Revolutionary love, love grounded in service, is always baffling. Acts of service, solidarity, and justice make no sense in a world grounded in white supremacy, sexism, and economic exploitation. But that’s exactly why they matter.

How can anyone who hears fearless Mary’s voice in the Magnificat think she would not have insisted on holding her precious Child once more? I do believe she would have challenged the witnesses to His lynching to acknowledge His humanity and own their complicity in His torture and death.

Not only do we have to give up our personal plans, we also have to be willing to live with insecurity, uncertainty, even danger, in order to speak truth to power.

Like Jesus, we need only to upend what conforms to our known context and experience. 

With the experience of working with families of mixed status, I can truly say that I have “journeyed with the Lord in the land of the living.”

As we live into the Lenten season, a solemn time in our liturgical calendar and lives, I share my struggles with understanding and commemorating this time of the year.