Light and Darkness, Suffering and Joy

Homily for Wednesday of Holy Week

As we celebrate Holy Week, we become aware that, as in all of human life, joyous elation and suffering walk side-by-side. While we recall the suffering and death of Jesus this week, we cannot do so apart from our knowledge that Jesus is risen. Similarly, during Eastertide, especially during the octave of Easter, we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection while also remembering his passion and death.

Most of human life is a mixture of joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure. We see this in individual lives as well as in our cultural life. Though we are experiencing discord and division in our society at this present time, our memories remind us that the people of our nation are able to come together in times of tragedy such as the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes and forest fires help us to see that our human society is able to rise to these occasions with concern for those who are suffering.

Peter and Judas present us with this kind of perspective. While both of them are guilty of denial and betrayal, Peter is able to recognize God’s loving forgiveness while Judas gives into despair and takes his own life. While the members of the Sanhedrin conspired to take the life of Jesus, we are reminded of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who rose to be heroes in the story of the passion of Jesus. Darkness and light, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, death and resurrection to new life – all of these are two sides of the one coin.

As we spent time considering the passion of our Lord this week, it might help us to examine our own lives to recognize the mixture of joy and sorrow. We see this reality in the Eucharist – both a memorial of the sacrifice of Calvary as well as a sacred meal of the gracious gift of God’s life in our midst.