Easter C 2004. April 11, 2004. Our Lady of Grace. Easter Vigil and 9:30.

A month ago a nineteen year old US Marine from Moose Lake was killed while on Military duty in the Middle East. Shortly before, he had been the home coming king. He was very bright and very popular. He was a young man who made everyone in Moose Lake very proud. I participated in the funeral because he was the nephew of one of the members of our parish staff. People were parked for blocks and blocks from the church and many people couldn’t get inside. The town was filled with grief. This week the best friend of this young man was also killed in Iraq. We all ache for a small Minnesota town that will have to go through the awful process of grieving and healing again. Terrorism has become a fact of life for us. The struggle in Iraq is not going well and politicians are increasingly at one another’s throats as elections approach. Added to all of this, we have our own struggles and problems as individuals and families. The temptation to use religion to escape from the real world is a strong one. Escaping the real world in not the way Jesus taught us. Fleeing the real world is not the way of the Cross.

Once there was a young man who was very serious about following Jesus and being holy. He had a very good spiritual director, an old monk, whom he trusted. At the end of a particularly good Lent the young man went to the old monk and said, “Father, I think that I have finally made it. This Lent I have truly become holy. Every day during Lent I have fasted, eating nothing from sun rise to sun set. I have spent most of my day helping others, never asking for thanks in return. When temptations to sins of the flesh came up I did some heavy exercise or I went out and rolled in the snow. To teach my body subjection I have taken a whip made out of cords and whipped myself across the back and shoulders.” The young man continued, “Father I now know what it means to be holy.” The old monk thought for a while. The he walked over to the window and asked the young man to come with him. The monk pointed to a horse standing by the barn. He said, “Do you see that horse? That horse eats nothing from sun rise to sun set. That horse helps others carry heavy burdens without asking for thanks. That horse often exercises hard and has little time for distracting temptations. That horse is often beaten on the back to get him to do what he is told. Now you know as much as that horse knows. When the horse is trained to go the right direction then and only then does the journey begin. Lent has equipped you for a good life, but the things of Lent alone will not make you holy. You will not be holy until you embrace and live your life. The forty days Jesus spent in the desert prepared him to live his life as it was and as God expected him to live it. Jesus became holy by accepting his life and living it faithfully, even when life meant a horrible death on the Cross” The young man was stunned. He thought he has arrived.

There are those who say that Jesus did it all on the Cross so that we would not have to suffer. There are those who say that having taken the full burden on himself, Jesus will prosper all those who believe in him – all we have to do is believe and enjoy. In fact Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and follow in my footsteps. Whoever would preserve his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8: 34-35) The way of the Cross teaches us that there is no easy way to God or to inner peace that bypasses life and goes directly to God.

The only way to heaven, and the only way to love and peace is living our lives fully, deeply and faithfully. As we encounter difficulties in life we all become experts at avoidance and in making excuses. We may even take comfort in pious practices that give us a false sense of security rather than empowering us to accept the Cross, enter into life as it is, and find God’s will in places where we would rather not go. In our society we are often taught to seek other options rather than to pay the price of life and love here and now.

In a sound Catholic spirituality it is impossible to have new and eternal life without accepting and living the Cross. Similarly, the Cross without resurrection makes no sense in the Catholic tradition. The key to understanding our Catholic Christian faith lies in the nail marks in the hands and feet of the risen Christ. (Please notice our holy image.) Trust in God did not free Jesus from the necessity of living his life even to the point of dying of the Cross. In the life of Jesus there were no pious shortcuts or hidden deals. Jesus drank the cup of human rejection, loneliness and suffering to the very bottom. The heavenly Father didn’t promise to make his life go away. God promised to be with Jesus and to bring Jesus to glory by the fulfillment of his God-given vocation in life. The nail prints in the hands and feet of Jesus witness to the path he took to glory. We pass through life and death, -often a life and death we did not foresee or choose - to resurrection. This is the only path to resurrection taught by Jesus and given to us for our instruction.

We all need prayer. We all need the discipline of virtue and self-control. Without these we will not live our lives well. Yet these are not our spirituality. The fulfillment of our lives and the living out of our vocation is our path to God. Husbands and wives become holy by laying down their lives for one another and for their children in the struggles and frustrations of daily life. Working people become holy by serving Christ in the decisions they make in the market place. As a priest I become holy by seeking to lay down my life in generous service to you as shepherd, teacher and man of prayer – even when expectations are beyond anything I would have chosen. The marks of the nails inflicted on us by the struggles and responsibilities of life remind us that God has not promised to take away our difficulties. God has promised to be with us as we carry the Cross in real life. God has promised to lead us to Resurrection by the way of the Cross.

The good news of Easter is that God is with us in every event of daily life. The good news of this holy day is that living in the real world is the path to resurrection. The promise of Easter is that the scars and struggles of daily life are the path to heaven. The good news of Easter is that God gives us the power to live in the real world and not run from it. For the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ we give God thanks and praise.