Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Luc Thuku, OHC
Today we gather to celebrate the beginning of the commemoration of Holy Week, also called the Great Week by the Eastern Churches. It is called the Great Week because great things happened during this particular week in the history and execution of our salvation. The deeds, with the exception of the resurrection, are however only GREAT when we put them in the perspective of salvation otherwise they were horrible. A human being who is also God is betrayed by a friend and killed with the consent of religious authorities by civil authorities with the approval of the masses. It is all about pain and suffering and that is not something we would ordinarily call great!
It also painfully reminds us that humanity has been two faced since time in memorial… the crowds that shouted “hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” shouted with equal enthusiasm “crucify him” before a week went by!
In the first reading from Isaiah, we heard a portion of the so called ‘Song of the Suffering Servant’. We heard the prophet fussing or lamenting, trying to make sense of some painful realities, in this case exile. If we are able to make sense or grasp the message of this text, which is, that even righteous people suffer for no fault of theirs, then we will be able to start having an idea why Jesus had to die, and a horrible death at that, and also our own sufferings especially those that come our way for no fault of ours. However, although the idea of righteous suffering is prevalent in our passage this morning, the emphasis is on the cost of being a faithful disciple or servant, and God’s vindication of the servant’s obedience or faithfulness.
The passage from Isaiah reminds and tries to focus us on the fact that when we were called by God, we were called to faithfuness and that the communication of God’s intention is fundamental to, or the core of, our calling. We therefore should listen attentively to God for the message and then use our tongues to convey it to support the weary. We may ask who the weary are that need a word from the servant of God…on top of the poor, the sick, the lame, the hungry, the widow, the orphan, the prisoner and the ones we know well; the weary also include people who see no purpose or meaning in their life, people who think their work is in vain, people who are in the depths of despair, people who see no reason to continue in their labor. Above all the weary are sinners…people like you and me at some point in time! They are people who see their sin and their shame, they are people who know that they are, or feel, alienated from God and exiled from His presence, people who know their unworthiness, people who admit they don't do the right they really want to do.
Although Isaiah does not tell us what the word for the weary is, Jesus, the obedient servant of the sovereign Lord does tell us that the word is REST. He tells us in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”. The rest he is speaking about, though, has nothing to do with relaxing in bed, or on an armchair sipping wine, or on a hammock with a book or newspaper, or soaking in the sun on a beach in Hawaii for eternity. It is believing in him and following him and as we heard in today's lengthy gospel passage, that path is rocky and may, or will, lead to death!
We should keep our ears open to both those whom we serve and to God. This is the character of obedience because we are not our own. This however will produce suffering. Prophets do advocacy work on behalf of the marginalized and at the same time try to encourage or give hope to the suffering. They find themselves sandwiched between the oppressor and the oppressed and this may lead to resistance from the powerful and even from those who suffer. Suffering in this context is a result of speaking truth to power and is therefore not passive. We are called to resist violent oppression because acting otherwise makes us and the survivors we are advocating for in the name of God, lose their human dignity.
Jesus whom we follow gave the message he has entrusted to us with boldness. He gave the message in the face of opposition and ridicule but that did not deter him from giving a word of rest to the weary, to sinners and all. Once again as servants of the Lord, like Jesus, we are called upon to speak boldy with an instructed tongue in the face of ridicule, mockery, opposition and death. We should never be afraid to speak the truth regardless of what the itching ears of our audience wants to hear, regardless of the hostility of the worldly powers and authorities! Even if death becomes our end, the God who calls and sustains us will vindicate us and our death will not be in vain. Suffering and/or shame does not have the last word. With God on our side, the expected result is victory despite how bleak a situation looks.
Some peole are tempted to think that Jesus used his divine nature in a selfish way to escape pain but that was not the case. Like the rest of us, when he ministered here on earth, he lived by faith. By faith he humbled himself to the point of death because he trusted in God and depended on the power of the Spirit. By faith Jesus listened to God. By faith Jesus set his face resolutely towards Jerusalem. By faith he submitted to suffering and to shame. That is why Paul is urging us in our second reading today from Philippians 2:5-11, to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ who humbled himself and by so doing God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and every toungue confess that He alone is Lord.
In the gospel which is long and loaded with information, We hear Peter being put into a corner by a servant girl with a very depressing question. The question posed to him which is best framed in John 18:17 is… “are you not also this man’s disciple?”
For once let us shift our minds not to the response Peter gave or how many times the cock crowed, and take liberty to re-word the question to “are you this man’s disciple?” I am suggesting we do so because it will put us in the picture and by that underline the importance and relevance of the question to us modern day disciples. “Am I this man’s disciple?”….“Are you this man’s disciple?… seriously, I mean to ask “Are you this man’s disciple?”
This man’s disciples live by faith…This man’s disciples live with intergrity…This man’s disciples listen attentively for the word of God and convey it to the weary…This man’s disciples are humble and not full of themselves… this man’s disciples don't look down on others or walk on their heads… this man’s disciples are not egocentric and nothing is always about them….This man’s disciples don’t shout others down or discriminate in any way!
Are you this Man’s disciple?…seriously “are you this man’s disciple?” This man’s disciples identify with the poor and the oppressed… This man’s disciples face oppression head on without fear of the consequences … this man’s disciple speak truth to power not worrying about what might happen to them…this man’s disciples don’t mind being associated or indentified with the nobodys of this world….This man’s disciples are themselves nobodys because like their master Jesus, they have humbled themselves even to the point of death. the death of self first and possibly physical death!
Are you seriously this man’s disciple?… This man’s disciples are currently fighting racism in all of its many forms, they are fighting oppression, inequality, corruption, sexism, and are in the forefront campaigning for an equitable distribution of the covid-19 vaccines that are being hoarded by the super wealthy nations of the world while the so called third world countries are going without! This man’s disciples are calling for gun law reforms because innocent people continue to be murdered enmasse mainly in this country and elsewhere, this man’s disciples are kneeling on the roads in Burma to create a buffer between trigger happy millitary officers and innocent unarmed protesters!… are you really this man’s disciple, or are you at least willing to try to live as per the example of the master?
On Easter morning at the vigil of the resurrection, the Church will give us a chance to renew our baptismal promises. Baptism as we well know is the outward sign of an inner commitment to being a disciple. You and I have a full week during this great week, to retreat, discern and decide to re-commit ourselves or to even commit ourselves afresh to this Man’s discipleship which leads to the death of self and at times to literal death, but our vindicator lives, praised be HE, and therefore death does not have the final word!
My brother, my sister, are you this man’s disciple?
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