A Week to Wonder

As we pass through Holy Week, I am struck again at how it all becomes so central to our life and work as followers of Jesus. We live in an age consumed with SELF, leading to all sorts of divisions, conflicts, and dismissals of one person by another. We see it in national scandals like the fact that Facebook really offered no protection for users as companies harvested personal information—profit trumped protection. We see it in the persistence of homelessness as the wealthiest nation on earth can find no way to be sure every human being has shelter. We see it in the banal like driving on the freeway as if we were the only car out there. 

Holy Week reminds us that nothing really is about us. We, individually, are not the center of the universe. Jesus entered Jerusalem heralded as king, but no one quite got how he imagined kingship—he would empty himself for every other person, sacrificing all he was to be sure all others had life in abundance. Truly, as the gospels proclaimed, his kingship was not of this world. 

Thanks be to God. 

Because Jesus modeled something other than the way of the world, he could redeem the world. He fully lived into love in its truest sense. He always kept whomever was before him as the center of his focus. He left every other person fuller and more complete than they were before they met him. 

So, if we are to be followers of Jesus, then we, too, are to move against the grain of the world. 

It sounds so simple until we actually try to put it into practice. Invariably, there will be someone who steps right into our way, causing all manner of chaos and upset, and we find our impulse to compassion moving far from us. But...keep trying. The truth is that the world is not going to change from our institutions like government, etc., but rather as each of us attempts to alter the way we interact with everyone else. 

When confronted by the invariables, breathe. A simple pause can change a reaction into a response. A reaction flies straight from our impulses; a response flows from our heart. Pausing allows us to quell our impulses and allow our heart to take more control of our actions and words. 

So, this Holy Week, pause. 

Enter the story fully. Allow it to grab hold of you. Allow each image, each moment, and each word to center you. Allow Jesus to lead. Allow his presence to guide. Watch and learn from him. Realize self- emptying is not loss, but wholeness. Receive the gift of this week. 

And perhaps we might see the world recreated in us and through us.