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When the reading of
the Passion narrative concluded last Sunday, we were left contemplating
a rather sad and somber scene. While Joseph of Arimathea interred
Jesus’ corpse in a tomb hewn out of rock, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the
mother of Joses, watched on from a distance. All the two women knew―and
all we knew from the reading of the Passion―is
that Jesus had been executed. His corpse, now shrouded in a linen
cloth, was buried and the entrance to the tomb was sealed. His enemies
had won; Jesus was gone.
After the reading of
the Passion narrative last week, I suggested that it is so very easy to
succumb to the temptation to race ahead to the events of Easter Sunday―the
day of the Resurrection―and
to neglect contemplating the facts of Jesus’ suffering and death―the
day of Good Friday. As Jesus’ disciples, when we succumb to this
temptation, we fail to learn an important lesson about holiness of
life. That is, Jesus’ suffering and death compel us to consider the
meaning and significance of sacrifice
and how
sacrifice expresses God’s love. For Jesus’ disciples, all that they do
must be not simply a sacrifice but a holy sacrifice (sacrum-ficere,
in Latin).
In our culture―which
stresses competition and obliterating anything that gets in the way of
attaining what we want―the
concepts of suffering and death represent a deep, troubling, and
foreboding paradox. Rather than contemplate what suffering and death
means and requires of us, our culture seeks in vain to make it possible
evade suffering and death. But, as we quickly discover in our own lives
and as the Church reminds us each year with the reading of the Passion
narrative, human beings can avoid neither suffering nor death. Drugs,
alcohol, or narcotics and promiscuous or illicit activities may
momentarily numb us from dealing with the onslaught of suffering and the
fear of death. But, try as we might, the Cross and the tomb return
confront us with a deep, troubling, and foreboding paradox. As
Jesus’ disciples, suffering and death must be made holy―they
must be transformed into a sacrifice―through
which we experience the infinite power of God’s love, express it in
holiness of life, and bring healing not only to our souls but also to
our culture.
There are many
reasons as well as powerful emotions that can move people to make a
sacrifice. Awe, for example, provides a powerful motive for people to
give their lives to causes which are greater and perdure longer than
one’s own life.
I think, for
example, of the many young women and men in the Armed Forces who have
been interviewed on television in recent weeks. Each of them has
expressed being personally motivated by awe and profound respect for the
great principles upon which our nation was founded that, paradoxically,
each has willingly volunteered to place themselves in harm’s way so that
those principles will not die even if these soldiers must.
In marriage, women
and men routinely give their lives to another motivated solely by the
awesome power of love. Certainly marriage requires tremendous personal
sacrifice. Paradoxically, this sacrifice provides far greater meaning
and satisfaction than anything that can be derived from loving only
oneself.
In loving families,
mothers and fathers willingly and unflaggingly give themselves to their
children in many important ways that sometimes are not appreciated by
their sons and daughters. Motivated solely by the awesome power of love
present in their hearts and souls, moms and dads know that loving
parents must be willing to make tremendous personal sacrifices.
Paradoxically, this sacrifice teaches children that loving others
requires reaching beyond concern for self. It is this sacrifice which
provides such tremendous meaning and satisfaction.
In most instances,
awe and profound respect for Scripture and Tradition motivate those who
have freely forsaken marriage or single life for consecrated life
whether as a sister, brother, deacon, or priest. Through this
sacrifice, the Church is able to provide not only for the needs of its
members but also is able to reminds its members that they should set
their hearts not on the things of this world but, rather, on the things
of God’s kingdom. Paradoxically, consecrated life demonstrates how
the power of God’s love, evident in serving others rather than oneself,
fills up any void.
And yet, as
honorable as the sacrifice that spouses and parents as well as sisters,
brothers, deacons and priests make, if this sacrifice does not
personally identify with the sacrifice Jesus made upon the Cross and if
this sacrifice is not motivated by a personal experience of the Jesus’
agony as he suffered and died, this sacrifice is not a holy
sacrifice. It is a good thing, but it is not a holy offering.
One makes a holy
sacrifice by consciously linking one’s life with the deep conviction
that sacrifice is the sum of experience of God’s love and, in return for
this tremendous gift, is how one worships God. That is, by identifying
with Jesus upon the Cross, an ordinary sacrifice is transformed into a
holy sacrifice, expressing how one experiences God’s love and, then,
approaches God, gives honor and glory to God in all that one says and
does, and achieves one’s fullest dignity as God’s son or daughter.
While our culture
teaches us to think about ourselves first and only then to consider
others and their needs, there are many husbands and wives who willingly
place the good of their beloved ahead of their own good because of their
love of God and neighbor. These spouses transform their self-sacrifice
into a holy sacrifice. How is this possible? The second Marriage
Preface expresses the notion this way:
Through the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you entered into a new covenant with your
people. You restored humanity to grace in the saving mystery of
redemption. You gave humanity a share in the divine life through union
with Christ. You made humanity heir of Christ’s eternal glory. This
outpouring of love in the new covenant of grace is symbolized in the
marriage covenant that seals the love of husband and wife and reflects
your divine plan of love.
Through the power of
God’s love experienced in imitating Jesus’ suffering and death, these
husbands and wives transform their sacrifice into a holy sacrifice and
witness to the world what it means to be a “reflection of God’s divine
plan of love.”
While our culture
teaches us to think about ourselves first and only then to consider
others and their needs, there are countless numbers of mothers and
fathers who also willingly place the good of their children ahead of
their own good because of their love of God and neighbor. These parents
transform their self-sacrifice into a holy sacrifice. How is this
possible? Consider what the third Preface of Marriage says:
“You created
humanity in love to share your divine life. We see this high destiny in
the love of a husband and wife, which bears the imprint of your own
divine love. Love is our origin, love is our constant calling, love is
our fulfillment in heaven. The love of man and woman is made holy in
the sacrament of marriage, and becomes the mirror of your everlasting
love.”
Through the power of
God’s love experienced in imitating Jesus’ suffering and death, mothers
and fathers transform their sacrifice into a holy sacrifice and, so,
witness to their children and all who observe them what it means to be a
“mirror of God’s everlasting love.”
While our culture
teaches us to think about ourselves first and only then to consider
others and their needs, there are countless sisters, brothers, deacons,
and priests who place the needs of the People of God ahead of their own
good because of their deep-seated love of God and neighbor. These women
and men transform their self-sacrifice into a holy sacrifice. How is
this possible? Consider the words of the Preface of Religious
Profession in this regard:
“Jesus chose always
to fulfill your holy will, and became obedient even to dying for us,
offering himself to you as a perfect sacrifice. He consecrates more
closely to your service those who leave all things for your sake, and
promised that they would find a heavenly treasure.”
Through the power of
God’s love experienced in Jesus’ suffering and death, sisters, brothers,
deacons, and priests transform their sacrifice by “leaving all things
for God” into a holy sacrifice so that they might give witness to God’s
promise of a “heavenly treasure.”
A holy sacrifice is
a positive act that provides an object lesson in how creaturely love is
transformed through the grace of the Holy Spirit into an act of divine
love. As Evelyn Underhill, the noted Anglican scholar of Christian
prayer noted more than seven decades ago in her book Worship, the
essence of a holy sacrifice is
“a
freewill offering, a humble gesture which embodies and expresses with
more or less completeness the living heart of religion; the self-giving
of the creature to its God.”
By his suffering and
death, Jesus has challenged women and men of every race and tongue and
every people and nation to make a monumental decision, not only for
themselves but also for the world. Before making this decision,
however, those who would wish to be Jesus’ disciples must first
contemplate what Jesus’ suffering and death teaches.
At World Youth Day
last summer in Toronto, participants were introduced to a new hymn which
they sang during many of the events and activities. The kids liked the
hymn so much that it became a somewhat of a “theme” song, summarizing
their experience in Toronto. The chorus begins with the line, “Love
lifted on the cross for me,” intended to remind all who gaze upon the
Cross to see God who is Love (1 John 4:8). Through Jesus’ perfect and
holy sacrifice on the Cross, God gave His love not just to me and to you
but to all humanity as well.
On
the cross, Jesus
brought to perfect fulfillment his vocation as God’s only begotten Son.
This outward offering witnessed to the inward act of perfect surrender
Jesus made, not to himself and his hopes but to God and the reign of His
kingdom. Jesus’ sacrifice was transformed into a perfect and holy
sacrifice, one that now challenges his disciples in every generation to
consider the infinite depths of divine love that God has extended toward
humanity through His only begotten Son, the one who stretched out his
arms on the Cross to embrace the whole world.
Perhaps the reason
we don’t particularly feel satisfied with the conclusion of Mark’s
Passion narrative we heard last Sunday and allowed our minds to race
ahead to the events of Easter Sunday morning is because, in scene after
scene, Jesus doesn’t compete with the crowd. Neither does he compete
with his disciples. Moreover, Jesus doesn’t compete with the
Pharisees. Nor does Jesus compete with Pontius Pilate. Instead, each
of these scenes foreshadows the suffering and death through which Jesus
revealed how his disciples might discover their true meaning and hidden
glory, namely, by allowing themselves to transform their sacrifice into
a holy sacrifice in order that the wounds they will suffer―like
the wounds that Jesus bore―might
bring healing to their own souls as well as to the world.
The Catechism of
the Catholic Church notes that “Christ’s who earthly life―his
words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, indeed, his manner of
being and speaking―is
the revelation of the Father” (no. 516). Everything Jesus did during
his earthly life foreshadowed not only the Cross upon which he made the
ultimate perfect and holy sacrifice, but also how sacrificial surrender
to the power of God’s all-powerful love is the only and authentic way to
reveal the glory of who we truly are as God’s sons and daughters.
How strange that
sounds to the ears of those born, nurtured, and existing in a culture
where competition provides the vital and necessary oxygen that people
breathe and need, if they are to survive. Hanging from the cross and,
then, buried in the tomb, Jesus’ suffering and death teaches his
disciples that the wounds inflicted upon those who live out their
vocation as God’s sons and daughters are what bring about the healing of
themselves and their culture, whose members desire so desperately to
brow beat and pummel everyone else into submission or, if necessary, to
destroy and obliterate them and their memory from the face of the earth.
In suffering and in
death, where the God’s presence seems so distant and when God’s promises
uttered by the prophets seem to be rendered mute, this is the precise
moment when Jesus’ disciple discover divine revelation speaking most
forcibly and eloquently. Whether they are standing at the foot of the
Cross or gazing upon the tomb from a distance gazing , it is in
suffering and death that God reveals Himself most powerfully.
Leaving behind Good
Friday and rushing towards Easter Sunday morning risks falling prey to a
very pernicious temptation. Rather than contemplating the encrusted
blood, the wounds, the dirt and filth, the agony, and the shame of
nakedness―the
reality of our sinfulness―we
turn and run away from the reality of suffering and death hoping, in
vain, to experience the peace, the light, and the glory of the
Resurrection. In our rush, however, we’ve failed to contemplate the one
who made the perfect and
holy
sacrifice that
brings healing from the power of evil.
How was this
possible?
Because Jesus loved
deeply from the core of his soul and would not allow the power of evil
manifesting itself in his culture to destroy the power of divine love
present in his soul.
This is the essence
of the Paschal Mystery whose fulfillment we celebrate this Easter Sunday
morning. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead teaches
us that God brings good out of evil. By breathing His divine life into
suffering and death, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ teaches us
that God snatches victory from what culture construes as total defeat.
In his suffering and death, Jesus made a perfect and holy sacrifice
through which the almighty power of God’s love was revealed. And,
because Jesus was willing to suffer and to die because he believed
totally and completely in the power of God’s love that he had
experienced, Jesus became the Risen Lord who brought salvation to the
world.
As Jesus’ disciples,
it really doesn’t matter whether we are a spouse, a parent, or a sister,
brother, deacon, or priest. What truly matters is that we make a holy
sacrifice of our lives. This is how our words and actions witness to
the triumph of God’s power of love in this generation. This is how
we reveal our glory as God’s sons and daughters. And, it is how we
bring healing power of God’s Holy Spirit to ourselves and our culture. |
HOMILY
