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For St. Francis, meditating on the Passion was not some medieval exercise in masochism but a means of uniting himself completely to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, a way of living so thoroughly into the mystery of Christ that he was able to lead others into this mystery.
As the Christian community reflected on today’s passage from Isaiah, it became clear that the figure being presented was Jesus, the servant of God.
Our unity is far from perfect, but today’s liturgy reminds us that if we are not always working toward that unity, then, like Judas, we are finding excuses to betray Christ’s ideals.
St. Francis was absolutely devoted to the Eucharist. It’s one of the reasons he was so concerned about rebuilding and cleaning local churches, making them suitable homes for the Eucharist.
During Lent, as we witness the fullness of Jesus’ story, we see over and over again that we have a God who fully understands the range of our human emotions.
The Eucharist imprints religious identity on those who share in it, as participation in the exodus conferred religious identity on the people who followed Moses out of Egypt.
Now I believe you are much better prepared to walk through the sacred days ahead with a Jesus who shares, suffers, and trusts God exactly as you and I must learn to do. He walked in darkness too.
Do we always end up betraying Jesus at some point? We are all sinners. We all need salvation, again and again and again. And so we come to the paschal mystery, the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
This Sunday, we celebrate Easter and the joy of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
We find ourselves in a Holy Saturday moment, in that space between Crucifixion and Resurrection, and the model we adopt moving forward might affect whether we discover an empty tomb.
