Let us pray: “Open our hearts and minds to your mandatum oh Lord, so we may become true followers of your Son Jesus Christ.”
Today’s readings are filled with symbolism. And I will focus on one reading in particular, the story of Moses and the Burning Bush.
God called Moses, to which he replied: “Here I am.” Then God says: "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
Do you remember the last time you were standing on ‘holy ground’? Where, currently, is your ‘holy ground’? Where during the week do you find that sacred place where you can meet God?
This is one of the most beautiful biblical passages because it shows a direct dialogue between God and a human being. And Moses as an important character in the Abrahamic religions, gifts us with some important faith elements today.
One of these elements is the fact that when God stands in front of us, or gives us a direct call, and we recognize that action, the space, the time and the event, becomes sacred… Holy...
There two ways of making things holy. One is based in our desire to sanctify an object, a time or a person. The word holy comes from Greek and means, ‘to separate something for a specific function’. So, we can make things holy when we want to do so.
The other way is when God establishes: “this is holy.” Or “This time and event are holy.” “This place or ground is holy.”
In this story, Moses is confused and fears the divine presence. When God calls him to set free those enslaved in Egypt, his response was: “I’m not the guy for this mission. I don’t feel ready for this.” To which God’s response is: “I will equip you. You are going to be a sign of my will of liberation.”
And then the story is filled with symbols. There is the ground, the sandals, the heat, and the fire on the bush. All these become powerful symbols that are sacred to us until today. These elements are tools to engage in the mystery of our faith. Like these, many symbols and symbolic actions are engrained in our minds and hearts and help us to enter the dialogue with God. It is called Christian mysticism.
Today, the church celebrates the Third Sunday of Lent. We are almost halfway to the experience of The Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection. During this season, you probably have noticed that the liturgy is different compared to rest of the year. The language of the liturgy calls us to sanctify this season through acts of self-discipline.
The booklets we have today and from the past weeks, contain on the first pages, an orientation about this season. I know some of you have already read the introduction, but I would like to read the final paragraph to refresh our memories. It says:
“This Lent we urge you to consider carefully what special acts of discipline and self-denial you will adopt for yourself as a continuing reminder of the time you are in. Will you participate in the Friday rites of Stations of the Cross (Way of the Cross or Via Crucis) and the Lenten study sessions? Will you attend the special rites of Holy Week? Will you arrange to take off from work on Good Friday, a solemn day of Lent, and participate in both the noon Good Friday liturgy and the evening rite of the Burial of the Icon?”
The first part of the paragraph is referring to the acts that will help us to enter into communion with those who are suffering. For example, through fasting, you can donate what is in abundance to those who are in need. Through service, you may choose to dedicate hours of service as a volunteer in a non-profit. That is the dimension of Lent that has to do with those around us who are in need.
If the first intention of Lent is to sanctify time through acts of mercy, then the second part of Lent is entering into communion with God.
Being in community and celebrating the mysteries of the final days and hours of Christ, through the liturgies that are renewed every year. The Stations of the Cross, the Lenten series, The special rites of Holy Week, all these are spiritual food to nurture our faith.
Yesterday, a small group gathered to begin the conversation on ‘What Holy Week will look like this year?’ The first step was to address the question: Why it matters? And why I am here?
Holy Week is important because it tells us the salvific acts of Jesus Christ for us and God’s Creation. Without the experience of the cross we would never experience the power of the resurrection. The story of those last days will be told on Palm Sunday, but in particular, during the Three Holy days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and at the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening.
Why are we here? Because we can’t celebrate by ourselves at home. From the beginning of the church, Christians have traveled far to be with each other for these major events. Do you remember the story of Pentecost? They came from different places and spoke different languages. It is only through the community, that we can become the Body of Christ.
The Holy Week liturgies are an inheritance of the Early church. They came from faraway places to celebrate Holy Week in Jerusalem. They renewed their faith together, using the elements that remind us of Christ’s suffering, death and victory over the power of evil and death.
These elements are sacred. And for so, we experience them once a year, right before Easter Sunday.
But what is a sacrament? The catechism of the church presents a very clear of explanation. In The book of Common Prayer, page. 857, it says:
But not all sacraments belong to the church. The church has established a few because they relate to Jesus ministry. We also have our own sacraments. What Holy Week does is connecting our sacraments to the person of Christ.
A Brazilian theologian, Rubem Alves, speaks about sacraments of life like this: “I have a rosebush in my front yard. It was given to me by my father. It came from his garden. My father passed away long ago now. The rosebush enfolds his gesture of love to me. In summertime, in the evenings, I sit on my porch and the smell of the roses welcome me. And from the smell, my mind goes to the memories of my father, and my body reacts, sometimes with tears, sometimes with joy. Because that rosebush became a sacrament to me. It is the visible thing that reminds me of someone that is not here, but I will meet again in the hope of resurrection.”
Like that, many other symbols become sacramental symbols to me. It may be a dried flower inside of a book, that reminds me a friend who is long gone. Or perhaps, the smell of food while walking on the street. A smell that reminds me of a dish that my grandmother would prepare for us. The joy of being with her. The laugh, the silly stories in the family.
But not all concrete things are sacramentals. A symbol can only become a sacrament to us, when is rooted in love and absence.
Jesus knew that. So at the his last meal, knowing that his disciples loved him, he took the symbols that he had around him, and said: I am going away, and even though you will not see my body anymore, I will give you sacraments through which you will love and remember me.
He leaves his place at the table takes a basin, a towel and water, and begins washing people’s feet. The he returns to the table and talks about the significance of the food. All those gestures are bathed in love.
In the following hours, the events are very much related to his physical body, sufferings that would lead to his death. The liturgies of the Holy Week are filled with those symbols, the washing of the feet, the power of the water, the food served on that night, the symbolism of the cross, the removal of his body from the cross and then taken to the tomb by his close friends, and the great silence.
The spices carried by the women. The empty tomb. All these are the signs that make our faith journey in Holy Week, 'Holy'.
Today, I want to invite you to consider participating fully of the Three Holy days (Holy Triduum) of that week. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Saturday evening Vigil are a gift from the first Christians to you who are here today.
Through these devotions they renewed their faith and entered in spiritual communion with Christ on his way to Calvary.
We begin this liturgy with the following sentence: “Today, if you would hear God’s voice: harden not your hearts.” On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus mandates his disciples to remember him in sacrificial acts that promote life and life in abundance.
Let’s sanctify this Lenten time, so we can enter into Glory with him on the Easter morning. Amen.
Credits:
Created with an image by cceliaphoto - "pink rose bushes with dark green wooden wall in garden"