On Holy Week

(via Voice of Revolution)

And so, in our journey though the desert, we have come upon Holy Week . . . and we find ourselves thrown headlong into a flurry of confusion. Imagine how Jesus’ disciples felt. Everything was going so well. Thousands had flocked to greet their master, waving palms in the heat of that Jerusalem morning only a few short days ago. This was a triumph! Jesus, the conquering hero, had arrived, and was going to turn the universe on its head.

But now. . . in such a short time, everything had changed. Imagine their disbelief as Jesus is taken from them, tried, condemned. Can anyone blame them for their blind panic? This was not the plan. He was supposed to change everything. How could this happen? How could he die, this God-Man, this miracle worker? How could he go without a fight?

Imagine the glee of the forces of Evil as empty charges stuck to the Guiltless One, as crowds clamored for his death who just before had hailed him, as he stumbled and fell and bled and died in total agony. The humans made their choice, using their pesky Free Will to serve evil. And they killed God Himself, the Mystery Above All Mysteries. The Word became Flesh. He dwelt among them. And they did not know him, but beat him, mocked him, and butchered him. Those who did know him fled, denied him, and even betrayed him. What a rout! What an absolute victory for Darkness!

Yet in that darkest of hours, they were all deceived. For this was the plan all along. This was the only way it could ever have played out. Human betrayal of the Divine — the sin which brought forth Death, chained by Sin, into the world — could only ever be wiped out by another betrayal. And this Innocent Victim, offered up for us, knew exactly what he was about. He did not lie. He would turn the universe on its head, the only way it could be done: by piercing time itself, killing the serpent’s grip on us, and freeing Death to return to his neutral state.

For as the nails punctured his skin, eternity punctured history. Jesus did not merely die thousands of years ago. He also has not yet died. And he also is dying still. Every second of every day of every single year since the dawn of time and until the end of time, he is suffering and dying for us.

That mystery, that profound Truth beyond human understanding, is the reason why we have no need to fear Death, or the gnashing snarls of the Evil One. Satan knows he’s been routed, and his twisted, grasping hands at play in the world are only echoes and re-imaginings of his same old tired game. He’s beaten, and so long as we cling to the cross, so long as we bathe in the blood of the Lamb Who Was Slain, so long as we trust in Him and daily make the choice to follow His Will, evil cannot harm us.

We find ourselves once more in a period of darkness, as once the disciples did. This lesson is critical for us. Once more, Darkness thinks it has the upper hand (or at least wants us to believe it). All around us are those Lost Ones who walk in the shadows, grasping about for some way out, threatening to pull us down with them. But we must not give in. This is an illusion. God has won, and we only need to shine this Truth into the Darkness to send it scuttling for the far corners of the room. Let us take comfort in the Eternal Mystery, and await our Easter together in Hope and Faith.

The Light has been with us all along, in the broken flesh of Jesus. We must be Lightbearers now. We must consume our Divine Meal, and, fueled with the unquenchable fire of Divine Love made manifest in this Sacrifice, shine forth into this world which has forgotten Him.

It is in this mission that we find ourselves fulfilled. And it is in each day as Warriors of God we find peace at last.

-E.G. Norton