March
13th , 2005
Fifth Sunday of Lent
The
Stench
Palm
Sunday
Next
Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. It’s Palm Sunday
and all sorts of folks show up. They come for palms and get the passion.
The gospel each Palm Sunday is the Passion of Jesus and everyone leaves
with something more precious than a bit of palm branch -- they leave
knowing how much Jesus passionately loves us that he would give his
life for us.
It’s a chance for us to be like Jesus -- though we might not be
asked to give our life next Sunday, we may be inspired to give our seats
(or at least not grumble when things are not the way they “usually”
are.) We make a great effort to add masses to our schedule, to move
the masses in the school to the larger auditorium, to adjust the mass
times so that we can accommodate all who are coming. Carefully read
our special schedule. It’ll be a great day!
Catholic
Ministries Appeal
I’ve pledged. Have you?
You can pledge online here!
At
College?
At St. Brigid’s we like to stay in touch through
e-mail “letters from home.”
Once a person has an e-mail address at school (or if he/she uses a personal
address), please let us know what it is so we can include them when
we write.
Here's a handy college link so you
can send this info online.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
March 6: To Tell or Not
To Tell
February 27: Dry Mouth Dry
Soul
February 20: Good to Be
Here
February 13: And he was
hungry?
Ash Wednesday '05
February 6: Ashes Already?
January 23: Catholic Schools
Week
January 16: Continued Charity
January 9: Migration
January 2:All is bright?
Columns from 2004
Columns from 2003
Columns from 2002
“Lord,
by now there will be a stench!” (Sorry to gross you out if you’re
reading this with your first cup of Sunday coffee.) But that’s what
Martha tells Jesus when he tells her and the family to roll back the stone
from Lazarus’s tomb. His dead body has been in there for four days
and all else being equal, Martha is right: this is not going to be pleasant.
But all isn’t equal. Jesus
is there in the face of death and since he is the “resurrection
and the life” things will happen that are beyond the people’s
imaginations.
The odd thing is that before Martha
argues with Jesus about rolling back the rock, she says things like:
• “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son
of
God the one who is coming into the world."
• “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God
will give you."
Obviously she believes in Jesus,
she knows she can put her faith in him. Yet when it comes to putting that
faith into real practice (“Roll away the stone!”), she’s
stuck. She couldn’t bear it if, when they opened the tomb, they’d
be assaulted by the stench of death. Her brother died. It would be too
cruel to get her hopes up, only to have them dashed. So, even this woman
who has great love for Jesus and great faith in him, is paralyzed when
it comes to putting her faith into practice.
As we head toward Holy Week, this
can be our story too. We come to church, we pray, we receive the Eucharist.
We have faith in Jesus. Yet there might be a stone-covered-tomb that Jesus
wants us to open, so that we can be freed from the death inside. Perhaps
there’s some addiction not acknowledged, something unhealthy not
faced, some anger not resolved. We fear the stench of opening things long
buried. But we need not be afraid. Jesus is here. He’s conquered
death before. He’ll do so again. No stench...just new light...new
life... freedom.
You are Person
