What a long and tough winter this has been. I have mentioned to some folks, as the weather gets inevitably discussed, that this winter reminds me of the winters we used to get back in the 70’s and early 80’s. I recall in 1976, over March break, we had a terrible storm and an aunt of mine who had come for a visit to assist my mother in closing up my grandmother’s estate, got snowed in with the airport closed and flights cancelled. A long and difficult and cold and dark winter like this one, however, makes the celebration of Easter, that much more a celebration of hope and new life. The weather is something of a metaphor for the Easter message. Our lives here, while in the flesh, are a mixed bag of sometimes we get things right, and do right things, and sometimes not so much. Like crucifying the Son of God. According to the customs and widely accepted norms of the day, and the laws of the day, the Perfect Revelation of God – Jesus, our Lord – was sentenced to death. But as it turned out, those customs and norms and laws, were wrong. This is one of the history-changing lessons revealed to us in the Easter story. Many people were so locked into their assumptions about God, life, the world, people, that they were incapable of questioning those assumptions, or stepping outside of themselves to apply any level of critical thinking to their assumptions. What that inability led them to was they preferred to crucify the very Son of God, rather than wade through the mud of uncertainty and questing instead for Truth. As the centurion at the foot of the cross realized after the earth shook, and the sun darkened, and the veil of the temple was ripped in two, “Truly, this was the Son of God”.
So what do we do in our own lives to strive toward becoming more open-minded, more gentle-spirited, and less harsh and judgemental?
The Christian concept of reconciliation is a key concept upon which so much else is built. Many people associate reconciliation with saying “sorry” to someone we may have wronged or offended. That idea itself, is the smallest and easiest and least life-changing element of reconciliation. Reconciliation, from a Christian understanding, is so much more.
In the book which many in the parish are currently studying called To Love and to Serve the authors note what they call “the five finger approach” for real apologies:
I am sorry for….
that was wrong because….
Next time I will…
What can I do to help? (or How can I make this right?)
Will you forgive me?
On occasion I have shared with you all what’s called a daily practice of ‘examen’. It is taking time in silence at the end of the day, and reviewing your day through the following lense (this particular method is from the Augustinian tradition, which I learned years ago from Br. William Sibley in the 1980’s, there are others, for example, from the Ignatian tradition):
How did others intentionally help me today?
How did I intentionally help others today?
How did others unintentionally help me today?
How did I unintentionally help others today?
and then go through the same questions substituting the word “hurt” for the word “help”.
What both these tools do is allow us to do the hard internal work which is required for us to receive the benefits of living a life more rooted in Reconciliation; not use with other people, but also in our relationship with God. True Reconciliation and repentance leads to that growth which comes from amendment of life. It leads to growth because we know our God is ever loving, ever merciful, full of compassion and great acceptance of us.
So, am I so locked into my assumptions about the world, and about people, and about God that I too would have joined the crowd that day shouting “Crucify him”? Or can I instead live a life so attentively, so imbued with the Sacred, so conjoined with Jesus in my discipleship, that I would have voiced instead, alongside the centurion, “Truly, this man is the Son of God”? Fr. Brad
Holy Week Services:
Maundy Thursday – April 2– 5:30 pm
Good Friday – April 3 – 10 am Good Friday Walk. Refreshments will be served after the walk.
Easter Sunday – April 5 – 8 am and 10:30 am services at St. Thomas’
