Good Friday

This week, as everyone knows, we suffered the loss of the physical beauty of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. I've been there and admittedly, I was a dumb twenty-two year old.  I'm not saying all twenty-two year olds are dumb, but I was.  While at the Cathedral, my big memory was of climbing above and posing as a Gargoyle on one of the two turrets people can see.   I'd love to say I've matured since then, but every once in a while, I'm reminded, I did that, and I still sometimes think that way. 

I forget the sacred when I'm consumed by my own thoughts or my own entertainments.  It's easy for me.  I also forget the sacred when I'm hurt.  I forget the sacred when I'm overwhelmed. It's easy for me to not be present, to be busy and anxious with many things.   I was at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and distracted.  I find I'm more and more distracted the older I get, and thus not present as I need to be. 

It's why I love Holy Week. I need the saturation of the stations of the cross, the washing of the feet, the reading of the passion, the empty open tabernacle and the covered crucifix.  I need all the reminders, over and over again, to help me stop being pulled away from God, to help me focus.  It's like fasting for the mind, it forces the mind to pay attention to what is not present, making one long for what is missing.   It's why I need whenever I can get it, daily adoration. (I don't always, like I said, I'm easily distracted).  If there's one thing this modern world is starved for, it's stillness and quiet contemplation of God. 

By all means, go to confession, fast, pray with your family, listen to podcasts or watch a movie giving the story of Christ's last few days or focus on Passover itself, so you recognize how much of the mass comes from what came before.   Cultivate some seriously quiet time with God, force your mind to fast from what is here and now on what is ever present and eternal.  Even if this Lent stunk --you forgot to fast, you forgot what you gave up or didn't succeed in somehow making an sacrificial offering, begin again, and make a good Good Friday. 

Who is the Crucifixion For?

As a child, I believed, and even as an adult, I have said in jest, "The fireworks on the 4th of July?  They're for me."  Why?  Because as a child, I thought them wonderful and why wouldn't we do something wonderful for my birthday?  Why wouldn't my birthday go beyond one day?  As an adult, it's fun because it means I always know, my family will have off when it's time to celebrate.  

However, the joke is a joke because it's not true. 

The Crucifixion however, it is for me.  It is true.  It was always for me, and I always needed this, just to have a shot at something better beyond this life.  The same is true for each of us. The Crucifixion is a gift, an outrageous gift of over the top love from God to each of us, a sign, symbol and reality of the lengths to which, God will go to win us back. 

There are many excellent reflections and exercises one can use on this Good Friday to honor that gift.  The easiest one I know, is to hold a crucifix in your hands.

Consider His feet.  His feet which the woman washed with her tears, dried with her hair and anointed with perfume, are now pierced all the way through with a nail which someone physically drove into him. and someone else held down so it could be done. 

Next, consider his hands, which he used to make clay to place on a blind man's eyes, and to break the loaves and fishes, which he used to touch a man's ears and say, "Be opened."  They are pinned to a cross.  I don't know about you, but when I consider the nails, I tend to hold my hands, to pull back, because the idea of it is almost too much. 

At the idea of an idea being too much, I consider the crown of thorns, which pierces all over, which he cannot remove, which digs into his skull.  There are a thousand splinters, an untold number of lashes, and all the bruises from the walk and the falls with the cross. These are just the physical agonies we inflicted.

Now we add the cowardice, the grief he felt from being alone, from knowing those He did this for (us, or if I'm doing this examination alone, me), would shout "Crucify him!" The ones he did this for, would play clever, asking, "What is truth?"  The ones he did this for, would say they did not know him, would run away, would betray him, would scatter, and at best, they would watch. 

It was at this point, I hit the snag of "why did Mary, Mother of God say nothing?" 

However, Mary knew her heart would be pierced.  She knew this was the means of salvation. She'd heard his teaching. She'd heard his prediction of having to suffer and die, of having to take up the cross.  She must have pondered it in her heart, and resolved to do God's will.  Suffering her son to die, this must have been the hardest act of obedience of her life, to watch the spectacle, to not go and gather the apostles, yell at them and get them to go back and at least witness with Jesus, to stay with Him, and watch him surrender his spirit.  I cannot imagine a harder task for anyone.  Her prayer must have been a constant fiat at this point, "Let it be done according to Your will." just to hold to being a person without sin.

As I pondered her at the foot of the cross more, when you're faced with the total gift of self offered on the Cross by God for each and all of us, all you ultimately can feel, is silent awe.  So I'm guessing there was some of that in Mary's heart as well, because she would have held all those who fled, all those who shouted, all those who begged for Barabbas and all those who crucified Him, in her heart as well.  "Love God with all your heart, soul and body, and your neighbor as yourself."  Mary had to somehow, be loving those around her as she loved her Son to endure seeing Him on the cross and taking Him down. 

Who is the crucifixion for? It's for each of us, because we've been every role in this drama of the Easter story except for two, and those are the two we are to emulate.  We've been weak like Peter, we've sold out like Judas, we've been envious like the Pharisees, we've been fired up and eager like the crowd, equivocating like Pilate, desirous of having proof, of being able to command God, like Herod, cruel like those who scourged Him, violent like those who nailed him, and scared like the apostles who ran off in every direction.  The more we dig, the more we can find to prove we need God to show us, He will love us even through this, even in spite of this.  "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."  His words of forgiveness even from a cross, to each of us, for the reasons we put Him there.

Have a Great Good Friday, knowing He held onto the nails, not the hurt, and asking each of us in our lives, in our sufferings great and small, to do the same and repeat the words of Mary, "Let it be done to me, according to Your Will," and of Jesus, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do."

Connecting the Dots

I'm sorry I didn't get to this yesterday, it's been a busy week.  You'd think having Spring Break, I'd have more time to write.  Somehow, it seems there is less time.  I'm guessing that's how it always feels, you never have enough time to do everything you would will, and when your time is free, projects line up like jet fighters to take it away. 

All of which is a long prologue to a link to Monday's Connecting the Dots with Mark Shea. We talked about Palm Sunday.  Or as I call Connecting the Dots, Sherry's private public CCD experience where she pays attention, with a good friend as the teacher.

It's Holy Week, and I feel I'm crawling to the finish.  Somehow, my prayer has become ever more scattered as we've drawn closer.  I still take all the intentions to prayer, but my capacity to focus, to sit, and to pray seems to be less and less.  I suspect this is God's way to make sure I don't attribute any success in this Lenten journey to me, but rather consider myself to have been borne through it. Someone who wakes up from having been sick for a long time, cannot take credit for losing weight, even if they do, but reap the benefit.  I vote for that explanation of why I think my prayers have become more a tangled mess of intentions, and intentions about tangled messes.

However, I did hear one really solid podcast I also want to share. I've been following Fr. John Riccardo's Rerouting series, and the most recent one, hits hard.   Before you listen to it, take a calculator and figure out how many days you've been alive on this Earth.   For example, I calculated I've been alive exactly 18,546 days.   You can use this generator to do it for you. (I was off by two days when I checked it).  That's the easy part. 

Now, if you don't have a lot of time, but can give 8 minutes, listen to this podcast. 
The more in depth homily which proposes this project is here. It's fifteen minutes.  If you don't have time for either, or don't want to do a podcast or can't, the project is to write out all of your sins, from the beginning of your life until now.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show your sins to you.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal your flaws not as a form of condemnation, but as a revelation of how we required, each of us, the crucifixion, and to prepare us for the great goodness of Good Friday.  

Good Friday and Divine Mercy

This past week, we've seen what a merciless mob can do.  At Garissa University College campus in Kenya on Holy Thursday, masked terrorists separated Christians from Muslims, and shot one hundred and fifty dead while wounding another seventy.

2015 years ago on another Holy Thursday, people gathered before Pilate and demanded an innocent man be put to death by shouting, "Crucify him."

In 2015, people saw a news clip about a pizza restaurant in a small town in Indiana, and a twitter storm of outrage over people saying they wouldn't cater a same sex wedding forced the business to close perhaps forever.   

There are those who think Christianity is no longer tolerable unless it abandoned the tenets the world deems untenable.  These reactions come from those who think certain teachings out moded and thus in need of being discarded, and from those who feel tired of being meek and gentle and  inviting to the world around us.  The world doesn't care about us, it's time to fight!  

I've seen both reactions. My answer to them is, look at the cross.  The answer to each of these moments, is what happens today, Good Friday.  

However you depict the reality of the crucifixion, one thing remains clear. Jesus didn't fight the cross, He willed to allow the cross to happen.  Jesus didn't abandon a single of the people he came to save, he wept for those who might refuse.  He didn't summon a legion of angels to smite the soldiers who crucified him or the men who scourged him, he didn't return the slander and calumny of the court and those who envied him with threats or boasts or even a defense.  He offered himself to his creation, as a full gift.   

He even worked a miracle of an answered prayer to the pharisee who said, "Come down off that cross that we may believe."  and three days later, He did.  Who is to say that the man who spoke those words to Christ, didn't come to see, Jesus did exactly what he asked, and thus turn his heart toward God?   

My facebook feed started with this beautiful quote: "Nothing is more beautiful than mercy. Mercy can’t be given to someone who deserves it. Mercy is greater than judgment. Any sinner can judge, but it takes a believer to be willing to forgive. Bless your enemies, don't talk about them. If you can do something nice for them, do it. Pray for them." -J. Meyer

I'd never heard of J. Meyer, but I googled her and found her story revealed this quote to be a lived reality. She'd forgiven the person who abused her as a child, and in that forgiveness, found sublime grace.   

Still pondering as I saw other less gentle reminders of why we need Good Friday, outrage, anger, wrath and smugness on my internet feed, I found this achingly beautiful story that once again proves the strongest response to evil, every time, is mercy.

Is it more merciful to bake the cake or to not? It depends upon the discernment, the why one opts to bake or not.  Is it more merciful to stand your ground or shake the dust from your feet and find another store? Again, discernment of the heart.  How am I loving my neighbor as myself? Am I being merciful?  If the answer is no, rethink.

Put another way, can a gay baker refuse to make a cake for a Westboro Baptist Church reception?  I would say, "Yes."  

Can the Catholic florist refuse to supply flowers to Planned Parenthood?  "Yes."  

Can people agree to disagree in a civil society?  They must, in order to have a civil society.

Should the rejected person go out, enlist a twitter mob to rain down social media wrath on someone who speaks out of turn?  "No."  

Should the reporter or the coach or any of the other people who acted in haste and passion but wrongly, be destroyed by the same sort of electronic vendetta mob but from the other side?  "No."

Everybody put down the damn rocks. God desires mercy, not sacrifice.  

Today is the start of the Divine Mercy Novena.  If nothing else, the passion of Spy Wednesday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday, as lived out then and now reveals how much we need to pray for mercy.  So pray for all those in power, all those affected on any side of the issue, pray for all who try to live out their faith life, and for those who advocate for same sex marriage.  Pray for mercy, divine mercy, on all comers.   Pray for mercy, Divine Mercy, on all of us, for we do not deserve it.   

Fiddler at Work

Inspired by my husband and his new work toy...with apologies to lovers of "Matchmaker Matchmaker everywhere..."

Blackberry, Blackberry
Filter my spam.
Don’t make me check
At three a.m.

Blackberry, Blackberry
Leave me alone
For I’m in my bed
At Home.

I know you’re convenient and easy.
I know you’re efficient for work.
I know you improve productivity
But I find you more of a chore than a perk!

Blackberry, Blackberry
Wherever I go
The boss asks about work
And I can’t say no.

Blackberry, Blackberry
You’re like a great eye
A Corporate
merciless spy.

I’ve tried fleeing from you by camping
I’ve tried hiding on the deep ocean blue.
I’ve even gone to Pennsylvania Dutch country
But found emails there waiting, Four hundred and two.

Blackberry, Blackberry
You’re never off.
You don’t view weekends
As time one can sloth.

Blackberry, Blackberry
Please go away
And give to me
A perfect day

Please Give to me
One day work free
an inefficient work free day!

Have a blessed Good Friday Everyone...
If I were a rich man, I wouldn't blog for free, but there are more poor comics out there, go visit them too at www.humor-blog.com!