April 2, 2023

Fr. Marc is on a well deserved vacation.  Since the bulletin deadline is before his return, I will impart a few thoughts (we called this “shared ignorance” in the seminary!)
 
Holy Week, the Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday is the most important week of the church year.  The gift of resurrection is exactly that — a gift, something we might ignore, but is never taken from us. The most well known phrase in the Bible is John 3:16:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life”  This is an important teaching for us…especially when we read the next line, John 3:17:  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”  God gave us the greatest gift he could — his son.  And we, as humanity, took his son and killed him in the most brutal, painful dehumanizing way possible.  If God was going to strike at us because of our sin, that’s when he would have done it.  Instead, he forgave us and bestowed on us the gift, the gift, of eternal life…pretty broad, compassionate shoulders he has…he can accept us as the sinful mess we are if we are willing to open our hearts fully to him.  As we participate together in these ancient rituals of the church, may our hearts be open and be filled with grace.

Fr. Tom Bauwens