Many here today, I know, have had the sad privilege of participating in the death of someone they love. In those last hours, days and sometimes weeks before our loved one moves on we gather at their bedside. The daily activities of life become of secondary importance. Sometimes we travel long distances to be with our loved one. If the person dies before we arrive we feel cheated or shortchanged. There is such a need to express our gratitude and our love, to speak of memories shared - just to be there. It is a privilege - a sad one but an intimate privilege to be there.

Holy Week is the gathering of family and friends to be with Jesus during his dying. As we remember his life and his passion you realize how humble Jesus was. He arrived in Jerusalem riding on a donkey - what an insignificant figure he would make. From the gospels we know that Jesus doesn't have much: born homeless, in his ministry he borrows a boat from which to preach, he borrows a room to eat the Passover meal with his disciples. Even his tomb will be borrowed. How could this man possibly free a people dominated by the most powerful force in the world, the Roman army? What would the Jewish leaders of big city Jerusalem possibly have to fear from the peasant from Galilee?

We tend to be impressed by displays of power that fill us with awe. At some national events fighter jets fly over the heads of the crowds. Their roar startles us and turns or heads toward the sound and the impressive display. Jesus does not draw attention by a display of the spectacular, but because he holds out hope to the weary and hopeless. His power is found in love - selfless love - in pouring out our life's energies for the other, in reaching out to the poor and needy. Real power is found in forgiving our enemies. The power of the Kingdom of God is found in turning the other cheek, in standing up against bigotry, in defending the members of the human family who are voiceless and powerless. God's power is found in non-violence, in the companionate search for justice - God's power is found in dying to self in love of the other - in love of God. God's power makes it clear that life does not end - that the "things" of this world are not what it is all about. Rather, we should live in this passing world with our hearts set on a world that will never end. And so it is good for us as family to gather this week on Holy Thursday and Good Friday - to come together in vigil - to remember the life and death and rising of Christ Jesus - it is His life and only His life that will give us life.