COVID-19 and Holy Tuesday

So I see online today that the cops are handing out $750 tickets to folks who are homeless for improper social distancing. I guess I should have known it would only be a matter of time until that started happening, but I kind of thought that people who have absolutely no place to go might get a break at this time. No such luck it seems. Those cops should be ashamed of themselves.

Shame!

I also have watched Donald Trump order mask makers to not send life-saving masks anywhere outside of the US. Has he no soul? Thankfully that seems to have been resolved now but shame on him.

Shame!

I’ve heard stories about companies and individuals storing up hand sanitizer and soap and selling them at astronomical prices. Shame on them.

Shame!

Though this covid thing is bringing out a lot of wonderful attributes of love and community in human beings, it is really revealing the dark side of a lot of people as well.

Shame!

When will it end? When will there be true justice? When will people stop being arseholes?

I guess on Holy Tuesday I am reminded that I too have light and darkness within me. I’m pretty sure I would have been waving the palm branches on Palm Sunday shouting Hosanna as Jesus entered Jerusalem, but by now I would be turned against Him crying out for His murder. I would have bought into the ‘fake news’ of the powerful religious and government elite that twisted the truth and turned the masses against him. Jesus would have had every right to say shame on Dion.

Shame!

He still has every right.

But instead, as Jesus announces his own death in today’s gospel passage, He is willing to continue His march to the cross. Ultimately He will pray to God for my forgiveness because I don’t know what I’m doing.

That is just insanely beautiful!
And challenging.
And scary.
I don’t want to die that way.

But I want to be willing to if I have to.
I want to take the Jesus way.

Prayer

(Based on today’s Gospel reading from John 12: 20-36)

Holy Lord,

You have called us to follow you.
To follow in your footsteps.
That is so hard to do at a time like this; in a week like this.
It’s so bloody painful.
It’s so incredibly scary.

It seems so unbelievably unfair when there seems to be so many idiots in the world. Why should I care about them when they don’t seem to care about anyone or anything else?

But I guess I’m one of those idiots too right? That’s the point.
Help me to understand the point that you have been trying to make to me after all these years of me trying, and often failing, to emulate you.

You are the light of the world. All else is darkness. And I can only see where I am going when there is light.
So help me to stay in your light no matter how tough the road seems.
Actually help me to be your light myself somehow.
And keep reminding me that Good Friday isn’t the end of the story.
I need that reminder so often these days.
Amen

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