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bishop braxton's easter meditation

 “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”

AN EASTER MEDITATION

By
The Most Rev. Edward K. Braxton
Bishop of Belleville

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Peace be with you!
I. INTRODUCTION
As we draw closer to Holy Week and the Easter season, I write to wish you and all of those who are dear to you a joyful celebration of the resurrection of the Lord. I pray that the coming of spring, the opportunity to spend time with your families and friends, and your participation in the powerful liturgies of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday begin a season of spiritual renewal for you.

During this hope-filled season, I invite you to join me in praying for those in our families, in our diocese, in our state, and in our nation, whose faith, hope, and love are being tested by the current unprecedented financial crisis. This financial crisis has sadly led to difficult decisions that have touched the lives of valued members of the diocesan staff. Let us pray also for our national leaders as they work to reverse the discouraging economic trends caused by the recession, which is having a significant impact on us all.

All of this is taking place during Lent when the Church calls us to “go up to Jerusalem” with Christ for His Passover, from life to death to eternal life. However, this Lent, Jesus seems to be speaking directly to each of us. “Anyone who wishes to be My disciple must renounce himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” The fear and anxiety that we feel in this time of economic hardship may help us to read the Gospel story of the death and resurrection of Christ according to St. Mark with a new realism and deeper insight into the ultimate hope and confidence of the Gospel message.

II. PREDICTIONS OF THE PASSION
The first sentence of the Gospel of St. Mark forcefully announces that it is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the Savior of the world. Yet fear, anxiety, and confusion are important elements in the Gospel’s account of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Passion of the Lord is recounted in Chapter 14. However, the Gospel story contains three distinct predictions of the Passion much earlier, in Chapters 8, 9, and 10. These predictions are clearly intended to prepare the apostles for what is to happen so they will not be afraid. They are probably prediction stories expanded by Christ’s followers after the events had already occurred, when the details of His suffering were known (vaticinium ex eventu). The predictions were intended to help the early Christians overcome the understandable fear and confusion they might have experienced in the face of the startling events of His death and resurrection. They also help each of us cope with the fear we sometimes experience as we live each day as members of Christ’s Church. Please take up your New Testament and join me in a prayerful reading of Christ’s predictions of His death.

III. FIRST PREDICTION
The first prediction of the Passion (MK, 8:31-38) takes place immediately after Peter, responding to Jesus’ question (“Who do you say that I am?”), professes his faith, declaring, “You are the Messiah.” Jesus immediately explains that the Messiah will be a Suffering Servant. He teaches them that “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be put to death, and rise again after three days.” Peter argues with Jesus and challenges His words. But Jesus, looking at His disciples, rebukes Peter saying, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God thinks, but as man thinks.” Then, speaking to the crowd, Jesus says, “Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”

These words can bring fear to our hearts. We might be confident that we would really like to become a true follower of Christ. But we become fearful when we think about what these words mean. We must deny our very selves. Jesus does not say we must deny ourselves our favorite food or our favorite recreation as we often do as Lenten disciplines. He asks us to deny ourselves, set aside ‘me first’ egocentric thinking and put knowing and loving God and the people around us first. This means more than giving up desserts during Lent. This means making sure we go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and confess our sins during Lent. It means receiving Holy Communion regularly. It means asking Christ to help us give up pride, jealousy, anger, prejudice, hatred, injustice, dishonesty, and the like for a lifetime, by giving in to patience, kindness, selflessness, integrity, justice, and love. It means giving in to God. This leads to “taking up our cross” because giving in to God does not mean that everything in our lives will turn out the way we want it to, that every day will be joy-filled. It means going on a spiritual journey when the final destination is hoped for but not yet seen. It means “following Christ” wherever His command to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves may take us.

IV. SECOND PREDICTION
The second prediction of the Passion (MK, 9:30-35) takes place while Jesus and His disciples are making their way through Galilee, the very region where the risen Lord would later appear to them. He tells them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill Him, and three days after His death He will rise again.” The disciples do not understand what He means. Yet, they are afraid to question Him. Then they begin to argue among themselves. When they reach Capernaum, Jesus asks them what they were arguing about on the way. They remain silent because they are afraid to tell Him they were arguing about which one of them was the greatest disciple. Jesus tells the Twelve, “If anyone wishes to be first, he must make himself the last of all and the servant of all.”

The second prediction may stir even greater fear in our hearts. It teaches us that faithfully following Christ may not lead to recognition, fame, or greatness in the eyes of the world. Nor must we have any expectation of being regarded as the greatest in the reign of God’s Glory. Indeed, Jesus tells His inner circle, the Twelve, and He tells us that the only way that we can be first in the Kingdom of Heaven is to make ourselves last. Christ asks us to strive for a level of humility and other-centeredness that most of us may not attain in our lifetimes. Almost nothing in our secular culture encourages us to be unselfish servants of others. Yet, to be first in Christ’s new community we must be willing to serve the needs of all. During the Last Supper in St. John’s Gospel, Jesus embodies His teaching about service perfectly when He washes the feet of the apostles, including the feet of Judas, who later betrays Him. Every day we each have opportunities to be foot-washers to each other.

V. THIRD PREDICTION
The third prediction of the Passion (MK, 10:32-40) takes place while Jesus and His disciples are walking to Jerusalem, the scene of the crucifixion. The disciples are in a daze and those who are following them are afraid. Jesus is walking in front of them, anxious to get to the city where His mission on earth will be completed. Once again, He takes the Twelve aside and tells them what is going to happen to Him. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and hand Him over to the Gentiles who will mock Him, spit upon Him, scourge Him, and put Him to death; but after three days He will rise.” Significantly, the third prediction contains the most details including the mocking, the spitting, even the scourging. As a result we are given a fuller picture of what taking up our cross and following Him may entail.

After this, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, boldly say to Jesus, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.” He replied, “What do you wish Me to do for you?” They answered Him, “Grant that in Your kingdom we may sit one at Your right and the other at Your left.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” Naively they respond, “We can.” Jesus then tells them the true cost of discipleship, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.” He then mysteriously adds, “But as for seats at My right hand or at My left, they are not Mine to grant. They are for those for whom they have been allotted.”

The third prediction of the Passion may cause the greatest fear of all. By giving us more details of His suffering, Christ makes it clear that we will be caught up in His agony if we take up the cross as servants of all. Like James and John, we naively say we can do this. But in exchange for this full share in the agony we cannot expect the privileged places at Christ’s right and left sides. Instead, as His baptized witnesses, we will be required to drink of the cup of His suffering and be baptized into His agony. By God’s grace, this will lead to a share in the cup of the “fruit of the vine” in the Eternal Banquet. We have not only been baptized into Christ’s death but also into His resurrection. Thus, by giving, we receive, by dying to sin, we are born anew.

VI. THE RESURRECTION
During the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday, April 11, 2009, the Gospel account of the resurrection comes from the 16th and final chapter of St. Mark (16:1-8). Mary of Magdala, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome arrive at the tomb of Jesus to anoint His Body. However, they are amazed. The great stone has been rolled back and the tomb is empty. A young man in a white robe, sitting “on the right side” tells them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised. He is not here. Behold the place where they laid Him. Go and tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, as He told you.’”(Could this be the same ‘man,’ who runs away naked, leaving his white sheet behind, when Jesus is arrested? Could it be each one of us in our white baptismal garments proclaiming our Easter faith without fear?) The final line of the passage is, “And the women came out and fled from the tomb, because they were frightened out of their wits. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid …” But, during the Easter Vigil, you will not hear the last four words, “for they were afraid.” The reading ends with, “They said nothing to anyone … .” Perhaps this is because of a desire for the reading not to end on the seemingly uncertain note of fear. Yet, it is almost impossible to live our resurrection faith without a degree of “Holy Fear.”

This “Holy Fear” is explored by St. Mark in the “resurrection vision” story of the Transfiguration, which Mark places immediately after the first prediction of the Passion (MK, 9:2-8). Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain where He is “transfigured” before them. His clothes become dazzling white (like the robe of the “man” in the tomb) as He converses with Elijah (representing the prophets) and Moses (representing the Law). Peter manages to say it is good that he, James, and John are there and that they should mark the holy ground with three tents. But he is speechless after that. “He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them. From the cloud came a voice, ‘This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.’”


Suddenly, Peter, James, and John, still filled with wonder, with “Holy Fear,” look up and see no one, but only Jesus. He instructs them not to tell anyone what they have seen, until the Son of Man rises from the dead. The three apostles keep everything to themselves, pondering what rising from the dead might mean.

On Easter Sunday, when our churches are filled with people, when beautiful, fragrant Easter lilies surround the new life-giving waters of the Baptismal Font and the Paschal Candle, when parish choirs are singing the great “Alleluia” chorus from Handel’s Messiah (The Christ), when we renew our baptismal vows, we, like the apostles, will still be pondering what rising from the dead might mean. Christ’s resurrection and our promised share in it is the mystery of mysteries, a light more blinding that the noonday sun.

I will be united with you in our Cathedral of St. Peter contemplating the same resurrection mystery. Looking back on a year of sorrows as well as joys, together, we are mindful of the fear, anxiety, and worries that have occupied many of our families, parishes, and schools in a time of economic instability. We are aware of the fears born of the current legal and financial consequences of terrible past acts of misconduct by some priests of the diocese. We are concerned about the growing burdens borne by our priests, who are being asked to do more rather than less, as they grow older. We are preoccupied with the urgency to work and pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, religious life, and lay ecclesial ministries. We are distressed by widespread indifference to the dignity of human life manifest by domestic violence, ongoing wars, capital punishment, euthanasia and abortion. We are sensitive to the various misunderstandings and tensions that manifest themselves at all levels of the Church. We are encouraged by dialogues of renewal wherever they take place. We are prayerful for all those who are dear to us who are suffering in any way. We hold deep within our hearts the dearest of the dear who have died this year. Let us place all of these concerns and much more on the altar on Easter Sunday, confident that God, aware of our “Holy Fear,” will summon us to serenity and inner peace.

As we bless ourselves with the water of New Life on the Feast of the Resurrection and during the Sundays after Easter, let us ponder in our hearts what being raised from the dead might mean; not only for Christ but also for ourselves as well. Recall the appearance of the Risen Savior to Simon Peter and the disciples on the shore of Tiberias (JN, 21:1-14) in which He evokes the Eucharist by taking bread and some of the fish from the nets and giving it to them for breakfast. The 153 large fish overflowing the nets of the disciples have a unique significance for our faith. As far back as the second century, we Christians have used the ancient Greek word for fish (ICHTHUS) to announce our Easter faith. When two Christians met, one would draw an arc in the sand. The other would complete the picture with another arc, thus drawing a fish (ICHTHUS), indicating both were Christians. ICHTHUS is formed from the first letters of five Greek words:

Iesous JESUS
Christos CHRIST
Theou GOD’s
Uios SON
Soter SAVIOR

The words proclaim the Easter Message: They announce the triumph of God’s love over human fear:
“Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”

April 2, 2009
The 4th Anniversary of the death of The Servant of God
His Holiness, Pope John Paul II