From the Friars: The Price of Redemption

We all have painful memories of events in our lives where we wish we could go back and do something over again, or somehow make up for a failure or humiliation. When I was a young boy, I came home one afternoon to find on the dining room table the familiar white bags from my favorite restaurant, Top Hat Hamburgers. With a rush of excitement, I searched the bags but found them empty. No one had saved me anything. The greatness of this injustice was so clear that I complained loud and long until my father finally agreed to go back to Top Hat to get more burgers and fries for me. On the way home he got into a minor accident and ended up giving the other driver a cash payment to avoid any insurance reports. My dad was not happy. The greatness of my selfishness is now what is clear to me. This may seem like an insignificant event. But whenever I think of it, I long for a way to somehow make right the frustration and irritation that I caused my father. I wish I could redeem myself somehow.

Holy Week is about redemption, the Redemption, from sin and death that Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the Cross. As a race, as children of Adam and Eve, and as individual sinners, we are all in need of redemption. And we have no way to make right the damage we have done or to save ourselves from the consequences of our self-centeredness and disobedience. We also owe an infinite debt of gratitude to our Creator for all He has done for us. But the price of our redemption has been paid with the Precious Blood of Our Lord. This is why Holy Week and the Holy Mass are so important. Here Jesus’ Sacrifice is made present so that we can participate in it. “How can I repay the Lord for His goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise…” (Psalm 116)

Even Our Blessed Mother, who knew no sin, was pre-redeemed by the Precious Blood of her son. By the grace that He merited for us on the Cross, she was given the gift of being preserved from all sin. Her Magnificat expresses the profound gratitude and joy that we should all have. Our longing for redemption has a fulfillment, by accepting the gift of becoming one with Jesus Christ the Redeemer and joining in His gift of self to the Father.

In this most sacred time let us go to the Cross, so that we may also go to the place of Glory. Pax et Bonum.

–Fr. Peter