Catholics have always considered Holy Week the most sacred time of the year. I must confess that I never understood the reason for calling it holy. After all, Jesus was abandoned by his closest disciples, betrayed, falsely accused as a threat to the Roman Empire, tortured, crucified, and murdered. I wondered how such events could possibly be holy. Now, having lived a full life, I understand.
Though life brings us many joys, it also brings many forms of suffering, which is part of the human condition. If Jesus had just skated through life, going from glory to glory, I don’t think most of us would be able to relate to him. History would simply view him as a comic book character, just another mythological figure in the history of religion. But given the fact that Jesus fully entered into the human condition, suffering as we suffer, he is one of us. Jesus knows our pain, our suffering, and our trials, including the depths of sadness, abandonment, and death itself. This is the kind of “God-man” I am willing to follow into the bowels of hell, if necessary.
Beloved Jesus,
Your unfathomable suffering
Sanctifies my suffering
And strengthens me to endure it.
