LET US ENTER INTO HIS SUFFERING

In this Holy Week that is now upon us, we see Jesus entering the dark realm of His suffering and death. The whole course of his earthly life has led to this: to the brief APPLAUSES and ‘HOSANNAS’ when entering Jerusalem, to the Passover Supper with His disciples, to the Agony of Gethsemane, the Betrayal and Arrest, followed by His Condemnation, and His being put to death by Crucifixion.

“He was despised and rejected* by men;
a man of sorrows,*and acquainted with grief;*
and as one from whom men hide their faces
He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.”
(Isaiah 53:3).

Let us however, try to stay with Him these days – even though back then, it seemed impossible for His disciples to do so because of Fear:

“And they all deserted Him and ran away” (Mark 14:50).
“Only the women, including his mother,
and the beloved disciple, stood by Him” (John 19:25).

So by the example of them who passionately love Him at the foot of His Cross, may we too have the courage and passion to stay and be united with our Beloved, Love Crucified in His sufferings. As victim souls united with Mary, the first Victim Soul, who suffered with her Son all the way to the Cross, let us stretch our arms on the Cross with our Beloved. As we do so, we reflect on how it all came to this. All His life, starting from His infancy by Mother Mary’s side, everything was moving towards this place, on the Cross in Calvary. We can see in it all, the momentum of a great unending LOVE, by which scripture says:

“God so loved the world,
that He gave His own Beloved Son” (Jn 3: 16).

So, we look towards Him, and at that GREAT LOVE. We look too at the faces of stricken people in Japan, in Libya and all other places in the world where persecution and grief dwells. And all of us, in turn, are looked upon by the Father through the eyes of the Beloved Son ... This is God’s way, drawing us into eternal life, through the pain of the Cross and the emptying of Himself of His most Precious Blood for love of us. This is God’s deepest meaning of LOVE.

Do we now understand?

My dear brothers and sisters, let us all LOVE, LOVE, LOVE until it hurts. Let us in this Holy week:

"BE THERE" WHEN THEY CRUCIFY OUR LORD!