A Letter from Fr. Jarvis

To the Beloved in Christ at Ashmont

Dear Friends,

       In the recent debate on whether people in public positions should be allowed to wear crosses, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with his usual common sense, pointed out that to some people the cross is just another piece of jewelry. It is not a sign of any sort of commitment to Christ.

       When I was teaching at an Australian school some years ago, I noted that a number of girls in my classes were wearing crosses. As a sort of experiment, I asked them individually why they were wearing the cross and what it meant to them. The majority answered that it was just something to wear, that they liked it, that it didn't "mean" anything. I persisted: "When you wear the cross are you telling people you're a Christian?" Most replies ranged from: "No" to "I guess so, maybe." But there were also some who said, "Yes, I wear the cross because I'm a Christian."

       We all know there are many lite Christians – many "I guess so, maybe" Christians. What the smug secular media fail to realize is that there are also many people who are quietly but firmly committed to Jesus Christ. Perhaps I am peering through rose-colored glasses, but I think the vast majority of our All Saints' family are in this category. The vast majority of you seem clearly and firmly committed to Christ – and, if the chips were down, you would follow Christ even if the cost were great.

       Over the years, I have witnessed first hand that many of you live the words of the Prophet Isaiah: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." You pause, you wait, you listen for God.

       I always get to the 7:30 a.m. weekday mass at Berkeley Divinity School by 7:10. Students have asked me what I am doing on my knees "so early" there in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. "Are you saying your prayers?" I am sometimes asked. "No," I reply. "I am just being here – waiting upon the Lord. I am not usually cramming the airwaves with requests. I am not even asking the Lord to help me improve my much-in-need-of-improvement life. I am simply waiting upon the Lord." I am pausing, waiting, listening in silence.

       We who are striving to be Christians must begin on our knees (at least figuratively) in silence. We begin by "waiting upon the Lord." I see many of you at church early before mass waiting upon the Lord. I know that many of you also put your life on pause and wait upon the Lord in your own homes. I think that nothing is more important for Christians to do than to wait upon the Lord. And Isaiah assures us that "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

       Following Christ begins with waiting upon the Lord in silence. Only then can God enable us to fly and run and walk in our daily lives.

       Holy Week provides us once each year with a distinctive opportunity to wait upon the Lord. In the Triduum journey, we are present at mass Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 7. We are there in silence at the Last Supper, at the Betrayal and Crucifixion, and at the Tomb. Waiting upon the Lord, we witness the Great Events of Our Salvation, and, like Mary, we ponder these events in our hearts.

       I could lay a guilt trip on all of us and ask, "Is there anything else that is more important to you and me than being there? Is there a higher priority? Is being there too staggering a commitment for you and me?" But my hope is that you have made this a priority in your life, and that you want to be there, that you want to wait upon the Lord, that you know that, by doing so, you will be energized to fly and run and walk through what Frances Cornford called the long littleness of life.

       From end of the Maundy Thursday liturgy to the Good Friday mass of the presanctified, the Most Blessed Sacrament is kept at the beautifully vested Altar of Repose in the Lady Chapel. "Could you not wait with me one hour?" Jesus asked his disciples in the garden. I know of no one who has spent an hour on her knees waiting upon the Lord at this vigil who has ever gone away disappointed. Come to this unique opportunity to wait upon the Lord, even if you come out of a sense of duty and not desire. I cannot claim that I leap out of bed filled with joyful eagerness to go back to church, but, every year, after I have done it, I rejoice that I was able to take advantage of this unique opportunity to wait upon the Lord.

       Nothing has given me greater joy in my 37 years in this parish, than making this Triduum journey with so many of you who "get it." Every year someone who has just made this journey for the first time remarks on how much more Easter means to her than it ever did before. My hope is that every one of you will want to wait upon the Lord on His Triduum journey though death to life. I look forward to making this journey with you.

F. W. J.

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