Holy Week comes to us this year in the midst of a terrible war being waged in Eastern Europe. The suffering and death experienced by the Ukranian people is hard to fathom; the refugees number in the millions. What we are witnessing is a kind of evil that impacts the entire world.
Jesus enters Jerusalem knowing full well the evil he faces in the form of the Roman government, the religious leaders who see him as a threat, and the crowd who so easily turn against him. But the evil being perpetrated is not limited to them. At every Eucharist we acknowledge that Jesus “ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” He takes upon himself all sins for all time, so that he might win salvation for all humankind.
Yet the salvation Jesus won for us has not brought an end to evil. We need only look about this war-torn world. The struggle of good and evil still goes on, just as it does within each of us despite our baptism into Christ and our resolve to be his disciple. For that reason recalling the events of Jesus passion, death and resurrection at the conclusion of Lent is not a one-time event. Every year we celebrate the Paschal Mysteries so that we remember the self-sacrifice of Jesus and experience again its redemptive power. We need to share in these sacred rituals so that we do not lose heart and find the resolve to carry on in the face of evil.
As Vincentians we share in the saving work of Jesus in ministering to those in need. At times we too are confronted with poverty, deprivation, neglect and other forms of evil. In imitation of Jesus we sacrifice our time and our talents to overcome such forces and lift the spirits of our neighbors and restore their dignity as sons and daughters of the Father.
Jesus resurrection from the dead is proof that evil, the ultimate evil of death, has been overcome, and we as his disciples share in that victory. We extend to every neighbor in need a sense of Easter hope and reveal to them that good, the good we do, has overcome evil.
