Lenten Reflection
Sr. Sheila Brosnan, SC

When ownership of St. Vincent’s Hospital on Staten Island changed several years ago, part of the sale agreement was that we would remove symbols of religious sentiment from the patient areas. I went with two assistants from room to room to take down the crucifixes. We spoke with staff and with patients to explain what we were doing. We gave each patient and staff person a rosary with a cross, and asked permission to take down the crucifix from the wall. Some said, “Yes, that’s fine”. Others said, “No, please don’t do that.”

     A man who was paralyzed from a hit and run accident, and who was undocumented, responded in Spanish: “I need the cross. Jesus and I talk together often.” A woman who had sat all night at the bedside of her dying mother said, “We need it, please let it stay.” A man who was undergoing chemo commented, “It belongs in my room. I am suffering a lot.” A woman in cardiac intensive care said, “Please leave it here, it gives me hope.”

     What is our feeling on Ash Wednesday as we exalt the cross by bearing it on our forehead, a prominent and significant part of our body? What does the cross mean to each of us this Lent, as we publicly proclaim that we are not only disciples, but ambassadors of Jesus Christ? Why do I want the cross to stay with me? Do I really need it? Does it give me hope?

     We gather today as a family of promise, coming in touch once again with the cross, the evidence of divine graciousness and mercy in our midst. As Joel’s call to assembly in the Ash Wednesday reading echoes through our minds and hearts, more and more people become present to us. The old and the young, the enthusiastic and the disillusioned, those in war-torn regions, those whose peace goes undisturbed, the hungry and the surfeited, the overworked and the underemployed, the victims of injustice and their perpetrators. The list is endless. Here comes everybody! Today, in the shadow of the cross, the love and compassion of Jesus is so compelling that each of us staunchly claims our place in the human family. We are a family gathering desperately in need of reconciliation, conversion and communion.

     It is in Eucharist that we come to face the truth of the infinite horizon of God’s love and our need to be forgiven for our lack of forgiveness. It is the time when all whose rights have been disregarded, along with all who have trampled on the rights of others, are drawn together under the cross, the banner of justice that reconciles and unites. In the shadow of the cross we can finally begin to understand that justice is not solely an issue of protecting rights, but of nurturing communion. True reconciliation, true community is made possible only when the demands of justice are transformed by an extravagant, gratuitous love that, still bearing the wounds of betrayal, pardons and seeks pardon without counting the cost. (Roberto Goizueta)

     At an anniversary celebration at Transfiguration Parish in lower Manhattan, I heard the story of an Irish pastor who served there in the early part of the 20th century. The area, then known as Five Points, was almost entirely populated by people of the latest immigration wave. The pastor was very critical and dissatisfied with the Italian population whom he said were shiftless, unreliable, lived in overcrowded conditions and above all did not speak English.

     One day there was an explosion in a pit where Italian immigrants were working on a tunnel. Men were trapped inside and there was no possibility of rescuing them. Despite being advised against it, the priest went down and stayed with the men until the last one had died. The priest emerged from the tunnel a changed man. The men who were trapped, the crucified ones, had become the mediators of God’s grace and mercy for him. In the pit, the priest had experienced reconciliation, conversion and communion.

     Today is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation as Joel reminds us, at the onset of Lent. Two questions might help us to become more focused as we strive to join the Christian community around the world in the penitential practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

What am I doing today to help someone who is suffering come down from the cross?

What ought I do, so that the crucified one might rise again?

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