Jim Mahoney's Blog - Sacred to Etc.

The Easter Season - April 22, 2022

if you have fish that live too long or flowers that refuse to die, then just give them to me (please don't - I don't have room). I truly do not have a green thumb, so flowers do not do well as my companions. The same is true of fish that I have tried to raise properly.  They just decide that I am an unsuitable companion for them - and they end up, on their own, ending their time on this earth.

We are in the Easter season. Yet, this does not seem like a life-enhancing approaching for my little blog. Perhaps true - or maybe just reveals my inner spirit.  I did have to make a special effort during the Holy Week/Easter not to appear sad or down. But that was my inner feeling most certainly.

Why? Quite simply, the constant drumbeat of photos, videos, and reporting from Mariupol formed a memory and image that I could not shake. These images involved real people. These tragedies were happening in real time, our time. The images were bad enough. What got to me intensely was the fact that this was a situation that truly seemed hopeless. I'm well aware of the theological truth that God will watch over us and bring us safely home- not necessarily in the short run, in the middle run, but most definitely the ultimate run. This is bedrock theology that, let's face it, makes it difficult to use for comfort in the short run or middle run.

What is happening to those poor people in the Ukraine is a monstrous evil. The people who have ordered these things are guilty of monstrous evil. Those who supported them are monsters - not a difficult conclusion to make. It becomes easy to stand on a soap-box and pontificate about Putin. That is easy. What is much more difficult is to keep in focus the suffering of all these people. To pray to Jesus on the Cross and ask him and his mother to intercede now, not tomorrow. With some unconscious or necessary interruptions, this is what I have been constantly thinking about and praying  for - during the last several weeks.

To Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who unties knots, this is a really big one. Help Ukraine. Now. Please.

Something practical to do:

There are many prayers to Mary who undoes knots. They express many different kinds of spirituality. Many are good. Some, I wince a little at the wording. So I'm making this free offer to those who read my blog:

(Exclusive offer to those who read my blog) If you would like a prayer card to Our Lady who Unties Knots, simply send me a stamped self-addressed envelope : Msgr. James Mahoney, Corpus Christi Church, 234 Southern Blvd., Chatham, NJ 07928. No Charge? You buy the stamp! We'll keep this offer going through the end of May.)

 

 

April 8, 2022 - Ukraine and Palm Sunday - Hard Not to Link

   

Kiev and Their Palm Sunday

In the 1980's, I visited Russia with a close priest friend. We visited Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev . This was at a time when reforms made possible by Gorbachev were being implemented. Besides seeing a country shake off many of the shackles of the fading Soviet Union, it was a time to see how  progress was beginning to be made. It was fascinating to see inside the rapidly changing Soviet Union. In the past 50 days, I have often recalled that visit. It was interesting to talk with Soviet citizens and troubling to hear that they were less positive about Gorbachev then we were in the United States. 

Now as we enter into Holy Week, I find that, like most of you, I'm consumed with prayer for the good people of the Ukraine. What person of good will cannot pray for the courage of the people in the Ukraine. In our churches, we will hold palms and recall the journey of Jesus to the Cross. Here is a photo of Palm Sunday as seen in the Passion Play at Oberammergau:

Ah, the fickleness of humanity. A few days later, the crowds morphed from shouting Hosanna to "Crucify Him." It is possible that the people shouting Hosanna were different from those shouting Crucify Him. Hard to be certain. What is certain is that people experienced the full array of human emotions - and finally many of them centered on the ultimate message that good overcomes evil. That is certainly the focus of my prayers for you during this Holy Week. 

As I see what the monster has done who is behind the atrocities in the Ukraine, I can't shake from my mind what this person has allowed to happen in the Ukraine. I link the sufferings of Jesus on the Cross with the sufferings of the good people in Ukraine. I have found it so difficult to write a meditation for Holy Week because I keep picturing what happened in Kiev. Please, Jesus, let this stop. Let goodness win. It has to win.

 

So many images all clanging together. Each of them memorable. None can be trivialized. The path that Jesus took to eternal life went through the Cross. 

Focus on the cross this week. The prayers we say are real. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?"

The tomb is empty. Jesus is risen. I believe this with all my heart.