With Evening Prayer today we enter into Holy Week, those days when we are called to step out of earthly time (in Greek chronos) and immerse ourselves in God's time (kairos). There we will accompany Jesus as he completes the mission for which he was sent, the salvation of the Father's most beloved creature, humanity.
On our own, despite our power and creativity we could not save ourselves. We could and can create marvelous technology, art and music. Original Sin could not destroy all the good God gave us when we were made. And yet, the ultimate good, union with our maker was beyond our grasp. We reach but fall away.
In the first reading today we hear the promise made through the Prophet Isaiah.
No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God...my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever.
This week we recall that moment when God stepped into our world, our time, to fulfill that promise and open for us the way to eternal life.
We live in a world filled with shiny objects clamoring for our attention. We forget how ephemeral it all is, how it will all pass away. In the gospel today we are reminded not once but twice that Chaiaphas was high priest that year. His position, his power lasted only a moment.
In this Holy Week let us stop fretting over things that will pass, and let us walk with our Lord as he enters Jerusalem, to suffer, die and rise so that we might have a new and everlasting life.
