of these hunters are now in college!
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2006 - All those eggs, gone in seconds!
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Feel free to browse the Lent, Easter and other Spiritual Growth Resources available on our website:
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