Paschal Grammar

Paschal Grammar

John 12:12-16

Philippians 2:6-11

Through the years there have seen many who have been murdered, over-dosed on drugs; and died of terminal illnesses; we have faced life-threatening illnesses and other threats; Today we sat with a fifty-year-old recovering addict, broken by AIDS.

Two nights ago a friend was talking to a young man on zoom, suffering from emotional pain, and the young man pulled a gun and shot himself in the head, spattering blood all over the face of the computer, leaving my friend desolate, alone, feeling like he failed.

We cling to one non-negotiable conviction: in the paschal mystery lays the deep grammar of the Christian life, found in our reading from Philippian 2:6-11

6 Though he was God,[a]

    he did not think of equality with God

    as something to cling to.

7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];

    he took the humble position of a slave[c]

    and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,[d]

8     he humbled himself in obedience to God

    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

    and gave him the name above all other names,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father. 2:6-11

The real identity of Jesus was only grasped at the foot of the cross by his executioner, "Truly this is the Son of God," through his suffering, and forgiving love.

The real identity of Jesus is expanded more by mystic, Caryll Houselander as her life was transformed in a vision on the London underground train:

"I was in an underground train, a crowded train in which all sorts of people jostled together, sitting and strap-hanging-workers of every description going home at the end of the day. Quite suddenly I saw with my mind, as vividly as a wonderful picture, Christ in them all. But I saw more than that; not only Christ in every one of them, living in them, dying in them, rejoicing in them, sorrowing in them--but because He was in them, and because they were here, the whole world was here in this underground train...

Christ is everywhere; in Him, every kind of life has a meaning and has an influence on every other kind of life. It is not a foolish sinner like myself, running about the world with reprobates and feeling magnanimous, who comes closest to them and brings them healing; every person has meaning and is God's".

The cross was not the final word, for in the deep grammar of our lives, out of suffering and death comes the resurrection.

If the grammar of our lives was to follow the perfection of a computer, to have a guaranteed outcome there would be no need for courage, for as Pedro Arrupe, SJ reminds us: "Courage ultimately means to be willing to let our hearts be broken." Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org