The Word: Encountering Jesus

STC: During Lent how do we unite ourselves to Jesus’ experience in the desert, especially given the suffering we are experiencing during this pandemic?

Bishop Mulvey: We must start with the fact that suffering is a part of human life. Crisis is something we cannot avoid.

The pandemic has brought to light the issue of suffering in a very profound way—discomfort for some and for others deep pain. In the Christian language, we might say we are carrying a cross. The Cross is an integral part of the Christian life. 

We might be tempted to say, I’ve already lived my Lent during this pandemic, however, Lent is an annual call to conversion. It is a time for us to offer God our willingness and desire to change. Lent is not simply about giving up something, that leads to a victory lap that announces, “I did it!” for six weeks and then return to the way we before Lent began.

We should look at Lent as a self-imposed time of sacrifice with the intention of redirecting our life to God. The image of the desert is appropriate to Lent and the spiritual life. The “desert” is a place and time to go in search of God as Jesus did throughout his life on earth. 

It was usually in the desert, on a hilltop or in a garden that Jesus prayed and listened to the Father. We too need to learn to listen in the same way. We listen and hear when there are no distractions within us or around us. Closeness to the Word of God is our way of being “free” from distraction. Jesus said, “you are clean [free] already because of the word I have spoken to you” (Jn 15:3).

Reading and praying over the Gospel can be done in the corner of a room or a chapel, apart from distractions. In this way, we “hear” the Word of God as a light of truth that gives us direction and comfort, but most of all places us in God. 
The pandemic has undoubtedly brought out the issue of human suffering and human frailty. Lent this year offers us a particular time to allow Him to speak. “Speak Lord, your servant is listening” can be the theme for Lent this year. 

STC: Mother Teresa said that during Lent we rediscover Jesus, by reading the Word, being present to his Word and being still in his Word. In the Word we rediscover Christ. 

Bishop Mulvey: Yes, I would agree. St. Jerome insisted that ignorance of the world is ignorance of Christ. I would add that if we are in the process of rediscovering, as Mother Teresa states, we are searching. If we’re not searching, we are not listening, and further, we are not living. Searching is a constant state of being human because we can never say, “I found God completely.” God is a mystery. But God can be discovered daily in love. Our search for God is a search to love!

STC: Now, as we approach Easter, what is your perspective upon the strength and courage that the Easter message gives us? 

Bishop Mulvey: As we celebrate Easter, we embrace the Resurrection of Jesus and its fruits - joy, peace, new life, new beginnings. These are gifts of the Pascal Mystery. Welcoming in His Spirit these fruits abound within us.

The reality that Christ is risen from the dead is the heart of our faith. St. Paul says it beautifully, “If Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty your faith” (1 Cor 15:14).

We should ask ourselves if we believe in the Resurrection only as a matter of doctrine or if we have experienced the power of suffering and death and then the joy of resurrection in our own life? We must remember that there would be no resurrection if there were no death, and the death that Jesus suffered for us was redemptive. He took upon himself all our sins and nailed them to the Cross. 

Easter Sunday is the day of great rejoicing. St. Augustine used to say that we are Easter people. We acknowledge the Cross but focus on Easter. Pope Francis has said that we shouldn’t be gloomy Christians. Yes, the Cross and Easter are companions. Jesus Christ suffered, died, and was raised. That is the promise under which we live, and in which we rejoice.