by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann
At the heart of our Catholic spirituality is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Holy Week liturgies bring us into contact with the central mysteries of our Christian faith: 1) Holy Thursday’s celebration of the Lord’s Supper; 2) Good Friday’s commemoration of the passion of the Lord; 3) Holy Saturday night’s celebration of the Easter Vigil; and 4) Easter Sunday Masses with the renewal of baptismal promises.
It is completely absurd to believe that planet Earth and its unique ability to support multiple life forms just happened against impossible odds — odds that no Las Vegas bookie would ever take. It is much more reasonable to accept that there simply must be an incredible intelligence that brought into existence the cosmos, our solar system, planet Earth and human life.
Science makes no sense if there is no order in the physical world. Scientific study is based on the assumption that there is predictability within our universe. In other words, we find amazing design in nature that can be studied and understood. This implies there must be a designer.
Christianity holds that not only must there be a Creator, but that the Creator of the cosmos desires for us to be in communion with him. The entire biblical narrative describes a God who loved us into existence and, despite the rebellion of our first parents that fractured our humanity, a God who continues to pursue us even in our sinfulness.
This loving God desires to heal our brokenness and desires for us to share in his abundant and eternal life. No other religion believes what Christians believe. Namely, that the Creator of the Cosmos, the Second Person of the Triune God, actually chose to become an embryo in the womb of Mary. Christianity holds that God chose to immerse himself in our humanity in order that we could share in his divine life.
Bad ideas have bad consequences, and good ideas have beautiful consequences. The anthropology — the understanding of human beings — that dominates philosophy today is very bleak.
This materialist anthropology holds that our existence is just a bizarre, inexplicable accident that somehow emerged from physical matter. If this is what many believe about the origins of humanity, no wonder there are epidemics of loneliness, isolation, anxiety, depression and even despair.
Christians, on the other hand, believe that we were loved into existence by an amazing God. We believe even seemingly small events have meaning and purpose. We believe that this all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful, all-loving God cares about us personally. We believe that we have a mission in this world and a destiny to live forever with God and the saints.
Jesus, the Second Person of the Triune God, came into this world to heal our brokenness. Our Lord came to reveal the depth of God’s love for us on Calvary. Jesus fully entered into our humanity, even unto suffering and death. From the pierced side of Jesus on Calvary, blood and water flowed, revealing the depth of his mercy and the gift of our ability to share in his life. How can we be despondent if we believe that God died for us in order that we could live with him?
At the press conference announcing that Pope Francis appointed Archbishop McKnight to succeed me as the Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas, a reporter asked: “What do you say to the parishioners of Sts. Peter and Paul in Seneca, whose pastor, Father Arul Carasala, was murdered? How do you make sense of this heart-breaking tragedy?”
I responded by saying that it is impossible to make sense of it. That said, I suggested that you point them to the beauty and truth of our Catholic faith: We believe that death does not have the final word. Jesus defeated death with his victory of life on Easter. This world is not our final destination.
Father Arul gave his entire life to proclaim Our Lord’s defeat of sin and death through the paschal mystery, the dying and rising of Jesus that we encounter and touch at each and every Mass. Jesus does not promise that we will never experience suffering.
Our Lord tells his disciples that they must follow him along the path of heroic love, all the way to Calvary. The disciple of Jesus has to be prepared to share in the cross.
At the same time, Our Lord does promise his disciples that we will never be alone. Jesus will be with us through difficult times. When we encounter adversity and even tragedy, we must view it through the prism of the dying and rising of Jesus — namely, God brings good from evil, life from death.
My mother believed that my priesthood was a good that God brought forth from the tragedy of my own father’s murder, which happened when I was still in my mother’s womb. The closeness of our parish priests to our family throughout my childhood, in part because of my father’s death, certainly had a profound impact on me. Priests’ friendship with my family was certainly a key factor to my openness to the priesthood.
For the Christian, when tragedy occurs, we should look at it through tearful, but expectant, eyes. I do not believe that God desired Father Arul or my father to die in the manner they did. Their deaths were the result of sin. At the same time, if we remain close to Jesus, we should not be surprised that he will bring good forth from evil. We may not be able to recognize it until 25 years later or perhaps never in this world, but we should be confident that it will happen.
After Father Arul’s memorial Mass, I received the following message from one of our international priests from India: “During the celebration of Mass, I felt that I should be ready at any time to die for Jesus. It’s a great honor. First few days, I was totally frightened and was thinking of going back to my country, but now I feel proud to be a priest and die as a priest, even to die in this country.”
May the celebration of the Triduum and Easter renew within each of us profound gratitude for the gift of our Catholic faith! May we all be motivated both to live and to die for Jesus!
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