No Options

Today is Good Friday. For many, it is a day of fasting, abstaining, and sacrifice. This brings to mind one of the best descriptions I have heard of what it means to be poor. Being poor means having no options. What a truly accurate description this is! It encompasses financial and material poverty for sure, but also spiritual poverty, lack of love and nurture, and so many other ways that even the wealthy can be poor.

After spending time with our brothers and sisters who are truly, unavoidably poor in Uganda, I begin to see what it truly means to fast on this Good Friday, and what the purpose of Lenten practices are. Today, for one day, many of us accept a slice of life with no options. While the choices still really exist for us, we choose to ignore them and endure perhaps a growling stomach, or that overwhelming desire for the chocolate bar! It is like opening ourselves up to knowing what it is like to be poor. Perhaps this is why, according to Scripture, "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God." When we can open ourselves up to the risk of truly letting go and becoming poor - accepting the experience of having no options, even if it is temporary and voluntary - we truly begin to understand what it means to be human.

Today is also a day to reflect on the journey of Jesus to Calvary and the cross. In this incredible, necessary, sad and glorious walk, Jesus shows us the sides of humanity that we all face but would glady avoid. Everyone falls sometimes, in one way or another, just as Jesus fell three times on the way to his crucifixion. We are all poor and struggling in some way.

Simon of Cyrene is the stranger who helps Jesus carry the cross. What an example for us to reflect on and strive for. We are all capagle of reaching out to those in need as Simon did - of taking risks to help alleviate others' suffering. But we are often too wrapped up in our own lives and problems to reach out or give thought, real thought, to others who are suffering. Keep in mind that Simon simply helped Jesus carry something, and through this simple action he contributed to the salvation of humanity. He did something profound by performing a simple task for someone else.

In Uganda, as in many places of the world, a torrent of unending struggles are the cross people bear. Many Ugandans, often children, have actually been crucified by the rebel war and it's aftermath. With all they have faced, it would seem so easy to succumb to despair and defeat. But they seem to rise above rather than giving in to a living death. They are so strong, even in their vulnerability. One thing I notices after spending some time there is that these people replace anger with gratitude, hatred with forgiveness, rejection with love, fear with true and deep faith. It is in this choice, a choice to survive and live, that they are wealthy!

And it is amazing how much better life can be when letting go of that which must be, that which cannot be changed, and living gratefully with the gifts you are given.

Washing Each Other's Feet

Tonight, we begin the celebration of a very holy week, the most important events of our Christian faith. We begin with a beautiful celebration of service in the washing of the feet. In our own community prayers tonight we will recall the loving act that Jesus performed for his disciples - an act that even a slave could not be forced to perform in Jesus' time.

After spending time in Africa, I can begin to understand just how humble and difficult an act this footwashing might have been. I have never seen feet as dirty as I saw in Uganda, and I remember well just how hard it was to wash the red dirt from my own feet. In Jesus' time and homeland, it likely was very much the same. Open sandals were common, and feet must have become very dirty after so much walking. The task of washing the disciples' feet was certainly not a joyous task, nothing like the trickle of water we see poured symbolically at our celebrations on Holy Thursday.

Jesus performed this act out of love for his disciples - and I am sure he looked into thier eyes as he did so, reflecting that love to them in their last moments together. What a moment this must have been for the disciples.

Looking into the eyes of the other is a very telling act. The connection is strong and deep, and we see so much there. We see the strengths and weaknesses, joys and sorrows radiating from the eyes we gaze into. And often we see something of our own truest self as well. I confess that as I gazed into the eyes of the people I met in Uganda, our St. Kizito family, I discovered a new humility. I often felt guilty as I talked to these friends, because I know how much more I have and how much less I suffer in my life. And I began to recognized on a deeper level how much we are all responsible for each other. Amazingly, the only thing I felt radiating from the eyes of these wonderful friends was pure love!

I offer two photos for you to reflect on in the coming days. The first shows a child who has experienced only poverty, war, and other struggles that breed difficulty and despair. The second is a small child who lives in one of the poorest places in the world. But she is beaming, because she has just received a religious medal sent with us from Northeast Ohio! Someone in the world loves her, and this is all she needs to be happy. Look into the eyes of these two young girls, and see the face of Jesus there. Imagine washing thier feet, loving them out of despair and into a happy childhood. Feel the joy and grace that only this loving service can bring.


I also offer this reflection for today.

Fr. Donald Dunson has a sayng that is so very inspirational and powerful. He that the single most important task that we have in life is to become a skillful practitioner in the art of loving the way Jesus loved. And in this week, we see that love in all its glory.

Pope John XXIII has given us a way to practice the love our faith calls us to. He suggested that we do three simple things: Observe, Judge, Act

Our faith is a lived faith, a call to be the image of God as we were created. In the Passion of our Lord we see the action we are meant to be a part of.

This summer I had the opportunity to visit the small villlage of Attiak, where the photo of the happy little girl was taken. On a particularly hot and dusty day, I was in the small village, where the worst had been thrown at the people young and old alike. This village has endured violent attacks by rebels, devastatingly destructive weather, disease, famine, and drought. Their crop fields are brown, the well is often dry, and their church is riddled with bullet holes. The day I visited, I helped feed the village children bread and tea – probably the only food they had that day. I prayed with sick children in a small clinic, I spoke to a new mother whose hand was rotting and whose baby was obviously ill. And then I sat in the dirt with the children and talked with them– with two translators! They all wanted to touch me and to be touched. And they sang for me – and the songs were about Jesus and love. On the long road home that day, I reflected on the experience, and I realized that I had seen the face of God in each of the people I met, and most especially in the children. The whole Passion story had played out before me – the innocent suffering, the difficult life, the death of earthly hope for comfort and security, but also the rising above out of love for the God who is love. And I knew that God’s love was calling me to be that love in this world, as he calls each of us.

This week, we all have the opportunity to really enter into the Passion of our Lord, and the mystery of our faith. If we can take the time to observe the prayers and practices of the week – the celebration of service on Holy Thursday, the stark emptiness of Good Friday, our movement from darkenss to light at the Easter Vigil, and the abundant joy of Easter Sunday, and if we can also observe the world around us; if we judge the call our God is making to us, if we reflect on what we see, hear, and pray; and if we act in faith and love the way Jesus did, then what a week it will be!