Thursday, April 24, 2014

Easter Frenzy

It is now four days after Easter Sunday - four days in which I have been decompressing - coming down from the activities of Holy Week - The Chrism Mass - Holy Thursday - Good Friday - Holy Saturday - Easter Sunday - planning - scheduling - meeting - rehearsing - making phone calls - recruiting - emailing - a one man show - attempting to make Holy Week and Easter special for all who would participate.  It was not my plan to undertake all of this - on my own - it was not my plan to attempt all that had to be done - on my own - it was the reality of being told that it was my job - one week prior - that I was expected to arrange Holy Week - on my own.  In the past - others have been in charge and I have willing helped - this year those same people - for various reasons - could not help - did not want to help - so I did it - on my own.  I will never repeat that error - again.  I was there - I attended every service - I planned and led every rehearsal - I did the extras - the Holy Saturday blessing of Easter food baskets - the final rite for those in RCIA - I even bought the special candles and certificates for our RCIA participants - because that also fell through the cracks - on my own. My sole help - my sole support was my wife - who helped where she could - who allowed me the time - to make all this work - without a single heartfelt thank you.  I know I was serving God - serving His Son - my only real regret is that I failed to spend any quality time worshiping Him - my saviour - this past week.  My prayer is that He forgive me for allowing myself to be so unbelievably busy during the holiest week of the year - that I was caught up in such a frenzy organizing - that I failed to worship. This week - I pray that in some small way I can make it up to Him.

Jesus had a lot more disciples - followers - than the dozen we commonly hear about. They came from all over to see him - to listen to him - to worship Him - to touch Him.  At the end - with hundreds and thousands of followers - He ended up alone - walking the final step - on His own - enduring the punishment - on His own - hanging on the cross - on His own. Nobody else could have done what He did - nobody else could suffer the way He did - it was His - His alone to do - on His own - for you - for me - for the world.  As we continue our celebration of the Easter season - each of us needs to realize - if we were the only one worth saving - He would have still died for us - on His own - for us - alone.

Deacon Dale