Reflection for Holy Week, 2024

Palm Sunday (now called Passion Sunday because we read the Passion for the first time this Lent) has come to meet us in a place full of confusion. We begin Holy Week listening to the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem to fevered, glorious shouts of praise and crowds waving palm branches in joy as He arrives in the city. There is a kind of frenzy among the people at the beginning of the Passover celebration; one wonders what precipitated this, since in the week prior to this, there has been growing disfavor, threats and controversy surrounding Jesus by the leaders and therefore some of the people. Now He is welcomed as the promised Son of God who is to come! It reminds me, with all due respect, of the crowds in the arena at half-time on Super Bowl Sunday—the same wild frenzy, and (dare I say it?) mindless excitement without much thought or conviction.  What brings about such responses among humankind at times like these? In a few moments, we will see Jesus weeping as He sits alone on the hillside overlooking the city. In our prayer we can consider why, after such adulation, He weeps, except that He knew their hearts, and would not entrust Himself to them (John 2:24) as we heard a few weeks ago in our Lenten Gospel….

In five short days Jesus will be arrested and led to a horrendously illegitimate trial and verdict that will demand His life—for saying He was the Son of God who is to come….How ironic. How tragic. How frightening, for we are the Everyman who stood and cried out for His death when Pontius Pilate argued with them that he found no guilt in Jesus, and that he could not believe they wanted him to crucify their king. (Pilate would even write Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews above the crucified Jesus on the Cross for all to see.) How evil are the insinuations of the evil one—how clever the machinations of the wicked, and how easily we can be swayed by them. Still, we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation by which we are forgiven by the very One we have wounded by our sins, the Precious One who carried our transgressions to Calvary in order, precisely in order to win pardon for us before we have even asked for it.

But we, ransomed, saved and sanctified as we are by our baptism in the Blood of Jesus, are also part of The Three who stood lovingly at the foot of the Cross on the first Good Friday. We are sinners—yes, the very ones whom Jesus on the cross could not get out of His mind because He knew we would love Him in spite of ourselves. He saw our remorse, our contrition, our desire for Him, our conviction that He is indeed the One Who is to come. And even on the Cross He took refuge in our hearts against the jeers of those who condemned him.

This Sunday as you carry your blessed palms either in your hands or on your heart, remember that His Passion is Now. If you are present at any of the Holy Week liturgies or if you view them on the internet, ask to draw from His sufferings all the Graces He wishes to bestow on you. Pass on to Him your 2024 Lenten observance—no matter how successful you feel you were or weren’t—and see Him enfold it all in His embrace as together you and He move toward the most blessed days in the history. It is all Now, for you and for me and for every person who has ever lived or ever will. If you have areas in your life that need healing, know that He wants to do that. If there are places in you that are broken, He will make them whole by the merits of His Passion. This Passion. This week. This Now.

From the palms to the tomb, stay with Him. Try not to let Him out of your sight. See Him suffering in the homeless man holding a cardboard sign; look for Him frightened in the child who accidentally breaks your favorite lamp, and find Him lonely in the person at work who, in a desperate need to be noticed, takes credit for a task you have done yourself. Make the intention to let every difficult or painful moment you experience this week be an act of love for Jesus who loved you to the end.

The end is Now, and, for us who believe, it is just the beginning.

With loving prayers for a fervent, blessed Holy Week,

Your Sisters of Charity