Sunday, April 09, 2006

God Has Grasped You by the Hand April 10

Note: California Day 2: Fr. Sean, a young Irish Jesuit, led the celebration of Palm Sunday Mass this morning at the Delores Mission in East Los Angeles. (Why did I keep wanting to call it the "De Colores Mission?" Maybe it was because everything from the gathering to the offering of the sign of peace reminded me of a Closing!) In this parish of immigrants, the welcoming this stranger experienced was powerful. It is hard for me to blend into the background when I stroll into a church full of Hispanic brothers and sisters. Everyone greeted me warmly even the Pastor walked over to me in the pew to welcome me to the Church.

Fr. Sean stressed the need not to skip from Palm Sunday to Easter without experiencing Holy Week and walking with Jesus. So, while Palm Sunday gave us the full story of the Passion, each day this week, we will walk with Jesus through each episode in that final journey to Calvary.

Prayer

Jesus, your last week of mortal life on earth is the flame to which we are now drawn. You are the Light of the world so you can clearly see and know the forces that worked to kill you and cut short your work to bring forth justice to the nations. Those same forces are at work on us today. They call us to Paradise --- but a false Paradise of timeshares and condos, vacations and leisure, golf and tennis. How ironic that Your Holy Week has become such a civil holiday of vacationing wholly devoid of piety, study, action and close moments with you for so many who say they believe.

Jesus, you know that it does not have to be that way. You also know that we need help. We need living stones like your friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus to be our path so we can walk with you to the victory of justice: economic justice, racial equality, religious tolerance, debt forgiveness, the end of the death penalty, housing for all, welfare reform and more.

Help us to adopt the best that Mary, Martha and Lazarus show to us so we can uphold our part of the New Covenant you call us to live. Then, we can become living stones for today's world to others who need light to see. Amen.

Study

After his Palm Sunday epic journey, Jesus and the Church present us with the challenge of looking more deeply into the first episode in Holy Week.
http://www.usccb.org/nab/041006.shtml

Today, we see Jesus back with his friends Martha and Mary and Lazarus. As Jesus' public ministry in John's Gospel got started at a public celebration (the wedding at Cana), here we see another party being held and this time, Jesus is the honored guest -- the bridegroom is still with us.

The three friends support and witness Jesus' friendship in each part of the Cursillo "tripod." Mary is still the contemplative servant (piety). Lazarus has come out of the darkness of death and is with Jesus still listening to Jesus' teachings (study) as they recline at dinner. Martha is still the busy active servant (action). Mary seems to be performing what might be considered a symbolic anointing of Jesus before Jesus dies on the cross. This is a ritual that evokes images of last rites. Just as the wine at Cana evoked images of the precious cup of the New Covenant, this oil points toward another sacrament.

Judas, by stark contrast to all of these models, has put a rock in the way of his relationship with Christ. Maybe that rock is pride. Maybe it is ego. He is the anti-disciple now to the model exhibited by Mary-Martha-Lazarus. Lazarus enjoys a close moment with Jesus because the stones of death which separated them was rolled away. He has loosed the binds that tied him to his first life. He has come out to be with God.

The disciple who will betray Jesus has rolled a stone between Jesus and himself. Despite all that Judas has seen -- the miracles, signs and teachings -- Judas refuses to believe or accept Jesus. After all we have heard about keeping the faith throughout Lent, Judas lets it all go. He is too tied to his purse full of money -- so much that John identified him as a thief. He has stolen a place among the apostles. When we see the last of Judas, he is hanging by a tree. He died for his own sins. His final breaths do not lead him to heaven like the repentant thief. Instead, Judas sneaks around in the dungeon of darkness consorting with enemies to betray Jesus and condemns himself to remain there.

The Hebrew Bible reading from Isaiah gives us a fine example of the covenant God wants with his people. Not a relationship stolen and misrepresented but a true and loving exchange.

This is what God does for us:

1) God created the heavens and stretched them overhead to protect us, to give us light and air.
2) God spread out the earth with its crops as another gift so all people, nwealthy the rich or welathy, have food to eat
3) God forms us all with life and inspiration and creativity
4) God sent his spirit to those who walk in his creation
5) As we walk, God will hold our hand as we walk

For these gifts, God asks us to fit into his plan for justice:

1) Be a living symbol of the covenant of God people
2) Be a light for the nations
3) To open the eyes of the blind
4) To bring out prisoners from confinement
5) To bring freedom to those who live in the darkness of sin and isolation from God.

Judas has failed to uphold his end of this covenant while Mary, Martha and Lazarus fulfill this covenant and show us how to find a way to fit into God's plan.

Action

Take some time to review the Lenten message for 2006 from Pope Benedict XVI. He has an interesting perspective on the New Covenant and how it related to equality for all through development that does not leave behind the poor.

Even now, the compassionate "gaze" of Christ continues to fall upon individuals and peoples. He watches them, knowing that the divine "plan" includes their call to salvation. Jesus knows the perils that put this plan at risk, and He is moved with pity for the crowds. He chooses to defend them from the wolves even at the cost of His own life. The gaze of Jesus embraces individuals and multitudes, and he brings them all before the Father, offering Himself as a sacrifice of expiation.[1]

Pope Benedict goes on to say that, "In the face of the terrible challenge of poverty afflicting so much of the world's population, indifference and self-centered isolation stand in stark contrast to the "gaze" of Christ...[T]he Church today considers it her duty to ask political leaders and those with economic and financial power to promote development based on respect for the dignity of every man and woman." (Emphasis added.)

See how this message affects you. Please post your reactions and comments to it on yourdailytripod.blogspot.com after the April 10 reflection. How will you react to the "gaze" that searches us profoundly and gives new life to the crowds and to each one of us? What will you do to help the multitudes who suffer poverty and cry out for help, support, and understanding? Do you truly care for the poor or do you give them lip service like Judas?

(Pick up that Rice Bowl collection box sitting on your kitchen table and shake it. What do you hear inside? If you do not hear much, I hope it is because your Rice Bowl is filled with paper currency. The poor will be with us always and we always have a choice to help them. Choose to help them today.)


[1] http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20050929_lent-2006_en.html

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