Purging the contaminated 'leaven'

	Word to Life  Sharon Perkins

A few years ago I received a plastic bag with a lump of unbaked dough - a "starter" for what an acquaintance called "friendship bread."

The idea was to incorporate the lump into a new batch of bread dough so that the entire mass would rise. At least this was the theory; in reality, the contents of the bag went sour, smelled rotten, and turned the whole batch into a gray, watery mess. I had no choice but to throw it in the garbage and give up on the bread, if not the friendship.

March 16, 2008 Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion Procession: Matthew 21:1-11 Isaiah 50:4-7 Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 Philippians 2:6-11 Matthew 26:14 to 27:66

In Matthew's Gospel, written for a Jewish-Christian community, the evangelist is careful to note certain important details connected with Jesus' suffering and death which escape most of us contemporary Christians. The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, which coincided with the annual Jewish feast of Passover, began with the avid search for and ceremonial removal of every trace of leavened bread from the home. This action symbolized that the "leaven" - which in Jewish tradition stood for the contaminating effects of sin, decay, and death - would be purged anew from the community to make way for the unleavened bread of holiness and purity of heart.

It was this kind of bread - not ordinary leavened bread - that Jesus identified at the Last Supper with his body, given as the beginning of a new covenantal relationship between us and God.

The entire season of Lent has been a preparation for this most holy of weeks that culminates in the great feast of Easter. Through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we have been encouraged anew to seek out and remove the contaminating "leaven" of sin from our lives.

As we meditate upon the sacrifice of Jesus our paschal lamb in the days ahead, we prepare to celebrate the freedom from sin and death that he brings, in the same way that Israel celebrated their liberation from Egypt the night of their first Passover.

	For reflection: • What sorts of "leaven" have you needed to sweep from your life this Lent?

It is no accident then that we use pure, unleavened bread in our celebration of the Eucharist. It is the bread of a renewed relationship - the true "friendship bread" that unites us with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This column is offered in cooperation with the North Texas Catholic of Fort Worth, Texas.