14 April 2014 - #winning - the victory of justice

14 April 2014 - #winning - the victory of justice


So Holy Week.  How do we do it right?  Committed Catholics are, at this point in the liturgical year, concerned about best practices, worried about missing opportunities for growth.  We are looking for the formula to get closer to God.  We want to know, with all that we have to do out in the world, what is the best use of the time we have to give God. 

But of course, there is no formula.  Or if there is, it is this: love recklessly!  Love as Mary loves:

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

Jesus does not primarily approach our use of time from a perspective of resource management.  Resource management lacks the heart.  It is an important aspect of prudence but, when isolated, it conceals evil intentions.

Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
He said this not because he cared about the poor
but because he was a thief and held the money bag
and used to steal the contributions.

Jesus is meek and humble in heart (cf. Mat. 11:28).  He brings justice to the nations but the way he does so is not violent, it is not self-insistent.  When our love is fragile and vulnerable like a "bruised reed" and "a smolder wick" he will not break or us our quench or flame.  We can come to him with intense devotion without the fear that he will reject us if we don't get things just right.

So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

We must be on guard that we don't let our desire to control our situation be our main motivation.  Our use of resources and our accounting often sounds as noble as that of Judas but simply conceals our sinful desires.  On the other hand, acts of love that might seem imperfect, imprudent, or overly extravagant, are yet borne of a more perfect desire to love.

We gather around a table with those who were dead but now live again.  The very witness of this banquet is hard for those who insist on control to bear.  To the degree that we insist on control we run the risk of becoming violent toward any threats to that control, even if they come from God.  We can't accept this perfuming of Jesus even if the whole "house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" lifting the minds and hearts of all who smell it.  We can't even accept the presence of Lazarus who was dead but lives again.  

So let us give up that false sense of control.  Let us enter fully into this banquet.  When we let God take control we can trust him no matter the circumstances.

Though an army encamp against me,
my heart will not fear;
Though war be waged upon me,
even then will I trust.

This is what we need.  Without it, we have no recourse "When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh".  But with it we "shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living" no matter what circumstances bring.  And  it is meant for everyone.  May the whole world see this trust transforming lives from within until, with "the coastlands", everyone "will wait for his teaching."

I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
To open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.