“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth”?….Look to the Cross - There you will find the Church…And there you will find Christ…No Cross - No Christ!

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St John that the religious authorities were plotting to kill Jesus…He could no longer walk freely amongst the people….”But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret”….The rejection of Christ is the rejection of Truth itself…This rejection is very much alive today….What would happen if you spoke freely about your Catholic faith in your office…”I believe marriage is between a one man and one woman”…..”I do not believe in contraception, it violates my marriage vows”….What would happen if you make these claims in “polite company”?…..To this very day, Jesus can not “walk among the people”…He is rejected…..Interestingly enough, St John tells us in the Gospel today that some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem questioned Jesus’s divinity because they “knew where he was from”….Jesus did not “measure up” to the image of who God would look like, act like and be like……..Jesus said very clearly before his death - ”But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”….When Jesus returns will we even recognize him?….Better put - Will the world accept him, as he is, not as we want him to be?…….In many ways Jesus walks among us today…Where ever the Truth is spoken - Christ is there….And when the Truth is rejected, Jesus is rejected….The passion of our Lord continues to this very day and the world wants no part of it…..If we recall, very few people remained at the foot of the Cross - Just a small hand-full…It is for us to remain…..To recognize Christ “in the crowd”…To cling to the cross…..To drink of “the bitter cup”……..When we embrace the Truth, we embrace the Cross…No Cross - No Christ!

“He watches over all his bones; not one of them shall be broken. The LORD redeems the lives of his servants; no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.”

The words of the Prophet Isaiah are read every Good Friday…Powerful words….Is this the Christ we accept?….

”Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye, no beauty to draw us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain, Like one from whom you turn your face, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. Yet it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured. We thought of him as stricken, struck down by God and afflicted, But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way; But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all. Though harshly treated, he submitted and did not open his mouth; Like a lamb led to slaughter or a sheep silent before shearers, he did not open his mouth. Seized and condemned, he was taken away. Who would have thought any more of his destiny? For he was cut off from the land of the living struck for the sins of his people. He was given a grave among the wicked, a burial place with evildoers, Though he had done no wrong, nor was deceit found in his mouth”

Is this the Christ we think about when we imagine him returning again?….The world rejects the Cross and in its rejection we reject the Lord……Years ago a Eucharist procession marched through the streets of New York City…A poor man living in old apartment building was looking outside his window while the rest of New York went about its business, ignoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, fully present in the streets…Somehow this man in the window “saw” something the rest of New York did not….What allowed him to recognize Jesus?……In many ways this man was as “invisible” to the world as was the Blessed Sacrament……What made this man “see”?…….If we do not embrace the Cross, we too will not recognize the Lord…..As Catholics we must not “go along to get along” - Because if we do, we will not see Jesus either…We will not see him in the Blessed Sacrament nor will we accept him on his terms, which are the only terms that matter…..This is why the people of Jerusalem did not recognize Christ….They wanted nothing to do with the Cross….No Cross - No Christ!…..This is why the man in the window of New York City “saw” something the rest of New York seemed to miss

“One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

Today in the Gospel from Mass, St John tells us how right up until the end of Jesus’s life, people questioned him…They did not want to believe their very eyes nor could they see what was right in front of them….How about us?….Do we accept God on his terms?…..This is the question for today - Something to ponder…..In the present moment, Jesus can be found in the Blessed Sacrament - For those who have eyes to see….How can we come to understand this mystery?…..We must embrace the Cross….In doing so, our eyes will open…..The “road to heaven” goes by way of The Via Dolorosa….There are no short-cuts - When we “sanitize” Christianity, we remove Christ from the Cross….. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth”?….Look to the Cross - There you will find the Church…And there you will find Christ…..No Cross - No Christ!