Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

Last October, I went on retreat with a priest-friend of mine down at the Monastery of Our Lady of Beatitude and St. Bruno and the Carthusian Sisters living there (located just outside of Livingston Manor, nestled in Sullivan County, just outside of our own diocese). There appeared to be about two dozen cloistered sistersall filled with a radiant joywho live their lives in near-complete solitude. They live and work in their own individual “cells” (see the picture below, to the right…the little roofs of cells stretching throughout the enclosure), all while praying for so many intentions, including the intentions of retreatants like me. At the end of our week-long retreat, we were happy to hear that there was a sister there, of about 25 years oldSister Lux Brunawho would be taking her final, solemn vows that afternoon. The chapel (as well as the whole community) was indeed ready for such a beautiful occasion! When we left, we promised to continue to pray, in gratitude, for the Sisters and their community.

Once Pope Francis proclaimed this to be the Year of Consecrated Life, our parish began to celebrate it with a collection of various items that could be of great use to the Sisters: paper, pens, light bulbs and batteries were our needed items. And, wow, did we respond! With nearly 200 pounds of goods, I called the Sisters last week to ask if I could visit them on Wednesday of Holy Week. A little baffled by my request, they were still very pleased to grant me permission. Yesterday, I made the 5-hour round trip as a way for me to enter more deeply into Holy Week…a kind of “day long” retreat, if you will.

As I drove onto the monastic property I was immediately reminded of the peace and tranquility they offered to me months earlier…and then I hit the snowy tundra leading me up the mountain road! Thank the good Lord I had waited until the Spring, and that I still had my snow tires on the car. After a long struggle up the mountain (and lots of mud, slush and ice in the wheel wells), I finally made it to the entrance of the enclosure (or cloister). I rang the bell and waited. Within a few minutes, I was greeted by the recent, newly-named Guest mistress: yes, Sr. Lux Bruna welcomed me back. It was delightful to see her and to actually be able to talk with her (the cloister is always in complete silence, except for communal prayer). I reminded her of her profession day six months ago and she was thrilled that I recalled it with her.

I told her that I had gifts for them in the car. “Let me help,” she said, only to hear me refuse (it was quite cold, slippery, snowy…and the boxes were heavy). “Nonsense, I must,” she replied, to which I insisted that she stay inside. She replied, “Very well, I will obey.” As I brought in our donations, she was flabbergasted at the quantity of goods, but more importantly of the overwhelming generosity and care that the goods expressed from our parishioners. I explained to her that we wanted to share with them, in this Year of Consecrated Life, our gratitude and support for their witness and intercession. She was so very pleased to hear of our spiritual union, and she promised that the Sisters would very much continue their prayers for all of us.

I visited the Chapel (here, to the right…visitors are allowed to enter an upper loft for prayer) for a simple prayer and was ready to leave. Sister tried to force me to stay and have a salad lunch, but I refused her, “Sister, you already do so much for us; give me this one opportunity to simply do for you, that you may receive rather than give.” I departed from her with her blessing and promise of prayers, as I also did for her.

Thanks to so many generous parishioners who gave me the reason to return to the monastery for a short while: it was wonderful way for me to enter more deeply into Holy Week!

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on, he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

I’m not sure whether it is still the case today, but when I was younger, we always referred to the Wednesday of Holy Week as “Spy Wednesday”. I believe we appropriated this from today’s gospel movement: Judas begins now to seek an opportunity to hand Jesus over.

Now that I’m a bit older…just a little bit…I am struck by the banal desire of Judas, his utter disregard for all that he has witnessed in Jesus’ 3+ years of public ministry. The word “opportunity” usually signals something positive: “the opportunity to advance at work”, “the opportunity to go to a conference”, and “the opportunity to make a par” (sorry for the golf image…I’m chomping at the bit!)…all of these are seeking “a good”, but not Judas’ “opportunity”. Does he really see his opportunity as serving a good?

On this Spy Wednesday, let us look for an opportunity in our own life to seek to accomplish a real and authentic good; to respond to Judas’ situation with a holy movement of our hearts and lives back toward Jesus…the One who is to offer His whole and entire self for our good.

Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ!

“After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.”

Three very simple words express a most dramatic, foundational shift in the life of the gospels, and even more important, cause an extreme shift in the liveliness of holiness versus evil.  Judas Iscariot can’t be still with this reality: in the face of the struggle, Judas must move.  The problem is: Judas moves not toward virtue and holiness, but rather, he runs toward the wickedness of his temptation, toward betrayal.  If only he had finally allowed the life and message of the Lord Jesus to overwhelm his temptation, the story would have been dramatically different.

But we know the story all too well, don’t we?  It’s not just Judas, in the end, who entertains and subsequently succumbs to evil’s lure…it’s all of us as well.  Why is it that I do the things I dread, while avoiding the things of goodness?  All of this points to the actual lived reality of evil around us.  Yes it is powerful, yes it entices, it attracts.  But we also see how virtue rewards and holiness blesses.  And we are so often torn between the two, aren’t we?

Within Holy Week, we come face to face with this struggle as it engulfs the Lord Jesus.  Let us pray today, seeking to shun the enticements of evil; let us freely choose, instead, to allow ourselves to be drawn more and more into the embrace of holiness, into the warmth of virtue, into the arms of the One who stretches them so completely as to invite and caress all of creation.

“The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.”

The people are amazed, while the ‘leaders’ plot their wickedness.  The people freely come to Him and receive His presence, while those who are learned remain firm, steadfast in their scheming.  It appears that those who have no ‘plan’ are surprised–they delight in the presence and ministry of Jesus, while those who are fixed, solid, certain, unbending, unyielding…those are unable to see Jesus and witness His wonders, they remain blind, ignorant, stuck in the sin that keeps them at odds with Him.

On this Monday of Holy Week, what might still remain within us that is keeping us from ultimately changing our course: to move away from sin and to fly toward Jesus’ presence, His ministry, His love?