Jesus Hoppin' Down the Calvary Trail - His Sacrifice will Blow Your Mind.

Boo, my oldest, cannot wait for his school's Stations of the Cross this week performed by the 8th graders. Soooo, he's five. J-Man is three, and Squish is almost 21 months by the time Good Friday comes. How to explain and communicate this to them? Well... thank God for Steph and for Catholic school. My impeccable improvising wifey has already handled the "How do you get the baby out of your belly?" question recently, and she handled it very well I must say. It started with Mommy goes to the hospital, and ended with the baby comes out, covering the first lesson on anatomical differences and what's private in between. Our precious little fiver accepted that, and apparently not having this reaction (below right), like I had when she told me he asked, was her key to success. So it was only natural that I asked Steph how do we handle the reality of the stations? (Good link to Pope Francis' 2015 stations and meditations here.)

During Lent, our boys' teachers go over each station with them because apparently Pre-K is not too young to discuss death, torture, mocking and ridicule, sadness and loss. Cool huh? I mean we have had the discussion with the boys about why Jesus is on the cross, the special word crucifix, and who and why that was done to him. We had not broached the detail of each station just yet. Maybe we should have? Apparently Steph tells me I somehow suppressed the fact that Robbie began his exposure to this last year in PK-3. This year stations have been displayed complete with age appropriate illustrations? Wow. My little voice inside my head is hoping Boo's 8th grade prayer partner is not portraying Jesus, or a Roman soldier for that matter. He may take that just a bit too hard because he's such a serious little kid and takes everything to heart. I can just hear him now, "DADA! THE SOLDIERS KILLED MY PRAYER PARTNER!" Then again, maybe that's a good thing and will help him begin to sympathize with Jesus, with Mary, and with the apostles. After all, he is grasping at a budding awareness, that people can choose to act with love and kindness or act with cruelty and hate.

So, the title of this post. In no way do I intend any irreverance. Lent ALWAYS crawled by for me. Not this year. It's just that for the first time in my life Lent has literally hopped by, now it's Holy Week, and I feel like the hare racing the tortoise all the way to the cross and maybe I missed a few checkpoints along the way? Maybe I've missed a few sacrifices? Time to slow down and reflect on THE sacrifice.

When I was a kid I waited and waited for Lent to be over. Why did I give up pizza? Why oh God? The ONLY time I ever want a bologna sandwich is on a Friday you know. Do you realize that God? Oh my gosh, I remember the year when I was in elementary school that I realized Lent was actually MORE than 40 days! Wait what? Are you kidding me? They don't count Sundays? Unbelievable! Mother, Father, you have lied to me. Wait hold on, did you say Sundays don't count? Pizza time!

When I was a young adult, and now as a hubby and dad, it has seemed that Lent's pace went from a moderate crawl to moving across the floor on your stomach without using your arms or legs. This year it's fast. We're at the Triduum.

I've always wondered what went through Jesus' mind at the Last Supper. The predominant thought has always been that this particular dinner was a Passover meal, or Seder meal, although I'm sure there's scholars out there that could claim something else.

We know for sure Jesus and his apostles ate bread and wine, right? Other than that, we're not really sure. I went back and even looked at the two famous paintings, people be like... "WHAT? THERE ARE TWO LAST SUPPER PAINTINGS?" You bet. Actually some other dude copied DaVinci too about the same time as Dude #1. Leonardo DaVinci's, L'Ultima Cena - late 1490's, actually was a mural and deteriorated so badly so long ago that very little of the original remains, despite multiple restoration attempts.

The second, a painting, was probably just as famous as it's often used in reproductions, by Giampetrino or Giovanni Rizzoli, an artist with proclivity for copying DaVinci because it was said he studied under and worked with him.

Enough art history. Back to what was Jesus thinking. All that's really clear in the picture is some unappetizing bread, maybe bitter herbs and wine. There's some plates of other stuff, but I'm thinking Jesus was like, "I'm gonna die tomorrow. Going to get tortured, nailed to a cross, crown of thorns on my head. Couldn't even get a big last meal? Had to be Passover?" Maybe he also thought better drop the bomb on them because apparently none of them are eating either. Other thoughts maybe that crossed his mind? "Peter, how do I say this nicely? You're gonna deny I exist not one, not two, but three times. No "Bros" before the crows? And the rest of you, you're going to run away like a bunch of cowards. Yeah. You will. Judas, don't even get me started. I'm totally worth more than 30 pieces of silver. Anyway, let's eat and do this in memory of me, k? Going to blow your minds now, THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS MY BLOOD. Yes, I'm the paschal lamb." I know it still mystifies me when I think about it. Could you imagine being one of the apostles? Wasn't easier to process then, that I can imagine. No wonder why they painted their reactions like they did.

Sure, we'll do some fun things on the kids' vacation from school, hide Easter eggs for the kids, tell them the bunny came, Peter Cottontail hoppin' down the bunny trail. But I'm glad that Jesus went down that trail encapsulated by the Stations of the Cross, and that my boys brought home the Stations books they made for us and how well they told us the story of Jesus' travails. I wonder how fast that moment, that night, went for Jesus. Probably not very, as he sat in the garden. I wonder how long the next day seemed to Him. Maybe in the grand scheme of eternity it actually went fast for him, as he trailblazed the gates of Heaven open for all us sinners. I'd like to think it did, but it hurts to know it probably was excruciatingly sluggish in every sense of the word... excruciating.

The whole Triduum really does blow your mind away when you think about, that one little moment that started our whole faith and our most important tradition, the Eucharistic celebration.

#Jesus #Stations #pizza #LastSuppper #DaVinci #Lent