Facing an unholy terror as Holy Week approaches

This coming week Christians around the world will live Holy Week.

This coming week Americans will endure yet another unholy week.

Holy Week recalls, presents, celebrates and prays the final week of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the week in which his way of life, of being and of teaching reach their fullest expression. Consciously and lovingly he gives his life for the sake of all, both those who have taken him as their teacher and those who oppose him.

For all of us of every faith and for those who do not profess a religious faith, next week will be another unholy week because we live in a land and a culture that appears to be if not at peace, at the least reconciled to live in the context of ongoing violence, much of it perpetrated by the use of firearms. As of the horror that occurred in the school at Covenant Church in Nashville this past week there had been according to reports 130 mass shootings here in the United States within the period since January 1. It is the highest rate of these atrocities recorded among us. This moment also confirms that now the No. 1 cause of death among our children is gunfire. All this is unholy. That is to say, it is an ongoing tragedy that flies in the face of any concept of human dignity and of the possibility of human community.

More: Keep the Faith: To save the world, savor it

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Speaking for myself, I am amazed and horrified that in the face of this latest example of this continuing war against ourselves an elected representative of the very people of Tennessee responded to the question of what Congress might do about this ongoing tragedy by tweeting, “We’re not gonna fix it ... Criminals are going to be criminals.” (Reported, among other places, on NBC News. Criminals may act as criminals, yes. But I would suggest it should be at least as true that people of faith act as people of faith, and that a body representing the population of this nation act as a body that believes it can in fact lead toward positive change for the sake of the children and of their parents and of us all. Anything less is an abdication of responsibility.

Jesus lived what we call Holy Week in a manner powerfully described in a hymn Paul the Apostle quotes in his letter to the Church at Philippi:

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!” [Phil 2:5-8 NIV]

His was a self-emptying life motivated by love. He taught us how to be human, and it had to do with self-giving for the sake of one another, for the good of each by all. This life is possible. He lived it, and others have lived and do live that life in his name. Paul asks us to have ‘the same mindset’ as that of Christ.

Our Islamic sisters and brothers are blessing the world these very days by the keeping of the sacred month of Ramadan. Their fasting heals us. Our Jewish sisters and brothers begin the celebration of Passover next week on April 5. Their faithfulness turns our attention to the faithfulness of God to his people to bring them freedom and life.

All of us can choose every week to live either a holy or unholy week. If we choose the first, we choose life, and we empty ourselves for the safety and the dignity of all.

The Rev. John McGinty serves as Rector of Saint Matthew's Episcopal Church in Worcester.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Keep the Faith: Horror makes us choose between the Holy and the unholy