From the Pastor’s Desk:

Last week in my homily I built my homily around a word game of opposites. Using the first reading and the Gospel. For many people the opposite of love is hate, but that is not true. The opposite of love is apathy. Think about it. When a teenager comes home an hour past curfew with no text or phone call, what is the reaction of the parent? FEAR followed by anger. Is that a sign that parent does not love their teenager? No, it is the proof that the parent loves him/her very much. The job of a parent seems to never end and much of that time is in silence.

In the Lenten Season we focus much of our prayer and meditation upon Christ, but today I want to reflect upon Mary at the foot of the cross. As Jesus was dying, the Gospels say that Mary, his mother, stood under the cross. From all outward appearances, she wasn’t doing anything at all. She is not recorded as saying anything, wasn’t trying to stop the crucifixion, nor was she trying to protest its unfairness or to plead Jesus’ innocence. She was silent. At a deeper spiritual level, Mary was doing all that she could do in that type of situation, she was standing inside of it, in strength, refusing to give back anger, bitterness or violence.

Since common sense tells us that Mary could not have stopped the crucifixion, she by being passive was stopping some of the hatred, bitterness, jealousy, heartlessness, and anger that caused it and which surrounded it. Mary in her silence was radiating all the gentleness, understanding, forgiveness, peace, light and love that had flooded forth from her Son during His ministry.

All of this is a bitter pill to swallow. What mother, what father, would only stand by and silently watch as their son was nailed to a cross to suffer and die. But sometimes it is our only choice. As the Book of Lamentations says, there are times when the best we can do is “put our mouths to the dust and wait!” We cannot be afraid to suffer, because this world is imperfect. This is not passivity, resignation, or weakness, but genuine, rare strength. It is standing under the cross with Mary, so that the Lord of all love may help to take away some of the world’s hatred, chaos, bitterness and violence.