I began the Wednesday night faith sharing group with this question: What character of the Passion narrative do you most identify with? So, I am asking each of you today: what person in the passion narrative do you identify with today?
Is it Mary, the sorrowful Mother?
Is it Mary of Magdala who wept for her friend?
Is it Peter the denier or Judas the betrayer?
Are you one of the crowd who yelled “hosanna”; are you also the same person who yelled “crucify him” on Good Friday?
Could it be a person in the crowd who just stood in the crowd and didn’t get involved?
Could it be the soldier or Pilate or a member of the Sanhedrin? Who is it?
What I am encouraging you each to do is to take your person and let him or her walk this Holy Week with you. Let that person teach you something about Jesus and maybe yourself. Enter into the mystery of the most profound moments of our faith. This week is not walked alone; but in the community of the faithful. This week is not about a cerebral exercise. This week is a week of the heart. The sacred rites of this week are the rites of the heart.
Who is not moved by the profound act of the washing of the feet?
Whose heart is not moved by Jesus’s self giving in the Eucharist?
Whose eyes do not fill with tears by Jesus agony in the Garden and how they treated him after he was arrested?
Doesn’t your heart break when you see him on the Cross and see the pain in the eyes of his Mother?
Don’t you feel the emptiness of the closing of the tomb and the sorrow of the world?
This week is not a week of dusty events of 2000 years ago. It is our life lived out today. We experience the reality of the Passion in our own life in every character we hear about. May this week truly be a Holy Week for each of you . May your guide this week lead you to Jesus, our crucified and risen Lord.
