March 27, 2024 He had a fake license plate in the rear window that said, “please stop laughing at my car.” My sisters and I weren’t laughing. It was the late 1980s or early 90s, and my grandfather was the proud owner of an orange Ford Pinto. Actually, describing it as “orange” is giving it more credit than it’s due. The dominant color was rust. While my sisters and I were too young to know or care about the vehicle’s dubious safety record, we knew we found riding in it to be embarrassing, and we knew we hated it when grandpa picked us up from school in it. I hadn’t thought of the Pinto for a while until someone I know mentioned the model, giving me the opportunity to talk about grandpa’s orange hunk of junk. It occurred to me after that conversation that the first vehicle I bought with my own money wasn’t all that dissimilar to the Pinto. My 10-year-old Mercury Grand Marquis had a better safety record and less rust, but it was still an older car and in less-than-awesome condition. I loved my Grand Marquis. Now, thinking about the Ford Pinto, I think grandpa’s love of that vehicle and love of embarrassing his granddaughters in it is quite entertaining. It’s a fond memory. I find it interesting to consider how age and experience change our perspectives, and how where we are in our lives tints the lens through which we view the world. I think God wanted me to get that message as we enter Holy Week. I’ll be completely honest: I’m not great at being completely attentive at the various Holy Week liturgies and the Easter Vigil. I find it easy to “check out,” so to speak, thinking, “I’ve heard it all what feels like eleventy billion times.” I forgot that God makes it different, at least partly because He makes me different. Each year, I enter Holy Week looking at the world through a new lens, a lens that includes all the biases and perspective of my recent experiences. Each year, we can unite our suffering with Christ’s in a different way, because our suffering is different. Each year, we can celebrate in his resurrection differently, because God has given us rebirth or a need for rebirth in different areas of our lives. As we enter this holiest week of the year, I pray for the grace to enter it fully, open to what God has to say to me exactly where I am now and as I am now. It’s certainly no laughing matter. We, the staff and contributors to the North Country Catholic, wish you a blessed Holy Week and joyous Easter. |
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