A Holy Week Message From the President

April 2, 2023

Dear STA Community, 

Each and every day we experience God’s goodness and are steadfast in understanding his love and mercy for us. As we wrap up the Lenten season and prepare for the holiest days of the year – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (the Sacred Paschal Triduum) – it is appropriate to have tremendous gratitude for how amazing God’s love for us truly is! “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (John 3:16).

Jesus spent his earthly days being kind and modeling how to treat one another. He performed miracles that healed the sick and reached out to help the downtrodden and marginalized members of society. The ultimate sacrifice, of course, is that Christ gave his life and died for our sins. Before the crucifixion, Jesus was tempted by Satan, mocked and ridiculed by non-believers, and eventually betrayed by his very own disciples. Despite all of these monumental hurts and disappointments, Jesus stood ready to forgive everyone and sacrifice himself for all of us. As he foretold in scripture: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all peoples to myself. “(John 12:32); and “Let not your heart be troubled … I go to prepare a place for you … I am the way.” (John 14:1, 2,6).

Although I love thinking about Easter, the joyous celebration of Christ’s resurrection, it is a mistake not to reflect on and appreciate the suffering that Christ endured. When we gaze upon the cross, we are moved by the courageousness and sacrifice that the symbol represents. Father Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J., poignantly crystallizes the importance of the cross: “In the Middle Ages, followers of Christ often dwelt on the horrors of the cross, and artists portrayed the crucifixion in gory detail. Today, we prefer to sanitize the reality. Churches sometimes have images of the risen Christ floating in front of the cross, as though he was able to skip over the death-and-dying piece and go straight to resurrection. No matter how pretty we might try to make the crucifixion, though, Jesus’ death was not joyful. He was not filled with jubilant triumph as he hung there dying. Instead, alongside his physical agony, he experienced the rejection of his friends, the humiliation of being stripped of his clothes, the loneliness and hopelessness of physical pain, and the abandonment of his Father. He cried, ‘My God, my God, why did you forsake me?’ (Mark 15:34)”

The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter is an important day of waiting that can be difficult to bear. It is a time to reflect on the fact that Jesus died, just as we may have many loved ones who have passed away. These emotions are sobering and cause us to weep. The joy of Easter, however, is that we know, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”( 1 Corinthians 15:54) Christ is risen! 

I will close by circling back to my opening thesis: It is appropriate to have tremendous gratitude for how amazing God’s love for us truly is! The risen Christ means that we are loved and enveloped by his mercy. We continue Christ’s work by adhering to the charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph: We move always towards profound love of God and love of the dear neighbor without distinction.

I wish you God’s peace, a very blessed Holy Week, and a joyous Easter!

God Bless,

Dr. Siabhan May-Washington
President