Final Stretch to Easter Glory

Today, Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, we enter into the final stretch of accompanying Jesus on his journey to Easter glory. As we gather for the blessing of the palm, the priest proclaims the following salutation: “Dear friends in Christ, for five weeks we have been preparing, by works of charity and self-sacrifice, for the celebration of our Lord’s paschal mystery. Today we come together to begin this solemn celebration in union with the whole Church throughout the world. Christ entered in triumph into his own city, to complete his work as our Messiah: to suffer, to die, and to rise again. Let us remember with devotion this entry which began his saving work and follow him with a lively faith. United with him in his suffering on the cross, may we share his resurrection and new life.” As I listen to this greeting year after year, I realize I have come to a crossroad in life. I am on the bridge between what has been and what is yet to come. My mind begins to unravel a quick examination of conscience- How have I lived these past five weeks of Lent? Did I fulfill my Lenten resolutions? Did I at least try to fulfill them? Did I at least fulfill one of them? What works of charity and self-sacrifice did I practice? But I don’t have much time for this interior soul searching because my heart awakens to the invitation to join everyone in union with the whole Church to accompany Christ as he enters in triumph into his own city to complete his journey of suffering, dying, and rising. Jesus and I are both on the bridge of “no return” and willingly trust the Spirit to lead us step by step to the promise of new life. As I join the procession to the chapel, my heart fast forwards to the intensity of the liturgical drama that will transpire during this Holy Week Pilgrimage. The long Passion narrative will be read today and on Good Friday and I must listen for God’s message for me at this time in my life. The symbol of the cross is like a seal on my heart as I immerse myself into greater effort to understand the true meaning of the Passion narrative.

Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, in a reflection entitled “The Cross as Revealing the Inner life of God,” describes the cross as “the ultimate icon, the real depiction of the Holy. It shows us the inner life of the Trinity…Ultimately all three persons of the Trinity-Father, Son, and Spirit-are on the cross. On the surface, of course, we see Jesus, the Son…He hangs on the cross in anguish, dying, alone, humiliated, misunderstood, but he also hangs there in trust and fidelity, giving his life away without resentment, recrimination, and bitter questioning because he knows and trusts someone deeply enough to, literally, believe in the sun even when it isn’t shining, in love even when he isn’t experiencing it, and in God even when God is silent.” Rolheiser goes on to say the Father is also present on the cross, “suffering, waiting in patience, empowering another to trust….As the drama of the crucifixion is taking place…a forgiving warmth, a healing fire, and an unfathomable patience and understanding are being produced, revealed, and released. That energy, the ultimate oxygen, which the gospels depict as spilling out of Jesus’ pierced side as blood and water, is the Holy Spirit and that Spirit reveals precisely what is going on inside of God…The cross is therefore an icon of love and “defines God as love and gives us a picture of what that kind of love looks like.”


The cross, this icon of ultimate love, will be constantly in my sight as I re-live another Holy Week pilgrimage. I have one more chance to complete my Lenten resolutions and to journey deeper into the mystery of death and resurrection, supported by the Trinity of Love. I have another chance to renew my baptismal and monastic vows. I have one more chance to join in communion with all the People of God to respond to Christ’s call to “faithfully [observe] God’s teaching in the monastery until death, [and] shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in the eternal presence.” (St. Benedict’s Prologue)

My challenge, of course, will be to be mindful of this intention throughout the week. The many liturgical events, the preparations for festive meals, and the unexpected demands of life can sometimes interrupt my plans for staying on a mindful track. Kathleen Norris, in her book The Cloister Walk, sums it up well:
“In a monastery, the Easter Triduum [Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday]…is a total surrender to worship. Time feels suspended, allowing for focus on the events commemorated: Jesus gathering with friends the night before his death, to share a last meal; Jesus’ arrest and execution; and his resurrection. If you’ve become acclimated to the normal rhythms of the monastery, the daily round of prayer, meals, and work, the liturgies of the Triduum are guaranteed to throw you off.”


But I can have faith that I am supported and loved on this final stretch of walking with Jesus and know that in this suspended time I will only be thrown off into Glorious New Life.

Haiku

Your cross before me

unites my heart with your Heart

in Ultimate Love.

~Sister Priscilla Cohen, OSB