Holy Week Retreat-in-Pl ace 2020
The Resurrection:
A Journey We Must Make by Fr. Jay Kythe Often we talk about examining a situation “in retrospect.” What if we viewed the passion and death of the Lord from the point of view of the Resurrection? What would that look like? That would mean that we would have to look at everything that Christ redeemed from the position of victory. This is looking at something from the perspective of Divine Providence, from God’s own point of view. Is this even possible? Only God can reveal this to us, as he did to two disciples on their journey with Jesus on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). Jesus tells them that “All this had to happen.” Christ had to suffer and die and rise again, so that we could live, free from the domain and enslavement of sin. Can we say the same thing about all the events of our life—the good, the bad, and the ugly events—that they all had to happen, for reasons greater than what we can imagine, ultimately for our salvation? We must explore our human journey from this angle, from the perspective of Resurrection Victory and the place of Divine Providence. It is a journey we must make! Clearly the current events of our life are downright ugly. There is the reality of the pandemic, of sickness and death that generates fear within us. There is also the reality of our struggle with sin. And God inserts Himself into all of
This Abbey Church in which we are gathered is that empty tomb filled with the joy proclaimed in the Exsultet. This empty tomb is the whole world, and indeed the entire cosmos, created anew by the resurrection of Jesus. This empty tomb is where all God’s promises through the prophets are realized in us in this night, where God pledges, “…I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you…” This empty tomb is where we were buried with Christ in Baptism, “so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” All is different, yet all is the same! - Abbot James Albers Easter Vigil Homily
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Kansas Monks
this, into the human reality of brokenness. God Himself chooses to suffer and to die. But in order to understand this from the perspective of Resurrection Victory, examine all the beautiful artwork and iconography of the Resurrected Christ, and you will see something incredible: he still has the marks of his wounded flesh on his Resurrected Body! These marks are trophies of victory, marks that sin and death have not had the last word! We may also see him holding—not carrying—His Cross! The instrument of his Passion and Death has become a trophy for Him, showing it to the world to give others hope for a share in that same Resurrected glory. In a way he cries out, “This has not overcome Me!” When we see the Resurrected Christ, we see someone who has made it through the valley of the shadow of death. And when I am asked to walk through it, the Good Shepherd walks before me, with his crook and his staff to comfort me. At that moment I look up at the hands that hold that shepherd’s staff, and they are pierced hands. This is One I can trust to lead me through difficult times, especially through times such as these. We are called to keep our eyes on Jesus. Recall the story of Jesus walking on water from Matthew 14. The disciples are frightened when they see Him. In response he says to them, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” These are encouraging words from Jesus Himself to hold on to during these days of the pandemic, when we may feel fear and anxiety. Even St. Peter had to keep his gaze on Jesus, for when he gets distracted by the wind and the waves, he begins to sink. There is an important lesson in this for us: All is well when we keep our eyes fixed on God. We must gaze on God, who never ceases to gaze on us. However, it takes only a nanosecond to remove our gaze, and fear (and a whole host of the seven deadly sins) floods our hearts immediately! These deadly sins are compelling; they grab us and threaten not to let us go. But it also takes only a nanosecond to return to that gaze, for the gaze of God hasn’t left us. Even if the worst should happen, that we will sink under the water and drown, we will still be well. We will remain in his gaze for eternity. If I stand with Christ in his Resurrection Victory and examine my life and the world, considering all the bad things that have happened and are currently happening, how do I handle the bad memories? I may turn to him and ask, “Was that suffering you went through on that Friday afternoon traumatic for you?” I would think that he would answer, “No. It was not traumatic. It simply was. It is now a memory, perhaps even a bad memory. But it needed to happen for the salvation of the world.”
