Palm Sunday
April 1, 2007
Fr. Carl McCarthy

          By no means am I complaining, or looking for sympathy, or am I despairing, but this past Friday was a terribly busy day. Would you like to hear about it? Maybe you can relate.

It started at 6:00am with Eucharistic Adoration; my alarm didn’t go off, and I didn’t wake up until 5:55am, but, somehow, I made it to church on time. I then prayed, wrote a bulletin column for Easter Sunday, got ready for the day, ate some breakfast, went to the office and checked e-mail and returned phone calls. I then had two impromptu meetings, one with the pastoral associate, who likes to talk, and another with the youth minister, who is wired. After this, I went to the hospital to visit parishioners and then to the Good Samaritan Home to see its progress.  I came back to the office in time for midday prayer with the staff and then went to lunch with the Director of Alumni for St. Meinrad. I arrived back at the office at 2 pm. I went to the new parish hall to see the countertops that came in -- but in the wrong color, back to the office for more e-mail and phone calls and then met with a parishioner to finalize an order for new parish sportswear. By this time, it was now 4:00pm, so I went to the house to look at the readings for the evening Liturgy. I returned to church at 5:00pm, reposed the Sacrament at 5:15, celebrated the Liturgy at 5:30 and prayed the Stations of the Cross at 6:15pm.

Can you relate? Have you ever had days like this? More and more, I experience them myself, and I hear from others how busy their days have become. We hardly have time to breathe. There seems to be so much to do and so little time to get it all done.

Time is a precious gift, and there seems to be so little time to go around. The Passion Narrative of Luke contains several inferences to time. Luke’s Passion begins with “when the hour came, Jesus took his place… “  Time seems to stop, as Jesus reaches out and heals the ear of the high priest’s servant, which Peter cut off.  Jesus then tells the chief priest that this is their hour – the time for power and darkness.  Jesus was placed on the cross at noon, and darkness fell until three in the afternoon.

As we enter this Holy Week, may we come to greater awareness of the gift time was for Jesus as he accepted the cross.  It was his hour. His entire life had been preparation for this moment in time -- from the first cry he made as a child, lying in a manger, to the last time he cried out with a loud voice from the cross, surrendering his spirit into his Father’s hands.  His time had come and so had the time for our salvation.

As we recall this week, when Jesus’ time had come, I hope that we can take some time to slow down and mark this week as holy. Come and share in the times of prayer on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. These are our days to recall what God has given us through the action of love. 

Perhaps you could slow down this week by letting go of some the non-essential things that you do. I grew up on a farm, and I recall the words my dad used to say when it was dinner time, or supper time, or church time, “Let’s go to the house. The work will be here later.” 

Take some time this week to stop and remember what Jesus Christ did for you when his time came.

sdrose@bellsouth.net
               5-5-2207