Dear Friends,
We enter into Holy Week with Palm Sunday. It is officially called Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, and that’s why you may sometimes hear it also called Passion Sunday, in addition to the fact that we hear the account of the Passion of the Lord. I also believe—and take this with a grain of salt—that in the liturgical calendar before Vatican II that the Sunday before Palm Sunday was called Passion Sunday and all statues, including the body of the Lord on crucifixes, would be covered. We now enter into Holy Week, which we know begins with the crowds acclaiming Jesus Christ as king and shouting “hosanna,” and the week ends with his Passion and Death. We, of course, also know what comes after that.
As I have been writing the last couple of weeks about virtue as well as the deadly sins, I know I had mentioned that I would delve more deeply into the deadly sins. However, with Easter approaching, I don’t know if I really want to discuss them during the Easter season. Nevertheless, the Passion of the Lord does allow for us to briefly discuss the deadly sins in light of our Lord Jesus Christ confronted by all the evil of the world.
Pride is the sin of Satan, the sin of Adam and Eve; it is the root of all the other sins. It is essentially turning in on oneself, making all of existence about me, myself, and I. Pride is creating our own realities, our own truth, our own existence and being instead of receiving reality, truth, and being from God. Pride says, “I will not serve.” Jesus claimed and claims ultimate authority over the lives of the crowds and our lives—that is why we call Him “Lord.” Pride sought to eliminate such a threat to a culture of self-creation.
Envy, as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas, is sorrow at another person’s good; in other words, it is sadness because another person enjoys some good fortune. Illustrative of envy is a quote from Gore Vidal: “Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.” The other side of the coin of envy is happiness when another person experiences loss or misfortune. The religious authorities could not stand the real authority with which Jesus taught and drew crowds.
Wrath, again defined by St. Thomas Aquinas, is the unreasonable and irrational desire for vengeance. It’s pretty easy to see wrath on display during the Passion. The crowds cry out “This man has declared himself to be the Son of God. Away with him, crucify him! Crucify him!”
Sloth is sorrow in regard to spiritual good. Even more so, it can be said that it is indifference and apathy toward spiritual goods—a boredom toward spiritual things. Jesus offered spiritual good after spiritual good, and yet the crowds did not care. It’s worth reflecting for us: are we apathetic and bored by spiritual things?
Greed, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, is the unreasonable or immoderate desire for riches. Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. How much are we willing to take to betray our Lord?
Gluttony is the immoderate or unreasonable pleasure in food and drink, and lust is the immoderate or unreasonable desire for sexual pleasure—again, both defined by St. Thomas Aquinas. While these are not apparent in the Passion accounts found in the Gospels, we know that we are guilty of these, and therefore, by our sins of gluttony and lust (and all of the above sins), we are complicit in the betrayal, mockery, Passion, and Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
While this is not pleasant to contemplate, it’s necessary and essential for us to reflect upon our role in the Passion, and at the same time, not lose hope, for we proclaim, “We adore you, O Christ, and we praise You, for by Your holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.”
We are saints under construction, going up to Calvary with Christ. Have a blessed Holy Week!
In Christ,
Fr. Matt