Christ the Cornerstone

Holy Week invites us to walk with Jesus in hope

This weekend, we celebrate Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord which begins the holiest week in the Church’s liturgical calendar. Holy Week invites us to walk with Jesus, to follow in his footsteps, and to accompany him on the Way of the Cross. This is a great privilege that we should not take for granted.

To walk with Jesus means sharing in his short-lived triumph on Palm Sunday (Mt 21:1-11), which must have been a bittersweet moment for him knowing that less than a week later the same crowd that shouted “Hosanna!” would call for his crucifixion. It also means recalling the consolation that Jesus received six days earlier when he had dinner with his friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus (Jn 12:1-11) and was forcefully reminded that God alone has power over life and death.

Accompanying our Lord allows us to witness firsthand his anxiety when Jesus reclining at table with his disciples, was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me” (Jn 13:21). Certainly, we will join the rest of Jesus’ disciples, who were deeply distressed to hear him talk about being betrayed by one of them, and we will protest: “Surely it is not I, Lord?”

These are the Gospel readings for the first days of Holy Week, and if we are attentive, and truly want to walk with Jesus, we cannot help but share in his emotions—both positive and negative—as he completes his life’s journey and fulfills the mission entrusted to him by his Father.

Holy Week invites us to ask ourselves how we would feel if we were present with him during the days that led up to his his passion, death and resurrection. More importantly, it challenges us to think seriously about our responsibilities as missionary disciples of Jesus Christ called to share this miraculous story of hope with others.

The reading of the passion narrative (Mt 26:14-27:66) is the high point of the Palm Sunday liturgy. The emotions generated by this reading are the exact opposite of the Gospel that begins the day’s celebration. This is the story of our Lord’s freely accepted humiliation, cruel suffering and undeserved execution as a common criminal and a blasphemous religious outcast. Those who only days before shouted their joyful words of praise now demand Jesus’s crucifixion—the Romans’ most hideous form of capital punishment.

How do we who are following in Jesus’ footsteps react to this familiar but horrifying story? Do we take it for granted or do we find ourselves outraged at the cruelty and injustice we are witnessing?

If we look to Jesus, we cannot help but wonder at his reactions. He does not loudly protest or actively resist the actions of the religious and secular authorities. He submits freely, and he humbly accepts the fact that what is taking place is God’s will.

The Church helps us to understand the Lord’s attitude by quoting from the prophet Isaiah (50:4-7):

The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord God is my help; therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. (Is 50:4-7)

Jesus is not disgraced by the disgraceful actions of his oppressors. In fact, he gives personal witness to his powerful teaching: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God” (Mt 5:9).

We who are following Jesus on the Way of the Cross are challenged to have the same attitude as he did. We must not tolerate cruelty or injustice and, as missionary disciples, our whole lives should be dedicated to building a just and peace-filled world. But we also do not respond to violence or injustice in kind. We do not seek revenge (“an eye for an eye”). Nor do we “shield our faces from buffets and spitting.”

Holy Week invites us to walk with Jesus, to live and die as he did, in the confident hope that his resurrection from the dead—which we know will take place as the culmination of this year’s Paschal Triduum—will bring us everlasting joy.

Let’s have a blessed Holy Week and not hesitate to walk with Jesus in confidence and hope! †