Remain here and keep watch April 9

Prayer

Jesus, thank you for enduring the pain and humiliation of the cross for my sins. Give me the fortitude to remain awake in the world. When I am awake, my eyes, ears and heart are open to your needs -- the needs of the least among us.

Show me where I fit into this plan of yours.

Amen.

Study

Today, Jesus invited us to spend time with him in the daily scriptures:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/040906.shtml

Yesterday, the Good News gave us all a big question from the high priest: “What are we going to do? What will we do? WWWD…

WWWD easily morphs into WWID – What will I do? Will my faith allow me the strength to stand up for Jesus in the public square or will I go along with the crowd? What will I do?

If you don’t believe, then today is the end of the movie. If you believe, see you next week…

Today, Jesus asks us to “remain here and keep watch.” But his closest friends fall asleep and then scatter when the heat gets turned up by the local authorities. Jesus, however, knows that God can not take this cup away from him.

He is arrested, tried, convicted, and loses his bid for clemency to the thief. The soldiers scourge him at the pillar, crown him with thorns, mock him, spit on him and hand him a cross to carry. They strip him, nail him to the cross and hang him up to die. They mock him until death by holding a lottery for his clothes. Jesus cries out, My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?" Then, his mortal life is over.

What if I was there when they crucified our Lord? What would Jesus say to me?

Jesus, when did I fail to keep watch? I just waved palms at your triumphant entrance into the New Jerusalem. You are my Lord and my God! I am here at church today to worship you.

Tony, you went to the Paul Farmer lecture yesterday right?

Yes, Jesus, you know that I went there.

Did you see the slide of Joseph Jeune, the 26-year-old Haitian man dying of both AIDS and tuberculosis? He was skin on bones. Didn’t his eyes sear at your soul?

Yes…

That is when you have forsaken me. You have forsaken me in Haiti…in Bangladesh…in the South Bronx…in the prisons of Iraq, Afghanistan…in the killing fields of Cambodia, Viet Nam or Rwanda…in the welfare reform laws…in the global economy that leaves fair trade behind…you have forsaken me when you have forsaken the least among us who need food, clothing and shelter just for starters.

But Jesus…I give to charity and even volunteer sometimes. I have commitments…a job. A family. You know Beth and Regina and Sarah. We are trying to help our children pay those college bills. And then there’s the mortgage. And the property taxes that keep going up. And the income taxes that are due this week. And the car payment and insurance.

Tony, when I said remain here and keep watch, I didn’t mean to keep watch on the latest rerun of “Law and Order” or “CSI” I didn’t mean to hang out at the movie theatre or video store watching all the Oscar winners and also rans. I did not mean to watch for the Rolling Stone list of the top 100 albums and rush out to buy the CDs you are missing. I did not mean to hold your breath between sports seasons: MLB. NASCAR. NCAA. NFL. NBA. NHL. I mean “Remain here and keep watch over the least among us.” There are no “buts in the Good News, Tony. There is no “Get out of Jail Free” card. This year, millions of people will die from treatable diseases. None of these deaths really have to happen.

Jesus, show me I fit into this plan of yours. Here I am. I come to do your will.

Action

Spend some time reading the Partners in Health web site (www.pih.org). If you have not read Mountains Beyond Mountains, the biography of Paul Farmer written by Tracy Kidder, then get one today at your public library. Read it for the success that Partners in Heath is having treating the least among us. But also, read it for the spirituality of caring and healing that Dr. Paul Farmer, a Catholic raised in the south, puts into action.

Think about where to spend any tax refund that you might get. If Jesus were a minister in the U.S., where would Jesus spend his tax refund? I think that PIH might get some of mine.