by Fr. Brian Wirth,
Director of Rural Life
As Holy Week culminates into the busiest time of year for pastors, parish staffs, and parish communities, it is nevertheless the greatest time of the liturgical year.
Just as farmers excitedly await spring planting and fall harvest after extensive labor and preparations, so too the laborers of the Church excitedly await the spiritual harvest of the Triduum and the Easter Vigil after extensive planting of seeds, labor, and preparations (Mt. 9:37).
To all of the catechumens and candidates who are entering the Church this year from across the diocese: Welcome! Thank you for taking the leap of faith and accepting the same call Jesus extended to the Apostles: “Follow me.” (Luke 6:27)
Thank you for allowing your hearts to be cultivated by Christ the Sower with the seed of the kerygma, the seed of the Gospel truth which unites us all as One Body in Christ to the Tree of Life on this Good Friday, the instrument of our salvation whose fruit is everlasting, eternal life via the Resurrection.
While Good Friday is the solemn remembrance of Jesus’ profound love and complete and total self-sacrifice upon the Cross for us poor and lowly sinners, this year’s Good Friday is a particularly special one for me.
This is the first Good Friday, April 3, my birthday, as a priest.
Back in 2013, well known Catholic Answers Live apologist Jimmy Akin wrote an article for the National Catholic Register where he did a deep biblical investigation, attesting via Scripture that Jesus died at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 3, A.D. 33.
Having an early April birthday is great, but this takes the cake.
A similar grace was my first year as a priest at St. Patrick in McCook, when I was the celebrant for the Easter Vigil on my birthday and received three people into the Church. Not only was I thankful for the gift of physical life and the eternal gift of the priesthood, but more, I was most thankful for the gift of spiritual life won by Christ’s Paschal Mystery via the Cross and the tomb and being able to express Christ’s love like him: As a Sower, Shepherd, and Vine Dresser/Cultivator.
As a priest, there is no greater gift than to offer my priestly life in union with the Eternal Priest/Victim, to have my sins ploughed into Jesus’ Body and Blood and nailed to the Cross, thus freely gifted atonement for my sins and more, the gift of eternal redemption via the Resurrection.
Raised on the farm and knowing the importance agriculture played in my vocation, Good Friday/Holy Week brings to mind the many agricultural metaphors rooted throughout Sacred Scripture, particularly the planting season.
For example, in the Liturgy of the Hours, for Thursday Daytime Prayer during Week IV, the Church prays: “They have pressed me hard from my youth but could never destroy me. They ploughed my back like ploughmen, drawing long furrows. But the Lord, who is just, has destroyed the yoke of the wicked.”
Following, the Psalm-prayer reads: “Lord Jesus, living in glory as the Son of Man, remember that when our sins had ploughed long furrows on your back, your death broke the bonds of sin and Satan forever. Bless your Church, wounded in its members, and strengthen it by your invincible power and grace.”
For a seed to grow, it needs to be cultivated within the rich depths of the soil. The seed needs to be buried within the darkness of the soil and nurtured by the watered land and the nutrients the land provides.
The same is true for the spiritual life. United to Christ during his Passion, Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection we are embedded within the richness of Christ’s precious wounds he lovingly endured for our sake; In our Baptism and physical death, we are buried with Christ in the darkness of the spiritual/physical tomb; and via his pierced Sacred Heart, we are nourished with his precious Blood and Water, physically and spiritually renewed by his grace and the abyss of his virtues, enabling us to become the disciples and future saints he has lovingly called us to be.
Thus, on Good Friday, despite the immense pain, suffering, and sorrow it brings to Jesus upon the Cross and to ourselves as poor and lowly sinners, it powerfully reminds us that God uses the goodness of His creation and the land to bring about good, even when we at times intend to use it for evil.
May you all have a blessed Triduum and Easter Season.
