March 24-25, 2012
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Hebrews 5:7-9 John 12:20-33
Despite the ‘odd’ beginning of this week’s Gospel (so much for the Greeks who wanted to see Jesus…) we are pointed directly at the crux of it all….which is not so much the empty tomb of Easter…but the falling to the ground and dieing that all resurrections are predicated upon. The grand moment, as is apparent from what many of us wear around our necks or have hanging above our altars, is not the empty tomb but the cross on which Jesus died. Death speaks to transition, and all transitions, however well planned, have an element of mystery/trust/abandonment about them. We never completely know how things will turn out, of what awaits us after we bid our final farewells. In these final weeks of Lent we encounter Jesus caught up in the midst of emotional/spiritual turmoil: at one moment he acknowledges that he ‘is about to be glorified’ yet, while in the Garden of Gethsemane his sweat becomes like blood due to the intensity of his anguish. Further, while hanging upon the cross he laments/prays, ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Endings are messy, they can’t be neatly packaged and ‘dealt with’, they can only be experienced to their fullest.
As a parent prepares to succumb to cancer or as a family gathers to turn off a respirator, our last grip on what has been is loosened and we are forced to accept the unknowing future without whomever it is that is passing. All that remains are memories and they can seem so frail in comparison to what was once so solid, so vital. Yes, Easter beckons and it is that upon which our hearts want to fasten…but there are no Easters without the crosses and deaths of Good Friday. In our squeamish culture that wishes to avoid all things unpleasant and uncomfortable, is it any wonder that Easter Sunday is vastly more attended than the Good Friday memorials, yet Good Friday speaks more deeply for what we must prepare than a hundred Easter mornings. Put bluntly, what is wiser, to prepare for what is easy or for what is difficult? Thus, this weekend’s Scriptures invite us to be wise, to touch upon and become comfortable with things of change, with transition, with death and mystery. With certainty, the cross comes to each of us, how we carry and die upon it is a variable depending on whether we are prepared or surprised.
Thank you for sharing this Lenten weekend, the first one of Spring, with our Corpus Christi Community. Please note that our Lenten Reconciliation opportunities are this TUESDAY, March 27th: 10:30am with one priest and at 7:00pm with four priests. Next weekend, being Palm Sunday, the Passion Narrative being longer means that the Masses are longer, please plan accordingly. The Bulletin has the full Holy Week schedule into which you are FULLY invited…the fullness of Triduum: Holy Thursday/Good Friday concluding with Easter, makes for a much fuller/richer experience of why we do what we do every year. We continue to accept reservations for our Good Friday Prayer Breakfast: ‘Who is this that even the wind and sea obey him?’, featuring guest speakers from Tuscaloosa, Alabama sharing their stories from last year’s devastating tornado. You may use your reservation card mailed to you or you can sign up at the booth outside after Mass. Remembering that Easter is the First Sunday, following the First Full Moon, following the Spring Equinox…March 20th has come and gone…now we await the full moon…and then…we wait…and while we do, remember, you are loved. FKB
