Chapter 22 - Risen

Good Friday – the Crucifixion – Jesus is dead – He is placed in a tomb – fact. Three days later, the tomb is empty – fact.  Jesus is alive! How can a finite mind comprehend such a supernatural, not of this world, event. How can human witnesses to this event describe it to others, along with descriptions of a “glorified body?” No one can do it adequately – not even the gospel writers or Jesus’ closest friends who spent 40 days with Him after his resurrection.

Yet, in their own limited way, they all attempted to give witness to this event.  We have Mary, who mistook Jesus for a gardener, but when He said her name, she knew deep in her heart that this was Jesus because she knew His voice so well. Thomas asked for more proof than just the words of his friends about Jesus being alive – and for Thomas, a physical touch would be proof enough.  The disciples on the road to Emmaus were “dazed and confused” and actually had a stranger (they, too, did not initially recognize Jesus) guide them through all the events leading to His resurrection, and then they recognized Him when He broke bread and ate with them, something they had done together many times before.   

Research indicates that newborn infants can recognize the voice of their mother from other voices.  That bond already is so strong (from the time spent in utero) that the awareness of the relationship exists.  Is my relationship with Jesus that strong that I would recognize His voice or mannerisms, despite not recognizing Him in a “glorified” body. So, in some way, Jesus reached out to each of these people in the way that each would understand that He was the Jesus they knew, and that He was alive. He still does that with each of us, and He will meet us right where we are, when we are ready, and He will make sure that we recognize who He is.

Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus once a year by going to Church on Easter Sunday.  Jesus wants me to celebrate the fact that He is alive in my life every day. I am to look for Him in the faces of the sick and suffering, in children, in the elderly, the hungry, the homeless, the oppressed and the imprisoned.   Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed is he who has not seen (that is, seen Him personally), yet has believed (that He is alive, because I see Him in others).” (John 20:29).

He Is Risen! Alleluia!



To Ponder and Discuss:

1.  Why do  you think Mary was at first unable to recognize the Risen Christ?

2.  In your own words, what does it mean to "accept our crosses?"  Have you experienced the "paschal mystery" of death and rebirth in your own life?

Connie Cannella

Chapter 21 - Golgotha

Throughout his “look at Jesus,” as Father Martin defines the book in the Introduction, he points to the emotional connection one can make with a site that is “very probably” authentic.  In the case of Golgotha, not only is the “site compatible with the topographical data supplied by the Gospels,” but “the consistent and uncontested tradition of the Jerusalem community, which held liturgical celebrations at the site until AD 66,” attests to its probable authenticity.  As he has shown in each of the chapters thus far, the opportunity afforded by a pilgrimage to connect physically with the details and events recorded in the Gospels crystalizes the realities of Jesus’s life for the pilgrim.  Epitomizing this type of experience is Father Martin’s account of reaching down into a cavity under an elaborate altar and touching the cold rock of Golgotha.

Concerning the Via Dolorosa, Father Martin notes that he found himself “largely unmoved” by the Stations of the Cross, although he had “experienced more powerful emotions when praying with the stations in local parishes.” Still, he acknowledges that the same path has “moved some of … [his] friends to tears.”  He points out with humility that “Grace is mysterious.  So is pilgrimage.”

Father Martin devotes a couple of pages of the chapter to the implications of Jesus’s “scream” of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Comparing Jesus’s situation with that of Mother Teresa, and by implication with what spiritual writers call a “dark night,” he points out the important difference between feeling abandoned by God and succumbing to despair.  The idea that God could feel abandoned by God, a Son by his Father, with whom he has experienced the fullest union possible, while very troubling (perhaps even shocking), can also offer hope to anyone who has felt completely alone and deserted.

Father Martin mentions the women who witnessed Jesus’s death and notes the importance of remaining with someone who is suffering even when we can do nothing to alleviate the suffering.

While “[m]any meditations on the Cross tend to focus on Jesus’s physical suffering,” Father Martin asks us to consider the other kinds of pain Jesus suffered:

Abandonment: His disciples flee—they cannot go where Jesus is going.

Loneliness: Jesus has no one other than the Father to whom he can turn.

Betrayal: Judas Iscariot, one of his closest friends, betrays Jesus.  Father Martin explores the possible motives for this betrayal, but acknowledges the mystery of sin—“Why do we do what we know is wrong?”

Humiliation and contempt: This, the humblest of men, still had to bear the humiliation of of being treated as a criminal and the contempt of neighbors and religious authorities for
his message of God’s love.

Seeing others suffer because of your suffering: We can probably all relate to the pain Jesus felt  at seeing his mother suffer over his suffering.

Seeing His great work ended: Father Martin considers the possibility that Jesus may have wondered, given the behavior of his disciples, of whether his work would continue; however, he also suggests that “Jesus’s clear establishment of a church…with Peter as its head” argues against this possibility.

The important conclusion to a consideration of all the physical and emotional sufferings of Jesus is that “Jesus did not waver.  It must have been an enormous temptation to vacillate in the face of this mountain of suffering.  But out of obedience to what the father is asking he does not.”

The chapter concludes with the observation that “Jesus is resolute.  Like his mother at the Annunciation, he says—perhaps not knowing fully what it will mean—yes.”

Questions to Ponder

1. Like the women at the cross, can we stay with someone who is suffering, even when we can offer nothing other than our presence and our acknowledgement of what he or she is enduring?
2. Have we experienced a level of loneliness and abandonment in our lives that leaves room only for a faith in God’s love that saves us from despair?  Have we been, or can we be, sensitive to a neighbor who might be experiencing such a dark night?

Bill Casey

 

Chapter 20 - Gethsemane

In this chapter Fr. Martin takes us with him to the Garden of Gethsemane which is within walking distance of Jerusalem on the way to the Mount of Olives.  He uses Mark’s Gospel for his meditation on the Agony in the Garden.  He shares with us a detailed analysis of the Greek words used by Mark in his account.  Our Lord was “greatly distraught” which is “expressed physically before a terrifying event”.  And it is in Jesus’ agony that we are reminded of the vulnerability of his human nature. Fr. Martin tells us that it is “in the garden that Jesus shows both his utter humanity and his complete divinity.”

Our Lord’s human nature asks if this cup cannot just pass him by, while his divinity gives him the strength to say to the Father your will not mine.  It is here that Jesus shows us the way we are called to live, we are to place complete trust in God as he does and to strive to be united with the divine will.

Fr. Martin makes another point when he notes the nature of Jesus’ prayer which involves complete honesty stating, “an intimate relationship with the Father means transparency at all times, especially in times of distress”.

We are reminded that even as we are petitioning God in our prayers we must share our fears, doubts, hurts and yes even anger with God.  This is true of any intimate loving relationship.  It requires complete honesty as we share our true feelings

In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus leads us by example to not only show us how to pray from the heart but more importantly to trust in God’s plan for our own life so that we are truly able to say Father as you will.

Questions to Ponder

1. When was the last time we faced a crisis be it physical, spiritual or emotional?  What was my attitude in prayer over this event?  Did I ask God to spare me suffering?  Were we able to eventually be at peace in God’s decision in the matter?  Were we angry with God for causing or allowing or misfortune?  Angry for his slow response?

2. Jesus confided in his three friends Peter, John, and Andrew.  He told them of his distress and fears.  Do we have the courage to share our fears and hurts with an intimate friend?  Do we keep our hurts to ourselves, do we even bring them to God at all?   When we do, is our prayer more along the lines of God please get me out of this or is it like Jesus, your will be done”? 

Deacon Mike McKenna

Chapter 19 - Jerusalem

Toward the end of this chapter, discussing the events of Holy Thursday, Father Martin writes:

I never fail to think how different Christian churches would be if, in addition to our weekly celebrations of the Eucharist, we celebrated the Foot Washing.  It may sound crazy, and it would be terribly complicated to arrange every Sunday—all those basins of water and towels and shoes and socks!  But imagine the symbolism if every week the presider laid aside his vestments and got down on his hands and knees to scrub the feet of his parishioners.  What a reminder it would be to all of us—priests included—that this is what Christ asked us to do in addition to the celebration of the Eucharist. . . .Seen every Sunday, over and over, the washing of the feet might help us see how power is more intimately linked with service (page 351).

I can already hear the loud objections people would have to such a proposal—the discomfort it would cause!  Indeed, not unlike Peter’s discomfort at having his feet washed by Jesus.

Yet I welcome this idea and would suggest that we need to take it to heart, for it is one thing to receive the Body of Christ, but it is another thing to become the Body of Christ in the world. 

As a person who works with paid staff and volunteers, it has been painfully clear for some time now that there has been a steady decline in people willing to serve as volunteers in the various ministries of our parish churches.  With every passing year, it has become more and more difficult to find people willing to serve in any number of capacities.

How powerful it was, early in Pope Francis’s pontificate, when he decided to spend one Holy Thursday, not in St. Peter’s Basilica or in the grand St. John Lateran, as was his custom, but at a juvenile detention center.  People were shocked when Francis, the apostle of humility, got down on his hands and knees to minister to poor and troubled youth.  Pope Francis didn’t need to preach a homily that day—his actions were the homily.  He didn’t need to catechize—his actions were the catechesis.  With one simple gesture, our pope reminded us that we are to serve one another in the spirit of the Lord, who washed the disciples feet.

Father Martin reminds us in this chapter how shocking the events of Holy Week were:  from the Cleansing of the Temple to the Foot Washing.  And how dangerous for Jesus were these provocative actions, including the raising of Lazarus.

  

To Ponder and Discuss:


1.  Gerard O'Collins, SJ, notes that Jesus understood the Cleansing of the Temple to be a "dangerously provocative act."  Other scholars suggest that Jesus also knew his entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday would have been seen as a threat.  Does his recognition of the inherent danger of these actions, and what may have been an intentional use of symbolic gestures, influence your understanding of Jesus?

2.  Do you agree with the idea that the Foot Washing was more about establishing a "community of equals" than about "humble service?"  Could the two ideas coexist among a group of friends?

3.  Would Christian churches be any different if they performed the Foot Washing as often as they celebrate the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper?


Steven Olson