6th Lent: Passion of the Lord. Victory?

The Gospel today ends in an apparent victory. Victory for those who use violence, those whose ego is more important; victory for those who lie, betray, and deny. Victory for those who are selfish. Victory of death and sin.

How easy for us to give in, to assume death and sin win as well in our world. We see the absolute horror of Russians killing innocents and torturing Ukrainians. We once again in our own country face the evil of children being slaughtered with weapons of destruction. 39 people were killed along the border in a horrible fire. People killed in tornados in the south, flooding in California; people dying of cold and exposure here in our city; the young mother murdered in the north valleys.  

Family members ill with and dying of cancers. People we care for descending into dementia. Hearts still being broken, disappointments, betrayals.

We could think that there is no cause of joy or hope. We could let it win. We could stop trying, stop caring.

But we know this Gospel does not end here. There is the shock, the revelation, the good news of the Resurrection.  There is always a way through our grief, our fear, our anger. We do not have to be controlled by them.  Christ will lead us through it; Christ does lead us through it. We follow in ways of hope, in love, in forgiveness.  We see new possibilities, new opportunities, new ways to live.

And be raised up.

This coming week, we enter into that mystery of new possibilities, opportunities and new life. We will repeat this same Gospel, but then we conclude it.

I encourage everyone to put aside activities, events: come to the Triduum.
Come and enter more deeply into the death and life of Jesus Christ.
Come and celebrate the victory of goodness, of life, of love.

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