Today’s Gospel passage reflects on Jesus’ encounter with two disciples, after His death and resurrection, while on the road. He even proves to them that he wasn’t a ghost by eating a piece of fish, since we all know that ghosts can’t eat! He then goes on to ‘open their minds to understand the Scriptures’.
Our songs this weekend reflect the Easter season that we are in with “Festival Canticle: Worthy is Christ” and “The Strife is O’er”, two strong hymns revealing the basic tenets of Christ’s Resurrection and victory over death.
The song at the preparation of the gifts recounts the Gospel passage with the two disciples encountering and recognizing Christ in the breaking of the bread (or fish, as was the case), along with another post-Resurrection Gospel passage from St. John when Simon Peter was out fishing with a few other disciples in the Sea of Tiberius. (Yes, Simon Peter, the head of the Church, the ‘rock’ on which the church would be built, returned to his regular ‘job’ after the Resurrection –he went back to being a fisherman. Not until later, when he more fully understood what it meant, did he return to preaching the Kingdom of God.)Our first song at Communion helps us under-stand the theology of the Catholic Church in regards to our teachings on the Eucharist. “Precious body, precious blood, seen as bread and wine...” The verses are taken from the Gospel according to St. John in chapters 4 and 6 and speak of the true Living Bread that we partake of each and every time we approach the Altar at Communion.
For all the musicians out there, notice who wrote “The Strife is O’er”, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Yes, the Palestrina. A couple things that I learned on my last tour to Rome. In Italy, he is known as Giovianni Pierluigi, not Palestrina as he is known here. Pierluigi is his last name. ‘da Palestrina’ means ‘of Palestrina’ which is a town in Italy. Also, any clue as to where he is buried? It is believed, according to legend, that he is buried in St. Peter’s beneath one of the side chapel altars. The tomb has never been excavated to try and verify that. He is undoubtedly one of the greats in Catholic music.