palm sunday
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Palm Sunday: A Preparation

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me” (Ps 22:2)?

These words of Jesus spoken while hanging on the cross are among the most disturbing words in the Gospels.  Jesus’ cry of abandonment from Psalm 22 is troublesome. Did Jesus give up trust in his most dear Father during the crucifixion?  Did Jesus actually yield to despair on the cross? How can we understand this desperate cry?

Vatican Council Two’s document “Church in the Modern World” helps understand the cry.  The document recalls our Christian belief that Jesus’ divinity did not eclipse the full experience of his humanity: “For by his Incarnation the Son of God united himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, He acted by human choice, and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin”(#22).

As fully human Jesus on the cross tasted the depths of human suffering on every level – physical, psychological and spiritual.

Recall Jesus was undergoing  the most painful and shameful death devised by the Roman authorities. Adding to the shame, He was crucified between two known criminals.

Recall also that Jesus was alone, having  been rejected by everyone:  religious authorities and fellow citizens,  disciples  and friends. It is poignant to recall that of his chosen twelve apostles one betrayed him, another denied him and all abandoned him. Only his mother and the two Marys were at the cross.

And perhaps most painful of all, Jesus was a failure. Jesus failed to accomplish the mission given him by his Father — preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Even his apostles did not understand this message.

And on the cross Jesus felt abandoned — he even felt abandoned by his Father: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

In Holy Week we seek the special grace of being united to Jesus as we ourselves cope with the suffering in our troubled world and in our personal lives.  Like Jesus we may feel abandoned by God. But like Jesus we are not alone. Just as the Father was with Jesus transforming Jesus through suffering, so Jesus is now with us transforming us!

And don’t we Christian move toward  maturity in our faith as we embrace our crosses and unite them with with Jesus’.  I have learned this truth slowly. As I have brought my sufferings to Jesus and dialogued with him on similar sufferings, I have been transformed, experiencing weakness to strength through faith.

Paul catches the heart of faith for Jesus and for  us: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend”(Phil 2:8-10).

 

palm sundayDick Hauser a Jesuit priest, born in Milwaukee in 1937.  The oldest of six children, entering the Jesuits in 1955 and teaching in the theology department at Creighton since 1972.  “My primary interest is in contemporary Christian spirituality.  I’ve written three spirituality books:  In His Spirit:  A Guide to Contemporary Spirituality; Moving in the Spirit:  Becoming a Contemplative in Action, both published by Paulist Press and  Finding God in Troubled Times:  The Holy Spirit and Suffering, published by Loyola Press.”

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Allow Yourself To Be Changed This Lent

[During Lent, Diocesan Publications offers daily Lenten reflections from a variety of guest bloggers. To receive these in your mailbox, please fill out the “Subscribe” box below the post. May you have a blessed Lent! – Editor]

 

Here we are one day into Lent! Some of us really know how to conquer Lent and don’t have a problem with it, while the rest of us lowly individuals probably forgot yesterday that bacon does in fact count as meat. I place myself in that final category.

I have always struggled with Lent, but I think that’s because I grew up with a misunderstanding about what Lent really is. I grew up thinking that Lent was a time to suffer, to give up the things we love, and to be miserable for the sake of being miserable. I think anyone with a brain would detest this idea of Lent and while Lent may include suffering and sacrifice, it is really about change.

Just as we have seasons throughout the year we also have seasons in the Church. I know that every year I get excited for fall. The leaves change, it gets a little colder, there are more bonfires, and I love Halloween and Thanksgiving. But the thing I love most is the changing color of the leaves. Every season brings with it some sort of change and whether we like that change or not, it helps bring us to the next season.

For example, I am not a huge fan of winter, but winter has to come in order for us to get to spring. It has to freeze so that eventually it can thaw and allow the trees to bud and bring about beautiful fruit. Sometimes we have to go through something that may not be ideal in order to get to the things that really make us joyful.

It is the same with Lent. Some of us may not be particularly fond of the sacrifice and struggle that comes with Lent, but the more we allow ourselves to change throughout this season, the more fruitful we will be in our daily lives.

Although sacrifice may sometimes hurt, it ultimately makes us stronger and brings us to greater joy. Instead of going into Lent with a negative attitude about sacrifice, let’s all look to the sacrifice of the cross and be thankful that Christ was willing to give the ultimate sacrifice in order that we might be changed.

“Jesus Christ has taken the lead on the way of the cross. He has suffered first. He does not drive us toward suffering but shares it with us, wanting us to have life and to have it in abundance.” ~St. John Paul II

“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” ~Luke 9:23

 

 

Change LentTommy Schultz is a full time speaker who was most recently the Director of youth and young adult ministries for the Diocese of Baker, OR. As an experienced speaker on all things Catholic, he has addressed thousands of teens and young adults on topics such as the Sacraments, chastity, and boldly living the Catholic faith. He has given many talks and hosted retreats across the nation. Driven by his passion for Theology of the Body, Tommy studied at the Theology of the Body Institute and has spoken at numerous Theology of the Body conferences. From 2012-2013, he served as a missionary of purity, speaking to over 20 thousand youth about the message of purity across the state of Pennsylvania. He is also a founder of the Corpus Christi Theology of the Body campus organization at Franciscan University. To book Tommy for an event or for further information please visit www.tommy-shultz.com.

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The Church Militant: Fighting The Good Fight

The Church, the Mystical Body, exists on this earth, and is called the Church militant, because its members struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. – Fr. William G. Most

It is hard to argue with this vision of the Church. For any Catholic who has a modicum of sense, the struggle (as they say) is real. For some, persecution or the threat of persecution is a daily horror. Refugees from Syria, for instance, tell of losing their entire families. Egyptian men kneel before religious extremists and lose their lives as they proclaim their faith in Christ. In the U.S., we watch as the government appears to bully a group of Catholic sisters whose mission is to care for the dying poor, those who have no place else to go. And on a personal level, we all seem to have a family member or a loved one who has turned their back on the Faith, or someone who appears to hate the Church.

Yes, it certainly seems like a war to stay hopeful in the promises of Christ. The days are long, the battles hard. We carry our crosses, we pray. We rejoice in fellowship, and we console others in sorrow. At night, we lay down our burdens and examine our consciences, so that tomorrow, we may have the strength to do fight again.

Vietnamese Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan was imprisoned his government for 13 years. He spent 9 of those years in solitary confinement. Yet, reading his words, one hears and sees only hope.

After his release, Pope John Paul II asked the Cardinal if he would give a Lenten retreat at the Vatican. The Cardinal chose the theme of “hope.” Imagine, a man whose freedom was taken from him, who spoke only to his captors for 9 years, still chose “hope.” It was from this Lenten retreat that his book, Testimony of Hope, was born.

Even within the very limited existence Cardinal Van Thuan had in prison, he focused on his work as a spiritual leader and as a follower of Christ. At one point, he expressed his ideas on love. Love, he said, must consist of six things:

  1. Love first.
  2. Love everyone.
  3. Love enemies.
  4. Love by giving your life.
  5. Love by service.

How, one might ask, is a soldier of Christ, a member of the Church militant, to go about loving one’s enemies? Cardinal Van Thuan tells of a conversation with one of the guards assigned to him.

“Do you love us?”

“Yes, I love you.”

“But we have kept you in prison for so many years, without a trial, without a sentence, and you love us? That’s impossible! Perhaps it’s not true!”

“I’ve been with you for many years, you’ve seen that it’s true.”

“When you are free, won’t you send  your faithful to burn our homes, to kill our families?”

“No! Even if you want to kill me, I love you.”

“But why?”

“Because Jesus has taught me to love everyone, even my enemies. If I don’t, I am no longer worthy to be called a Christian.”

“It’s very beautiful, but very hard to understand.”

This is the essence of the Church Militant: to know what God wants of us, to set out to do that very thing and to love all we encounter with the love of Christ, even our enemies, our persecutors, our tormentors. This is a hard lesson, and (as Cardinal Van Thuan’s jailer said) very hard to understand. It is not a “mushy” or sentimental love. It is a love that stands its post, that follows the orders of the leader, that fights for what is right and true and good. However, it is a love whose weapon is the Cross, a weapon that is not wielded in anger and bitterness. No, it is a weapon that is planted before the enemy in love.

The Church Militant is an army of the followers of Christ, who teaches us sacrifice and love, even under the most bitter and harshest of circumstances. May we always have the grace to do battle with evil, with the Cross and the love of Christ Jesus as our weapons.

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A Mother’s Anguish: Our Lady Of Sorrows

Mary is the model Christian. She gave herself totally to God, assenting to His will despite not knowing what lay ahead. She simply and always said, “Yes” to God.

Far too many Christians believe that if they are indeed Christians, they will somehow be insulated from sorrow and heartache. After all, they are good people and God rewards good people, right? Mary’s life is an excellent argument against that type of thinking.

Imagine a young mother, bringing her infant to the Temple, the holiest place on earth for Jews, in order that He might be presented and dedicated to God. On this momentous and happy occasion, an elderly man, well-known for his holiness and gift of prophecy, tells her, “Your heart will be pierced by a sword. You will know sorrow.” Can you imagine? Mary must have clutched that Baby a bit tighter, and wondered and worried what it all meant. There is no mother in the world who does not know sorrow and fear and trials and distress over her child or children; Mary is the model for all mothers who come to know that motherhood is not all about the delight of a baby’s gurgle, a first step or the light of understanding in a child’s eyes.

Today, the Church recognizes Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows. It is the remembrance of a mother’s love for her Son and her willingness to allow God to take her wherever His will dictates, even to the foot of the Cross. Fr. William Saunders:

St. Bernard (d. 1153) wrote, Truly, O Blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart…. He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since His.

Focusing on the compassion of our Blessed Mother … Pope John Paul II, reminded the faithful, Mary Most Holy goes on being the loving consoler of those touched by the many physical and moral sorrows which afflict and torment humanity. She knows our sorrows and our pains, because she too suffered, from Bethlehem to Calvary. ‘And they soul too a sword shall pierce.’ Mary is our Spiritual Mother, and the mother always understands her children and consoles them in their troubles. Then, she has that specific mission to love us, received from Jesus on the Cross, to love us only and always, so as to save us! Mary consoles us above all by pointing out the Crucified One and Paradise to us!

There are several prayers and traditions that focus on Our Lady of Sorrows. There is a litany, attributed to Pope Pius VII. There is also a chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of Mary. (A chaplet is much like a typical rosary: a string of beads on which to count prayers while one meditates on a deeper mystery.) The Seven Sorrows of Mary are:

1) The Prophecy of Simeon
2) The Flight into Egypt
3) The Loss of Jesus in Jerusalem for Three Days
4) Mary meets Jesus carrying His Cross on the way to Calvary
5) Mary standing at the foot of the Cross as Jesus Dies
6) Mary receives the dead Body of Jesus as He is removed from the Cross
7) The Burial of Jesus

You can learn how to pray the chaplet here.

Today’s memorial reminds us as Christians that our life will not be free of pain and loss. Jesus tells us we must pick up our crosses and follow Him. That directive alone informs us that the life of a Christian will not be easy. No one knew that better than Mary, and yet she still always chose the cross. She always said yes to God, despite the hardships and sorrows that entailed. Meditating on her sorrows can only lead us deeper and deeper into the mystery that is our Lord Jesus Christ.

O God, in whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, a sword of grief pierced through the most sweet soul of Thy glorious Blessed Virgin Mother Mary: grant that we, who celebrate the memory of her Seven Sorrows, may obtain the happy effect of Thy Passion, Who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.

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When The Cross Gets Heavy, Help Someone Out

Christ tells us that we must pick up our crosses and follow Him. And so we do. Most of the time, we carry those crosses pretty well. Sure, it’s heavy. It’s not always convenient. There are people who blatantly tell us it’s a stupid thing to do: bear a cross for someone whose existence they say we cannot prove. But we carry on.

And then there are times when our cross gets so heavy our knees buckle. We fall. Our mouth is full of dust and dirt. We’ve skinned our knees and elbows. We lay there, under a cross that seems far too heavy for one person. We just don’t know if we can carry on.

Denise C. McAllister has some advice. When you see someone lying there, bloodied and exhausted, with their cross bearing down on them, help them. Pick up their cross, set it aside for a moment. Cleanse their wounds and offer a drink of water. Then, when they are ready, help them stand. Then carry their cross, along with yours, just for a bit, until they are able to take the weight of that cross back.

McAllister was raised by a Marine Corps father, who instilled in her a “get it done” attitude. But she knows that sometimes, we can’t “get it done” on our own:

[O]ftentimes in life, people need more. They need a different kind of encouragement. They need an advocate who will speak on their behalf, even against themselves and their own negative thoughts. They need someone to come alongside them and give them strength because they are empty, broken, poured out, and hopeless.

They don’t just need praise or inspirational slogans; they need someone to enter into their life in a personal way and fill them with courage. This involves getting to know them, reminding them of who they really are, comforting them with love, exhorting them, and counseling them. Bottom line, it takes active involvement from the encourager.

Americans tend to value hard work and the ability to accomplish things on our own. We romanticize cowboys: those men who take care of business, not needing help from anyone. Moms get a dose of guilt whenever they buy cupcakes for a class party instead of making them at home. Our kids are pushed into sports and band and reading clubs and study sessions because parents are afraid that without a healthy “resume,'” their kid won’t get into college. The careers we choose often define us, rather than being defined by our faith and character.

And we do work hard. Until we can’t.

Maybe it’s an illness. Maybe it’s a job, or lack of one. Maybe your kid has gone off the rails and you don’t know where to turn. Maybe it’s that we are so in debt we don’t know how we’ll ever be able to manage our finances.

That’s when we hit the dirt, face plant, with that cross on our back. And we cry out, “God, where are you?? I need help and I’m so alone. God!!!” We feel weak, lonely, forgotten. McAllister:

The need for encouragement is part of living in this world, and we aren’t doing one another any favors by not giving it. The Bible is full of exhortations to encourage one another. Why? Why not just say, “Rely on yourself” or only “Trust in God” (although there is that too). Why are there so many passages that say “encourage one another”? Because life is difficult, and it’s human to struggle, spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

We need our family and friends to build us up. We need our bosses to remind us of what we can really accomplish, inspiring us to greatness. We need our coaches, counselors, teachers, and pastors to come alongside us and spur us on with boldness and love. When we don’t have it, we flounder and fail, and even if we somehow overcome, we aren’t always happy and we’re certainly not humbled.

Asking for help, to say we’re in need, to say we just can’t do it alone is not weakness. That is probably one of the hardest things to do. Many people don’t ask, so those of us who can give need to be on the lookout for the needy, for the ones who are struggling and encourage them. Is there someone in your life who is downcast, angry, withdrawn, underperforming, overwhelmed? Why ignore them? Why think, “They’ll get it together on their own”—or worse, “It’s not my place to get involved. I did it alone; they’ll have to make it on their own too”?

We can do so much better. If there is someone in your life, either at school, work, church, in the neighborhood, and you know they are suffering or discouraged in some way, help them. You will be better for it, and so will they.

Today, if you need help with that cross, ask. Someone in your life will step up and help. And if someone today needs your help, then pick up their cross, along with yours, and walk alongside them until they are ready to carry it again themselves. Needing help is not weakness, and offering help is not being judgmental.

For I want you to know how great a struggle I am having for you … and all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged as they are brought together in love, to have all the richness of fully assured understanding, for the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. 2:1-3

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A Cross And A Crucifix: Is One A Better Symbol Than The Other?

Both the cross and the crucifix are the two of the most identifiable symbols of Christianity. No matter the setting, the country, the building, a cross or a crucifix marks that place as Christian. To see someone wearing a cross or a crucifix also identifies them with faith (for now, let’s set aside pop stars who flash these as mere jewelry.)

Yet, there are differences between a cross and a crucifix, ones so distinct that even a small child can manage to point them out. Even more distinctly, a crucifix is generally identified with the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and a cross with Protestant. So, why the difference?

For non-Christians, these symbols can seem odd, at the very least. The cross is an instrument of death. It seems, to non-believers, the same as wearing a small electric chair on a chain around one’s neck. Even the early Christian community preferred not to use the cross as a symbol of faith because it was still being used in the torture and death of people. With the passage of time, though, the cross ultimately stands as the instrument of our salvation. It is the beginning of the end of death’s eternal hold on us.

Eventually the Christian community came to grips with the cross, but initially only as a symbol of triumph. In this form the cross had no corpus (figure of Christ) but was elaborately decorated and often even jeweled to represent Christ’s victory over death that made an object of shame into a beautiful thing. This type of cross is called a crux gemmata, and it was the first widespread form of the cross in Christianity.

The most marked difference between a cross and a crucifix is the corpus or body of Christ on a crucifix. Some Protestants object to the crucifix because of the belief (which we Catholics share!) that Christ is resurrected, not still on the cross and thus, (some believe) He should not be depicted that way. Others find the prominent Catholic use of the crucifix in our churches and homes borders on idolatry.

Of course, Catholics use both symbols frequently. While the crucifix holds a prominent place in most churches, you’re just as likely to see a simple cross in use by Catholics. For instance, many bishops choose to use the cross, rather than a crucifix, as their pectoral cross. Many Catholics choose to wear a cross as a symbol of their faith.

It should also be noted that most crucifixes include the sign INRI across the top. INRI is the Latin abbreviation for “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum” or Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews. Recall in the Gospel of John:

Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.” Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

St. Rose of Lima said, “Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.” Catholics understand that both the simple cross and the crucifix are symbols of our faith, helping us to recall Jesus’ great sacrifice for us. Both give us a profound visual reminder of His Death and Resurrection, His sacrifice and His triumphant annihilation of sin and death. Yes, there are differences, but Catholics should hold both signs in high esteem, acknowledging both as powerful reminders of the Truth that is Christ.

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10 Quotes For Holy Week

With the celebration of Palm Sunday, we enter Holy Week. Hopefully, this will be a time of peace, reflection, penance and prayer for all Christians. Here are 10 quotes for you to ponder as we prepare for the Passion of Christ.

  1. We give glory to You, Lord, who raised up Your cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. We give glory to You who put on the body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every other mortal man. – St. Ephrem of Edessa
  2. Ultimately, in the battle against lies and violence, truth and love have no other weapon than the witness of suffering. – Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
  3. Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you – for you alone? He burns with the desire to come into your heart. – St. Therese’ of Lisieux
  4. Be assured of God’s love for you. Seek by his grace to heal the damage of sin. Seek communion with him and with those who make up his Church and those who are not yet within. His love for all of us is unconditional. His joy is infinite. His mercy overflows. – Deacon Michael Bickerstaff
  5. The washing of the feet and the sacrament of the Eucharist: two expressions of one and the same mystery of love entrusted to the disciples, so that, Jesus says, “as I have done… so also must you do” (Jn 13: 15).  – St. John Paul II
  6. “We adore you and we bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the churches which are in the whole world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” – Stations of the Cross
  7. Through the stark and solemn Liturgy of the Friday we call “Good”, we stand at the Altar of the Cross where heaven is rejoined to earth and earth to heaven, along with the Mother of the Lord. We enter into the moment that forever changed – and still changes – all human History, the great self gift of the Son of God who did for us what we could never do for ourselves by in the words of the ancient Exultet, “trampling on death by death”. We wait at the tomb and witness the Glory of the Resurrection and the beginning of the New Creation. – Deacon Keith Fournier
  8. The Cross is the word through which God has responded to evil in the world. Sometimes it may seem as though God does not react to evil, as if he is silent. And yet, God has spoken, he has replied, and his answer is the Cross of Christ: a word which is love, mercy, forgiveness. It is also reveals a judgment, namely that God, in judging us, loves us. Remember this: God, in judging us, loves us. If I embrace his love then I am saved, if I refuse it, then I am condemned, not by him, but my own self, because God never condemns, he only loves and saves. – Pope Francis
  9. No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. – William Penn
  10. Awake, thou wintry earth – Fling off thy sadness! Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth Your ancient gladness! – Thomas Blackburn, “An Easter Hymn”