Icons

Jesus, in our participation in his death and resurrection through baptism, has made us icons, or windows into God. When others see us living out our life, the hope is that they will be able to see through us from this world into God’s dreams for us. But most windows go two ways. As others look into us and see the divine life in us, Jesus, the light of the world, shines out through us into the dark and forgotten places of the world, into all the graves: war, poverty, disaster, famine, loneliness, neglect, and every other place where the dead inhabit the earth. Jesus came into the world to show us the Way to God’s “Yes”, the Way to resurrect a world so in need of new life, but we have to walk into those places to bring the light.

The Way of Jesus, of the Reign of God, is a new and revolutionary way in every generation. Holy Week is a week of revolution, a word that means turning. Holy Week is the fulfillment of all of our Lenten turnings: the turning of repentance, of forsaking the way of sin and death, of broken relationships and turning to a new way of life; this is the turning that leads to resurrection.

Holy Week is a week revolution. We are called to take this week into our lives. This is the week where we turn away from allowing there to be people who are hungry. This is the week where we turn from degradation as the norm and put human dignity at the center of our communities. This is the week where violence, injustice, and oppression are hung on the cross and justice, respect, and peace rise in their place. This is the week where the rejected cornerstone becomes the cornerstone of our lives.

It all begins with us. Where is God calling us to be windows in our communities? Where is God calling me to be an Icon of Christ?