Love to the end

This is my homily for yesterday, Good Friday.  The Good Friday readings are here.  

Btw, the incident about the Virginia family I describe in the homily, I first learned about on the old dotCommonweal blog - it was something Fr. Joe Komonchak had posted about.  It came to mind when I was sweating out the composition of this homily, and I was able to find news stories about the incident on Google.  (I am fairly sure that Christian preaching existed prior to the advent of Google, but I don't know how preachers possibly could have done it.  Perhaps their homilies were considerably shorter, back in those ancient times.)

Here is the homily:

Last night’s Holy Thursday celebration began with Mike, our cantor and my fellow bass in the choir, proclaiming these words:

We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection; through him we are saved and made free.

…and then the choir and all of us who were here sang, “Glory, we glory in the cross of Christ.”  So from the very first moments of the Triduum, we have the Cross raised up before us.  And that prepares us for tonight, when we worship and venerate Christ on the Cross.  Holy Thursday has led us to Good Friday.  

There is more to that connection between the two days: I'd like to glance back at Holy Thursday’s Gospel reading from John’s Gospel, which Deacon Joe proclaimed so well.  The Evangelist John was a commenter: he interlaced his account of the words and deeds of Jesus with commentary, to help us understand what it means.  Here he is in commentary mode, prefacing last night’s account of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples:

Jesus knew that his hour had come

to pass from this world to the Father.

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

He loved his own - and that includes us - to the end.  All the way to the end!  Not “loved us just one particular time”.  Not “Loved us only until it became inconvenient”.  Not “Loved us only until it started to hurt a little bit.”  Not “Loved us only as much as we deserve”.  Rather, “Loved us to the end”!

Once again, here we see Holy Thursday preparing us for Good Friday.  It’s as if his serving us by washing our feet is preparation for his loving us – all the way to the end.  And we see, above and behind me here [point to crucifix], what “to the end” meant for Jesus.  Tonight we remember with gratitude that Jesus loved us to the very end of his life.

Again, in last night’s Gospel: Jesus instructed his followers – instructed us: 

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,

you ought to wash one another’s feet.

I have given you a model to follow,

so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

Could it be that, just as he gave us a model by washing our feet, he’s giving us a model by loving us to the end?  What would that mean for us?  What would it look like for us to love one another to the end?

Here is a news item I heard of, some 15 or so years ago.  I consider it an example of loving to the end.  A man name Thomas Vander Woude lived in Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington DC.  He and his wife had a son named Joseph who was a Down Syndrome person.  Some of you may have heard me speak before about Down Syndrome.  My niece is a Down Syndrome person.  I really think God has a special place in heaven waiting, not only for children with Down Syndrome, some of whom can seem like angels sent to earth, but also for the parents who accept these special children and care for them.  I’m in awe of my brother and his wife, who have reared my niece energetically, cheerfully and with great equanimity.  They don’t see her as a burden.  On the contrary: they would be the first to tell you that God gave them a gift when He gave my niece to them – and I would say that God certainly has blessed them with parenting abilities which they probably didn’t know they had.  

I have reason to believe that Thomas Vander Woude was the same way with his son Joseph.  

Thomas, the dad in this news item, did more than agree to accept Joseph into his life and love him and rear him.  Thomas died for him.  When the son Joseph was 20 years old, the parents were having some work done on their property.  And somehow, Joseph fell into the septic tank.  We tend not to have septic tanks in this area because suburban villages around here have sewer service.  But septic tanks were common where I grew up – when I was a kid, our family lived for a time on a dirt road in a rural area.  For houses that aren’t connected to sewer lines, a septic tank collects the sewage and waste when a toilet is flushed.  It’s a reservoir of vile, dirty solids and liquids. Its smell can almost be enough to knock you flat.  And this is what Joseph fell into.  My experience of septic tanks is that they're buried beneath the ground, but this one was exposed while the work was being done, and perhaps Joseph wandered too close  - he fell in.  He was in danger of drowning in the tank.  So his dad, Thomas, leaped in after him.  And Thomas put his arms around Joseph and managed to hold Joseph’s head above the water and sludge until help could arrive.  And Joseph was saved.  But Thomas drowned.  

For Thomas and Joseph, the cross looked and smelled like a septic tank.  Thomas died so that Joseph might live.  Thomas loved Joseph – even to the end.  

Jesus took it even a step farther.  He died, not only so that one of us could live, but so that all of us, of all time, might live.  Jesus loved all of us to the end.

I pray that I may never be put to the test as Thomas Vander Woude was.  But I would think that many of us could think of people who have taken up crosses – who have are sacrificed and suffered so others may live and flourish.  A wife who is happy in her work and local community but quits her job and uproots herself so her husband’s employer can relocate them to another state.  A pregnant mom who defers her own medical treatment so as not to harm the child in her womb.  Adults who put their own lives on hold to care for elderly parents.  Parents who give up their evenings and weekends so their gifted children can develop their gifts in music or the arts or sports.  These folks are examples of taking up the crosses that life presents to them by making significant sacrifices on behalf of others.  They’re dying, perhaps a lot, perhaps just a little, so others may have life.

They are glorying in their crosses.  They are following the model of Jesus, who took up his cross to save all of us.  

This is why we are invited to glory in the Cross.  Because this instrument of Jesus’s death has become the instrument of life for us.

In a few minutes, the cross will come forward.  Laura and Scott are going to bear the cross this evening.  Laura recently lost her mom.  Laura and Scott, I hope that, in some way, touching the cross of Jesus may bring new life in the form of healing and comfort to you in your time of grief. 

Later this evening, all of us will be invited to come forward and touch the cross.  May that simple act be a graced encounter with Jesus, who has loved us until the end.  May we glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ this evening.