Holy Week
Today we begin the holiest week of our Catholic tradition. We listen wholeheartedly
today to the passion according to Matthew, trying to enter into the reality of Jesus’
suffering and the various responses of the people seeing his suffering. Were they confused
by what they saw? Did they wonder why this peaceful man who healed so many was being
condemned to death? Did they blame the Roman soldiers, the occupiers, for treating one of
their own so cruelly? And his disciples, were they totally disillusioned that their hopes
for him were in vain? And as we put ourselves in that awful scene, with whom do we
identify? Do we protest that we never would have betrayed him as Peter did, never would
have run away in terror for fear of guilt by association? Do we hope that we would have
been among those weeping for him, among those valiant women who stood by the cross when it
was a terribly dangerous place to be?
If we believe in the body of Christ, we might let our reflections take
us one step further. We didn’t live at the time of Jesus and our wondering how we
might have responded is purely a guess. But he is still on the cross in the members of his
Body. How do we, in this present time, respond to his suffering? We need to ask the Holy
Spirit to guide us, to show us who we are called to comfort. It is so easy to either try
to help everyone who is in pain and become either burned out or totally frustrated or to
run away out of fear of any sort of involvement, building a protective cocoon around
ourselves.
Do we have a neighbor, co-worker or family member who is lonely and
needs a listening ear? Is there one not-for-profit agency to which we feel really
committed and to which we could make a regular contribution, even one which costs me some
favorite pastime? Could I be more regular in coming to Mass so that I can pray for those
who are suffering? Each of us needs to listen for the Spirit’s voice and then pray
for the wisdom and the grace to respond.
A Thought for Holy Week
We are at the beginning of Holy Week. If we want truly to be Christian, this week
ought to be a time when we share in a special way in the passion of Christ. We do this not
so much by indulging in pious feelings, but by bearing the burdens of our life with simple
fortitude and without ostentation. For we share by faith in the passion of our Lord
precisely by realizing that our life is a participation in his destiny. We find this
difficult, because so often we fail to understand that the bitterness and burden of our
own life do – or should- give us a mysterious share in the destiny of all human
beings… If we were aware of this,…we would understand that his passion is the
unique acceptance of the passion of humankind, in which it is accepted, suffered, redeemed
and freed into the mystery of God. Karl Rahner, The Great Church Year, pp. 140-141
