February 22, 2010
by Fr. HectorOur Christian faith teaches us the belief that we are a resurrected people. The eternal hope as an ambassador of Jesus Christ reminds us that death has been overcome. We are always an Easter people of an empty grave. New life oozes from our spiritual bodies.
It is, therefore, difficult to see our statues draped in black and purple. It is a blatant reminder that we still live in a ‘touch of sadness’ in our lives. Not seeing the prayer symbols as they should be reminds me how moments of grief disfigure and mar us interiorly, and do not let us or others see us as we were meant to be (marvelously and wondrously created images of God).
Those black veils remind me of touches of sadness in life. They are the shrouds of pain which cannot for the moment see the light of resurrection. Moments of sadness: the death of loved ones, divorce, children/family who have strayed from God, job loss, suicides, family arguments in all matters from sharing to reasoning, family estrangement, terminal illnesses, widowhood and the loneliness it brings, the violence in our own Christian (?) hearts.
Lent, however, is a dialogue with God. We tell the Lord we are a sinful people, and He tells us we were born out of the love of a cross. Tenderly He teaches us that we are called (with no opting out) to look hard at those veils of grief and to love them to resurrection. How? Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. As we deepen those areas of His desire then one by one our veils of sadness tend to fall, the stones of our graves are removed, and the light of resurrection shines, and the darkness has not overcome it. A touch of sadness; an outburst of joy.