But Jesus Hid Himself...

Our Lord hid Himself today from the fury of those who reject His claims to Divinity. These are the same who would scorn and mock Him upon the cross whilst He hid Himself again, but in a different manner. In the former He hides from them physically because His hour had not yet come, showing that He had full control over all that He was to accomplish but at the moment chosen by Him. The latter was the veiling of His Divinity whilst on the cross - suffering all that He would in order to prove His love for us. 

 

In this spirit Holy Mother Church enters into Passiontide. Veiling the physical statues and images that surround us and comfort us; and the spiritual joys that surround the Mass by omitting the Psalm 42 at the Foot of the Altar (specifically the response 'ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam') and the Gloria.

Instead on this day we have parts of Psalm 42 read at the Introit in the person of Christ who says, "ipsa me deduxerunt et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum et in tabernacula tua". What else is Calvary but the Holy Mountain of our Redemption? And what else this Tabernacle but the "greater and more perfect tabernacle" spoken of in today's Epistle?

Neither by the blood of goats, or of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? - Hebrews 12-14

I will take the chalice of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord. Praising I will call upon the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies.