18 April 2014

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery



            -5-
The Cross

The darkness gathers in to form a shroud
o'er Zion's peak and all surrounding lands.
The crowd is quiet now that once was loud;
they see themselves in nails that pierce his hands.
The rasping breath of Christ comes with much pain,
but joy is still emblazoned on his face,
for he will see his Father once again
and open up a route for Adam's race.
Oh, ecce Agnus Dei, Christ the Lord!
who kindles hope for all who dwell on earth.
As blood and water round the lance are poured
He paves the way in death for a new birth.

Reject you now your sin, the source of strife;
come share with Him a death that leads to life.





17 April 2014

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery



            -4-
The Way

His back is bent, his knees are full of grit.
He falls and falls at almost every step.
The guards stand round like demons from the pit,
or stoners crowded round the demirep.
Do you feel pity, seeing him this day,
though all your eyes observe is weight of wood?
You think you would have helped him on his way!
A noble thought—you ponder as you should.
Yet with this cross the savior must begin
a lonely way, the burden his alone.
Unless he washes feet and cleanses sin,
we cannot have a place in our Lord's home.

Just walk with him, go step by step awhile
and on your face wear too his suffering smile.





16 April 2014

The Third Sorrowful Mystery





          -3-
The Crown

The crown of thorns stood in as Eden's hedge
for Veronica who wished to kiss his brow,
but she reached down to wipe around its edge
and took away his image on her towel.
So high a king the world has never seen,
this man who tastes the dust between his teeth,
the dust that but for him would not have been,
who made the very thorns he bleeds beneath.
Why does the whole Creation seem to turn
against this one whose being is to love?
Should not the very heavens start to burn,
and send avenging fire down from above?

But Christ will not be king by any art,
until you crown him so within your heart.





15 April 2014

The Second Sorrowful Mystery


     -2-
The Scourge 

Now cast your eye upon another scene
of that man's hands around a pillar tied
for Pilate, here Iustitia's machine,
tried to appease the crowd before he died.
As when one tries to right a toppling vase
but sends it only faster to the floor,
the bloody scourging served as a foretaste
and set God's chosen ones to cry the more,
“For him the cross!  Dear Caesar is our king!
You may deny us freedom, but not this!”
Then Pilate knew he had to grant the thing-
man's justice gave to Christ a poisoned kiss.

Oh Christian, now you bear your Lord's true name,
and yet, when tempted, treat him just the same!





14 April 2014

The First Sorrowful Mystery



     -1-
The Agony

When moonlight shone on olive boughs he came
and every stone found then it could not speak.
No more could thorn or brier plants untamed
deny him then that solitude to seek.
'Twas three alone disturbed him there that night
by sleeping when the hour was almost come
(though one would strike a guardsman deaf in fight,
and later on himself be stricken dumb.)
As man he had the choice to take the cup
or else, rejecting God, to harbor sin,
but he alone of men gave himself up.
Too soon the crowd arrived to take him in!

Weep now for Christ who in this garden knelt,
and share with him the agony he felt.




This is the first of a series of sonnet reflections on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary.  Although I started them some time ago while in grad school, I thought this would be an appropriate time and place to finish them up and share them.  Although they are intended to be a set, I will be posting the rest of the poems around noon each day this week, finishing on Good Friday.  Thank you for reading; I hope that they offer some food for spiritual thought.  Happy Holy Week!


The Stations of the Cross in Humility

What follows are some reflections on the stations of the cross that I presented in separate posts during Holy Week last year.  I collect them here only for convenience in case anyone wants to read them collectively.  I have italicized the brief prayers at the ends of the reflections, but have otherwise made no other changes.  I hope that they provide some edification.  Thank you for reading!




Holy Week is upon us.  In his Life of Christ, Venerable Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen points out an aspect of the significance of the suffering and death of Jesus which we celebrate:

"Christ entered human existence under a form which was not natural to Him as Son of God.  This assuming of a human nature was a humiliation, an emptying, a stripping and a kenosis ["self-emptying"] of His glory.  The fundamental renouncement of His Divine glory created a physical condition of life which made Him appear like a man; His suffering and death were the logical consequences of this humiliation.  As God He could not suffer; as man He could" (Image Books, 1990).

Although we have seen and heard the story of Christ's death and resurrection countless times in our lives, I believe it is essential to continually return to these events and try to see them with new eyes.  Over the next few days I will be sharing some brief reflections on humility as it is exhibited in the various points along the Way of the Cross (along with the Agony in the Garden, for thematic and mathematical reasons).



The Agony in the Garden
The Gospel of Luke describes Jesus' fervent prayer on the Mount of Olives.  He enjoins His disciples to pray that they "may not undergo the test."  Earlier, Peter told Him that he was prepared to "go to prison and to die" with Jesus.  Instead, Peter would deny Him three times.  We are the disciples who wish to be there with Jesus, but who do not fully grasp the significance of the moment and instead grow tired and fall asleep.  We are like Peter, rashly stating our intention to do good (and be praised for the intention), but when the moment of action arrives we are unprepared.

In this moment in the garden, as in all things, Jesus is our example.  He prayed and sweated blood before the time of testing arrived.  Unlike Peter, Jesus prayed that the cup might pass from Him, although He was willing to do the will of the Father no matter the cost.  How often does our faithful prayer lead us to experience distress?  If it seldom does so, is it because we are not humble enough to realize how hard the test will be?

Lord, help us to pray more fervently with the humility of Your example in the garden.


The First Station:  Jesus is Condemned to Death
Pilate had judicial power over Jesus because God gave it to him.  The judicial system of the Roman Empire was relatively advanced and admirable in many ways (e.g., the restriction against stoning a woman caught in adultery:  the Romans were on the side of Jesus on that one).  However, Roman justice failed when Pilate gave Jesus over to be crucified, despite his assertion of Jesus' innocence on multiple occasions (Luke 23:4, 14, 22).

Human justice and man-made law is only a shadow of the true source of Justice, which is God.  Pilate made a show of doing the right thing, but in the end decided to do what would be easiest for himself.  The humble Jesus, standing silently before His accusers, spoke more loudly of the vanity of human law than any verbal argument could have done.  How often do we rest on the unfounded belief that human society can arbitrate justice infallibly?  Have we trusted too much in the benevolence and wisdom of governments and other institutions instead of getting involved ourselves?

Lord, help us to see the things that human beings have created with the eyes of humility.


The Second Station:  Jesus Takes Up His Cross
The cross was a horrible instrument of torture and execution.  It was as much a means of inflicting psychological pain as physical pain.  Isaiah 53:8-9 prophesied that Jesus would be taken away and counted among the wicked.  On the other hand, Christian mystics throughout the centuries have told us of the joy with which Christ took up His cross.  As the instrument of his suffering and death, it also became the instrument of our salvation.

Christ teaches us that to love is to joyfully embrace suffering for the sake of the beloved.  Joyful suffering is a theme we find running throughout the lives of the saints and all who seriously follow Jesus in their lives.  Suffering is a contradiction to the World, but to Christians it is the source of ultimate joy and peace.  How often have we been slow to embrace an inconvenient means of helping others?  How can we say that we love someone and yet begrudge them the pain of suffering?

Lord, help us always to humbly accept the crosses that You offer for the sake of our brothers and sisters.


The Third Station:  Jesus Falls the First Time
Jesus was forced to carry His own cross to the place of the crucifixion.  He stumbled and fell three times in the course of the traditional Way of the Cross.  The crowds that had just called for His crucifixion mocked Him.  Many of the same people were cheering as He made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem not long before (Luke 19:28-40).  Jesus did not shout back or struggle with the guards who pressed Him on ruthlessly.  This only made them shout the louder.

The people in the crowd were, many of them, "faithful" members of God's people. They prayed, followed the law and listened to the readings of Holy Scripture.  They did these things for themselves, not for God, and certainly not for the spiritual benefit of others.  They were essentially proud of themselves.  Being faithful to God meant that they could consider themselves to be above others.  As long as Jesus could be seen as a triumphant leader, they were happy to applaud Him.  When He stumbled, they turned on Him as quickly as they could.  What do we think we gain by calling ourselves Christians--a relationship with our God, or the ability to consider ourselves "better" than others?  How do we treat the people around us who might stumble and struggle to live up to our expectations?

Lord, help us never to use our Faith as a weapon against others for the sake of ourselves.


The Fourth Station:  Jesus Meets His Mother Mary
Jesus' friends had abandoned Him with very few exceptions.  His Mother Mary, of course, did not.  She met her son Jesus along the road to Calvary and comforted Him--not in the words of Peter at the first prediction of the Passion in the Gospel of Matthew (16:22): “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to You,” but with words of encouragement.  If anyone could understand the essence of what Jesus was doing, it must have been she whose heart was to be "pierced by a sword" (Luke 2:35).

So many of us have our hearts closed to the idea of suffering for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  Sometimes this is even more true of our attitudes toward the sacrifices of our loved ones.  We don't like the idea of suffering, and it is often a great act of charity to alleviate it in the lives of others, but avoiding it is not the primary goal of our existence.  The Blessed Virgin Mary, loving mother of Jesus, had her priorities straight.  How do we react to the sacrifices others make or consider making to bring God into their lives and into the world?  Do we discourage people from considering the more difficult path without stopping to think of what God's plan might be?

Lord, help us to support the holy sacrifices that people we love might make, according to the example of our Mother Mary.


The Fifth Station:  Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
It is clear from the details presented in the Gospels that Jesus endured more torment than even the typical victim of crucifixion.  Simon was pressed into service against his will, not as a comfort to our Savior, but in order not to rob the angry crowd of the climactic spectacle at the end of the journey.  Simon came in "from the country" (Luke 23: 26), and was apparently not otherwise involved in the incidents surrounding Jesus' condemnation.  Now he is forever remembered as the one who shared the very cross with Christ.

Jesus is not jealous of the cross.  Rather, His example is always to invite others to share in what He is doing (e.g. Luke 9: 23-24).  The whole point of the Christian life is for us to join with Jesus beneath the wood of the cross and find union with Him in carrying our share.  We are not alone if we do not leave Him alone.  How often do we wish to keep our struggles from others and from God so that we can imagine that we suffer more than anyone else?  How seldom do we remind ourselves that the lives and struggles of Christians belong to Christ alone and must redound to His credit instead of our own?

Lord, help us to humbly bear our burdens and give all the glory to You.


The Sixth Station:  Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
While Simon had the honor of carrying the cross for Jesus, Veronica also aided Our Lord on His way.  Amid all the bitter afflictions of the way of the cross, at this one moment Jesus received an unlikely physical comfort.  Set in a scale against the sting of the lashes, the weight of the wood, the blows of the contemptuous guards and the coming anguish of the nails, the simple gesture of Veronica wiping the sacred face of Jesus would seem to weigh nothing at all.

It is often only in small ways that we are able to live out the Faith on a daily basis.  These small ways are also the easiest to ignore because we want to see great results from our good works.  Veronica, motivated by her great love for Jesus, reminds us that to God a small good can outweigh a great many evils, for "love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). How often do we reject an opportunity to do good for one another because it seems "unimportant?"  Do we give ourselves enough credit as powerful actors in bringing about the Kingdom of God?

Lord, help us to see all the gifts You have given us as worthy to share with your suffering people.




The Seventh Station:  Jesus Falls the Second Time
Jesus fell more than once along the way to Calvary.  It grew harder and harder with each fall for Him to rise again and continue on the road to Calvary.  But rise He did to endure more buffets and spitting (Isaiah 50:6) from the guards and the crowd.  He pressed on to His own crucifixion for the sake of the very people who hated Him, and for the sake of His absent friends, and for the sake of the Will of His Father.

For Christians, the hatred of others is a strong motivation to inaction.  It is right and good to love others, and to encourage positive feelings in our hearts toward those with whom we do not agree.  It is natural to want others to think positive thoughts about us in return.  At the same time, faithfulness to the Will of God will make us enemies.  We must stay faithful nonetheless.  In what ways are we afraid to live, act and speak as Christians in the public eye?  How often do we mistake actions that will protect our reputation for holy meekness and humbleness of heart (Matthew 11:29)?

Lord, help us to stay on the path of righteousness no matter what others may think of us, good or ill.



The Eighth Station:  Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus has a brief conversation with a group of the women of Jerusalem.  It is unclear from Scripture if they were lamenting the injustice of what had been done to Him or if their tears were for the evils of which He had been wrongfully accused.  What is clear is that Jesus replies by redirecting their tears to their own future progeny with prophetic words:  "Indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed’" (Luke 23:29).

In every generation since the time of Our Lord human beings have had the responsibility to hand down a way of life to the next generation.  This is a sacred responsibility.  And yet Christians seldom spend enough time learning from the wellspring of the Faith how to be good teachers or what, indeed, to teach.  If we let the World do the teaching, we shirk that responsibility and allow our society to sink further into the despair of our Lord's prophecy.  What is the source of the wisdom we personally pass down to future generations?  Do our children and others see in us a joyful concern for Godly things that is worth emulating and passing on?

Lord, help us to be more faithful to You that we may not leave the world barren.


The Ninth Station:  Jesus Falls the Third Time
Jesus fell a final time along the road to Calvary.  Many in the crowd must have expected He would not get back up again.  Perhaps some even remembered Christ's own words after enjoining His disciples to take up their own crosses:  "Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?  Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish’" (Luke 14:28-30).  But Jesus rose from this fall as well, in order to show us once again that God will not set a project before us without the resources to complete it.

It is humility that gives us the ability to follow God's plan for our lives.  Humility reminds us that we must put forth the time and effort to prepare for the great trials that await us as Christians.  Humility also teaches us to look to the God Who will supply the strength we lack.  How often do we fool ourselves into believing that we have reached our limit when we still have more to give?  How much could we do if we truly trusted God to help us make it over the last hurdle?

Lord, help us look to you for the strength to finish the race and keep the Faith (2 Timothy 4:7).


The Tenth Station:  Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments
"They divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots" (Psalms 22:19).  The stripping of the victim's garments was intended to further humiliate him in the eyes of the crowd.  All of Our Savior's cuts and bruises were revealed before their eyes as they continued to jeer and mock.  For the friends of Jesus, these same wounds were precious--each one a reminder that He had held nothing back in His love for them.

Many of the earliest and most persistent heresies have had to do with the nature of Christ as both God and man.  It is easy to emphasize one to the detriment of the other, so that God is so far beyond us as to be meaningless or so close to us as to ratify our every whim.  In reality, we know by Faith that Jesus Christ was "true God and true man," and we cannot escape the consequences of believing each completely.  If Jesus is God, then we must worship Him as a being far above us with the right to rule our lives completely.  If Jesus is man, we must know that He loves us enough (far more than we can love ourselves) to debase Himself and become a creature so that we might be become His friends and siblings.  What level of humiliation are we prepared to undergo as friends and siblings of our Lord and Savior?  Do we take enough time in our prayer life to strip ourselves bare and see who we truly are?

Lord, help us to have the strength to face humiliations as a means of growing closer to You.


The Eleventh Station:  Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
The crucifixion itself was the culmination of a vast number of pains inflicted upon the victim.  A living body would be nailed to the cross, and a corpse would be removed.  As Jesus had earlier embraced the cross, now He spreads wide His hands over the crowds of humanity, the wood holding up His arms like Aaron and Hur did for Moses so that the people of God might have victory over their enemies (Exodus 17:12).

Just as when He first took up the cross, the pierced Jesus took on this agony for our sake.  Now He had been bound to the very instrument of His suffering and our salvation.  Part of choosing the Christian way of life is binding ourselves to instruments of suffering.  How often do we spend our time and imagination thinking about escaping our responsibilities?  Do we allow God to remind us that our obligations to our families, friends, coworkers and others are not inconveniences but opportunities to "work out our salvation" (Phil 2:12)?

Lord, help us not to flee from our holy attachments in life, especially when they cause us to suffer.

The Twelfth Station:  Jesus Dies on the Cross
Darkness covered the whole land as Jesus hung upon the cross, His detractors demanding that He come down and prove His power.  Long before this moment Jesus had warned His followers:  “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.  Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.  And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me" (John 15:18-21).  If you are a follower of Christ, the World hates you even now.  It cannot help but hate you because it does not understand the source of your Faith, Hope and Love.  Christians often latch on tightly to the idea of carrying the cross; let us not forget that the point of carrying the cross is that we should also die upon it, and that the World will not understand.

As we spiritually gather around the base of the cross to witness Our Lord who has died for our sins, let us remember that this is what Christ's victory looked like.  Let us not be afraid of what victory may look like in our own lives.  How much time, thought and effort do we put into being successful in earthly things instead of heavenly things?  Do we realize how often we must betray God in order to receive the affirmation of the World?

Lord, help us to remember and gain strength from Your crucifixion when the World has turned against us.


The Thirteenth Station:  Jesus Is Taken Down from the Cross
The body of Jesus was taken down from the cross and laid in the lap of His mother.  Michelangelo's famous Pieta depicts Mary in this scene as disproportionately large in relation to her son Jesus.  She is powerful in that moment of profound distress.  Jesus is our example of perfect humility in love and submission to the Will of God; Mary too is our example of humility expressed in her constant presence and indefatigable grace.

One of Jesus' last actions upon the cross was to entrust Mary to the keeping of John, and John to the keeping of Mary (John 19:26-27).  We too have been entrusted to the care of our Mother Mary as a powerful intercessor before her son Jesus.  Mary became the Mother of God through her exemplary acceptance of God's plan for her life; let us not forget that in the midst of our struggles we have been given so powerful an ally to call upon and from whom we may receive comfort and encouragement in the darkest hours.  Who do we allow to teach us how to live a good and fulfilling life--the holy ones of God, or someone else?  Do we have so much pride in our own ability to pray that we forget to ask others to pray for us?

Lord, help us to remember all the saints--and especially our Mother Mary--who stand ready to lift us up to God the Father.


The Fourteenth Station:  Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
The body of Jesus was placed in a tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea.  A great stone was rolled before the entrance, and a guard was placed before the stone.  Few expected that the story of Jesus had not yet ended.  Jesus had given them all they would have needed to keep hope alive through the whole ordeal.  He knew, however, that words were not enough.  He would rise from the dead and show His followers that the grave is not the place that the Father had prepared for them. 

"Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed" (1 John 3:2).  As Christians, our hope lies beyond this world.  Jesus did not just leave us with words, but with an empty tomb and a resurrection.  In humbling Himself to become a man, Jesus committed Himself to to all the stages of human life and death that He might point to something greater yet to come.  How often do we find ourselves putting our Faith away to take back out at a more convenient time, forgetting that the resurrection cannot come without the cross?  How seldom do we quench our pride in who and what we have become in this world which is even now passing away (1 Corinthians 7:31)?

Lord, help us to always place our hope in You, unafraid of the mystery which the Father has in store for us.



13 April 2014

Pride, Passion, and Palms


     One of the most gripping and meaningful parts of the Lenten experience is the dramatic reading of the Passion narratives.  Seldom are we treated to the opportunity to so clearly find ourselves within the story of our Lord than by putting such words to our own lips.  Today as I listened and participated in the reading of the Passion, I reflected on a few specific elements of significance for the man aspiring to humility:


The Citizens of Jerusalem Wave Palms before Jesus

It is interesting to think about how many things the palms of Palm Sunday represent.  They are first and foremost a sign of reverence and fealty to one we name as our King.  They are a symbol of the natural beauty that is our gift from God offered back to Him in glorifying His Son.  Finally, they are a reminder of the fact that we are ready, at a moment's notice, to betray this same God.

For his part, Jesus seems to be (as we should expect him to be) fully aware of this manifold meaning.  Scripture does not show him either quelling the crowd or attempting to make any practical use of the wave of popularity he is riding on.  This as much as anything could be why the people turned on him--what is the point of supporting a king unless he is going to wield power to accomplish what the supporter desires?  Jesus is the Son of God, not a political figure.

We must count ourselves members of both the adoring crowd and the scornful crowd, and then we must strive to cut our the pride which seeks to turn our acts of reverence into what are essentially acts of self-adulation.  If our praise of God suits us, it can be because we have brought our selves and our minds into line with Him, or it can be because we are not really praising Him but our own desires instead.


The Guards Arrest Jesus in the Night

The scene of the arrest of Jesus has always stuck with me as an especially poignant moment.  This is the moment of crisis when everyone seems nervous and unsettled except Jesus (who had just gone to prayer with the Father in his own moment of crisis), who hands himself over as if the arrest were taking place under his own authority.

The timing of this moment is also significant.  Darkness surrounds this act because they hope to hide its significance from any who might object to their decision.  The chief priests here exercise what they consider to be their power to decide right and wrong with regard to the Law of God.  As Jesus himself attests, this authority is legitimate within the religious practice of the Jews.  However, the legitimacy of authority is not the same as morality.

Only in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do we see perfect authority and perfect morality/goodness.  How often do those in positions of authority dispense with the question of how to use that authority rightly?  Probably the biggest reason our culture distrusts authority is because pride undermines the appropriate and natural connection between might and right.  Pride encourages the abuse of power while humility reunites it with the true and the good.  


Judas Returns the Silver

Not to be overly critical of the chief priests, but the scene in which Judas returns his payment to the floor of the temple emphasizes the points made above in a different context.  The money created an unanticipated problem for the priests.  In solving the problem, however, they missed its true lesson.

The attitude toward the rules is that they must be obeyed only in their letter and not necessarily their spirit.  The money was deemed unclean for adding to the temple coffers, but the priests still used it.  We can be critical of the way in which the priests allocated the recovered funds, but what they apparently missed entirely was the fact that this "blood money" the had just gotten back was just as much "blood money" when they spent it.  Whatever they decided to do with the thirty pieces of silver, the blood was still on their hands and the Law of God was not respected.

Contrast this perspective on the Law to that shown by Jesus.  In all his actions and interactions with people he strove to engage and unearth the hidden core of every person.  The outwardly righteous he showed to be corrupt at the core.  The outwardly sinful he showed to have a great and desperate faith.  A common thread in the former was pride; in the latter humility.


Peter Makes Himself a Liar

Much can and has been said of the scene in which Peter denies Jesus three times after having vociferously proclaimed his own incorruptibility.  I will only add that the depth of Peter's betrayal is increased by his insistence that he would not betray Jesus.  Had Peter remained silent he might still have done the same (and considering the threefold commission Jesus gives him after the resurrection, things did not turn out so bad), but he also might not have had so much unwarranted confidence in himself.  This confidence created a blind spot in which temptation was able to creep up and take him unawares.

Humility is one strong gift that Peter and the other disciples who abandoned Jesus at the crucifixion ultimately received.  If we have our eyes open, all of our failures can be moments for the same gift to be imparted to us.

This Holy Week, I pray that all of you who so graciously read these thoughts might grow closer to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that, dying with him, you may also share in the joy of his resurrection.  Please pray for me and my family in this holiest of weeks.