Day1
HOLY THURSDAY
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This online retreat is an opportunity to rest your soul
and to hear what God has to say to you.
The best thing about this online retreat
is that you can do this retreat any time during the day –
and at any pace you choose.
Just carve out some quiet time
and take your time:
Resist the temptation to speed-read
or race through the text.
Remember: Sometimes more important than the destination,
is the journey – and journeys take time
and they require rests.
It would be ideal if you could set aside about an hour
of uninterrupted quality time each day
(if possible, no phone calls,
no text messages, no Facebook, no Twitter).
We will need to carve out some quiet time for this retreat,
but these next 3 days will not be about “leaving it all behind.”
Instead as we pray over the stories and mysteries of the Holy Week,
we are also invited to read and pray over the stories and mysteries
of our own lives.
Before you began this retreat
Before you began this retreat
you were asked to identify the seasons in your life,
not just outside but also inside.
That’s the place where this retreat begins.
As you listen to the Beatles song, 'In My Life,' think of the people and places you hold dearest in your life
Beginning the retreat
Here is a cover of the famous Beatles song, “In My Life.”
Listen to the words as recited by Bette Midler.
Let this be your opening prayer.
As you listen to the song,
think of the people and places you hold dearest in your life.
End your prayer by thanking the Lord
for the people and places of your lives.
Take some time
to say a silent, personal prayer to the Lord.
Speak from your heart.
Embrace the people and places in your heart
and entrust them to the Lord as you begin this retreat.
Holy Thursday: Temptation in the desert
Think about the 3 temptations, and ask yourself: 'Which one might have been the toughest for the Lord to resist? Why?'
Let us begin with the story
of Jesus’ temptation in the desert.
It’s a very important event –
reported in all 3 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
It’s also a very telling event
because it shows us how
even the Son of God was himself tempted.
It’s hard to imagine, but just like us,
Jesus experienced what it means
to be vulnerable
to the deceptions and murmurings of the devil.
Read the Scripture passage prayerfully,
and as you do so, imagine yourself in the scene,
silently watching the Lord and imagining how he must feel.
Think about the 3 temptations,
and ask yourself: “Which one might have been the toughest
for the Lord to resist? Why?”
Remember, in this recollection, you set your own pace,
so feel free to go back to passages that strike you
or touch you.
Begin – and end – whenever you are ready.
If you wish, play this piece of instrumental music
to set the mood and help you
read the text slowly and contemplatively.
If you wish, play this piece of instrumental music
to set the mood and help you
read the text slowly and contemplatively.
SCRIPTURE PASSAGE:
Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted[a] by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
You may also wish to watch this video clip on the Temptation in the Wilderness, to allow the scripture passage to come alive to you.
REFLECTION:
Which type of temptation do you think you would find – or have found – hardest to resist? Why?
The evil spirit knows best when to tempt us:
when we are at our weakest.
It did exactly that to the Lord.
It came with all its inducements
when Jesus was most hungry, lonely, and exhausted.
The 3 temptations in the desert are quite simple
when you think about it.
Which of the 3 do you think
was most difficult for our Lord to resist?
Why do you think so?
The temptations can actually stand for 3 of our most basic needs.
All our temptations are based
on these 3 primal needs:
our need for security and comfort,
our need for support and affirmation,
and our need for control over our own lives.
The needs themselves are not bad;
in fact, they’re healthy needs –
needs that make us human,
without which we can’t survive.
Among them,
which type of temptation do you think
would you find – or have you found –
hardest to resist? Why?
On Holy Thursday,
Jesus yielded to the first desert temptation,
but with a twist that no one –not even the devil – saw coming:
He turned the stone into bread to feed his very enemies.
We have an old and wise saying: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
Our Lord tossed that nugget of wisdom right out the window,
and turned it around by doing the exact opposite:
He fed the mouths that had bitten him.
“Love your enemies.”
Hasn’t that always been one of his toughest teachings?
But because it’s pretty abstract, It feels almost easy to accept it.
But on Holy Thursday, our Lord shows us concretely
what it entails –and just how hard it is! “Feed the mouth that bites you.”
It is a difficult and dangerous invitation, but one that our Lord Jesus accepted
and continued to embrace all throughout his Passion.
That same invitation is extended to us: Not to cast stones on our enemies, but to feed them
with the bread of our forgiveness.
What our Lord did on Holy Thursday, we are invited to do: Drop the rocks and stones in our hands.
Disarm ourselves. These rocks and stones only weigh us down. The stockpile of weapons we hide and hoard for the future use against our enemies –they end up harming only ourselves.
Stop here for a while,
and think of one or two persons who have hurt you – or worse, who have harmed those whom you love.
What would it take for you to drop your stone?
What would it take for you to forgive? Don’t rush into answers. Just stay with the questions.
CLOSING PRAYER:
This twin invitation of Holy Thursday –the invitation to self-disarmament and to forgiveness –
reveals more than ever how different we are from Christ,
and how far away we are – unlike him – from the Father.
The bottom line, of course, is a call to conversion,
which means nothing more than to come home to the Father.
Let our closing prayer today be a contemplation of the Parable of the Lost Son.
We all know that much-loved, age-old story about a younger son who leaves his father behind,
loses everything including himself, and eventually decides to return home
to work as a servant only to be overwhelmed
by his father’s open-arm welcome. To his surprise, his father cast no stone at him,
but instead, with an unexpected compassion and love, clothed and fed his long-lost son.
Though we may fall short of all that’s expected of us, though we may, for whatever reason, feel far from God, as long as we decide to turn around, and take those first steps and begin to fumble home,
we will find God waiting for us, His arms open in the widest possible way,
His face beaming.
Don’t keep God waiting.
Spend a few moments
just speaking to the Lord about what you think,
and how you feel as you end the day.
song
song
PAG AALAY NG SARILI
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