RBWords - Volume 23 - Number 3: March 2010
Something to Think About
As I write this, I am at a parish in Montgomery, AL, where I have just completed my final Lenten Parish Mission for this Lent. I will be moving from here to St. Jude Monastery about 30 miles north of Montgomery to spend Holy Week and Easter with the cloistered Dominican nuns there. This is a small community, founded in 1944, which was established with the intention of making cloistered Dominican life available inter-racially. Given the location and timing, one may truly admire this effort. Since I am uncertain as to internet access, I decided to send RBWORDS a bit earlier than usual. (The \"snail mail\" version may go out a bit later than usual.)
If my readers are anything like me, they will be somewhat relieved that the subject of the health care reform may subside somewhat from the scene. At least one can hope so. The sheer intensity and animosity of the national debate has been discouraging to me. It would seem to me that the more important an issue is, the LESS we should get into vicious stereotyping and distortion on all sides to make the points that require wise decision. Such has not been the case, and we are all the more confused and impoverished. The local newspaper here had a page which purported to explain the major features of the bill, and I found it hard to understand. The American bishops and the Catholic Health Association (which represents Catholic hospitals) have differed on whether or not the bill protects the unborn and the consciences of Catholic and other health care workers who object to certain other morally unacceptable procedures. The executive order signed by the president for the purpose of maintaining those protections leaves the bishops unsatisfied. The opposition has vowed not to rest till the whole thing is repealed! I think most of us would prefer to have a reprieve to celebrate Holy Week and Easter in peace!
I urge all my beloved readers to take advantage of Holy Week to \"regroup\" and focus on the enormous value of Christ\'s love for us by entering into the drama of the scriptures and events of the time. You can follow my own preaching on this at my website www.rbwords.com \"The Word to the Wise\" if you do not already receive it by e-mail. I wish one and all a spiritually profound Holy Week and all the joy of Christ\'s Resurrection! Happy Easter!!!!
IT\'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
Somehow [Jesus] has taken the worst that evil people can do to him and has come through and out the other side. It\'s breathtaking but it\'s real. Somehow the Servant absorbs into himself all the evil that has taken place, trusting God that this is how it has to be, and God vindicates him.
What that means for us - and this is quite close to the heart of the meaning of the cross - is that the bad things that have happened in our lives, to us personally, or in our community, to our way of life, can be brought to the foot of the cross and left there. He has taken them: lies, injustices, betrayals, insults, physical violence, the lot. He meant to take them, because, in his great love for us, he did not intend that our lives should be crippled by them. Even when we have been partly responsible for them. That\'s what forgiveness is all about: not saying \'It didn\'t really happen\' or \'It didn\'t really matter\' but rather \'It did happen, and it did matter, but Jesus has dealt with it all and we can be free of it.\' Jesus didn\'t want us to be bowed down under that weight, turning us into grumblers, and blamers and moaners. He wanted to take all that evil and set us free from its weight.
from: CHRISTIANS AT THE CROSS: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus
by N.T. Wright