My family doesn’t travel a lot due to a variety of reason but when we do it’s special. There’s excitement of the anticipation of going to a “new” place or a destination. But it also involves tons of angst and worry. It takes planning to make the trip go smoothly (and by smoothly I mean not a complete ship-wreck). As the kids have gotten older we have been able to travel more and more. Still not super far from home. Usually it’s a couple hours away to visit family and friends.
This weekend we are going to my son’s state basketball for Special Olympics. It’s been an event circled on our calendar for months now. Last year we went too and he got to eat Froot Loops for breaksfast at the hotel. We aren’t staying in a hotel this time but he wanted to keep things like last year and so I pick up a couple small bowls of Tuscan Sam’s favorite cereal. I think it helped with his anxiety. My son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and he can sometimes struggle with change. Consistency is key for him to stay regulated. And I suppose that’s the same for many of us.
We like to stick with what is familiar. To stay in the comfort of our daily routine and to know what to expect. And that is a good. It is good to have a habit and order in our lives. But it is not the highest good. When our need for control overcomes other goods and ultimately the highest Good (who is God) that is when it begins a problem.
I am writing this reflection on Palm Sunday, the start of the most important week of the liturgical calendar: Holy Week. The Cathoilic Church in Her wisdom has guided the faithful in preparing for this week during all of Lent. Lent is a time to fasting, increase our prayer, and be generous with our time, talents, and treasures. And we are called to an even deeper penance this Holy Week.
I think it is fitting that I am traveling while writing (I’m in the passenger seat so don’t worry) and it’s on Palm Sunday. As Catholics we are called to enter into the Mysery of the Lord’s Paschal Mystery.
An Upward Journey
Over the past few days I have been reading small sections of the Passion account from John’s Gospel. There’s been a small detail that I only just noticed in my dozens of readings/hearings of this story. Listen to the first verse carefully, “When he had said this, Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered” (John 18:1). I would have glanced over this verse if it were not for me having been reading from my Ignatius Press Study Bible.
This isn’t a plug for getting that bible (although it does make for an excellent Confirmation gift). Actually, what made me go back to this verse was a map in the back of the Bible that showed the various elevations of places in the New Testament. I was trying to get my kids’ attention to help calm them down before prayer by showing them the cool maps. I noticed that the lowest elevation was the Kidron Valley.
Remembering that I had recently seen that place before in John’s Gospel I flipped back to the beginning of the Passion Narrative. And the Kidron Valley has stuck with me the past couple of days. Doing more research about this place I learned that there’s more significance throughout the Bible to this valley. King David fled through this valley during the rebellion of his son Absalom. Later, righteous kings of Judah like Hezekiah and Josiah used the valley as a place to destroy and burn pagan idols. Tradition places the Blessed Virgin Mary’s tomb in the Church of the Sepluchre of St. Mary in the Kidron Valley, near the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.
Everything Begins in the Garden
Jesus’ journey to the Cross began at the lowest point elevationally speaking. And the Kidron Valley is a symbol of our own spiritual lives. How often does our trek toward Calvary start at rock bottom in the midst of suffering and pain. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus endured intense stress, Luke recounts that he even sweated blood. The Agony of the Garden is a juxtaposition of the idyllic state of mankind in the original garden, the Garden of Eden. Pain and suffering didn’t exist there it was only after Adam and Eve disobeyed God that sin and death entered into the world.
Jesus is the New Adam. Saint Paul wrote about this constantly throughout his episitles. One of his most clear teachings is found in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49:
“So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.”
Total Obedience to Love is Salvation
The arc of salvation history reaches it’s climax in the Crucifixion. Jesus is the bridge to fix what the Adam and Eve broke. He took on all the sin of humanity and made the ultimate sacrifice. The only sacrifice worthy to atone for our sin is the True Passover Lamb. And Jesus is that innocent, unblemished sacrificial lamb upon the altar of God.
Saint Catherine of Siena puts it eloquently, “Obedience is the key with which Heaven is opened. Christ sweet Jesus left you this sweet key of obedience; for, as you know, He left His Vicar, Christ-on-earth, whom you are all obliged to obey until death -and whoever is outside his obedience is in a state of damnation.”
But it is not an obedience out of fear or the pains of Hell that we should aim for as Christians. We are called to obey God because we trust in His goodness and mercy. Jesus is the remedy to all the pains of the world. Saint Augustine of Hippo said it this way, “Our heart is restless until it rests in you”. The Christian life is not meant to be comfortable and without pain. We are called to pick up our crosses daily. But when we unite our suffering to the Lord’s suffering on Calvary it becomes redemptive. All the saints learned that the way to salavtion is found in putting our lives into the care of our Lord.
The School of Suffering
On Good Friday we commemorate the Mystery of Jesus Christ’s Passion and Death on the Cross. Maybe it is because I grew up Catholic but I never really saw the crucifix as a radical symbol. It was a steady presence throughout my childhood. There was a crucifix in every room of my home growing up. As I have grown in knowledge and love of God I have allowed the Holy Spirit to draw me deeper into this mystery of suffering.
Too often as a kid, I wanted to flee from pain or discomfort. It was when I became an adult and ultimately a husband and father that I gained the wisdom to know how suffering transforms one into something greater. Saint Francis de Sales proclaimed, “Mount Calvary is the academy of Love.”
God wanted to reunite humanity with Himself after the Great Fall in Genesis 3. And like a good teacher or a patient father, God sought to bring humanity to the truth, yet it took time. He uses everything for our good (cf. Romans 8:28) even (and sometimes especially) the bad that happens to you and me.
God paved the way for the Messiah by covenenting Himself with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. He fashioned the Israelites as the people of God in the Old Testament and opened up salvation to the world with the life, death, and Resurrection of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Unites Us to His Father
As you gaze upon the crucifixes in your home and the one at your parish this Good Friday pay careful attention to how Jesus is stretching out his hands. He died for the whole world but He would have endured that horrific death even for the sake of saving just one soul. You are worth everything and loved beyond measure in the eyes of the Father.
Jesus loves you so much that he became obedient to the point of death. He is our bridge to the Father.
Related Links
A Prayer Before the Cross on Good Friday
A Good Friday Reflection: Fixing Our Gaze on Golgotha
From Good Friday Sorrow to Easter Joy
