2020-04-10
– Good Friday _ Morning Prayer
8:30 am, Friday April 10, 2020
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[_01_] Consider a movie or a book that we
consider to be a love story.
There was a popular movie of several years ago called Notting Hill .. Notting
Hill was a love story (romantic comedy) between a very humble and ordinary
book store owner and a famous Hollywood actress.
Hugh Grant played the “humble and ordinary bookstore owner”
who happens to meet and strike up a relationship with a famous Hollywood
movie-star played by Julia Roberts.
Of course, Julia Roberts is, in real life (IRL), a famous
Hollywood movie-star and this was her character in Notting Hill, the movie.
The movie is all about LOVE and its development and
finally, at long last, both of them are willing to be vulnerable to each other
to remove their so-called masks they are hiding behind, ot reveal their true
selves.
They are not wearing masks because of a virus or pandemic.
We’ll never think of a “mask” in the same ordinary Hollywood or Halloween sense
again!
What also becomes an obstacle to love is that Hugh Grant is
not sure how to regard or interact with Julia Roberts who – in a very public
way – is very much a person of a great ACHIEVEMENT and great ACCEPTANCE. She is famous, he is not. Julia Roberts has
all the public achievement and acceptance, Hug Grant has none of that.
[_02_] However, are “achievement” and
“acceptance” absolutely necessary ingredients to true love.
In an essay about what makes us a communion or the Body of
Christ, the theologian Dietrich von Hildebrand (also influential on Pope John
Paul II) wrote that we go astray and go away from God simply by focusing on
what has been achieved, or what is accepted.
[_03_] Good Friday – the way of the Cross
– this is Jesus’ love story, his willingness to love us tot the end, to give up
his life. Those who rejected Christ then
and those who may still reject him now may do so because Jesus does not inspire
in them or provide for them ACHIEVEMENT or ACCEPTANCE.
It’s a new way of looking at love.
In the short term and immediate events and aftermath of
Good Friday and the Passion, there was neither achievement nor acceptance.
[_04_] What we see is a lack of achievement by one
Jesus of Nazareth in material terms. Jesus, stripped, beaten…we see his love
and sacrifice. But, in those days, it was easy not to love him.
There was no achievement.
[_05_] Sometimes, we get caught up in
loving others or even just appreciating others based on their
achievements. For example, we say, “I
really love my boss because she is well organized.”
We can be drawn into a type of love for others not only for
what they achieve but also because they help us to achieve.
And, this causes us to lose focus on the person, on the
image of God..it’s all about the final product or what is “delivered”
[_06_] I’d like to give a recent example
where this was not the case. That is,
there was a clear focus on a person apart from his achievements.
Consider the outpouring of support and appreciation of Los
Angeles Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant after he died suddenly in January.
No one ever said, “I love you Kobe because you are 3rd
all time in NBA scoring and you won 5 championships.” Much more of the emphasis
was on Kobe Bryant as a person.
[_07_] Dietrich Von Hildebrand points out:
“God loved you, loved me prior to our doing anything and this is what makes you
and me lovable.”
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so
that all who believe in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
(John 3:16)
[_08_] On Good Friday, love is not what’s
achieved materially but about what is given up.
Also on Good Friday, there is no or little acceptance. The
episode is filled with lack or acceptance or rejection.
Only 1 of 2 thieves on the cross believe in Jesus.
Of this 12 disciples, his “main person” denies him 3x, one
betrays him explicitly, and the other 10 are, as we say, “in the wind”. The
other 10 have scattered.
And, Jesus is the Savior of the world?
Who wants to believe that?
You want to believe that, I want to believe that because we
know our value as persons – a person – is not simply based on what we’ve
achieved or whether we’ve been accepted.
[_09_] We’re living in a time of great
uncertainty, danger, but I suggest that on Good Friday, this Good Friday 2020,
we are also living through a love story – not a romantic comedy with Julia
Roberts – but a love story nonetheless of physicians, doctors, nurses, medical
professionals, police officers, firefighters, EMS, health care workers who take
up the cross each day.
They need our prayers because there will certainly be times
when it seems they have not achieved much, but we know that their value is
based not only what they do, but who they are that they are.
To be present, simply to be. [_fin_]
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