You Will Follow Later

March 18, 2008

Tuesday of Holy Week

Piety

Let us pray: As we walk with Jesus this Holy Week, let us ask God to help us change our ways. Father, help us to slow down, so that we can listen with clarity to the voice of the Lord. We turn to you, in weakness and fear and trembling so you will send the Holy Spirit to grant us a faith based not on human wisdom but on your holy power. Like the bread and wine Christ will lift up during the Passover meal, we are in your hands. Do with us what you think good and right. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/031808.shtml

Christ tells Peter that he can’t go with him now. So in one sense, Christ is speaking metaphorically about passing through death to forgive our sins. However, literally, we also know that Peter will be crucified (executed) later. So literally, Jesus’ statement also predicts that Peter will follow Jesus in death by execution after he and the disciples experience all the stages of grief and sadness that they pass through these events. During the Holy Week and Easter Season, we will walk with Jesus and the disciples, sharing each of these stages just like Peter does.

· Denial when he learns of his pending betrayal.

· Anger and violence when he cuts off the ear of Malchus in the garden.

· Bargaining when people recognize him but he denies Christ.

· Depression when he goes into hiding just as we might isolate ourselves.

· Acceptance when he enters the tomb and when he sees Jesus on the beach.

Action

Reach out to someone who is imprisoned. Join Bishop Loverde and other Catholics in opposing the death penalty.

As millions of Christians around the world prepare to mark Holy Week and the state-sponsored death penalty imposed on Jesus of Nazareth, governments are grappling with the death penalty. Recently, New Jersey abolished death in favor of life in prison. The UN passed a charter opposing the death penalty. Yet here in Virginia, we have one of the most used death penalties in the nation and the developed nations of the world.

You can help stop that! You can be a “light to the nations” by lighting up the phones and computers in Richmond and joining our Pope, Bishop and church leaders by urging your governor and state representatives to vote against the death penalty.