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'I want to be with Jesus in the days ahead'
by Archbishop Allen Vigneron special to The Michigan Catholic
Published April 3, 2009
Dear Friends,
"Let us also go to die with Him." (John 11:16)
I consider it a gift from Providence that the first column I, as your new archbishop (well, relatively "new" – still within the "90-day warranty period"), am writing for The Michigan Catholic is coming to you at the beginning of Holy Week. What could be more fitting than that my first message to you in this format is my invitation to you to accompany the Lord Jesus from his entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, into the cenacle on Holy Thursday, on through Gethsemane, along the way of his agony up to Calvary and on to his victory on Easter Sunday?
As St. Paul says: "If we have died with (the Lord) we shall also live with Him" (2 Timothy 2:12). It is principally through our participation in the liturgy, especially the solemn liturgical celebrations of Holy Week, that we, in a mystical or sacramental way respond to the invitation implicit in St. Paul's affirmation. I know it is not easy to make space in our already crowded schedules for the liturgies of Holy Week, but I give you my firmest assurance that the sacrifice you make in order to enter into the mystery of Christ's Passover from death to new life through the liturgies in your parishes will permit the Holy Spirit to fill your lives with great graces. The sacrifice of our time and convenience, great as this feels, can't really be compared to the sacrifice the Lord made for us in this Holy Week.
I acknowledge, too, that there are circumstances that just make it impossible for some of us, try as we might, to come to the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, or the solemn commemoration of the Passion on Good Friday, or the paschal vigil on Holy Saturday night.
Please know how pleased Christ is, and how abundantly He will bless you, for the extra time you devote to your personal prayer during these days. Giving Him these extended periods of personal communion with Him during the very week in which He gave us so much – indeed, the very last drop of His precious blood – is a great gift to Him, one that He treasures as a token of your appreciation for what He did to save us. Having delivered the most important part of my message for this first edition of my column, I want to offer two sets of remarks that are more personal.
The first concerns the writing of this column and the title I've given it. About the title, "In His Light," I hope no one will be offended I have imported this with me back from the Diocese of Oakland. "In His Light" was the title of my column in the diocesan paper, The Voice. I originally chose this title because of the project that fell to me to lead when I arrived in Oakland in 2003: the building of the new Cathedral of Christ the Light. In reflecting on my mission I realized God was inviting me to a new consecration of myself and my priesthood to spread the light of Christ. The column for the paper would be for me an important means of fulfilling that mission. While I have left California, I have not left that mission, the mission of helping to fill the world with Christ's light. It is to Christ the Light and to his Gospel that I dedicate this column and all the others that I will write for The Michigan Catholic.
The second set of remarks is about my own experience of sharing in the Lord's Passion through prayer, especially through the prayer of the sacred liturgy. In these days I often find myself recalling fondly and with great gratitude my boyhood pastor, Fr. Harry Paul. Fr. Paul advanced the implementation of the revised Holy Week liturgies in our parish of Immaculate Conception; and, in line with his own interest in the liturgical renewal, he also brought to our community the form of the Stations of the Cross offered by the Liturgical Press.
From my first years in grade school these made a tremendous impression on me. In ways that I'm sure I couldn't begin to explain, these stations communicated to my own young mind and heart something of the spiritual depth of the mystery of Christ's suffering.
At the top of this column I quote the words of the Apostle Thomas to the others of the Twelve when they heard that Jesus was determined to place Himself in danger by returning to Judea in order to answer the summons of Mary and Martha because their brother Lazarus was ill: "Let us also go to die with him." These words find a powerful and resounding echo in my heart in these days. I want to be with Jesus in the days ahead, as He makes His "way" to his "Hour." And I believe that it was in great part because of what Fr. Paul taught me that I am ready to share in Thomas's resolve.
I pray that all of you have a Holy Week rich with every spiritual blessing. I ask you to pray with me for your priests and for the deacons who assist them, that their hard work during these holy days will bear great fruit in the lives of us all.
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