Dad’s Lenten Blog

Thoughts during Lent

Tag: the-passion

  • The biggest purchase

     What was your last big purchase?

    Maybe it was maybe it was that trip? Or the plane ticket? The clothes that you wanted? The big fancy dinner? A house?  

    Think about what you had to sacrifice or still are sacrificing to be able to spend that money. Maybe you passed up on a lot of fun things to save money. Maybe you have to put in more time at work. Whatever it is, its a sacrifice. In the end, we all hope it was worth it. 

    Because its when that purchase, whatever it is, doesn’t quite work out or meet your expectations that you realize the things you had to do or give up to get it! 

    It’s called value. And the more valuable something is to us, the more we are willing to sacrifice to obtain it.

    Sometimes, I like to think about Jesus life before He started his ministry at the age of 30. Back in those days that’s a middle-aged man. We have to remind ourselves that Jesus always knew his divine nature and therefore knew what came before him, and what was coming in the future. He knew exactly what he was going to do.

    As we get closer to Easter week and the Passion of Our Lord, we can reflect on just how crazy those days were in Jerusalem. After all, Jesus spent three years healing hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, raising people from the dead, exercising horrible demons, doing miracles beyond imagination witnessed by thousands. He preached to the worst of the worst sinners. He preached to small groups and to crowds that were in the thousands. 

    And just days after he entered Jerusalem as a great prophet to cheers and rejoicing and the laying of palms in his path, he would face the worst possible experience anyone could imagine.

    And yet, He did it. Of His own free will.

    You see, He loves us so much that He was willing to give the greatest sacrifice, His life.

    Sacrifice for what?? It is only by His suffering and dying on the cross that He purchased for each of us the path to heaven and eternal life. He was born and lived His whole life, 33 years, for that purpose. 

    That purchase was for the debt of our sins. The price…. His death on the cross. 

    How could any of us ever feel worthy enough for that generosity?? The thing is, we can’t. But it does make me realize just how much he loves me and you. And all he wants in return is, for us to love each other, to repent our sins and to love Him and be faithful. All good things.

    What is the value of a soul. Of your soul. For Jesus it was…….

    The biggest purchase of all.

  • Waiting

    Something struck me at Mass on Sunday. It was the Transfiguration gospel. It was when at that when at the top of the mountain Elijah and Moses appeared in front of Jesus, they began to speak to each other.

    We are not told of the conversation.

    Here’s the thing. There were no mortal souls in heaven. Every human being ever born from the beginning of time was waiting for the Resurrection of Jesus to enter to heaven. There is only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ.  So all the souls of those who had  departed the earth were waiting , anticipating, hoping and I have to believe, praying. 

    So what could’ve been this conversation between Moses and Elijah and Jesus? Neither Moses or Elijah were in heaven. They must’ve known that Jesus’s mission was unfolding. That heavens gate would soon be opened.

    There was a famous visionary named Anne Catherine Emmerick in the 17th century who is had visions of the Passion of Christ. Much of Mel Gibson’s movie was based on those visions. 

    In one story I had read, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and, as we all know, in great anguish of about what was going to happen.

    She described her vision and said, “Jesus, in his great agony, turned and saw the multitude of souls on their knees, praying for Him.” I don’t know why that is always stuck with me when I picture Him there in the garden, but it has. He knew He would be abandoned by his closest friends and followers. The pain and burden about to placed on Him. Maybe that sight fortified Him in some way. 

    How many hundreds or thousands of years were those souls anticipating this moment not fully understanding its magnitude. From the simplest of people to the great prophets. Maybe Jesus told Moses and Elijah to go back and tell all the souls to prepare.?

    Where did Jesus go for three days between His death and Resurrection? We say, in the Creed, that after his death, he descended into hell. But it is not the hell of eternal damnation. It was the dwelling place for  those souls. 

    All the souls who had been waiting.