Priests ask faithful to reflect on love, acceptance, renewal

Love, acceptance and renewal are the most important values that ought to be reflected upon for Maundy Thursday, Holy Friday and Black Saturday, according to the officials of the Catholic Church.

The term "maundy", from the Latin word mandatum was associated to the Thursday of the Holy Week, since it was on Thursday night that Jesus Christ gave the "newest" and "most updated" commandment to his disciples.

Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said the new commandment - to love one another - was not really new.

Lagdameo said love referred to in this Commandment is both "agape" or self giving, self sacrificing love, and "eros" or possessive and needing love.

He said the love we experience from God is undoubtedly agape but at the same time God's love for us is eros like the love of a dutiful wife toward an adulterous husband or the love of a husband despite the wife turning unfaithful.

Fr. Jose Tajanlangit, of the Sta. Teresa de Avila Parish in Talisay City said Maundy Thursday is regarded very significant by the Jews since this is the time they hold the Passover Meal in commemoration of their bondage from Egypt to the Promise Land.

It also commemorates the holding of the First Mass, the institution of the Eucharist or Communion.

Tajanlangit said the day is also significant because it is during this time that Jesus prayed in Gethsemane while the disciples were asleep.

He said this was the peak of Christ's suffering as he was torn between being a God and being a man.

"Christ as real God and real man, at that time He was really very afraid manifested by the sweating of blood," he said, adding that the rapture of one's veins is a significant manifestation that a person is afraid. However, Tajanlangit said that Christ's fear disappeared when he said "Thy will be done."

When Jesus was beaten and then nailed to the cross, Tajanlangit said, He was no longer suffering because He had accepted His fate. This is one thing, Tajanlangit said, is something that that surviving Christians can associate with, when there is acceptance, everything is already very easy. - Ferliza C. Contratista/QSB