Lent Reflections by Rev. Robert Barron

[Deleted]

GOOD FRIDAY - THE CROSS

The cross was meant to terrify people. If you ran afoul of the Roman state, they would fix you to this terrible instrument of torture, allow you to hang there until you died, and then leave your body for the beasts of the field. It was meant to be agonizingly painful, humiliating, and dehumanizing.

The cross came to symbolize all of the dark power that the world could muster: violence, oppression, injustice, and indifference to suffering. It was, in a word, state-sponsored terrorism and it was the key to the power of Rome. So terrible was the cross that people in polite society wouldn't speak of it. For the first nine centuries of the Church's life, Jesus' cross wouldn't be depicted.

It is so important theologically to note that Jesus allows all of this to wash over him. He submits to the totality of it, accepting as Paul says, "even death, death on a cross." The world had thrown its worst at Jesus, spending itself on him, but he, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was more powerful. And this is why they proclaimed him as King and Lord and Messiah.

In an absolutely delicious bit of irony, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, places over the cross, the declaration, in the three major languages of the time, that Jesus is the King, effectively de-throning Caesar and becoming, despite himself, the first great evangelist.

And so we today hold up the cross of Jesus Christ, which was meant to affirm the powers of the world, the powers of sin and death, as a challenge to those powers.

It's our declaration that death and violence do not have the last word. Jesus does.

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

HOLY SATURDAY - GRAIN OF WHEAT

What is the message that Jesus has for the world? At first he seems to confirm his followers' hopes: "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified." Great! Finally, after putting things off for so long, he is ready; the moment has come.

But then he clarifies: "I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies it produces much fruit." Believe me, this is not what his followers wanted to hear.

The Jews had had more than enough experience with death. They had lived under oppression for centuries and their glory days were long ago. The Roman boot was pressing down upon them. Those who would endeavor to throw it off were imprisoned or killed. And now this one, upon whom they had pinned their hopes, at the high point of his life, is speaking of falling to the earth and dying.

Then it gets stranger: "The man who loves his life loses it, while the man who hates his life in this world, preserves it to life eternal." Come again?!

To understand what all this means, we should go back to the great image that Jesus uses, the grain of wheat that falls to the earth. A seed, resting by itself, can exist for a long time. In fact, they have found seeds in the tombs of the Pharaohs and seeds in fossil remains. But unless they fall into the soil and crack open, nothing further comes of them. Their life is inside, yes, but it's a life that grows by being given away and mixing with the soil around it. It has to crack open and be destroyed. But even after a very long time, a seed can grow into a flourishing plant. The oldest seed that has grown into a viable plant was a 2000-year-old date palm seed from excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in Israel. It was germinated in 2005.

When you look at a great tree or a plant, you see none of the original seed, and yet you see life. The same is true of the cross. When Christians look at the cross, we no longer see death, but eternal life.




"His sign is the sign of the cross, the death that leads to transfiguration."

- Fr. Robert Barron

[Deleted]

EASTER SUNDAY - THE MEANING OF THE RESURRECTION

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

Friends, on this Easter we should remember that Jesus is not just a soul that's gone to heaven. The resurrected Christ, as Paul said, is the first fruits of a new life. A whole new human nature has appeared and emerged.

Resurrection can't simply mean, as many contemporary authors want us to believe, that the cause of Jesus goes on. (As though you listen to the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven and the society of Beethoven lovers says, "Well, the spirit of Beethoven goes on.") People don't give their whole lives, don't go to the end of the world preaching, don't go to their death in support of a vague metaphor. What galvanized the first Christians was that Jesus - the crucified one who had died-is now alive again.

On this Easter, we Christians must avoid another problem: seeing the Resurrection simply as a return to this life. Lazarus was raised from the dead, only to die again. He still belonged to the realm of death. When Lazarus came forth, he was still wearing his grave clothes. He still belonged, in some way, to the tomb.

That's not what happens in the Resurrection. When Jesus rises from the dead, He leaves his grave clothes behind. Jesus now lives a new life exalted through the power of the Father. His relationship to space and time is now completely changed. He passes through locked doors. He comes and goes as he pleases.

Jesus is the first fruit of a new way of being, a new life. It's still a human life, but it is now lived at a higher pitch of intensity. This is such good news for us because this is what God intends for all of us: that we now will share in the risen life of Jesus.

It's our human life - yes, still bodily - but now lived at a higher level, spiritualized and glorified.



The Resurrection of Jesus means the very foundations of the cosmos have been shaken."


- Fr. Robert Barron

Happy Easter

[clarencebunsen]

I had never considered the distinction between Lazarus still bound in his burial wrappings and Jesus' wrappings folded and left in the tomb. Something to ponder. Probably because of my Mother's passing one month ago, today's service was very emotional for me.