Saturday, April 11, 2020

"Rise, let us leave this place"

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.

At the sight of him, Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.”

Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

"I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

"For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

"See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

"I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

"Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God.

"The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."

Friday, April 10, 2020

Judas and the Killing of God

A commenter says, "It is impossible to come up with a worse sin than the one Judas commits. Killing God. There is nothing worse."

In reading the Passion account from the Gospel in the Good Friday liturgy in Catholic churches, often instead of just one person reading it, many people take various parts. One part that the faithful in the pews take is to yell out, "Crucify him, crucify him!"

The fact is that we all betray the Lord, we all call for his death, we all hammer the nails into his hands and feet. How? By the sins we commit, that is, by what we think and do and fail to think and do that separates us from God. It is only because of our own infidelities and transgressions that Jesus is on the Cross in the first place. We are all Judas -- and the whole reason the Lord became man was to save people like Judas.

Yes, there ARE worse sins than betraying the Lord and killing God. There are far worse sins. After all, even killing God in the flesh can be forgiven.

What can possibly be worse?? The worse sin, the ONLY "unforgivable" sin is what Judas did afterward. And what was that? Despite his feelings of guilt, Judas did not turn back to the Lord. He did not seek reconciliation, the prodigal son never came home. By not seeking the forgiveness that was there waiting for him, by not opening up his heart to God's mercy, by continuing to turn his back on God by instead hanging himself, Judas could not be forgiven.

It was the gift never opened. It was the delivery returned to sender. He was impervious to redemption. THAT is the greatest sin. And, sadly, it too is a sin that others commit.

Thursday, April 09, 2020

Reflection on Betrayal and Denial, Repentance and Non-Repentance

The Mass readings for Holy Week set the stage for the Paschal Triduum as the holy anointing of Jesus by Mary of Bethany is set in contrast to his betrayal and denial.

Judas shared a table with Jesus, accepted his hospitality, but is duplicitous (see Psalms 41, 55). Even the act of handing Jesus over to the soldiers is done with a kiss of friendship. But although he knew of Judas’ duplicity, Jesus still welcomed him at table and even got down on his knees to wash his feet.

Jesus does not judge or condemn Judas. Judas asks, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” and Jesus responds, “You have said so.” Jesus is not judgmental. In the mystery of Jesus’ human living in time and his divinity in eternity, he gives Judas the opportunity to alter his course, to change his mind. The Lord gives him an out.

Why did Judas do it? Was it because he had lost faith in Jesus, because he falsely believed that Jesus would be a military revolutionary and was not? Perhaps he did have that false belief of what a messiah should be -- but didn't Judas see the works Jesus performed? Didn't he just see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead?? Surely that would have disabused him of the whole revolutionary thing?

Was it malice born of some other reason? To knowingly destroy Jesus? Or was it foolishness? Did he not fully realize what he was doing and merely thought that he would force an answer to the Messiah question?

In any event, whether it is malicious pride or foolish pride, Judas thought he knew better than Jesus. He wanted to do things his way. But then, so did many of the other Apostles. And so do we, we think we know better than God. Certainly Simon Peter did at times. At the arrest, he pulls out his sword. And afterward, he is afraid to trust in the Lord, to simply put his life in God’s hands and instead seeks to save his life by denying God.

Reliving and participating in this drama, we encounter the reality of our human condition, and the reality of God meeting infidelity and sin with love. In each case, Peter and Judas, the Lord is willing to forgive. For us too, there is no sin so great that God will not forgive, will not welcome the opportunity to embrace the wayward child that comes home and to repair the severed relationship. As Isaiah the Prophet tells us, our sins, though they be like scarlet, shall be made white as snow by his divine love (Isaiah 1:18). Even mass murder.

Peter and Judas both feel enormous guilt at what they have done. But while Peter subsequently repents and seeks forgiveness, Judas does not, despite his regret. The repentant denier obtains eternal life, while the unrepentant betrayer takes his life.

“Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born,” said Jesus.

And that is the real tragedy, the real and greatest sin – failing to repent, to convert and turn back from the darkness and seek the light. All of us at times are Peter, all of us at times are Judas. It is important not to sin in the first place, to act against the love and truth that is God and thereby separate ourselves from Him who is live itself. Having done so in our human weakness, however, the most important thing is to turn back to the Lord of life and repent and seek reconciliation. Because in failing to do so, in failing to seek forgiveness, whether out of despair or whatever, we commit the greatest sin which Jesus says is “unforgiveable.” It is unforgiveable because the person never opens himself up to God’s mercy and it is like the gift that is never opened and, thus, never received.

Judas goes his own way. He thinks he knows better than the Lord Jesus in handing him over. And even worse for him, he goes his own way when Jesus is condemned. Despite his feelings of guilt, he never turns back to the Lord and, thus, meets his end. Instead of seeking and getting forgiveness, like Peter did, he still keeps apart from the Lord and hangs himself.

The Lord teaches us that though we may sin against him and may deny him, he will remain faithful to us, and to be forgiven we need only repent as Peter did. And in that ultimate judgment after we die and stand before him, as with Judas, we mostly condemn ourselves by how we have lived our lives, with Christ the Judge simply acknowledging the truth. In our lives today, there is still time to return to the Lord.

Sunday, April 05, 2020

Living Jesus' Fasting in the Desert and His Passion

With the public celebration of Mass suspended during this time of the coronavirus public health crisis, how else might we and our families keep the mysteries of Holy Week and joy of Easter alive given these social distancing restrictions and the call by public leaders that we stay at home as much as possible?

Well, our Lenten journey is meant to draw us closer to the Lord in a special way as we approach Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. This year is no exception. While this Holy Week we are unable to come together to celebrate Mass, still this time has offered us a couple of particular ways to join with Jesus precisely in that pain and distress we feel. It is the Gospel of redemptive sacrifice.

At the beginning of Lent, we fasted and recalled how before He began His ministry, He went out into the desert for 40 days, fasting and praying in that emptiness of the wilderness. This recalls too how the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years until that blessed day that they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land. At the end of Lent on Good Friday, we again fast as we meditate upon the suffering and crucifixion of our Lord, followed by the still emptiness in the world as His dead body lies in the tomb on Holy Saturday.

This year, we have not only remembered Jesus’ 40 days in the desert and the Passion, we have in a sense lived them with a fast far greater than going without a meal or two. As we endured with Christ His deprivation in the wilderness – His “quarantine,” for that word is derived from the Latin meaning “forty” – so too this Holy Week, perhaps we might join our sufferings to those of Jesus in His Passion: taking upon ourselves the feeling of being abandoned as the Apostles ran away, taking upon ourselves this Cross of social distancing imposed on us like Simon the Cyrenian, feeling the agony of the nails and thorns that Jesus endured and are now being experienced by those afflicted by this horrible disease, and thirsting on the Cross.

In this way, by offering up our miseries to the Lord, in giving to Him our suffering as we take upon ourselves His suffering in our very own personal lives, even from our homes, this Holy Week takes on a whole new meaning – by joining with Him, we participate in the work of salvation.

“Every man has his own share in the Redemption,” wrote St. John Paul II. “In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ” (Salvifici Doloris, 19). Indeed, St. Paul rejoiced in his own sufferings, saying, “In my flesh, I complete what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the Church” (Colossians. 1:24).

These past weeks have been a trial and tribulation for the Christian faithful and the whole world unlike any we have experienced in our memory. It is the fervent hope and prayer of us all that we can return to our lives and jobs and the public celebration of the liturgy as quickly as possible. But this much we can be certain about – the Easter of our personal and social life will come. It might not coincide precisely with the calendar this year, but dawn will break. A new day in the rising of the glorious Son in the world cannot be denied.

We who have walked in darkness will see a great light; and we are children of that light (Isaiah 9:1; Ephesians 5:8).