Homily for February 2018 Holy Hour
\nIsaiah 52:13-53:12
\nPsalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
\n2 Corinthians 12:1-10
\nLuke 23:18-25<\/p>\n
\u201cMy God, my God, why have you abandoned me<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n Have you ever felt so abandoned that you cried out, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you abandoned me<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n If you have you, you would not be the first.\u00a0 These words come to us from Psalm 22, written a few centuries before Jesus came.\u00a0 Whatever suffering led the psalmist to utter these words, the psalm prophesized about what will happen to Jesus.\u00a0 He will be mocked.\u00a0 His hands and feet will be pierced by the nails on the Cross.\u00a0 They will divide his garments between them.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 Passion should not have surprised anyone.\u00a0 He himself told his disciples three times that he would be arrested and crucified.\u00a0 This suffering was long foretold in scripture like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 52-53, one of four suffering servant oracles.<\/p>\n This passage provides vivid imagery of the suffering that Jesus will endure, \u201cmarred was his look beyond human semblance and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Why?\u00a0 Why did Jesus suffer?<\/p>\n Crucifixion was considered the most humiliating form of execution, reserved only for the worst of criminals yet Pilate himself said to the people regarding Jesus, \u201cWhat evil has this man done?\u00a0 I found him guilty of no capital crime<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus was innocent. \u00a0Isaiah even prophecies about the suffering servant\u2019s innocence, saying, \u201cthough he had done no wrong<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Then why?<\/p>\n Again, Isaiah provides an answer, six hundred years before Jesus.\u00a0 \u201cWe had all gone astray like sheep.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured\u2026.pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n What Jesus did, he did for us.<\/p>\n His suffering was so great that he cried out on the Cross, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you abandoned me<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Yet, he knew this had to be.\u00a0 After he celebrated the Last Supper, he went into the garden to pray, \u201cMy Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Jesus accepted his Cross.<\/p>\n I want to turn now to our Stations of the Cross.\u00a0 We can see them depicted on the walls of our church.\u00a0 There are a total of fourteen stations depicting what Jesus went through in his Passion for us.\u00a0 What I said was prophesized in Psalm 22 and the suffering servant oracles in Isaiah is found in the Stations.<\/p>\n In the first station Jesus is condemned to death.\u00a0 I\u2019ve already talked about his innocence compared to our guilt.<\/p>\n In the second station Jesus accepts his Cross.\u00a0 He knows what is coming but he accepts it for us.<\/p>\n In stations three, seven, and nine, Jesus falls three times under the weight of the Cross.\u00a0 It is a great weight to bear but he does it for us.<\/p>\n How many times do we fall?\u00a0 The fall we need to be concerned about is our fall from grace to sin.\u00a0 Our falls are the sins for which Jesus is condemned.<\/p>\n Do we accept our own cross even when it seems too heavy to bear?<\/p>\n If Jesus struggled on the Cross, how are we supposed to survive our sufferings?<\/p>\n With Jesus\u2019 help.\u00a0 First, because of Jesus\u2019 suffering, we have a God who knows what it is like to suffer.\u00a0 Jesus walks hand in hand with us through our sufferings.<\/p>\n Secondly, right before his arrest, Jesus gave us a gift that nourishes our souls so that we can have the strength we need.\u00a0 That gift is the bread and wine that he transubstantiated into his Body and Blood.\u00a0 He feeds us with the Bread of Life.<\/p>\n This is the Eucharist before us in the monstrance on the altar.\u00a0 It is Jesus.<\/p>\n So, in a moment, we will turn to silence.\u00a0 It\u2019s Lent, a time to think about our sins and what we need to change in our lives.\u00a0 Listen to what Jesus tells us in the silence.<\/p>\n Think about your sufferings.\u00a0 How can you offer them up as Jesus offered up his own suffering for us?\u00a0 The Journey to Jesus comes with suffering.\u00a0 May we be lead on our way by our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Homily for February 2018 Holy Hour Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Psalm 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 Luke 23:18-25 \u201cMy God, my God, why have you abandoned me?\u201d Have you ever felt so abandoned that you cried out, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you abandoned me?\u201d If you have you, you would not be the …<\/p>\n