Dear St. Rita Families,

            It’s hard to believe that Holy Week is upon us! I pray that this season of Lent has been fruitful for you and your loved ones. This last week of Lent especially abounds with graces, and so I encourage you to be attentive to God’s call. You will recall that the Passion of Our Lord is important not just because it is our salvation, but also because it manifests to us the Love of God. This makes our salvation more than a juridical act, though it does satisfy Divine Justice. It also is meant to move you, to help you to see just how much your Divine Savior loves you.

            Remember the line from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Adoro te Devote – “cuius una stilla salvum facere totum mundum quit ab omni scelere”: “One drop of which [Jesus’ Blood] saves the world from all evil.” If one drop of the Precious Blood of Christ could save the whole world, why would Christ shed it all? You know the answer: for Love! This hymn makes the Passion of Christ appear rash, unnecessary, absurd, over the top, and extravagant. And yet, that is what lovers do! And Love Himself is no exception. You have heard the common, sometimes cynical phrase, “Haters gonna hate.” It is Christ who lives the reverse: “Lovers gonna love!” And you can’t stop Him. Why would you want to?

            But, you say, the Passion of Christ is extremely difficult to contemplate. Yes, the pain and suffering of Our Lord is intense! We are shocked by the brutality and hatred that man can show to Another. It is gruesome, the torture and death suffered by Our Savior. If the sheer awfulness of the execution doesn’t overwhelm us, Christ’s Love for us exhibited in that moment does. It readily makes us ashamed for our sins, and it drives us to turn away from all evil and to take refuge in His Goodness. Christ goes willingly to His Passion, not under constraint, except perhaps the constraint of His infinite Love, through which He freely desires to suffer for us. And precisely because His Love for us is so free, we can confidently run to Him even as He suffers.

            This is the other reason we lift high the Cross of Christ. It is not just an act of defiance against all the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil that desire to kill us; it is a proclamation of the Love of Christ! Look how much He loves you! He seeks not to guilt you into loving Him – He came to expiate your guilt, not to increase it! He wants to give you assurance that you will always and only be met with Love, even (and especially) when that Love calls you to deeper conversion. While it is true that our sinfulness in the face of this Love is humiliating, the humility that follows is a cause for great rejoicing. Humility allows us to live in right relationship with God, and without it, we remain in falsehood and sin.

            Christ’s unjust humiliation in His Passion makes atonement for our pride, which is the root of all of our sin. Too many people use “Catholic guilt” as an excuse for either hating the Church or God, or for accusing the Church of causing psychological damage. And it is true – anyone who uses the Passion of Christ to make another feel or believe that they are perpetually guilty has twisted God’s Word to make it appear not as Love but as condemnation and spite. This offense is, in my opinion, very sinister and worthy of heavy reproach. But sometimes, too, perfectly good doctrine gets twisted only upon its reception, if the soil is rocky or thorny (cf. Mt 13). In these cases, a person is attached to his or her sin and is looking for an excuse to remain there. Would that they accept the present humiliation that comes with acknowledging sin in order to find forgiveness, healing, and peace! The Love of God desires this. But if they persist in sin, in “justifying” it (sin can never be made just), they themselves will never be made just, and they will have condemned themselves for refusing to accept the offer of salvation. That is the big difference: God cannot justify your sin, because sin is always evil, but He can justify you, if you repent of your sin.

            And the refusal of men and women to accept His Love was a source of extreme suffering for Christ in His Passion. How could anyone refuse the loving advances of God Himself? He suffered at these refusals, not in self-pity, but in true, selfless Love. Such souls condemn themselves, and Christ would save them from that eternal torture and torment! 

Let this Holy Week, then, be impetus for us to proclaim the Gospel ever more fully. If Christ’s Love for each and every soul sent Him to the Cross, may It send you and me forth to preach! The world needs more evangelists than soldiers, more evangelists than politicians, more evangelists than lawyers. The world needs more saints! Do not leave that mission to others. It is yours by God’s call, and you are privileged to receive it. Souls fall into Hell because Christ is not preached! Give yourself to Christ once and for all – now! Please! It is the Love of Christ who calls.

In Christ,

Fr. Christensen