Now during Holy Week we are asked to voluntarily attend services – The Mass of the Last Supper and the Institution of the Eucharist on Thursday evening and Good Friday services in the afternoon. It would also be commendable to attend Saturday evening services of the lighting of the Paschal Candle and the Easter Mass. I always love when they ring the bells during the singing of the Gloria. I just want to get up and dance around.
It is amazing what Jesus said upon his glorious entrance into Jerusalem, “I tell you, if people keep silent the stones will cry out!” Nature is so much involved in the Passion of Christ – the palms, the colt (Did he ride on this animal because he did so at his birth to indicate a new birth?), bread, wine, the lamb, the wood, the steel nails, vinegar, the thunder and the earthquake. Even what the people are saying sounds like the angels’ message at Jesus’ birth, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”
This celebration is short lived; the fickleness of the human heart rises so easily. In spite of Jesus’ good works and loving message the authority in the Jewish religion sought his death. They were remiss in obtaining all the facts of his origin and message. Aren’t we sometimes remiss in getting all the information about a situation or another person before we make judgement? We, too, blow hot and cold in our relationship with God. This Holy Week challenges us to re-commit to a strong and vibrate connection with our God and his people.
It is our sinfulness that crucified Jesus. Jesus’ mercy reaches from the beginning to end of time, because we humans have often chosen the path of sin to that of goodness. We cannot blame the people of Jesus’ time, because we are no different. We say, “But if I was there, I would have…” Would we? We only need to look at today to see the crucifixion all over again – war, hunger, poverty, torture and displacement.
We can also reflect at this time about the agony of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Surely, she was at the Last Supper and saw the events that followed. She felt grief and helplessness. How can this be happening to her child? How can this be happening to the Messiah? The prediction of a sword piercing her heart is a living reality. She would have given anything to die in her Son’s place, if only people would recognize their Savior and God. She walked the way of the cross, stood beneath that cross, held her Son’s body in her arms and saw him shut away in a tomb. Did she despair? No! She believed her Son’s word that he would rise again in three days. She would outwait the darkness and see the light of Resurrection early
Sunday morning. It is without question that Jesus would appear first to his Mother.
So, we too, wait humbly and patiently for the reality of Resurrection. Jesus has promised that we will also rise again. He is with us every step of the way of cross in our lives and has shown us the way.
“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself…humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even on a cross.” Philipians 2: 1-2
Sister Rosemarie Goins, CSSF