Dear friends in Christ
Lent now enters the period that we traditionally call Passiontide. The purple veiling of our Crosses and statues should remind us that the glory of Christ is hidden from our sights until the Resurrection; then we shall see Christ in all His glory, risen from the dead. For now, we are called to reflect on the mystery of the sufferings of Jesus as He prepares to go up to Jerusalem to experience His rejection, Passion and death. The liturgy of these days ahead—the prayers and Scripture readings—bring us closer to this fundamental mystery of our Faith: the Resurrection of the Lord. St Thomas Aquinas says that the Passion of Christ is enough to serve as a guide and model throughout our lives. We can do this especially by reading the accounts of the Passion (we shall do this at Mass next weekend and on Good Friday) by making the Way of the Cross and praying the sorrowful mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Sometimes we can imagine ourselves there, present among those who witnessed those moments. We might take our seat with the Apostles at the Last upper, when Our Lord washed the feet of His first priests and instituted the Most Holy Eucharist. We picture ourselves as one among those who slept in the Garden of Gethsemane; or present at the judgment by Pilate; as one who witnessed the mob crying for his death and see Him raised-up on the Cross. Through all of this we see the infinite patience of Jesus who goes willingly to pay the price for our redemption. By meditating on the Passion in this way we gain countless graces for our lives. Principally we can receive the grace to live, in union with Jesus, the many crosses, trials and disappointments of life. In the Passion, Jesus experienced every kind of suffering and shows us how to live when we are faced with suffering. St Thomas Aquinas again helps by reminding us how much He suffered: He suffered at the hands of the Gentiles and the Jews, of men and women—an example being the maid who accused Peter. He suffered at the hands of princes and their officials, and at the hands of the ordinary people too. He suffered at the hands of relatives and friends and acquaintances, on account of Judas who betrayed Him and of Peter who denied Him. In short, Christ suffered as much as it is possible for man to suffer. Christ suffered at the hands of His friends who abandoned Him, He suffered as blasphemies were hurled at Him; His honour and self-esteem suffered from all the taunts and jibes; He was even stripped of his clothes, the only possessions He had. In his soul He felt sadness, emptiness and fear; in His body, the wounds and the cruel lashes. (Summa, III,q46)
May the compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Sorrows, assist us in these days of Passiontide.
Msgr Kevin Hale