Readings:

Is. 50:4-7; Ps. 22; Phil. 2:6-11; Mt. 26:14-27:66

This Passion Sunday and Holy Week will be like no other we have experienced before. Unable to worship together in God’s house, we are like Jesus in today’s Gospel: bound in chains, locked in prison, and under constant scrutiny–at least that is how it may seem. Perhaps now, more than ever before, we can relate to the profound isolation our Blessed Lord experienced throughout his Passion–isolation to the point of crying out to his Father, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Yet, here we all are, tuned in on our computers and tablets, worshipping God, nevertheless. We are still united in our prayer, because the Holy Spirit knows no bounds, and today, in a particular way groans with inexpressible groanings, or might I say longings, for a return to the Father, a return to public worship, a return to the sacraments.

These are indeed difficult times for us, and there is much we can learn from the scene of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even in the midst of the suffering that lay ahead of him, Jesus teaches his disciples how to persevere in prayer. We learn that the spiritual life is not easy, even for Jesus. He wrestles with his heavenly Father over the events that are about to take place, and each time he asks if it is possible for it to happen some other way; he says, “let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus models for us, in his own moment of grief, how to pray the Our Father, saying not my will be done, but Thy will. Do we pray this way? Or are we like the disciples, so overcome by grief, we are found sleeping? Three times Jesus himself models for us how we are to pray; three times he discovers his disciples sleeping. And what does he say to them but, “Watch and pray that you do not undergo the test.” In other words, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We see in this scene the outline of the Our Father prayer as prayed by Jesus himself. Do we pray the Our Father as fervently as Jesus models for us in the Garden of Gethsemane?

So, in these days of isolation and grief, when there appears to be nothing but bad news on TV and in the media, take care not to succumb to the pressure, the temptation to be found sleeping. But, rather, seek to be united with the Lord in his own suffering, because as we all know and believe, it is through the Lord’s Passion that we have been freed from the chains of sin and death, free to worship him without fear, free to love him with hearts that long for him, hearts that burn for him. We all know that the Passion of our Blessed Lord is not the end, but a beginning of something beautiful, as St. Augustine says, beauty ever ancient ever new. And as we begin this Holy Week from an entirely different vantage point, an entirely different perspective, may these circumstances increase our longing for the Lord and deepen our prayer such that we may not be found sleeping, but rejoicing. And may the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ, strengthen our faith and hope that we will all be united again both on earth and in the Kingdom.

Given at Our Lady of Lourdes Virtual Chapel during the COVID-19 pandemic.