The Echos of Time!

The Echos of Time!

The Silence of the Cross!

First Week of Lent, 2022

"The Cross of Thorns!

". .but he was silent and did not answer again. .Mark 14:61-64."

In the 1800s there was such a fear of leprosy in Hawaii the government placed them in an isolated area on the beach on the island of Molokai. The only way to travel to this windy sweep of land was by ship or walking along the path downhill. The cross above is found on the trail, worn and created by years of walking lepers, Damien of Molokai, and so many others. Down this hill, the Echos time rings a message of crucifixion and hope.

We hear of rumblings the Governor is going to purpose a program of giving homeless individuals with mental ill a choice between treatment or jail.

Echols of past suggestions and programs. An echo of the government acting out of fear, and of pleasing her citizens in Hawaii in the 1800s.

On our streets we continue to be overwhelmed with people sleeping; we will continue to have more and more people sleeping in trailers and cars until we begin to see in each one the Stranger of Galilee.

When we see the Stranger of Galilee in each one sleeping around us on the street, our eyes will be opened, and our hearts bursting with welcoming each into our care. They will be our brothers and sisters.?The Echos of time calls us to see the cross of Calvary.

Listening to the Echos of time in the silence of the cross one can hear the echo of love reverberating.

We are including each week a portion of our Tenderloin Stations of the Cross During the COVID19 Pandemic: Bearing the Cross of Thorns. Our invitation is to take a few moments each day, sit in silence, and pray these stations. In so doing allow the echoes of love to reverberate into our lives!

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

DURING the COVID19 PANDEMIC

And Our Bearing the Cross of Thorns

Introduction

“Haunting. .Is the relentless remembering and reminding that will not be appeased by settler societies' assurances of innocence and reconciliation. Haunting is both acute and general; individuals are haunted, but so are societies. The United States is permanently haunted by the slavery, genocide, and violence entwined in its first, present and future days. Haunting aims to wrong the wrongs, a confrontation that settler horror hopes to evade. Eve Tuck and C. Ree”

The past two years of the pandemic has gracefully allowed us to walk the thin lines, breaking ourselves open to the pain around us.

As we walk through the streets of San Francisco, in particular the Haight and the Tenderloin, we are very award of the suffering of individuals who are homeless, and their enslavement by our neglect.

Walking by Mission Delores and St. Boniface Churches we become are aware of the enslavement of the California Native Americans, and the inability of Franciscans to acknowledge that cross of thorns.

We are aware of the neglect of the church towards homeless individuals. “There are roughly 380,000 churches in the US. On any given night there’s likely?554, 000 people living unsheltered in America. That’s less than 1.5 people per church. Math doesn’t lie but it does incriminate. (James Neal”). The church is haunted by homelessness and our neglect of our Native American brothers and sisters.

And so as we walk the Stations of the Cross, let each of us look deep within our souls and see our lives haunted, and it’s damaged, and grasp the Cross, to free us from being haunted, opening our lives to new paths.

“Teach Your Children

What we have taught our children

That the earth is our mother.

Whatever befalls the earth

Befalls the sons and the daughters

of the earth.

We did not weave the web of life,

We are merely a strand in it.

Whatever we do to the web

We do to ourselves.”

Chief Seattle (1786-1866)

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The First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.

All: Because by your holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.

(Mark 14:61-64)

LET US PRAY: Lord Jesus, at the beginning of this Lenten season, ashes are placed on our forehead and reminding us that we are dust and to dust we shall return. The Coronavirus has made us realize this very clearly. We are nothing but dust. We feel our helplessness in the face of this virus which we cannot even see. Humanity is condemned to death. But we are not afraid, O Lord You have already conquered death by rising again. O Lord Jesus, help us to trust in you during this difficult time in our history. May we remember our homeless brothers and sisters as they are condemned by our apathy, and suffer on the street, and our Native American brothers and sisters, who are suffering from our neglect greatly during this time. Amen.

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Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 943164

www.temenos.org

415-305-2124

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