From False Accusers to Recipients of Unmerited Grace

And so today, as the season of Lent draws to a rapid close, we begin our journey through Holy Week.

Yes, our journey.

A journey that can successfully transform us from being false accusers to the recipients of unmerited grace – if we know the secret of how to unlock the door.

For we are, today:

The treacherous Judas Iscariot who betrayed Him;

The impetuous Peter who denied Him three times;

The accusatory Council of the Sanhedrin, which falsely convicted, bound, and handed Him over to Pilate;

The unappeased crowd which shouted “Crucify Him!,” refusing Pilate’s cowardly entreaties to be released from his own predicament; and

The mocking soldiers who stripped, crowned, scourged, and executed Him.

But fortunately, the story doesn’t end there.

No, it merely begins there.

For we are also, today:

The sorrowful Peter who broke down and wept over his three-fold betrayal;

The strong Cyrenian, Simon, who helped carry the cross;

The convicted revolutionary who fully recognized the unjustly accused dying alongside him;

The loving women who once ministered to Him, but who could now only look upon Him from a distance;

The Roman centurion who finally understood exactly what had just happened in his presence; and

The courageous Joseph of Arimathea, distinguished member of the Sanhedrin, who at great risk removed, anointed, and buried the one so crucified.

We are also, today, the mortal players in a great cosmic battle which began disastrously in a Garden called Eden, but which was ultimately set to rights in a Garden called Gethsemane.

So what is the key to our successful journey this week?

What is the secret to transformation?

Humility.

And as Pope Francis’ Palm Sunday homily  today made it clear: “there can be no humility without humiliation.”

Francis observed that we have been given the ultimate example of humility – one to which we can, and should, now turn:

The Son of God took on the “form of a slave” (cf. Phil 2:7). In the end, humility means service. It means making room for God by stripping oneself, “emptying oneself,” as Scripture says (v. 7). This is the greatest humiliation of all.

Contrast Francis’ other words on the way of the world, the way rejected by Christ:

The world proposes the way of vanity, pride, success . . . [t]he Evil One proposed this way to Jesus too, during his forty days in the desert. But Jesus immediately rejected it. With him, we too can overcome this temptation, not only at significant moments, but in daily life as well.

And so, we come now to a time of choosing.

That time is upon us.

That time is today.

May your Holy Week bring you joy, rest, and – most importantly – the humility and peace of Christ Himself.

Peace

Photo Image Credit Here (Jesús Serna – Procesión Domingo de Ramos, paso paseo de “El Espolón,” Burgos, España) via Wikimedia Commons