Holy Week: A Week of Paradoxes

My dearly beloved parishioners,
We are in the home stretch of the Lenten season, which ends before our celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening. The church commemorates during this week, which we call “Holy Week” the paradox whose fruit would be the salvation of the world. The God of life stands in trial and is condemned to death; the Creator is judged by his own creatures; and the author of love meets with the hatred of those he came to save. Thank God, human hatred could not stop love from pouring itself freely. Before our Lord goes to his passion, he would leave us the gift of himself in the Eucharist and institute the priesthood of the New Covenant for the perpetuation in time of this great mystery. He, the master, would stoop to serve his brothers by washing their feet, and thence after command them to do likewise. This is the week when the God who made the universe sleeps in death, and the whole earth is shrouded in darkness. This is the week when Heaven is wedded to earth, and humanity is rescued from the grips of the devil, the deceiver, who has held humanity captive since the “happy fault, and necessary sin” of Adam.

This Week begins with Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem on the back of a colt with the people singing Hosanna to the Son of David. He goes to the city of David, fully aware of what awaits him. The crowds acclaim him king, and spread their clothes on the road for him to ride amidst loud acclaim and praises. This fame would however be short lived, as Jesus would meet with searing suffering and a terrible death. Worst would be the pain of abandonment. He would die abandoned. His friends and disciples would run away and leave him alone. He would be turned over to the authorities by one of his very best friends; another would deny knowing him. This sense of abandonment would seem to be extended to his Father: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” We would see this great miracle worker who while he lived drew many crowds be abandoned to die in the company of two thieves.

Although abandoned to a lonely death on the cross, Jesus would bring salvation to everyone, including those who abandoned him, and those who participated in the most gruesome evil in human history. This salvation is also for all those who by their life situation are most identified with the Lord in his abandonment.

My heart goes out to the many who are abandoned in the world, the nobody(s) in our world, those with little or no economic significance: the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, the lonely elderly, those suffering from communicable diseases, the hungry, drug addicts, political prisoners, prostitutes, victims of abuse and trafficking, refugees, victims of war, those on death row, the list goes on… Jesus died so that they too might be liberated from their abandonment. My prayer is that Lent has been a time of true renewal for us, and has helped us in our quest to acquire the mind of Christ. I hope these weeks of Lent have challenged us to go beyond looking to truly seeing our brothers and sisters in need, and doing something, no matter how little, to ease their pains and suffering. I am grateful, once again, to the members of the Social Justice Commission of our parish for calling our attention to our brothers and sisters on the fringes. Regrettably, these are the “expendables.” They get easily ignored or forgotten in a ‘throwaway’ culture like ours, where a person’s worth is in what they contribute or how useful they are to society. In his passion and death, Jesus identifies with these nobody (s). Christ’s passion and resurrection challenges us to have the mind of Christ. This means a whole new vision for engaging the world. A Christian sees the world with the eyes of Christ, and not through lenses informed by the political ideals of any party. The question that we must always ask is: What would Jesus do? What would his response be to the suffering around him? I found these words from a 1986 document by the U.S. Bishops, Economic Justice for All moving:

“Your attitude must be Christ’s,” we are told by St. Paul. We must empty ourselves and take the form of slaves on behalf of those who are abandoned by the world. The ultimate injustice is for a person or group to be treated actively or abandoned passively as if they were nonmembers of the human race. To treat people this way is effectively to say that they simply do not count as human beings (no. 77).

I owe a debt of gratitude to the Knights of Columbus and the wonderful ladies of our parish who helped host successful soup dinners on all Fridays of Lent. The huge attendance at these dinners speak to parishioners’ appreciation of your generosity and sacrifice. Thank you.

Finally, I am grateful to the anonymous donor who sent me a bag of dark chocolate. I shared it with friends. And the joy went round. Wishing you a blessed Holy Week and joyful Easter!