The Holiest Days are Upon Us

Holy Thursday is here.

Lent seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, and now the holiest days of the year are upon us.

As usual, I don’t feel prepared. I grew lax in my Lenten penance. And instead of humbly and gratefully accepting the crosses that came my way, I fought them, resisting and complaining.

Thank God for Jesus.

With Him, it’s never too late in our earthly journey to begin again.

He said so in His parable of the workers in the vineyard, demonstrating His extreme generosity, even to us late-starters.

And there’s the witness of St. Dismas, the “good thief” crucified with Jesus, who with a contrite heart professed his belief in his final hour and heard our Lord say, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Jesus’ mercy isn’t something to take advantage of, a way to intentionally delay what He asks of us. His mercy is The Way He speaks of. No one can go to the Father, except through the Son, Who is mercy itself.

So despite any of our failings, we can relax today and begin anew, trusting in His Way and not our own feeble attempts at holiness.

And in His mercy, Jesus can transform us through His death and resurrection, which we are about to commemorate. If we just have trust and a contrite heart.

My Jesus, have mercy! Give us new life through your death and resurrection!

Inspired by the Year of Faith, Susan Szalewski began writing weekly columns for us. Although that year is over, we liked them so well that we asked her to keep writing. Thankfully, she said yes. So watch for these on Thursdays and see the Year of Faith Blog here.

Jesus' Easter Game of Hide and Seek‏

Our Tabernacle doors, created by artist John Lajba, depict
the disciples recognizing Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."

    - Hebrews 13:8

Most of Jesus' life on earth is hidden from us, including His Risen Life.

Even now, He is risen and among us but chooses to remain hidden, wrote Caryll Houselander in her book The Risen Christ.

"He is 'the Way'; the Way does not change," Houselander said. "We are helped by this consistency to recognize Him in His hidden life in ourselves."

Like his disciples, we don't always recognize the Risen Lord. But His appearances in Scripture highlight Jesus' gifts to us and give us some clues on how He reveals Himself to us, the author said.

"To the stricken world in the person of Magdalene, compassion: 'Why are you weeping, for Whom are you seeking?'

"To the apostles, His first word, 'Peace!'

"To Thomas, 'Believe' because of the wounds -- 'the courage of faith.'

"To Peter, the wonderful opportunity to affirm His love.

"To the disciples who mourned Him as lost, communion with Him."

Jesus continues his hidden, daily miracles, appearing to us in the breaking of the bread and through many other "unobserved, unguessed miracles of grace, contrition, conversion, hope, forgiveness, love, taking place secretly in the human soul."

He is hidden in everyone, Houselander said, but we must have the eyes of faith to see Him.

 "He may come as a little child, making enormous demands, giving enormous consolation; He may come as a stranger, so that we must give the hospitality to a stranger that we should like to give to Christ; He may come to us in His Passion, disfigured by our sins and all sin, asking the utmost courage of us, that we may not be scandalized and may believe. He may come to us as a servant and compel us to the extreme humility which accepts His service, as Peter had to do, when He washed his feet, and as the disciples did with unquestioning joy, when He cooked their little meal on the seashore."

Perhaps the most difficult place to find the Risen Christ is in ourselves, she said, because we see ourselves as so unworthy. But we all have the means to radiate our Lord to others: "words, a human voice, sympathy, hands to serve."

Remember, the Risen Christ is appearing to us, and "the only condition for finding and recognizing the Risen Christ today is that we love Him: not power, chance, or virtue, but only love."

Inspired by the Year of Faith, Susan Szalewski began writing weekly columns for us. Although that year is over, we liked them so well that we asked her to keep writing. Thankfully, she said yes. So watch for these on Thursdays and see the Year of Faith Blog here.

It's Been a Rough Week

It’s been a rough week.

Here at St. Columbkille we’re mourning the death of our principal, Dr. Cheryl Blue.

Tragedy struck on a national level in the terrorist attack Monday in Boston and again last night at an explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas.

Sometimes it’s hard to not become saddened, discouraged or even angry about all the pain and loss of life. Sometimes it’s hard to not question why God allows these bad things to happen.

But we are Christians, who know that God’s plan of salvation does not spare us from suffering. He made suffering part of that plan, the cross that leads to the Resurrection. The Father sent His Son to show us the Way. Jesus took on all our pain and death and transformed it.

“The power of Christ is able to control fiercer storms than those of the wind and sea. It is able to still the torrents of evil of the whole world in the stillness of His own heart. It is the power which enables Him to command the floods of all the sorrow in the world and hold them within His peace. It is the power which not only gives life back to the dead, but can change death itself into life. It is the power of divine love.”

Those words, from the 20th century author and mystic Caryll Houselander, struck me during this horrific week, particularly the second-to-the last line.

“It is the power which not only gives life back to the dead, but can change death itself into life.”

God can take all the death we saw in the past week and change it into life -- a life that is eternal and more glorious than anything we can imagine.

That is power of the Resurrection. That is why Christians have hope, even in the midst of evil and death.

Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this from Susan Szalewski about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays.