3) CROWNING

WITH THORNS

Life has its headaches.

Life has its worries and its anxieties.

Life has its mental storms.

Life has its crowning with thorns.

When have you felt like you were being crowned with thorns?

Life takes place between our ears – as we talk to ourselves inwardly about what’s happening outwardly. We worry about the people we deal with each day – at home and at work. Then there is traffic, weather, the cost of gasoline and the cost of raising children.

When we make mistakes or wrong turns, it’s hard to shake mistakes out of our mind. Family and friends tell us to let our mistakes go, but we can’t. They tell us to smell the roses, instead of looking at the thorns. We want to reply, “Hey, there are no roses in mistakes – only thorns and they seem to keep on sticking it to us.”

And sometimes we are hurt by others ….

If someone wants to make fun of us, they will find a way. They’ll twist and turn our words or actions into thorns and stick them into us. They’ll remind us of our weaknesses. They will bring up our past mistakes. The closer we are to others, the more they know our raw weaknesses.

However, we can develop the skill in reflecting on what is sent our way and deflect it. Of course it takes time to acquire this virtue – in the deep recesses of our mind.

Who of us could deal with a crown of thorns? Who of us could stand having a crown of sharp thorns driven into our head with reeds? Who of us could then deal with being spat at, dressed in purple and then mocked with the words, “Hail King of the Jews!”?

What did Jesus think and say when this was happening? We really don’t know. Mystics, as well as the gospel writers, imagine Jesus’ thoughts.

They were doing in the palace or praetorium that night what tyrants and bullies have always done to persons they want to persecute. Forget they are persons. Make him things. Make them objects. Never see them as subjects.

Jesus mirrors the opposite. Jesus is the king. And as king he saw all his subjects – especially the poor and the needy, the stuck and the sinner, in what they were being subjected to in life.

Jesus was a king – so they crowned him with a crown of thorns – and dressed him in a purple cloak. .

Jesus was a king who washed feet and let his feet be washed by a woman whom others saw only as an object. Jesus saw people as royalty – children of Our Father – especially people whom others objectified in order to rid them from their circles – sinners, tax collectors, people with leprosy, prostitutes, the unholy.

Jesus never tried to be a king with a golden crown. Yes he talked about a kingdom, but it wasn’t one with golden streets leading to a palace. No, he only mentioned a narrow way that leads to life. This carpenter told us to build our house on rock, yet he had no place to lay his head.

4) CARRYING

THE CROSS

What have been your crosses?

Who have been your crosses?

Everyone has a cross to carry.

And the Stations of the Cross are not only on the walls of our churches. They are also along our streets, but especially along the walls of our homes.
Everyone has a cross to carry.

Sometimes it feels like we have to carry it all alone.

Sometimes others help us.

The cross is made of wood.

It has become the symbol of Christ and Christianity.

We all know how to make the sign of the cross on our bodies – because that’s where we so often experience crosses: cancer, arthritis, headaches, and the slow loss of mobility and memory.

Most crosses come in the shape of people.

Obviously, Jesus’ cross was from people and he accepted it for people. People crucified him and he turned the other cheek to stop the violence that plagues our world – ever since the day Cain killed Abel.

Most don’t experience violent violence: murder, rape and assault.

Most crosses, as Tip O’Neil said of politics, are local.

A daughter is an alcoholic or a son is on drugs.

A husband is out of work.

A car accident causes a daughter to be paralyzed for life.

A marriage breaks up.

Our kids refuse to bring their kids, our grandkids, to church.

A son or a daughter moves in with someone refusing to get married and they come to visit us. What to do? Where to sleep? What to say?

Crosses then come in the form of people – usually those who are close to us – and people are hard to carry.

5) DEATH

ON THE CROSS

What have been the deaths in your life?

Death is the so called elephant in our living room.

Just as we have a birthday, we have a deathday.

Not knowing the second date helps make life that much more interesting.

Most prefer to avoid the presence of death in their autobiography.

Death, however, announces its presence on a regular basis.

The obituary column arrives on our porch along with the rest of the daily paper.

We notice death when a family member or a friend dies.

We become more and more aware of death as the number of candles on our birthday cake increase.

It helps to accept death’s reality – but it also helps to take care of our health with a balanced diet and regular exercise.

Death is in the cards as they say. The other cards in the deck can be used for cute fortune telling, but everyone is dealt the death card eventually.

Death challenges us to live life to the full – and to reflect on particulars when it comes to the question of why God made me.

As Samuel Johnson, the famous British writer put it, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

Calvary is a steep hill above every town.

The cross is on the top not only of our churches, but also our homes.

The funeral business will never go out of business.

People are dying all the time.

We all know the experienced of the loss of a loved one.

Death is in the wings.

Death doesn’t wait.

Death.

We hope there is resurrection.

THE
GLORIOUS MYSTERIES

Life has its glorious mysteries – the bigger than life moments –glorious moments – climbing higher moments – crowning with glory instead of sorrow moments of life.

We look to the mystery of Jesus and Mary to understand the call to glory that God calls us to – especially through these mysteries:

1) Resurrection moments: these are moments when rise again after the deep sorrow of losing a loved one. These are moments when we start all over again after a fire or after being fired. These are moments when we meet the risen Christ in the morning after a long night of pain.

2) Ascension moments: these are moments when we climb out the pit of depression or recover from an addiction one day at a time. These are moments when we see the next step when we didn’t know what that step was.

3) Decension moments: these are moments when the Spirit of God comes down upon us – when the Spirit shakes the foundations of our being and we breathe in a breath of fresh peace.

4) Assumption moments: these are moments when our old assumptions fall apart and new ones appear – when we finally begin to grasp why pictures and statues of Mary are everywhere – when we begin to see she models the life of the Christian – now and into the hereafter.

5) Crowning moments: these are moments when we reach the finish line – when we see that it’s all worth it – the sacrifice and the giving – the being there for others – the emptying of the self to be filled with the fullness of God.

1) RESURRECTION OF JESUS

FROM THE DEAD

When have you experienced “Resurrection Moments” – a moment you just knew someone who died is with the Lord?

Obviously death – the end of the line – is part of life – whether we like to look at it or not.

Obviously death – for the Christian – is not the end of the line.

Yet, death – especially after a long life or a long struggle with cancer – or Alzheimer’s – looks like that’s “The End” of our movie.

But because of Christ we Christians believe there is a sequel – another life - a new life – a never ending eternity in God.

Hopefully, when we look death in the eye, we’ll see Jesus the Light of the World waiting for us on the other side of the dark tunnel of death.

Every year we celebrate Easter as a way of saying to ourselves, “We believe in life after death – because of Jesus.”

Each Sunday we say the same thing by celebrating the Eucharist with each other.

“Dying you destroyed our death,
rising you restored our life.
Lord Jesus, come in glory.”

Each sunset teaches us endings; every sunrise teaches us beginnings.

We know birth; we know death; has resurrection dawned on us yet?

At some point in life, usually when we are older, Easter appears as a sunrise before us. Do we stop to watch it?

Easter is a feast of hope.

Easter is a feast of light.

Easter is a feast of new life.

Easter is a feast of the bursting up out of the earth of new flowers, new life, new possibilities.

We believe.

Jesus rose from the dead – giving us hope in the same possibility for us too.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

Roll away any heavy stones of doubt.

2) ASCENSION OF

JESUS INTO HEAVEN

What have been the most significant steps in your life?

What have been the steps in your life that were the greatest risk?

A small child crawls along the floor to the bottom of a flight of stairs. He looks up to the top and sees or hears his mother up there and realizes unconsciously, “I can’t make it up these stairs”. So he cries for “Help!” and his mother comes down and picks him up and takes him to the top of the stairs.

Sometimes a little child is scared when she’s picked up and lifted high up into the air – but then when she sees herself high above everyone and everything else, she smiles and laughs and feels mighty glorious.

The bread and the cup are lifted high at every Mass.

The best-man at a wedding lifts high his glass and toasts the bridegroom, his friend, and wishes him and his wife, “All the best and then some.”

And everyone at the wedding banquet does the same.

The athlete who wins the gold medal at the Olympics or the Special Olympics stands tall on the top box.

Statues are put on pedestals.

Our favorite pictures are framed and put on top of the television or on our book shelves or end tables.

Every sport and every school have their halls of fame.

Hospital employees, teachers, athletes, hard workers are acknowledge by being named “Teacher of the Month” “Athlete of The Week” or asked to stand up at a banquet and be acknowledged, appreciated, thanked, congratulated and applauded.

Life’s ascension moments are many.

Married couples celebrate their 25th and 50th anniversaries.

Bread rises.

The cream rises to the top.

In the first Rocky movie, Rocky Balboa climbs, ascends, to the top of the stairs outside the Philadelphia Art museum and raises his arms in triumph. The famous musical piece, “Gonna Fly Now”, composed and scored by Bill Conti, gets louder and louder and as he climbs the stairs till fills the theater. It presents to all the movie goers a preview of things to come.

Ascension….

A rising star….

At the stadium when a team scores a touchdown, a goal, a point, a homerun, a great basket, fans stand up, yell, and raise their arms in triumph as if they too made the play.

We are all connected.

We all want to ascend the stairs of greatness.

The Ascension is a feast of The More.

The Ascension is a feast that announces, “There’s much more to come.”

Jesus died.

That is not “The End”.

Jesus rose.

Jesus then promised The More – the Soaring More – an ascension into the next.
There’s always the next – the More.

Isn’t God wonderful?

Isn’t God mysterious?

Isn’t God always surprising us?
The banquet is never over!

Our mansion is waiting for us.

Ascension.

3) DESCENT

OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

When have you experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit like a mighty wind shook the shutters of the Upper Room where the disciples of Jesus were down with fear.

It looked like everything was over!

They had heard from Jesus about resurrection – but they hadn’t really experienced it yet. They had forgotten about Jesus’ tears and screams that brought Lazarus back from the dead.

They had celebrated the old feast of Pentecost, but they hadn’t experienced the new feast of Pentecost yet.

Fear went out the window with the breath of fresh air that came in the window that first Easter night.

For 40 days the Risen Jesus was preparing them for the next, for The More.

He gave them the great promise of the Spirit – especially when he was lifted up, when he ascended into heaven.

And on the 50th day – there came a new moment in their lives – the bursting forth of the Great Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, and went forth to the whole world with Good News.

Come Holy Spirit to me.

Breathe into me new life – a new spirit.

We’ve all seen people who were down, people who had lost their spirit, lost their faith, become depressed, and then “after some time” rise out of their doom and shuttered lives, and begin breathing new life into our world.

We’ve all seen teams that had given up, had too many losing streaks, get a new coach or a few new key players, and things got turned around and they danced their way to championships.

We’ve all heard about Alcoholics Anonymous where men and women who were being destroyed by addiction to the spirits in alcoholic – get a second wind, a new life, and recovered and their lives became manageable. They met in basements and upper rooms and a new spirit was breathed into them – from the group – from the Higher Power of God.

We’ve all heard about a teenager who changed dramatically for the better because of a failure or a great teacher or a change of schools or he or she just came of age and they woke up one morning with a new Spirit.

The Spirit can descends on everyone – like a bird quietly flying down and landing on a branch – or like a gentle breeze on a hot humid day – or like tongues of fire than can inspire. Yet, each of us has the choice: to accept the Holy Spirit and begin to branch out into new life or shut the Spirit away by closing our shutters; to allow the wind of the Spirit to blow the sails of our boat out to the open sea as we head for new harbors or to stay stuck in the same old place; to keep the torch and fire of the Spirit burning within us or to smother its flames.

Come Holy Spirit.

Come Dove of Peace.

Come Breeze of God.

Come Fire – Passionate Spirit of God.