Day 1 Palm Sunday
Genesis:
Let there be light (Day and Night)
Holy Week:
Jesus, the Light of the World, enters Jerusalem.
The Light in Genesis is believed in some theological circles to be the manifested supernatural glory of Christ at the beginning of Creation. We will see this echoed on the 8th day, or the 1st day of the new creation in the Resurrection, as the Light shines forth from the darkness
Tertullian believed that the first light in Genesis was the manifest glory of Jesus
Day 2 Holy Monday
Genesis:
Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament (HEAVEN)
Holy Week:
Reading Is 42:1-7
“Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out…”
Gospel Jn 12:1-11
And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him. (a type of separation. Heaven separates. Lazarus was a sign to direct people to the waters above the heavens while the pharisee’s and Judas’ minds were focused below the heavens.
Reflection
Water is a symbol for life. Jesus is the bridge between the waters below (earthly life) and the waters above (our life in Heaven)
Day 3 Holy Tuesday
Genesis:
“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. (Earth and Seas).
“Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth”.
Holy Week:
Reading Is 49:1-6
“Hear me, O islands, listen, O distant peoples. The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.”
“For now the Lord has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, That Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him;”
..”to raise up the tribes of Jacob,”
Reflection
Jesus has gathered His apostles, in today’s Gospel, for the last supper, like the Lord gathered the waters into one place in genesis, and “He made the dry land appear”, or the Kingdom of Heaven on earth”
Day 4 Holy Wednesday, Sky Wednesday
Genesis:
Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth. (Sun, Moon, Stars).
Holy Week:
Reflection
First Reading, Is 50:4-9, “The Lord had given me a well trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.”
Jesus is the Word, and the substance that transmits the word is the tongue. In this reading, God had created a tongue which is made to transmit the Word, just as the heavenly bodies were made to transmit the Light. Light will no longer be transmitted via heavenly bodies, but this new supernatural light, the Word of God, the Word which enlightens the heart of man, will have a new substance, the tongue, by which it will transmit its light to every heart, especially to those who lay in the darkness of sin and error.
And it was night… Tenenbrae. Judas plots against the Lord and seeks to hand him over. He is a spy. He has not received the light, and has not become like the heavenly luminaries.
Day 5 Holy Thursday, Last Supper, Chrism Mass
Genesis:
Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.
Holy Week:
Reflection
“Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you do not have life within you.” Jn 6:53
At the Last Supper Jesus gives this bread/wine, His flesh and blood, for the first time to His Apostles, His first priests, and for the first time, we get a foretaste of this New Life. In Genesis, Day 5 is the first time we see living beings come forth, the birds and the fish. The command is given to be fruitful and multiply. Through the Holy Eucharist, we will bear fruit for the Kingdom, and we will spread the gospel throughout the whole world.
Reading Is 61:1-3
“He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly,”
Sent me to be fruitful and multiply, like the command given to the birds and the fish.
“I will give them their recompense faithfully, a lasting covenant I will make with them. Their descendants shall be renowned among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples;”
God will make this new creation of His, through the life of the Church, a nation that will be renowned, and they shall be as renowned and numerous as there are birds in the air and fish in the seas.
Those he has called to be fruitful and multiply were fishermen, that he has now made fishers of men.
Behold, he is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.
Just like all look up and see the birds of the air, God is coming amid the clouds and all will see when He comes.
Jesus has come to set prisoners free, to let the oppressed go free (Isaiah), just as God set free the birds on the 5th day to be free and multiply.
Day 6 Good Friday, Last Supper, Chrism Mass
Genesis:
Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.
Holy Week:
Reflection
Jesus recreates man through His redeeming work on the Cross and gives new life to humanity through the Church and the sacraments which were given to us through the opening of the side of Christ and the piercing of His Sacred Heart from which blood and water gushed forth
Adam was made and placed in the Garden of Eden, while Christ, in the preparation for the New Creation, once again enters a garden, but not of perfect bliss, but one of sorrows, to take upon Himself the sins of the world.
God made Adam a King, to have dominion over the earth, and Christ in the Gospel confesses His Kingship, but not of this world.
Day 7 Holy Saturday
Genesis:
Rest
Holy Week:
Jesus rests in the earth.
Day 8 Easter Sunday
Genesis:
Holy Week:
Resurrection Sunday. His appearance was like lightning (the angel, made new in Christ’s glory).
