Archbishop Gomez on Salvation

Most Reverend José H. Gomez, S.T.D. Archbishop of San Antonio

During the decade of the 70s, Dan Barker was a well-known evangelical preacher and composer of popular Christian songs.

But in 1984, Barker told his friends that he had stopped believing in God, and he decided not only to leave the ministry, but he became the co-chairman of the largest organization of atheists in the United States, the “Freedom from Religion Foundation.”

His main “mission,” for the last 16 years, has been to challenge Christians regarding the credibility of Jesus’ resurrection. He calls it the “Easter Challenge.”

For Mr. Barker, the loss of the treasure of faith in Jesus’ resurrection is truly tragic. When I read Jesus’ words to St. Thomas in St. John’s Gospel: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed,” it is clear to me that Jesus knew that having faith will be difficult.

But for most of us the real tragedy is having a lukewarm faith. Throughout the year we have many opportunities to grow in the virtue of faith. One of those is Holy Week, the commemoration of the Passion and Death of Christ and the celebration of his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Every year it is a special moment of grace but we have the danger of “walking through” the Easter Triduum with indifference, instead of the awe and wonder these mysteries should bring.

Once again we are challenged to experience these mysteries profoundly, knowing that in them we celebrate the most important truths of our faith: that he rose again in glory, to overcome death and sin, and opened the door of eternal life forever. During Holy Week we are reminded that Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood; that he freely surrendered to the horror of the cross to die and free all humanity from sin.

Our faith is strengthened when we experience all that the church has given us, in liturgies, sacraments and signs, so that we may fully “turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel,” as we bring our Lent to a glorious conclusion with the Easter Triduum and the resurrection of the Lord.

On Holy Thursday we relive the episode of the washing of feet and the institution of the Eucharist, in order to remember the Lord’s profound humility and the greatest treasure of the church: Jesus’ real presence among us in the Eucharist.

On Friday, we have not only the unique Good Friday liturgy, but the fact that we do not celebrate Mass, reminds us of the tragedy of Jesus’ death.

On Holy Saturday, together with our Blessed Mother, we wait for the Lord’s victory in silence and recollection. We celebrate this victory with the magnificent Easter Vigil, perhaps the most beautiful liturgical celebration of the Christian calendar, a ceremony that every Catholic should try to attend.

Easter is the celebration of the risen Christ, who arrives as light breaking through the darkness of sin and death, destroying the chains of sin, opening forever the gates of heaven to us.

Each step of the beautiful Easter liturgy marks the great moments of the history of salvation which would finally reach us, the privileged ones who, unlike so many prophets, are able to see Jesus’ saving work.

Our nation, more than ever, needs a “Spiritual Stimulus Package,” and I have no doubt that this Holy Week is an extraordinary occasion for it.

Four decades ago, a German priest called Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, meditated on the meaning of the Easter Triduum and concluded with a prayer that I have adopted as my own and share with all the faithful of the archdiocese: “Let us ask Jesus during this time to make his light shine over all the darkness of this world; to also make us understand that he is always at our side in times of loneliness and emptiness, in the night of this world, and that in this way he builds, through us, the new city of this world, the place of his peace, of the new creation.”