It's Now or Never

Here we are. The Holy Triduum of Holy Week. Today is Holy Thursday, representing the night where Jesus was handed over by his own disciple Judas. Are you ready for the next few hours? Become a part of it. That's why we relive this every year...so we get a glimpse of what this experience might have been like when it was actually happening.

By feeling the emotions of tonight, when Jesus and the apostles have the Last Supper, we can hear what Jesus says, and reflect on his thoughts before everything goes down. What is interesting about reading the Passion is that before Jesus goes into the garden to pray, they all sing a hymn. I would love to know what kind of hymn they sung. Was it joyous? It's hard not to sing without great feeling and emotion, and in this case, Jesus was hours away from death, so I would imagine this hymn wouldn't be any different when it came to emotions. Knowing what was about to happen in its entirety, maybe Jesus wanted to settle everyone down by singing, and distract them through song.

After the hymn, they go into the garden, where Jesus isn't so joyous, even asking God to not let him go through with it. We get that all the time in life. There are things we simply do not want to do, but have to, either for the prospect of a better future for ourselves or for someone else. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do...and Jesus is a perfect example of that. He did it not for himself, but for the rest of salvation. Because of Him we have something to believe in. If every one of us did one one-hundredth of Jesus' sacrifice, our world would be that much better.

So, participate in each of the next few days, and maybe you'll be able to take what is learned now, and let it last not just until Easter, but well beyond that into our future.

Can you see?

From the Gospel of John: Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains."

This past weekend we heard a story of Jesus healing a man's blindness. Pretty amazing event actually. Yet, there is more to this story than a simple man not seeing then seeing two seconds later. Jesus teaches us something about "sight."

That last statement in the Gospel shown above isn't the easiest one to understand. The majority of us can see, but Jesus isn't talking about the sense of sight, but the sight that lies within us. By saying that "We see," we don't recognize our shortcomings and our limitations. Sure, it's our job in life to strive to be able to become as much like Jesus as possible, but that's a lofty goal to attain. By saying, "we see," we are acting like we already know it all, and that thirst to become better people is not there.

We have a lot to learn. Whether you're 7, 17, 27, 37, or 107, everyone has a little something to learn. Think about the last time you met someone 20 years older than you. It's hard to ignore how much more wisdom that older person has compared to the younger one. At 22, I am often dumbfounded at these people's skill at recalling all these different stories with all the different places they've been and people they've met. I can't even imagine knowing that much, but maybe someday down the road I'll know a tenth of what these older people do.

With that in mind, I'm sure that person 20 years older than myself has another person 20 years older than them that dumbfounds them as well. We need to respect that, and the fact that everyone has a lot to learn.

In this stage of Lent, we are more than halfway through. How much have you learned over these 20 days or so? Or did you begin Lent thinking you did not need to change anything? If that's the case, it might be time to go take a look at that Gospel reading once again, and find something, even a little bit smaller, to work on.

You've got time.