Surrounded (Good Friday, 2015-04-03)

[__01__]  This Good Friday – the middle day – the 2^nd day of the 3 days of our Easter Triduum.

Certainly, many of our traditional attitudes and practices surrounding the Good Friday fast, our practice at table …even what we strive to do – and not do – will ring tones of both sobriety and solemnity.

We are sober, we are solemn and we are between the great feast of the late-evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday and the Easter Vigil of our Savior’s resurrection of very early Sunday.

We are surrounded – between – this Feast and this resurrection.

We are in the midst of the Passion today, Good Friday.

And today, our Lord and Savior is surrounded.  Yet, he was free, even though he had been confined and surrounded by the guards, his captors.

[__02__]   Can you and I accept – remain in – our surroundings and be free, be content, and be saved by the body and blood of Christ?

Certainly a few – and only a few – of our Savior’s original disciples would have agreed that one could be simultaneously FREE and SURROUNDED.  In other words, to be a person of liberty and of conscience while others around them might insult them or threaten them.

But, did not the Blessed Mother – Our Lady of Lourdes – and her companions – demonstrate that they could be surrounded by Roman guards, by the executioners, and be free to follow our Savior.

Our Lady and these few disciples demonstrated their willingness to be surrounded – willingly, freely – with Jesus at the inner-city foot of his cross and crucifixion.

Meanwhile,  Peter and others sought their freedom in the outer suburbs, or on the outskirts, on the other side of the tracks where there were fewer lights, sirens, and cameras.

They did not want to be surrounded, recognized, seen.

Often, “being surrounded” brings us a very clear sense of our obligations, our responsibilities.

As mature adults, and as generous and loving parents / spouses / workers / family members / members of the community, we can even welcome the experience of being surrounded –

·       By our children

·       By our parents

·       By our teammates or classmates.

For example, is not the strength of a family or team known not by their winning streak or losing streak – by their victories or their defeats – but by their character?

 The strength, character, goodness of our family, our community can, perhaps, be better known – more clearly identified in a time of adversity, of difficulty.

It’s not a bad thing to be surrounded.

And, by the way ..with Holy Thursday + Good Friday + Easter Vigil & Sunday, this is our Final Four.

We are surrounded.

[__02__]  Paul in his missionary journey to Athens, standing amid the many temples to the gods of Greek mythology, tried to communicate that “God does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything.”   (Acts 17:24-25)

Of course, we are blessed with a beautiful parish and church… we come here not to catch or confine God …but so that he can call and speak to us.

As Paul continues, “[God] is not far from each one of us for ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ ” (Acts 17:27-28)

[__03__]  In the Passion, Jesus is, as we sing, O Sacred Head Surrounded.

His Sacred Head – his divinity – his divine mind – his eternal presence – is now visibly surrounded,  seemingly obscured, apparently subordinated and destroyed by the taking of his life on the Cross.

[__04__]   Could he not, should he not, have escaped this arrest, this surrounding?

The restrictions placed on him seem to contradict Jesus' own divinity, his special relation to God as Father.

Mark 15:29-30 à We read in the Gospel of Mark, “Those passing by reviled him shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha, you who would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself by coming down from the cross.’”

Peter the Apostle agreed that Jesus would have to be excused from the Cross in order to be free.

When Peter was  told that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes … Peter suggested they avoid this destination and surrounding entirely.

[__05__]  In the Passion, our Savior is the Sacred Head surrounded, yet free. When we join our sufferings to his, we can also be aware of God’s will and hope for us, even amid our own surroundings.

[__06__]  For example, we may be halted or hindered by the actions  of others, the sins of others.

We may attribute – EVEN CORRECTLY – the difficulties we experience on the choices that others have made.

In other words, we suffer due to the sinful choices of others.

This is the Passion of our Lord. He suffers due to the sins of others which he accepts  upon himself. 

To be surrounded and aware of the actions of others is to share in the Passion.

[__07__]  For example, we may feel betrayed by a person in whom we have placed our trust. In certain people close to us to do certain things, understand certain things.

Their forgetfulness, their selfishness – even in something minor – may hurt us more  than a great offense from someone of whom we hardly know.

In the Passion, Jesus was also deserted by those in whom he had placed his trust, his love, friendship.

This the Passion; to share our hurt with him is to share in his Passion.

[__08__]   Jesus is also inviting us to remember that  just as  his nature, his goodness was only apparently destroyed and surrounded on Calvary, so also the sufferings  we endure at home or in high school … whether in sickness or in health…. Help us to reach a new destination, a new wisdom for which we can always search but no one  can take away or seize by force.  [__09__]