As Holy Week so swiftly approaches, may I share with you a reflection I wrote last year.
As Catholic Christians we all share a common identity as children of God, made so by the waters of Baptism. To be a child of God is to be a brother or sister of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is to be united as one in the power of the Holy Spirit and incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church.
Each year as we come to the end of our Lenten journey from ashes to Easter, in Holy Week we take leave of the desert and in the Sacred Triduum enter into gardens. On Holy Thursday, the garden is Gethsemani and as Jesus prays, we fall asleep with the other disciples. How conscious and aware are they, are we, of all that is to transpire over these next three days.
On Good Friday, the garden is the place of the tomb where the body of the Lord, our brother Jesus, is laid to rest.
On Easter, we come to the garden and, with Mary Magdalene, encounter the Gardener – the Risen Lord Jesus!
The sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is destroyed by the new Gardener whose bapitsmal waters bring life and freshness to each of us.
This Easter, as we renew our Baptismal Promises, may we give thanks to the Divine Gardener from whose life we draw life itself.
