JOURNEY TO GOLGOTHA ^_[1]

GOD'S SCATTERED CHILDREN

1.  The Eucharist cannot be a sacrifice without first being a Passover supper. The Eucharist cannot be a meal of fellowship without first being a reconciliation. The Lord Jesus Christ commands you to confess your faith. Christ, the Good Shepherd, commands you to confess your sin. Through God's mercy conferred in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, you are no longer slaves to sin but citizens at table in the Kingdom of Grace. The proclamation of God's Word solemnizes the table of fellowship. Christ died for the sake of God's scattered children. He sanctified the pitiless cross. By our sharing in the one cup and in the one loaf, table and cross converge as altar. Solemnity and sanctification are wed at this altar. Fellowship is transformed into worship; bread and wine becomes the Lord's Body and Blood; the meal becomes sacrifice. With each celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the altar is incensed with the extravagant perfume  [cf. Mk 14:3]  of Our Lord's Gospel story and the anguish of his pasch--God is just as much God in sacrifice as in victory. Inasmuch as the glory of Our Lord encompasses both, each Christian must allow his spirit  ...to be overturned in order to make it turn towards God.^[2]  If you want the Passover of the Lord to be all that it was meant to be, then you must undergo your own passion and death:  "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."  [1Pet2: 24]  Christians know that, with or without God, every human being will journey to Golgotha. Moreover, we should banish any illusion about what awaits us there. God never promised to excuse us or Christ or anyone else from the experience of passion and death. The issue before us is this: are we prepared to offer our suffering as a redemptive gift for others? Will we unite our mortal frailties to the wounds of the eternal Christ? God promised to deliver us if we believe in him and if we act on that belief. No power in the universe is greater than death except the power of Almighty God. We would do well, then, to contemplate just how powerful God really is, and to appreciate in some small way the fact that Jesus Christ buried death itself under a high mountain of good tidings.  [cf. Isa 40:9]  One of Satan's greatest delusions is the notion that while evil may be a reality for other races, countries, families, and persons, they are meaningless abstractions in your life. If you are persuaded by the Prince of this World that your human powers are sufficient to overcome even death, will you think for a moment about Jesus Christ? Certainly not. You will stay away from the sanctuary of the Church, and many who do attend Church will respond only to psychological and social self-communing.

CONSECRATING THE WORLD

2.  Jesus may not have held a job in the years of his pastoral ministry, but he worked hard to be a worthy Son to the Father. He devoted his spare time to praying--in desert and synagogue--interceding to his Father on our behalf, feeding, teaching and healing his followers, forgiving sins, and weeping over Jerusalem.  [cf. Mt 23:37]  If Our Lord was not indifferent, how then can you be so sluggish? Are you dissuaded of the Gospels power because you are neither angel or magus? Are not a thousand years but a day with the Lord? Will he not appear like a thief in the night?  [2Pet 3:8-10]  To the contrary, let no one be ashamed to pray in his home. Nor should Christians refuse to know the Lord by shunning his sacred Word. Let no one in this assembly be embarrassed by Christian fellowship with his family and friends. If we do not bring others to Christ, we ourselves will never find him. The day will come when each person will cry out on Golgotha, Lord, open heavens door for me! However, in the moment of death, as in the whole of life, many people will hear what they do not want to hear. "I do not know where you come from", says the Lord, "depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!"  [Luke 13:27]  At the heart of the seven sacraments is the crucial challenge:  What are you willing to change? Jesus was willing to change by reaching out to us: he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant-slave, being born in human likeness. He humbled himself and was obedient to God in all things.  [cf. Phi 2:5-11]  Jesus died to redeem mankind from the power of sin. He laid down his life "not for the (Jewish) nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad".  [Jn 11:52]  Compassion is the child of sacrifice and humility, not idle reflection. Are you willing to change by reaching out to God, to do everything in your power to seek his holiness? Even a small child cares enough to suffer another person's experience. He understands the meaning of the gathering-in of the family. We are invited to be reconciled with one another and with our God. Do not neglect the opportunities you are given to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Join with the Church in intercessory prayer. Absolved of eternal punishment by your priests in the name of Christ and his Church, you will be spiritually invigorated and refreshed to more fervently fulfill the demands of discipleship. With the assurance of forgiveness, and your commitment to live a pious life in fidelity to the Lord, you will be given strength and courage to make whatever sacrifices are required of you. Now is the time to respond to God's appeal in your heart of hearts: How well have you accepted my love? How well have you shared my love?  Holy Week summons us to accomplish more than the mere reenactment of Christ's passion and death. The divine Groom commands us to suffer his Bride's mission of consecrating the world: the Church's essential work of partaking in the eternal sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the proclamation of the eternal Gospel, the restoration of our baptismal innocence, the adoration of God as person in all his wondrous attributes and, finally, the charting of our course for the parousia  (Gk. presence, arrival)  "when Christ who is our life appears. Then you also will appear with him in glory".   [Col 3:4]