Catholic

As Christians, we also recognize that Easter is not only a date on the calendar. It is God’s act of re-creation in Christ. The Church proclaims Easter as “the feast of the new creation,” where Jesus rises and draws all of us into new light and indestructible life.

June 1979: Karol Wojtyła returns for the first time to his home country as Pope John Paul II. He is greeted by millions in Kraków, a city living under a communist regime that kept a tight hold on public religious expression. Tens of millions more hear him on the television and the radio.

There are two main passages in the New Testament where Jesus teaches us how to pray: Matthew 6: 9-13 when he gives us the “Our Father,” a structured, vocal prayer, and the Agony in the Garden. In the example of the Agony in the Garden, one could say that Jesus does not need to pray in this way—He is God. He could have very well prayed or processed what would happen next in private without involving the disciples. Instead we have this demonstrative and ceremonious example of mental prayer, spoken aloud for our benefit. 

Lent has always been a kind of ascent. The Church, in her wisdom, gives us forty days, echoing Moses on the mountain, Elijah in the wilderness, and Christ in the desert. These are not accidental parallels. They remind us that transformation takes time and that encounter with God is often preceded by endurance.

We did nothing but treat the priesthood the same way we treated every other good idea our son ever voiced about his future. When he first mentioned the priesthood at the age of six, we did the same thing we did when he brought up being a police officer, a firefighter, or an emergency medical technician. We said, “That would make us very proud.” Then we helped him explore his interests.