We adore you, oh Christ, and we praise you. Because by your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the World.
“Surely, what do you think? He will not come to the festival, will he?” (John’s Gospel today)
The question rather for us is, will we come to the festival? And how will we come?
Will we come as the people prophesied by Ezekiel, gathered from every quarter, coming to our own land? Because our own land is the kingdom of God bought for us, not by anything we have done or merited, but because Jesus has made himself the kingdom of God, and he is our land.
And division falls and idolatry ends. Detestable things fall away with all transgressions. The apostasies that have been committed will be no more. And God’s servant, the Son of David, is our king. And what flows will be a covenant of peace.
What do you think? Will we come to the kingdom?
Will we come to the kingdom this [Holy] week and gather looking only, only at Jesus? This is the week when we stop looking at ourselves. Our sins make us look at ourselves, and we are formed to think about what our sins are doing to ourselves, because we live in the apostasy of thinking only about ourselves.
And that will lead the majority of those redeemed by the Blood of Jesus not to come to the festival. But will we? Will we come to the festival as we prayed at the beginning of mass?
Will we come to the festival as “a people called to eternal life, with faith in their hearts and homage in their deeds?” Will our deeds be all about homage to Jesus this week? Will we, will I, shut my mouth and shut my eyes to the things of this world and instead look at the face of Jesus looking at us?
Will we come to the festival of such love poured out for us on the Cross that we forget about ourselves so that we can see how utterly loved we are by God? For the Face of Jesus wounded and beaten, disfigured, is marred by what we … what I… what you… have done to Him.
We have been malformed by the spirit of the world creeping into our Christian community and into our spirit. To not be honest, to run away from all that could make us feel guilty. Yet deep in our hearts, there rests guilt that is unable to be touched, save by the great love of Jesus.
Time is done for thinking about Jesus.
Time is done for talking about Jesus.
Time is done about thinking of ourselves before Jesus.
This is the festival.
And we are to look at the Sacrifice, for we will eat of the Pascal Lamb. But we will not taste the Pascal lamb until we see the Pascal Lamb and what he has given in utter love for us. For if you and I do not know and taste our infinite longing and the brokenness with which we fill that longing, then we will not taste the Great Feast, then we will not know that we are the longing of God.
God longs for us so much. He created us so that this week he knew that you and I, by utter grace, have entered into his family. Unlike the billions who do not know, He has given us the grace to know that we are the object of God’s love.
We are the apple of his eye. We are the ones who, for whom He has infinite longing, the love that dies for us.
We do not know how to feast, for we presume that life should always be a feast.
You and I look at the One who paid the price, the One who is the feast. You and I are those who this week prepare for the feast by shutting everything off and looking at Him-looking-at-us, loving us.
Let us be holy. Let us be saints.