Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Sisters and brothers, after this weekend you will notice that all eyes, all minds, all hearts turn now to the solitary moment which defines us as brothers and sisters. We begin the final, proximate preparation for the re-present-ing of the battle waged for our souls, the moment that evil waged his most desperate war against Love, fighting for our redemption. It seems unlikely [to say the least] that we could possibly have been worth so great a price, to have been so beloved by God while so unworthy, while we were still sinners, that God would sacrifice his own Love to gain ours. Your love, and mine.

That Word of God has his most eloquent expression of Love in the silence on the Cross. Everything the Father has, he has given to me; everything I have received from my Father I have given to you…

In this Extraordinary Year of Mercy we listen to the Passion of the Lord according to Saint Luke. Though a small comfort, it is a comfort to listen that there were people around Jesus who were willing to show him mercy. It was Pilate’s intention to let Jesus go free, having found no fault in him, though he finally gave in to the demands of the threatening mob. Simon helps Jesus (willingly?) carry the Cross. The women of Jerusalem are lamenting over his suffering. In the Gospel of Luke Mary is not mentioned meeting Jesus along the way, especially odd since Mary has a prominent presence in the story of Luke. Maybe the story was so sad to Jesus’ followers that he is merciful in not relating it.

One of the two criminals crucified with Jesus, in the middle of dying, shows Jesus the mercy of acknowledging his innocence, which leads him to make an act of faith. In that last  moment of his life, Jesus extends to him the mercy of salvation.

In Jesus’ moment of dying, he offers a prayer to the Father on behalf of those for whom he is dying – us – that we be forgiven for our ignorant sinfulness. The last words of the Word reveal God’s Mercy, the reason for all of this: “Father, forgive them…” After all is finished, the centurion comes to faith, “This man was innocent beyond doubt,” and the virtuous and righteous man Joseph came to collect Jesus’ Body and honor it with a proper burial. We do what we can, in the face of such darkness.

But Luke includes another significant detail. There is something that happens in the midst of the darkness, the storm, the confusion of pain and death: the curtain in the temple is torn in two. When I was a kid I used to wonder why he bothered with this detail. We had curtains on all our windows at home. I’m not a fan of curtains, but I guess they do keep the  neighbors from looking into your house during the day.

It wasn’t until I was in seminary that I realized the impact of this event. You see, the Holy of Holies was the center of the temple, there were layers of security and checkpoints from the streets outside to various courtyards which restricted first the gentiles, then the women, then the lay men, then the people of privileged classes, finally the priests. The holiest place was the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies where the ark had been kept. It was the place where God dwelled. Only the high priest (Caiaphas, that year) was allowed to enter one time, to take the blood of the sacrifices and sprinkle it on the sacred stones within, a ritual of purification by which the people believed they were forgiven their sins. The curtain was the final barrier: it was made of iron links. Its purpose was to keep us out.

At the moment of Jesus’ death, the curtain is torn top to bottom. It would have taken the same force needed to split the earth, to make the cracks that you can see today in the rock at the top of Golgotha inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The curtain is torn top to bottom: God’s Love is not conquered, but by his self-sacrifice he can open himself to all people, not a privileged few or those who even might deserve it on a rare day. It is ours. It is not separate, it is approachable. It is near. And we have life.

God bless you.

Wednesday Noon Lenten Ecumenical Prayer Services

Micah Churches gather for prayer and almsgiving to the homeless. Light lunch reception follows.

March 16 Rev. Allen Fisher (Presbyterian Church) preaches at Fredericksburg Methodist Church.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Everything we do in the spiritual life orients us both toward God and toward one another as Church; it would never be a turning inward, or a self-centered act. All God’s  many gifts are given to us as individuals to form us together as Christ (“conform” us into the person of Christ, members of his Body), which would have as the goal always to turn toward others in service (“…not to be served, but to serve“). Made in God’s image, his self-emptying love is seen in our actions of self-emptying love.

At first glance I think everyone would agree with this statement. But sometimes it isn’t, actually, the reality of our actions. And Lent is a good time for us to consider the way that God calls us together.

Take, for example, the way so many people say they don’t really need to confess sins to a priest: “I just go directly to God.” Many people can convince themselves that sin is only a personal issue and avoid sacramental reconciliation for years. But the Church has always taught that our sins have two dimensions, the vertical one where we sin against God, and the corresponding horizontal dimension where every sin we commit also impacts every other person to whom we are united, not only by our humanity, but especially in the Body of Christ. The process of reconciliation requires absolution that originates from both dimensions. Both must be healed.

For that reason, throughout the early centuries of the Church, confession of sins was always made publicly. You would, literally, stand before the entire assembly and confess. I wonder how that would go over today. Would we desire reconciliation that much that we had to admit our faults openly? It is a practice that can still be found in some religious orders today.

Thankfully, today the Church allows reconciliation to take place in absolute confidentiality, but the confession must be made out loud, still, and the absolution comes from God and the Church, through the instrumentality of the sacrament of Holy Orders, or priesthood. Aren’t you glad this changed?

But we can’t forget that the act of confession is not just a private act of forgiveness between you and Jesus, despite the fact that it is done privately. Every time, you can be certain of reconciliation to God and to the Communion of Saints.

Communion, like reconciliation, takes place on both dimensions. It can be a blind spot for me that I might focus only on the Communion that takes place between me and God, and I can ignore all those other people who surround me at that moment in church. I could actually find myself wishing that they were not there at all! How
noisy and unpleasant they can be, right?

How contrary this is to the reality of Communion! God has not called all of us into an infinite number of exclusive relationships so that we can ignore one another. Our Communion is with God in that vertical sense, certainly, but the entire action of Communion is that we are called together into a new reality: diverse members of  one Body who is Christ for the world. That is  one of the reasons we sing: like it or not, we are called to act together in the prayer of Jesus (one voice) and the mission of Jesus in the Church (one heart). It isn’t the time for self-focus.

One of the ideas called forth from the Second Vatican Council was to restore a theology of the active participation of the lay faithful in the mystery of salvation and how  the Mass constitutes that work. It is about receiving, of course, and bringing ourselves to God, present to him as he is present to us. But receiving is the means to an end that is the consecration of the world: we receive in order to become :  Christ made present to the world, Christ who will become all in all, not through me, but through us. Literally incorporated in baptism, we live the new life of the triune God.

God bless you.

Wednesday Noon Lenten Ecumenical Prayer Services
Micah Churches gather for prayer and almsgiving to the homeless. Light lunch receptions follow.
March 9 Rev. Aaron Dobynes (Shiloh Old Site Baptist) preaches at the Presbyterian Church.
March 16 Rev. Allen Fisher (Presbyterian Church) preaches at Fredericksburg Methodist Church.