April 4, 2010
Holy Week and Easter Sunday
Passionist JPIC e-bulletin
Greetings!  

The Passionist Charism is to keep alive the memory of the Passion. This week offers us Christians an opportunity to pay special attention to the memory of suffering and death of Jesus Christ throughout Holy Week and culminating on Good Friday. We then turn our gaze on the resurrection and contemplate this new life in Christ which we are called to share. 
 
For this week the Passionist JPIC e-bulletin will offer the following resource:
 

  • Passionist JPICCalendar and Quotes from the Passionist Constitutions
  • A Special Vow: A reflection on the Passionist Charism from Fr. Don Senior, CP.
  • Justice Station of the Cross from Fr. John Bucki, SJ and provided by the Education for Justice resource website.
  • Easter Sunday Reflection from Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP.
 
Be sure to visit the Lectionary Reflection and Passion for Justice Blogs to discuss these resources and issues that we will be addressing.
 
May your family or community have a wonderful and peaceful Holy Week and Easter Sunday,
 
John   
Calendar:
April 1 - Holy Thursday
April 2 - Good Friday
April 3 - Holy Saturday
April 4 - Easter Sunday
 
Quotes from the Passionist Constitutions: 
Keenly aware of the evils that afflicted the people of his time, he never tired of insisting that the most effective remedy is the Passion of Jesus, "the greatest and most overwhelming work of God's love."
-Article 1
 
We Passionists make the Paschal Mystery the center of our lives.This entails a loving commitment to follow Jesus Crucified, and a generous resolve to proclaim His Passion and death with faith and love. His Passion and death are no mere historical events. They are ever-present realities to people in the world of today, "crucified" as they are by injustice, by the lack of a deep respect for human life, and by a hungry yearning for peace, truth, and the fullness of human existence.
-Article 65
 
The power of the Cross, which is the wisdom of God, gives us strength to discern and remove the causes of human suffering.
-Article 3
 
We recognize that co-responsibility and mutual dependence open the way to freedom and fulfillment for each one of us...By living together in a spirit of cooperation and peaceful harmony, we aim at overcoming in ourselves and in our world every form of self seeking and every abuse of power. In this way is clearly revealed the power of the Cross to set people free.
-Article 22
 
The Christian community is founded on the love of Christ, who by His Cross, "tore down the wall of separation" and made all one people. Since we are united in Christ, each one of us acknowledges with respect the dignity and equality of every other member, whom we accept as a unique individual.    
-Article 26
 
In a spirit of faith and brotherly love, we seek to discern the signs of the times, following the example of Saint Paul of the Cross, who saw "the name of Jesus written on their foreheads of the poor."Guided by the teaching of the Church and our own consecration to the Passion of Christ, we strive to make our lives and apostolate an authentic and credible witness on behalf of justice and human dignity.Accordingly, our life-style must stand out as a prophetic condemnation of the injustices among which we live; it should be a continual witness against the abuses of a consumer society.
-Article 72
A Special Vow: By Fr. Donald Senior, CP
 
The special insignia of every Passionist is the "Sign", the heart-shaped emblem you see on this page. It catches, in an image, the meaning of Passionist life.
 
CP-World logoIn the middle of the emblem are the Words, Jesu XPI Passio. Written in Greek and Latin, the languages of the early Church, those words mean: "the Passion of Jesus Christ," (The three nails at the bottom and the cross at the top remind us symbolically of His suffering and death.)

Every Passionist takes a special vow, a solemn promise, to spend his energies in promoting remembrance of the sufferings of Jesus. This vow defines the purpose of the Passionist community. We pledge to keep deep in our hearts the memory of the cross and to do what is in our power to remind others of it.

Why promise to do something like this? The answer lies with the meaning of the cross and death of Jesus Christ for the world. First, the death of Jesus was no mere brutal execution of an extraordinary Jewish teacher and prophet long ago. His death was an event that changed human history. Jesus died that others might live. God so loved the world that he allowed his only Son to give his very life for us. The cross becomes the symbol telling us God's love is stronger than death. Passionists want to tell the world about that love.

But there are other reasons for the Passionist vow. Jesus' death on the cross was a death in the cause of justice. He was executed because he challenged accepted values. He sided with the poor and the outcasts. He condemned oppressive structures. Jesus was a prophet and prophets meet strong opposition.

His cross reminds us that Christians must listen to the cries of the poor. We are in solidarity with those whom society may forget or even exploit. The cross is a sign of justice. To remind the world about the cross is to challenge the world for its injustice and neglect. Passionists are pledged to that challenge.

Finally, remembering the cross means remembering those in the world who bear the cross today: the disabled, the sick, the dying, the grieving, those isolated and alone -- all who bear the burden of pain.

Jesus identified himself with the "least". He shared their burdens and brought them hope. He, too, bore the cross.

Christians who believe in Jesus find strength in the memory of his Passion. Jesus knew pain and death. He also tasted the victory of everlasting life. Death is not the final word for those who believe. This , too, is part of the Resurrection message Passionists proclaim to the world.

The special sign we wear is meant to symbolize a solemn commitment to proclaim God's great love made known through the cross of Jesus. We nourish that memory in our hearts through prayer. We share that good news with all the world. We proclaim it through preaching, in our parishes and retreat centers, through radio and television, and by our presence in hospitals, classrooms, campuses, missions and those ministries of service to the community.

Justice Stations of the Cross of Jesus Christ: By Fr. John Bucki, SJ and Education for Justice
 
1. Jesus is condemned to death
Jesus is trapped by the same system that brings us the death penalty, the harshness of life in prison, political prisoners, torture, white collar crime, racial profiling, the criminalization of
the poor, and all of the inequities of our world's criminal justice systems.
 
2. Jesus is made to carry his cross
Jesus carries his burden as do all those who work the land, labor for low wages, struggle to find work, care for their children and family, worry over their debts, strive for their children, attend poor schools, are abused by their bosses, or in any way struggle to make it in this world.
 
3. Jesus falls the first time
The burden that crushes Jesus can be compared to the burdens of today-the burden of debt that crushes the poor economies of the world, the unequal distribution of resources which stifles development for many people and nations.
 
4. Jesus meets his mother
Jesus looks on his mother with love and sees all the pain and possibility of relationship, deep family love and fidelity, abuse and violence, mutual loving care, separation and divorce, loneliness and community.
 
5. Simon helps Jesus carry his cross
Jesus' story becomes Simon's story as well. Globalization can be both a burden and a relief, a freedom and a limit. Jesus and Simon are both victims and helpers. Good and evil play out as their lives are connected.
 
6. Jesus falls the second time
The burden that crushes Jesus is unfair, as are the economic and political inequalities of our day-wages, resources, schools, rights, power, savings, taxes. Our systems are often unfair.
 
7. Veronica wipes the faces of Jesus
This "small" act of charity is a most wonderful action of great compassion. It seems to be all that Veronica can do at the moment, yet the injustice remains. She cannot stop the suffering of Jesus. The compassion of Veronica calls out for social change, for an end to injustice, for a new way of living together.
 
8. Jesus comforts the women of Jerusalem
Women bear the burdens of the world in a special way. They disproportionately struggle under the injustices of our systems. The experience of women throughout the ages calls us to end
the injustices. It calls us to a new heaven and a new earth, to a new way of being sisters and brothers.
 
9. Jesus falls the third time
The burden that crushes Jesus is like the burden of materialism. Every time the world worships things before people, power before justice, and consumption before the spirit, we lose what it means to be human and alive.
 
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
This radical loss of everything continues to be felt in the lives of all the poor-those without enough food, clothing, shelter, education, respect, dignity, human rights, and community.
 
11. Jesus is nailed to the cross
Jesus is a person of active nonviolence, yet here he comes to know violence against his person-the same violence that is seen in our wars and preparation for war, in the violence on our streets and in our homes, in our weapons of mass destruction, in ethnic cleansing, in genocide, in all these countless examples of violence.
 
cross12. Jesus dies on the cross
Power and control are dominate values in our world, yet Jesus loses all of these things that the world considers important. But at the same time, in Jesus nailed to a cross, we see a person of great freedom and compassionate love and a special awesome power-the power of the suffering God crying out for justice.
 
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross
Jesus is radically stripped of everything. He is a human person whose rights and dignity have been taken away. In Jesus, we see all the women and men of our world who still seek their basic human rights-the right to food, water, clothing, shelter, education, political freedom, development, justice, etc.
 
14. Jesus is placed in the tomb
Jesus is carefully placed into the earth, an earth that is the divine creation, a planet that we so often abuse as we waste resources, as we seek profit before all else, as we consume without awareness, and as we disrespect the awesome beauty that is God's gift.
Easter Sunday Reflection: By Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP
 
Readings:
  • Acts 10:34, 37-43. The Apostles are personal witnesses that Jesus rose from the dead, for they "ate and drank with him." They are commissioned to preach Jesus, to whom the prophets testify and through whom there is forgiveness of sin.
  • 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. The risen Christ is the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth by which we rise from the dead.
  • John 20:1-9. Mary Magdalene, Peter and John all arrive at the tomb, one with wonder, the others at first with perplexity, all eventually with faith that Jesus is risen.
 
Thoughts for Your Consideration:
Easter brings a sense of freshness and newness to life around us that has the unusual capacity of evoking the familiar, while injecting a note of strangeness. It is almost as if we celebrate a new life at Easter in combination with the old, to form an amalgam peculiar to Easter.
 
The readings above from the gospel of John, especially the expanded section, show Mary Magdalene experiencing this combination of the old and the new in her encounter with the risen Lord Jesus.  The new is evident in her being nonplussed at seeing someone she took to be the gardener; the old makes a comeback at the sound of her name on His lips: "Mary". It triggered instant recognition amid mystery.
 
Mary's conundrum has remained part of the Easter, indeed, the entire Christian, experience down through the ages, a version of "now I see you, now I don't". The authentic Christian is every bit as human as everyone else: plus. This can be exasperating, not only for those trying to understand Christians, but also for Christians trying to understand themselves.
 
The Easter message is one of "surplus". It presents the risen Christ to us as He was: plus. And this spills over into the entire existence of a Christian person. An area of life where it abounds with tantalizing bothersomeness is justice. Everyone, Christians included, likes to think he or she is committed to justice. We often understand that to mean: restoration, returning something to its original condition. "I want justice" usually means: "I want something returned or restored to me, because it's mine, it belongs to me, and I have a right to it."  Sometimes this attitude even seems tinged with an element of revenge, or getting even: "I want to restore a level playing field" on which to compete in life.
 
Catholic social doctrine on justice, especially under Pope Benedict XVI, would amplify this attitude with a bit of Easter quality.  It indeed supports justice, restoring the way "it was".  But it adds: plus.  That is to say, access to decent housing, minimal health care, adequate education, suitable environmental conditions, domestic and international security and peace  needs to be restored to those lacking such housing, medical attention, education, ecological surroundings, and security. They are not "add-ons" to being human; they are constituents of being human.  Without them, one is inhuman.
 
This is not just a Christian position.  This is a reasonable, commonsense appreciation shared across the board of what it means to be a human person.  There is, however, a special Christian addendum to the above: it's the Easter addition of plusness.  Pope Benedict calls it the sense of care and concern that accompanies the provision of these things.  It is one thing to provide a school building in a deprived neighborhood.  It is another thing to staff it with competent, concerned faculty.  This latter element is the "plus" element that a Christian sense of justice brings to the process.  It is the "personal touch".
 
It was one thing for a perturbed Mary Magdalene to identify a gardener before her at the tomb; it was another thing to see the "Rabbouni" before her. That was the bonus element, which Easter is all about: the risen Christ. The sound of His voice personalized the sight of the gardener's features.  What she was about to receive was more than information. She was getting back a friend, moving beyond the impersonal to a delightfully personal encounter.
 
Elsewhere, today's readings suggest it is one thing for Paul to alert the Christian to the familiar dough about to be baked; but it's another thing for him to call attention to an element of plusness: a wee bit of unleavened sincerity and truth.  Likewise, it is one thing for St. Peter to proclaim what Jesus had done during His time of preaching; it is another for Peter to pass on additional good news: he has been commissioned to do the same. This is a spillover effect from the resurrection event: an extra.
 
To understand Easter as, among other things, a justice event, is to enrich its standard significance as a restoration, as all justice is, with a potent addition.  It celebrates justice in terms of the restoration of Christ-the RISEN Christ-much like What and Who He was, but a smidgeon different.  It's that difference making Easter a special event for justice.  Easter enables justice to achieve the highly personal quality Mary experienced in being recognized for who she was: "Mary!"
North American Passionist JPIC Office