Maundy Thursday

Wild barley ripening by the road

It's Maundy Thursday and in the Holy Sepulchre basilica, the Chrism Mass is celebrated together with the Lord's Supper. The Mass lasts for 3 hours in front of the Empty Tomb. All the Catholic bishops will be present and as many priests as possible. Few people actually know this but the olive oil used at the Chrism Mass come from the olives gathered from the ancient thousand-year-old olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane. It's then mixed with myrrh and nard before being blessed by the bishops and priests at the Chrism Mass.

Barley and bread

Traditionally on Maundy Thursday we recall Christ eating the Passover meal with his apostles ... at least according to Matthew, Mark and Luke's gospels. That means eating the passover lamb and unlearn bread. Too often we ignore the unlearn bread feast (which is celebrated for 8 days) in favour of the passover lamb (celebrated for one day only) because the lamb has been associated with Christ's death. That's a great mistake ... because it was bread that Jesus took to bless and consecrate as his body, not the piece of lamb. This feast of the unleavened bread is actually the celebration of the barley harvest. Barley is ground and made into unleavened bread because wheat matures and is harvested only 50 days later.

Barley is a hardy cereal and grows in every corner. It is so common it's the poor man's common meal. It is the first fruit of the land to be harvested after winter. According to jewish tradition in the Torah, the first bundle of barley harvested on Passover must be offered to God. This becomes the symbol of Christ ... the first fruit of the resurrection. It becomes the Eucharistic Bread. Barley is the symbol of the poor and oppressed. The symbol of barley is very powerful but too bad it's forgotten in favour of the lamb. Nobody consecrates a piece of lamb during Mass to commemorate the Last Supper ... but unleavened bread. So think about that.

While people around the world bewail the burning of the Notre Dame, I cannot but think of other tragedies that cost human lives and have never been financed: 4900 babies dying in Gaza every year; christians killed and persecuted in Iraq and Syria and Africa; 100s of palestinian homes destroyed and families evacuated in order for jews to takeover the land .... all these are human lives and tragedies worse than burning timber and cracked stone.

 Christ did't die for a building ... he died for human lives.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-police-begin-demolishing-palestinian-homes-in-east-jerusalem-neighborhood-1.7134693?fbclid=IwAR3REJRvo5cvy9yrH6O87I-JcfAPUUsqhsQLyYGuF0WHDq31xvFoqivcgXs
and
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5495872,00.html?fbclid=IwAR0DTFpzZelvuwVwE1lneYdoie5yCYkUS_UrW1h7TN9xU41tqYYl8Ojszn8