Partners in the Passion

GOOD FRIDAY, April 10, 2020. Theme: Partners in the Passion

Good Friday of 2020 has come upon us in a way we could never have imagined when we began the holy Seasons of Lent on Ash Wednesday, February 26.  I imagine we all had our Lenten sacrifices planned out back then. And suddenly, just a couple weeks later we received, against our wills, a double-penance of social distancing and sheltering-in restrictions that none of us would have ever wanted to embrace. Along with this came the emotional suffering experienced as panic by some and untamed fears by others.

As difficult and inconvenient as these things are, they can provide us with a connection to Jesus, who in His Passion freely embraced some of our worst human experiences in order to suffer with us.  He endured torture, humiliation, crucifixion and death so that we could see clearly and once for all, how much God truly loves us.  So that we could know that He is a God who does not just look down on us from above, but who rolls up His sleeves – so to speak - and comes down among us as one of us, involved in the messiness and even the suffering of living as a human being.

Because of this solidarity with us, Jesus, God-come-in-the-flesh, has transformed the bad news of suffering into the good news of salvation. He shares the saving power of His Cross with us and he invites each one of us accept this opportunity to offer our sufferings of mind or body or spirit with his. Thus, no Christian need ever say that the pain, the struggle, the suffering we must endure in this world is ever wasted or purposeless.  And so, we have this opportunity available to us on this Good Friday with our present COVID-19 restrictions and deprivations.

We can take these crosses of COVID-19 that have come to us against our wills and transform them into moments of grace and opportunities for blessings.  By doing so, we stop being just victims of present circumstances.  We cease being only spectators of the events of that first Good Friday but become actual participants. We have the spiritual power, right here and now, to become active and willing partners in the Passion of
Christ.

This may not be easy for us to do but it wasn’t easy for Jesus either. Remember how he asked God the Father to remove the chalice of suffering from him during his agony in the garden on the night before he died? And yet he went on in that prayer saying, “but not my will, rather, yours be done.” And when he hung upon the cross, beaten, bruised and bleeding, he did not whine or complain but instead offered words of encouragement to those who were suffering. We can do the same by his grace and power.

In our Catholic Christian tradition, we have a phrase that describes this intentional and mindful participation in the Passion of Jesus. It is called “redemptive suffering”. What this means is that no matter what burdens we have to endure in mind, body or spirit; no matter what life throws at us or in what situations we find ourselves, these sufferings do not have the last word. Through, with and in Christ crucified, we have the upper hand…IF we choose to unite them to the Passion of Christ and make these difficulties a gift, an offering of love.

So, during prayer in our homes this Good Friday, as we venerate the holy and life-giving Cross of Jesus as we would if we were gathered together at our parish church, let’s choose to become Partners in the Passion by…

Saying “Yes” with Jesus to difficulties that we cannot avoid, transforming what comes to us as a curse into a blessing…

Saying “Yes” with Jesus to the chalices of suffering that come our way, empowering us to join with Jesus in bringing many blessings and graces to the world.

Saying “Yes” with Jesus in our struggles so that with hearts motivated by love for God and neighbor, we might become with our Beloved Brother and Lord, co-redeemers of humanity.  On this good Friday –and always – may the Passion of Christ be forever in our hearts!

The Towel & The Cup

HOLY THURSDAY. Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Gospel – John 13:1-15. Theme: The Towel and the Cup

Well, here we are, having arrived at the Sacred Triduum after a totally unexpected way of living out our Lent this year.  It’s strange to not be excitedly running around to preparing for Easter Sunday in the usual ways. And to think that instead of being gathered together in our parish church we will find ourselves still sheltering in and practicing social distancing.

But for me, these inconveniences have become a blessing of sorts. Since there isn’t much happening to distract me, I’ve been moved to deeply ponder what this most holy night really means and how, in the Upper Room of the Last Supper, Jesus gave us two farewell gifts before entering into his Passion.  The first gift is the New Commandment of Love demonstrated in the washing of feet and the second is that of the Eucharist as the New Passover Meal. Along with the first gift Jesus institutes the Diaconate and with the second gift he gives us the Priesthood. Two complementary gifts of loving service and of self-giving to his Church.

I hope you don’t mind if I take you with me as I delve a bit more deeply into the first gift and ponder aloud what it means to be a deacon.  Because, you see, I think it will actually end up showing what this Holy Thursday gift means for you as well.   I can confidently make this connection between you and me, because the Church sees deacons as a link, a bridge, between the parish and the people.

The reason for this is that we deacons have a foot in two worlds, so to speak.  Like bishops and priests, we are clergy, not laity. With them we are ordained to share in the apostolic ministry of teaching and leadership in the Church. But with you is where we deacons spend the bulk of our lives and ministry, bringing Christ out into the regular world among those with whom we live, work and socialize. Our role of solidarity with laypeople, of bridge-building, is important to keep in mind as we continue on with my Holy Thursday musings.

First of all, let’s revisit for a brief moment the fact that the seed of the diaconate was planted in the Church at the Last Supper with the washing of feet. Notice, though, that at the same time the command of Jesus to humble serve, to love as he loves, was given to all his disciples on that holy night. The fact that the deacon is singled out is simply another way of saying to us, “You are a link, a bridge, a connection. You must live as a sign and a symbol of what I have called all to do.” In other words, my vocation exists because of you. My vocation only makes sense in relationship with you.

And just so we don’t lose sight of what we deacons are called to be for your sake, even the way the we dress for liturgy is a reminder of our roots in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday. You might recall that deacons wear the stole (a long strip of cloth which is a sign of Holy Orders) from the left shoulder to the right hip, while priests and bishops wear it around the neck. This is because the deacon’s stole is a symbol of the Towel of Jesus which he wrapped around himself during the foot washing.  You know, when Pope Francis washes feet at his Holy Thursday Mass, he takes his stole and turns it sideways like a deacon. And only then does he begin the menial task of washing feet. Even the pope reminds us that to be a deacon means by definition to be a servant (which, by the way, it what the word “deacon” means in its original Greek roots).

The other gift of Holy Thursday that speaks to my heart is the Mass, the Memorial of the Lord’s Supper. You know, during the first three centuries of Church persecution, deacons were entrusted with hiding and protecting two precious items used for Mass:  the Cup of the Eucharist and the Book of Scriptures.  This is why even today you see a Deacon carrying the Book of the Gospels into Mass and also elevating the Cup of the Lord’s Blood at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer.

We deacons have a unique and special connection with these two sacred moments of the Mass. But we also have a unique and special connection with you who make up the worshipping congregation at Mass. Here, too, we have our place as a connecting link between priest and people. Have you noticed that the deacon says the “peoples’ parts” of the Mass along with you, while the priest does not? This is because we stand at the altar in your place. We carry each one of you with us to this sanctuary of consecration where your gifts of bread and wine will be transformed into the Body and Blood of the Lord.

I think that we deacons are very much like the Towel and the Cup of Holy Thursday that symbolize our vocation. Ordinary everyday items that have been conscripted for Extraordinary Use.  Really, like the Towel and the Cup we are of very little importance in and of ourselves. It is how God uses us for your sake that makes the difference. We are simply meant to be servants who wash your feet by means of our ministry. We are called to act as servants on your behalf when we offer the Holy Eucharist with you.

When you see a deacon, what should come to your mind is the glorious and beautiful vocation to love and to serve others that Christ has given you.

When you see a deacon, you should praise God that he has chosen you to worship, adore and receive the most precious Gift of his Son’s Body and Blood at the table of the Eucharist.

When you see a deacon, think only of Christ the Servant-Savior and what he has done for you in his Passion, which begins on this most holy night.

Let God Be God...

The Catholic Liturgy for Palm Sunday, Gospels – Matthew 21:1-11 (Entry into Jerusalem); Matthew 27:11-54 (The Passion, Short Form) Theme: Let God Be God…

It’s always such a mysterious thing to me when I think about the Triumphant Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. The crowd went from cheering and giving Him literally a King’s welcome, to screaming out bloody murder for his execution just a few days later on Good Friday. However, it seems to me that we can’t be too quick to judge or point fingers.  After all, we who live after the fact have the advantage of knowing who he really was and have been told how the whole story ends!

So, let’s try and put ourselves in the shoes of that crowd in Jerusalem for a moment. For centuries, the Jewish people had passed on the prophecies about the Messiah, the Christ, God’s Anointed One. They told and retold hopeful stories of how he would be a mighty Warrior, a national Hero, a Powerful King. He was supposed to be their Liberator – the Long-Awaited One - who would victoriously eject the cruel Roman oppressors out of the Promised Land. They looked forward to the day when he would bring to Israel all that they been praying for and imagined.  It was to be the best and happiest time of their lives as a nation, as God’s people.

When they learn that Jesus, whom man thought was the Christ, has been taken prisoner, beaten and tortured by the enemy, all their hopes for this Hero-King were trashed.  Turns out He wasn’t the Promised One after all, they assumed.  Or to put it better, turns out he was not the kind of Messiah, not the kind of Liberating Savior, that they had wanted, that they were expecting.

You see, a huge part of the problem, a big blind spot in their spiritual vision, was that their idea of liberation and happiness was limited to worldly success and political expectations. It was not as far-reaching and all-encompassing as was God’s idea.  For centuries, their leaders had been reading and interpreting the Scriptures about the Messiah in a way that they thought best. They were searching the Scriptures for what they wanted to see in them, something that I think we all tend to do. They were praying to God for what they wanted to see happen in their nation, rather than asking that his Kingdom come.

It’s so very easy for us to judge and condemn the screaming crowd of Jerusalem. And yet…before we point that finger at them…we have to stop and examine our own attitudes towards Jesus and how he acts in our lives. We have to ask ourselves quite honestly if we also read and interpret Gods Word in our favor, seeing in it only what we want to see, and ignoring the things that we prefer not to hear. Do we mean it when we pray in the Our Father for God’s Kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven?

Let’s each ask ourselves on this Palm Sunday: have I shaken a fist at God because he was not the kind of Savior I expected Him to be in my life?  Have I grumbled about Him because he was not carrying out the plans I intended, the hopes I expected? Do I trust him enough to be at peace in every circumstance, and especially those that are out of my control, knowing that he has me safely in the palm of his hand, in the recesses of his heart?

As we celebrate Palm Sunday and proceed further into Holy Week, let’s pray for the grace to be faithful to Christ during these times when we cannot gather as a church for worship.

Let’s thank Jesus for the most precious Gift of his Body and Blood in the Eucharist which he gave us on that first Holy Thursday, and through which we remain united with him and with one another.

Let’s venerate the holy and life-giving Cross of Jesus in our hearts and in our homes on Good Friday with devotion and confidence, remembering that our beloved Brother and Lord has loved us to the end.

And let’s ask the gloriously Risen Lord Jesus to bless us with a special Easter gift of trust in him, so that we might remain faithful no matter how things may seem, content to just let God be God in our lives.