Serious Business
As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection and ascension of our
Lord on Easter Sunday, I think it’s important to reflect on an often overlooked Lenten reminder;
Christianity is serious business.
Many have added
the stations of the cross to their Lenten activities. In this way we recall the brutal reality of the passion and death of our Lord. We walk with Him
as He carries His cross, falling several times, causing the Romans to force
another to help carry the cross. Along
the way He meets His mother, our Blessed Mother, sharing a look surely full of
sorrow and pain. When Veronica offered
her veil for Him to wipe His face she is blessed with the image of His face
imprinted upon the veil.
Upon His
arrival at Calvary, Jesus is stripped, and nailed to the cross. After three hours of agony, He relinquishes His
spirit to the Father and dies. Taken
down from the cross, He is cradled in the arms of the Blessed Mother, carried
to the tomb, and prepared for burial.
And yet, for
all the pain and suffering He endured, by His resurrection and ascension He brought
the hope and joy of Christianity. In His
death and rising He destroyed death and offered eternal life to those who would
believe.
In our life
we must also recognize that Christianity is a serious business. It is not a social club or a custom we
continue out of habit, but a way of life.
We must recognize that we must accept the Lord and the truths He taught
and implement them in our lives. That
means rejecting most of what society treasures and following the path through
the narrow gate of faith.
Christianity is not a cafeteria where we can select what we wish to believe and reject whatever isn’t
pleasing to us. If we cannot accept the
fact of the real presence, we are eating and drinking condemnation upon ourselves
by receiving communion. If we are having
sex of any kind outside of a sacramental marriage we are guilty of fornication,
adultery, or both. If we support the
murder of babies in the womb, we are complicit in the murder of the innocents. If we are unprepared to follow Christ all the
way to Calvary if necessary, perhaps we need to rethink, and with the help of
God, strengthen our faith.
Lord, we recall Your passion, death,
and resurrection. Increase our faith, help
our unbelief. Amen
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