DO NOT MISS YOUR GOOD FRIDAY

 

Good Friday has always meant a lot to all Christian believers. In some churches there is more attention given to this feast day than in other churches. 

 

The familiarity with the story can also dull us to the full import of the death of Jesus. It is too easy to hear and not to hear!

 

There may be a grief that is more superficial as we listen and pray over the story of the trial, suffering and death of Jesus. But is we do not get a grip on the great love and trust that Jesus had toward God the Father and the outpouring of his love for all humanity we will miss much of what this is about. 

 

We can keep the sufferings of Jesus so personal as if it only applied to himself. ‘Look what he has suffered for you!’ If we limit the Reading of the Passion in our liturgy only the suffering of Jesus, we will keep the cross at the distance. And a safe distance it will be. But this is not only a personal story but it is an event of cosmic proportions.

Th cross of Jesus is not located only in the Scriptures. The holy men and women of the past have seen very clearly that whenever a human being suffers at the hand of another human being the crucifixion of Jesus happens all over again. The sufferings of humanity must be brought to the cross of Jesus. It will only be our grasp with one hand on the sufferings of Jesus and our grasp with the other hand on the sufferings of our world that our lives will be properly impacted.

 

We must hear the story of Jesus in a manner similar to our time spent with our cancer doctor. No one should ever have a young, well educated, medical practioner who has not her/himself suffering through very difficult diseases. We need the support and guidance of a medical person who speaks to us of our cancer from the inside out. So very often the one who has suffered knows that it means to have the very threatening diagnosis of cancer thrown in our path.

 

Before we come to the liturgy of Good Friday we need to pray with our imagination and take each of the four corners of the cross in our hands. As we rub the wood of the first corner, we need to hear the sufferings of all the poor people who are bombed out in war, fled as refugees to a country that really does not want them and have a history of being exploited by the dominant group of people in their own country. The sufferings of families split up through war and occupation are the rough wood of cross. Bring all the memories and pictures in your memory that you have of these very poor people.

 

On the second end of the cross bring the pain of family division and tears within your own clan, within the families of your friends and with the divisions of the elderly grandmothers who cry through the night because their two daughters have not spoken in years. The wood of this end of the cross is wet from the tears of suffering that parents have cried over their divided children and siblings have cried over their divisions and unforgiveness.

 

On the third end of the cross bring the neglect to do the good that so many people avoid. There have been many moments of evil where no one challenged the situation or the people perpetuating the evil. The failure to do good is a participation in the evil inflicted. On the third end of the cross we feel the hard hearted surface of the uncaring heart.

 

On the fourth end of the cross we must bring the sufferings of the people of our own country and city. These sufferings can be so close that we are often blind to them. These people do suffer and feel pushed aside. With a broad movement of the wood of the cross include the sufferings of our fellow citizens.

 

It is the embrace of the sufferings of others that we join our prayer this Good Friday. This action of joining all the sufferings of others to the cross of Jesus means that we are entering into the great love that Jesus has for all people. His sufferings were never in a vacuum but are  on center stage of human life.

 

As we come forward to venerate the wood of the cross look at it from the position of the suffering, the exploited and the pushed aside of this world. The wood of the cross is for all peoples, especially the poor and the suffering.

 

MAKING EASTER COUNT

 

Once our people discover the centrality of Easter in our Christian faith, they will never go back to the limited focus almost exclusively on the suffering and death of Jesus. We have come out of a five hundred period that gave Good Friday so much attention that we almost forgot what were the implications of Easter Sunday. 

 

We are repeating the benefits of the serious Scripture study that has been done during the past one hundred years. When we return to the New Testament, especially to the letters of St. Paul, we realize that he is always talking about the Jesus who poured out his life for humanity in his sacrificial death and the great revelation of the Son of God in the resurrection. Both are part of the same event of revelation and redemption. Jesus died; Jesus was raised from the dead!

 

The event of our salvation happened on a particular weekend. There was a very tragic ending to the life and mission of Jesus. God completely exploded the power of death and evil by giving us the resurrection. But this was never meant to be only a historical event. It is dynamic. Now, the risen Jesus must come alive in our lives. 

 

The resurrection must always be a “now” event in the lives of the believer.

 

The English poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, gave us a great insight when he took the noun ‘Easter’ and made it a verb.  In his prayer he commands God that the event of the resurrection now happen in us. Easter in us!

 

Easter in us in our strong desire to breathe and walk in daily prayer. May we turn often toward you to be in your presence and to listen to you, Risen Jesus.

 

Easter in us in our love for the poor and the suffering of those right around us. Expand our vision to see who is suffering, excluded and unwanted. Help us never to miss the poor that live so close to us.

 

Easter in us in our concern for world peace. Be in us in our suffering and anguish over the little people who suffer so much with the invasion of the Ukraine.  Be with us in our agony over anyone who suffers violence at the hands of another, especially all the Canadian police officers who have been killed and injured in the line of duty.

 

Easter in us in our care and ministry for the people who belong to our parish community. May we be as welcoming to one another as you, Jesus, were to the poor and outcasts of your time. May our hearts be bold and loving to one another. 

 

We have a long way to go to re-energize our Easter celebrations, but the first step comes from the command that you, Jesus, risen and alive, must now happen in us, 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE ARE AN EASTER PEOPLE

 

Know your deficits!

Deficits are simply what is lacking in our life. In this time of high inflation, many people experience a strong deficit in money. They are finding it more difficult to try to cover all the bills by the end of the month. We know what a deficit is.

 

Our Christian churches suffer from a strong ‘Easter’ deficit. We have been nourished and supported by a spirituality of the suffering and death of Jesus. For too many of the ordinary faithful the resurrection of Jesus is just an add-on, which does not demand too much of believers. This is the result of an almost exclusive focus on the death/ cross of Jesus. It was a spirituality that was not focused on the death-resurrection theology of St. Paul in the New Testament. But it is a spirituality that is very incomplete.

 

After a century of hard-nosed Scripture studies and a firm understanding of what the spiritual life was like in the first centuries of Christianity, we conclude that we must always focus on the death-resurrection as the one event of our redemption. Both events are like the two sides of our hand. You can never have half a hand.

 

We must not lessen our emphasis on the death/cross of Jesus but we must continue with the great moment of revelation by God the Father/Holy Spirit who exploded the resurrection of Jesus. The grace of God triumphed over the power of sin and death. The resurrection is the giving of God to us (human recipients) of the very life and person of the Son of God. 

 

Now, the resurrection is not an event by itself. The resurrection of Jesus is God sharing the divine life and redemption with the disciples. The resurrection is always a ‘now’ event in that each believer must come to share the life of the resurrected Jesus. Each believer must become the living continuation of Jesus Christ. 

 

Western Christianity must rebuild the central importance of Easter.  As a Church we must educate ourselves in the meaning and revelation of the salvific event of Easter. We must also be shown what are the consequences of the resurrection in the here and now. How are we to live as Easter people in today’s world?

 

It may take a century to recover the central importance of Easter but the place to begin is the manner in which our parishes celebrate the three days of Easter (beginning on the evening of Holy Thursday and finishing with vespers on Easter Sunday). The challenge is right in front of us. How do we educate ourselves in the meaning and purpose of the death/resurrection of Jesus?

 

 

 

WORKING TO BECOME A CHURCH OF WELCOME

The last thing the church wants to become is a service station. This means you drive into the church to get your religious services done, your documentation filled out, and then you are off until the next time. This is being church at its low point.

 

A healthy church is one which works hard to be welcoming to people. 

 

Now, welcoming is always a difficult risk. I do not know the other person. Perhaps he will want to use me for money or take advantage of me. Perhaps he will be frightened of me and say some unpleasant words. Such a person is like an angry porcupine; always in an attack mode.

 

There will always be risks to becoming welcoming.

 

Welcoming was given a structure in the early fifth century by St. Benedict. In those days there were hardly any rest and food stops along the roadway. (Our society is highly organized for the person on the move.) In his rule for monastic living he directed all monks that they were to welcome the visitor as you would welcome Christ. That great value has stayed with us and empowered the life and service of so many Christians.

 

Everyone in our churches must ask: if I move into Moose Jaw and do not know anyone, would the first thought be ‘I will go to church because there I will meet some new people?’ Do we have a reputation for being welcoming and reaching out to the newcomer, the stranger?

 

Welcoming means much more than just shanking he hand of a stranger. We need to work, pray and eat together.

 

There was a wise woman some years ago in the parish. That particular parish has a very large kitchen and a large hall. The women’s group catered to many civic and church functions. They made very good use of their kitchen. Some women strong pushed that the parish should install an automatic dish washer. She cautioned against this suggestion.

 

“We have three siks on either side of this counter. We are at least five to seven people doing the dishes. It is only when we work together do we get to know each other. Washing dishes builds friendships. We are much better off as a community because we have to doing the dishes manually.”

 

Our welcoming must be inclusive. We must strive to know all the people and bring them into the prayer and the life of the parish community. Come and help me serve the coffee. Come and help us with the children. Can you help with visiting the sick and the elderly?

 

Church is never a service station where I drop in, do my praying privately and then drop out. 

 

To be welcoming means to bring the newcomer into the flock, to bring them to be a part of the ministering community. Everyone has gifts to share.

 

We want to reach out and bring these gifts to the service of Christ and the people of the Church.