Holy Tuesday

Today our attention is directed by Our Lord to the nature of our own discipleship. Even though, at this part in the week, Our Lord was teaching everyday in the Temple in Jerusalem the Gospel focusses on the Apostles themselves and the only indication we have about what was going on within the apostolic group comes from St John's narration of the Last Supper.

When I was at seminary in Valladolid in Spain I knew a spanish family who had a wall hanging of Da Vinci's "Last Supper" in their living room. Embroided in this hanging were some of Our Lord's words at the Last Supper: "One of you will betray me". Of all Christ's words that could have been quoted for a family home I always thought these were a somewhat unusual choice.

It is very difficult for us to appreciate the anxieties, distress and emotions which were present in the apostolic group at this time as Christ approached "his hour", but an attentive ear to today's Gospel will surely lead us to pray for one another at this time. Christ calls us his "children". We are to trust him, now more than ever, and in a way which allows him to do what we would never be able to do - to love us to the end.

We see in today's Gospel how urgent was the need for trust within the apostolic group - there must be trust amongst us, that we are all open to Christ in his Pascal Mystery.

We should pray for spouses, that they equally choose Christ to be at the centre of their relationship. We should pray for catechists and teachers, that they might hand on more keenly the truths of faith. We pray for evangelisers, that they might be open to receive the light that only God can give. We should pray for single people, that they might be the source of community in Christ for many. We should pray for priests, those who are like Christ, brother, father and spouse, that their friendship with Christ will be everything to them. The few Masses that remain to us this week must now be moments of intense trust in Christ and prayer for the loyalty of the Church.

The New Day is almost upon us when God wishes to renew the Life of Christ within us. Remember Bernadette of Lourdes - "from the time she turned fifteen, sure of the message she has received from the Blessed Mother, she had the tenacious courage to brave the suspicions of the adult world in order to be faithful to what she had received and to bear witness to it." (JPII, Lourdes, 1983) God's plan is that we should be saints.