Joshua Minden (00:02):

Welcome back to Stories and Other Things Holy. I'm your host Joshua Minden, and as we enter into this Holy Week, the last week of Lent, let's pause together for just a moment. This week we're journeying toward the cross, that profound and unsettling mystery at the very heart of Lent, Holy Week, and ultimately, Easter. This week, Terry invites us into a reflection around a cross that isn't polished or comfortable. It's heavy, inconvenient and splintered, echoing the very real and difficult circumstances we often face in our own lives and communities. In the story you're about to hear, Terry draws us into an exploration of childhood innocence, confronted by profound suffering and displacement. He shares images that speak vividly of the true weight of loss and invite us to see Jesus in a new way, not as distant or detached, but ultimately present, sitting among the ashes with us. As you listen, allow yourself to encounter Jesus deeply. Present in the broken places, embracing pain, not from afar, but from within. Holy Week, invites us to experience solidarity with a God who willingly enters suffering, transforming our wounds into pathways of healing, intimacy, and connection with open hearts and attentive ears. Let's enter into today's story.

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Stories and Other Things Holy

Terry Nelson-Johnson (01:40):

Stories and Other Things Holy.

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Those of you who I've had a chance to hang out with in pretty much any capacity are probably familiar with my cross. I taught at Loyola Academy Jesuit High School in Wilmette for 20 years, and my second year there I asked Brother Small, who was like six four, if he would make a cross for me, and I said, I don't want to bling cross. I don't want a nice cross. I don't like the cross cross. And so this is what he produced, and I take it with me. Ridiculous number of places, and I often say it's very inconvenient. You know what I'm saying? I have to go to the storage room. I get it, put it in the car, splinters the whole thing. And, we're traversing Lent and clearly, Lent has something to do with the mystery of the cross and suffering. Two images come to mind when I contemplate Lent and the cross this year. One of them is a lingering memory from the beginning of the war in the Ukraine, and I don't know, six weeks in, they were interviewing people and a mom said: "We're underground. We don't know when we'll return above ground. Food and electricity are elusive. I'm here with my grandson, he's 11," and then she pauses, and then her voice breaks, and then she says, "and his hair has turned gray."

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When I heard her say that, I was just like, wait a minute. There's a little boy underground in the Ukraine, 11 years old who because of worry and malnutrition, his hair has turned gray? It just has stayed with me, lingered with me. Second image was hearing some of the conversations in the wake of the most destructive fires in Los Angeles, and there was a dad whose house was miraculously not destroyed, and because of that, he was able to stay in his house and not be kept out on the outside. So his kids and his wife had been moved outside when the fire was occurring, but they were able to come back to the house too because they had place to come back to. His little boy is like six, and he starts to drive his little boy around the neighborhood and he has to point out to a little boy, oh, that's where so-and-so was.

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That's where the such and such shop was. And the little boy says, can you take me to my school? Which was difficult for the dad because the dad loved imagining his son at this school. The dad said this was like heaven. I don't know how they hired the people. They did. I don't know what was infused in the water, how the spirit of the school got to be the way it was, but the thought of having our kid there for a whole bunch of years was the most like balm on our soul of his mom and I, and he was a little kindergartner and we could not be happier.

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And I drove by the school, which was completely destroyed, and my son said, well, where's the playground? And I pointed to the direction of the playground, which was just a pile. The little boy said, where are my friends? The dad said, well, they probably can't come right now because their houses, they have no place to stay. Then the boys said, well, when they can come back, do you think we could just all get together and we could just play in the ashes? And then if I combine those two stories, you know those images of Jesus where you see him and all the little kids have jumped in his lap and he's tussling their hair and there's one kid draped over his shoulders. I just love that image of a vital Jesus just playing with kids. There's something so powerful about it for me, and in light of Lent and the cross, I have this powerful image of Jesus being included in the ashes play, and these kids are just piled on him and he's tussling their hair, and their hair is gray and his hair is gray. The Jesus whose hair probably didn't get to be gray because he was a relatively young man at the time of the crucifixion. But what if in solidarity with the kids in the Ukraine and the Sudan and Gaza and the kids in basements of sanctuary cities, wondering if this is the day that ICE comes, all the premature gray haired kids? Jesus sits in the Ashe. He's like, come to me. Come on. Tussles their gray hair, and they tussle his gray hair.

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It's very, very mysterious and very, very powerful for me to actively imagine that Jesus and those kids this cross, and I don't get it. I don't claim to get it. I just know that there's something in it. So essential, central, foundational. So I pray for Jesus, and I pray for the kids, pray for Los Angeles, Gaza, and the Ukraine and the sanctuary cities in the midst of the paradox. God protects us from nothing and abides with us in everything. It's a terrible beauty. Here is the world. Terrible and beautiful things will happen. Don't be afraid. Bless us the Lord, for these gifts which we are currently receiving from my bounty through Christ our Lord, amen.

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Stories and Other Things Holy.

Joshua Minden (08:44):

Thank you for journeying with us today through the story of compassion, solidarity, and transformative love. As we move deeper into holy week, I invite you to reflect how might we embrace solidarity in our own lives this week? Where might Jesus be inviting you and I to sit among the ashes to be present and compassionate in places of pain and brokenness? We would love to hear your stories and experiences. Please become a member of our community by signing up for our email newsletter where you'll receive weekly written reflections as well as gracercises, prayer prompts, to help you take the themes and the insights of this story deeper throughout your week. Sign up on our website: https://StoriesandOtherThingsHoly.com/ and if you find this podcast meaningful, we encourage you to become a supporting member through Buy Me a Coffee, leaving a review, or sharing this podcast with others. Until next time, may you journey through Holy Week with courage and hope, confident in Christ's presence in every moment of your story. Take care and God bless.