I came across an article about a parish in Lafayette section of
Jersey City. They were involved in an unusual Good Friday procession.
The parish wanted to connect the sufferings of Christ to the sufferings of
their neighborhood. Several of the 14 stations in the outdoor procession
were at the homes in the neighborhood where muggings, fires, murders,
had taken place over the last year.
The station where Simon helps Jesus carry his cross took place
at the home of a teenage boy who risked his life to help a man
who been mugged and left for dead.
The 12th station marking the death of Jesus, was held in the
front of the house of Francis McMahon, an 84 year old woman
who was murdered in her own home 3 weeks before Good
Friday.
I thought to myself what a creative and powerful way to link
together the suffering, pain and death of Jesus with the suffering, pain
and death of the world you and I live in today.
I also thought to myself about a follow up article, about real living
Flesh and Blood experiences of Easter Resurrection today! What would
I write about? What would you write about?
I would write about the very old women I visit occasionally
who is not able to do much except sit and rock: who was given
up for dead at least 3 times by the doctors and family: yet every
time I go there to bring her Communion, this woman’s faith in a
living God, her spirit and joy in the face of pain and loneliness
inspired me. I leave having received more than I gave her.
I would write about the 18 year old young man who died of
Aids recently. He developed Aids because of a blood
transfusion. He was dealt a very unfair and unjust hand in life.
He could have chosen to be bitter and angry and feel sorry for
himself, but instead he taught me and others some powerful
lessons about compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.
I would write about many of you, yes you! You who have had
to face tragedies, sickness, deaths, divorces, loss of jobs, family
problems, crisis of your children, becoming parents of your
parents; various addictions, the list goes on and on.
In the face of all these dark realities, I see and I hear you complain,
you struggle, you get frustrated, you get angry, normal things human
beings do. Yet I see you also continue to try to live your lives like there
is some good news of hope and joy. You remind me and others that
Jesus Christ is not a memory from the past generations. Jesus Christ is a
living presence and surely as he walked with those first disciples on the
trails of Palestine, He goes with us on the modern streets and freeways
of our life.
Easter People. That’s what I would entitle my article. To be Easter
People, the challenge, not just today, but every day. People whose lives,
not just their mouths (in church) radiate (not perfectly but as best we
can) the living presence, the hope, the joy, the peace of Jesus, risen and
alive right here right now. Let us recommit ourselves to being Easter
People. Renew Baptism Vow
Easter People 3-31-2024
March 29th, 2024Palm Sunday Reflection 3-24-2024
March 5th, 2024What does it mean, this good, kind loving young man, barely in his
thirties, dying for no crime at all. What does it mean and what is it for?
What it means is that God loves us so much that God will withhold
from us absolutely nothing – not even God’s own dear Son. What it
means is that no matter what, God will always be there for us, with All
God’s love and power, comfort and grace.
There are no limits to God’s commitment to us, none at all.
Through this terrible moment in Jesus’ life. God’s saying, “You can
count on me. I’ll never desert you, and there’s nothing I won’t give you,
not even my Son.”
This Passion Sunday is, in one way, a very sad day. Walking with
Jesus on this day can break your heart. But it’s also the brightest of days,
because it tells how very much, we are loved, and because it reminds us
who view it from the vantage point of the resurrection that, despite all
appearances, failure, death, rejection, ALL WILL BE WELL!
Death before Birthday Cake 3-17-2024
February 23rd, 2024In a Peanuts episode, Linus enters to find his older and perpetually crabby
sister Lucy crying bitterly.
“Mom promised me a birthday party and now she says I can’t have one,” Lucy
wails.
Linus, in his quiet, wise way, offers this advice: “You’re not using the right
strategy. Why not go up to Mom and say to her, ‘I’m sorry, dear mother, I admit I
have been bad. You were right to cancel my party. But from now on I will try to
be good.”
Lucy thinks about it. She prepares her speech for her mother. Then she
thinks about it some more. Finally, in the last panel, the stubborn Lucy cries, “I’d
rather die!”
Lucy cannot bring herself to embrace the faith of the Gospel grain of wheat.
To transform our lives in order to become the people we are meant to be begins by
dying to our own self-centeredness and obtuseness to the needs of others. Today’s
Gospel asks us what values and purposes do we want to center our lives on in
order to make them what we pray they will be; what we are willing to let “die” in
our lives in order that what we seek in the depths of our hearts “to live” might
grow and blossom; what we will put aside and bury in order that the justice and
peace of God may be established here and now. Jesus readily acknowledges that
such change is hard; the struggle to change is, in its own way, an experience of
dying—but such transformation can be an experience of resurrection, as well. The
Gospel of the grain of wheat is Christ’s assurance of the great things we can do
and the powerful works we can accomplish by dying to self and rising to the love
and compassion of Jesus, the Servant Redeemer.
