Maundy Thursday

We have had this discussion before. When does Lent end?

Is it after the striping of the Cross Thursday night? Friday after attending church? Saturday the second before Midnight?This seems to be more and more a discussion about dogma than substance.

What is important is that we carry what we have learned and experienced during Lent into our daily lives. Why should we discontinue fasting, praying, and meditating?The difference between Lent and the other seasons is Easter.

Once a year we celebrate something that is so special in our lives that winning the Final Four, beating the Yankees, and winning Powerball all pale in comparison.

We begin this Maundy Thursday on the most sober of notes. Jesus is led away to the cross. We are devastated. We cry like young Jake when his favorite team loses. Yet as a Jewish proverb says, “ as soap washes a body, tears wash the soul.”

I apologize for the trivialization, but can anyone watch or read about a reenactment of Christ’s passion without tears? I can’t. We even know the happy ending, and I still cry.

This day allow yourselves to cry, to allow the tears to wash your soul; because come Sunday your tears will be of another variety.

Wednesday in Holy Week

A man who is willing to undertake the discipline and the difficulty of mending his own ways is worth more to the conservation movement than a hundred who are isisiting that the industries and governments mend their ways. -- Wendell Berry

This applies to our spiritual lives as well. This Lent we have tried to make small changes in our own lives, although the changes may seem larger than life. The result may not be readily apparent, but may be greater than we can imagine. It is called the “butterfly effect.” Someone goes back in time and accidentally kills a butterfly, and centuries later the world is changed for the worse. In our case we have made changes for the good, and who knows what positive changes will result.I have become a great believer in dealing with my own inner demons and not blaming societies’ ills. This may be naïve or burying my head in the sand. Yet, if I can change for the good; I add a small light to a dark world. Who could have ever dreamed that Jesus death would save humankind – only God. We are not Jesus. We are not God. However, on this day before we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us, let us contemplate and act on what God asks us to do. It is probably very small although difficult. Yet one of us may be able to change the world more than governments.

Tuesday in Holy Week

What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God we are planning our own kind of answer to our prayer. -- T. Merton -- Thoughts

Merton was a great believer of mediative prayer. He believed prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God. It is hard to let go of thinking that we know what is best for us. This goes to our job, our health, our family, and everything we are involved. As we approach the very end of Lent, we still find ourselves trying to hang on, rather than surrender. We are not alone. Jesus asked if there wasn't another way other than the cross.Yet we have made progress. In the words of "Father Luis" we have gone as far as we can go and that in itself is pleasing to God. In our feeble attempts we have started down a path toward God. They may be "Baby Steps" like Bill Murray's in What About Bob. Yet steps they are and now we must ask ourselves, " How do we continue?" Are we going to slide into old habits or are we going to lengthen our stride? I suggest that the answer is found not our own answer, but in having the confidence in God's answer.

Monday in Holy Week

It will be like they have dipped themselves in magic waters. James Earl Jones -- Field of Dreams

Batter up! It is opening day for another major league baseball season. Will the Yankees return to championship form? Will we have an upstart make it to the World Series like Tampa Bay did last year? Will the Cubs finally win it all? Anticipation is in the air. What will happen?Jesus entering Jersuleum was greeted by the masses with enthusiasm and anticipation as well. Will he throw out the Romans and declare himself as King? Will he heal the sick and lame, and return the Jews to previous glory as God's chosen people. What will happen?What does happen is that is what no one could forsee. The world changed forever on that Easter day. If we allow it to change each of us "it will be like (we) have dipped ourselves in magic waters."

Palm Sunday

It was a beautiful day, a glorious service, and wonderful sermon by Luis, that I can not give justice to by trying to even hit the highpoints. Cherry blossoms and flowers are in bloom and we begin Holy Week in a festive mood. We are brought back to reality by the reading of the passion and the reality that to get to "Hail the Festival Day, we go through the pain of the death upon the cross.

Jesus even during the last few days hoped that there was some other way his purpose here on Earth could be accomplished without having to experience the suffering he was about to undergo. Like all of us he prayed for another way.I have found myself asking in much less significant matters to let there be another way -- another way less painful and less painful for those I love so very much. Perhaps you have had or will have that experience as well.

This is why we all need faith. Faith that at times we must accept the tough times ahead. Faith that we will endure, not without pain, but we will endure. Faith finally, that at some point in this life or afterwords that we will sing, "Hail the Festival Day."