Preparing for Pentecost: Easter Friday

The Jerusalem Catecheses were written by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who was born during the time of Constantine in 313 A.D. He was appointed Bishop of Jerusalem in 349.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Easter is more than a day. It is a season of Resurrection as the Church prepares for the Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian Church.

This is a wonderful time to read the Fathers of the Faith as they encourage, challenge, and call us to a deeper life in Christ. Listen to them as they speak to the Church from across the continuum of history.

During the Season of Easter, Catholic Online will be publishing a daily excerpt of the Fathers taken from the Office of Readings along with questions for reflection. We want to help our online community enter fully into the life and faith that is ours in the Church.

Easter Friday

Scripture: I Peter 3:18 - 4:11

Reading: From the Jerusalem Catecheses

The Jerusalem Catecheses were written by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who was born during the time of Constantine in 313 A.D. He was appointed Bishop of Jerusalem in 349.

He was banished three times for preaching the fullness of Christ's divinity during a time when some bishops and priests held to the Arian heresy.

The Catecheses were 24 lectures St. Cyril used to instruct new Christians prior to their baptism and initiation into the Church at Easter. He specifically emphasizes the value and efficacy of the Sacrament of Baptism. He also exhorts the candidates concerning the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

The Anointing with the Holy Spirit

When we were baptized into Christ and clothed ourselves in him, we were transformed into the likeness of the Son of God. Having destined us to be his adopted sons, God gave us a likeness to Christ in his glory, and living as we do in communion with Christ, God's anointed, we ourselves are rightly called "the anointed ones". When he said: Do not touch my anointed ones, God was speaking of us.

We became "the anointed ones" when we received the sign of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, everything took place in us by means of images, because we ourselves are images of Christ. Christ bathed in the river Jordan, imparting to its waters the fragrance of his divinity, and when he came up from them the Holy Spirit descended upon him, like resting upon like.

So we also, after coming up from the sacred waters of baptism, were anointed with chrism, which signifies the Holy Spirit, by whom Christ was anointed and of whom blessed Isaiah prophesied in the name of the Lord: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor.

Christ's anointing was not by human hands, nor was it with ordinary oil. On the contrary, having destined him to be the Savior of the whole world, the Father himself anointed him with the Holy Spirit. The words of Peter bear witness to this: Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit.

And David the prophet proclaimed: Your throne, O God, shall endure for ever; your royal sceptre is a sceptre of justice. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above all your fellows.

The oil of gladness with which Christ was anointed was a spiritual oil; it was in fact the Holy Spirit himself, who is called the oil of gladness because he is the source of spiritual joy. But we too have been anointed with oil, and by this anointing we have entered into fellowship with Christ and have received a share in his life.

Beware of thinking that this holy oil is simply ordinary oil and nothing else.

After the invocation of the Spirit it is no longer ordinary oil but the gift of Christ, and by the presence of his divinity it becomes the instrument through which we receive the Holy Spirit. While symbolically, on our foreheads and senses, our bodies are anointed with this oil that we see, our souls are sanctified by the holy and life-giving Spirit.

Reflection:

1) In baptism, oil is used as symbol of the Holy Spirit. Why do you think oil has always used to signify the third member of the Trinity? What characteristics of oil remind of the work of the Spirit in us?

2) Good Friday was just seven days ago.

Think how the language of our liturgies and the tone of our worship has changed since that time. How might this change help us to understand the radical changes that we go through when we are baptized?

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, at our baptism we were sealed by You in the oil of Chrism and marked as Christ's own forever. May you ever dwell in us to strengthen and guide us into a life that is glorifying to Him who lives and reigns with you and the Father now and unto ages of ages. Amen.

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