As we walk through this Holy Week with Jesus, it seems more relevant today than ever. Our world has completely changed over the last three weeks : the streets are very quiet, we can’t go out whenever we like, and we are finding new ways of communicating with each other. However, the readings for today offer us advice, encouragement, and comfort. Yes, comfort! Have confidence that you are not alone. As the writer of Hebrews said, “We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. They are always around us, even though we cannot see them, and God himself is with us too. May you know his presence close to you at this time. Don’t let yourself be weighed down with sin, but repent and turn to God to take a closer walk with him. Make the most of being able to be alone with God, so that when we come before the cross, we can come with a clean heart. P ersevere to the end. The race that is set before us will not go on forever.Consider Jesus who endured the cross with such pain and suffer you fall ill with Covid19, remember ing, and humiliation. If that Jesus is right there with you, suffering with you. Call on him while he is near, “that you may not grow weary or lose heart.” As he says in Matthew 11:26 “Come to me, all you that are weary , and I will give you rest.” And it is rest that you will need if you get the virus. So, rest in him, confident in the knowledge that he is with you.There are many like us in every street. to keep ourselves We are all hiding away from the virus, in order safe. Keep vigilant, and obey the rules laid down by our government. Do not be tempted to be complacent, and relax. Pray for strength to resist tempta t ion . Pray for protection against Satan, who is waiting for any sign of weakness, to step in, as he did with Judas at the Last Supper. Pray for strength and courage to face the days ahead. Amen.
Holy Tuesday: Is 49.1-6; J 13.21-33.36-38At the end of today’s first lesson from the Prophet Isaiah (49.1-6) we read, ‘It is not enough for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel; I will make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth’. This passage is found in the so called ‘second Isaiah’, a portion of the book expressing a hope of the restoration of Israel. The prophet speaks out of the experience of exile, following a complete destruction of the Jewish world in 586 BCE when Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed by the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, and most of the city’s population deported to Babylon. The people were scattered and disorientated, caught up in the events they couldn’t control. Perhaps this is something we can relate to during this difficult time. Although not exiled, we too are scattered, not able to gather to socialise with the people we love, or even to worship. We might be in the comfort of our homes, but even our homes may sometimes feel like prison cells if we are not able to leave them to enjoy what the world has to offer. We have found ourselves in a strange land so deeply affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many more people die every day, many more people are hospitalised, including the Prime Minister now in intensive care. It really is a strange land. The weather outside may be beautiful, but the experience of coronavirus continues to be deeply unsettling for our families, friends and communities. However, we shouldn’t let it overwhelm us. What the liturgy offers us today is the word of comfort. The Second Isaiah (ch. 40-55) is often called the “Book of Consolation”. Today, God offers us reassurance that his light will never entirely depart from us. Through his prophet God says, ‘I will make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’We know that our Lord described himself as ‘the light of the world’ and said that whoever follows him will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life (J 8.12). During Holy Week we are reminded that Jesus, the light of the world, knows what our darkness and confusion feel like. In the gospel we find Jesus ‘troubled in spirit’ (J 13.21). Betrayed by his friends, he found himself in a strange and lonely land. He didn’t die surrounded by his disciples, but by a hostile crowd. At the foot of the cross only a handful of his loved-ones kept watch, including his mother, Mary, and John, his beloved disciple. The Son of God took upon himself our human experience of isolation and pain so that when we experience these things we may know that we are never alone, that God walks alongside us and that his light of hope shines even within the darkest of nights. So, today, on this Holy Tuesday, let us pray that the light of Christ may shine upon our dispersed communities living under the shadow of coronavirus. May the light of Christ shine within our hearts and encourage us to be a people who are always ready to share that light with others. With St Paul, let us pray: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ’ (1 Cor 3-5). Amen.
Holy MondayJohn 12.1-11: Anointing at BethanyIn today's Gospel we hear the account of Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus' feet with an ointment of pure nard. The oil she used for anointing was worth hundred denarii, an equivalent of nearly a year's wages for a worker. Mary’s gesture could have been read as little indulgent and wasteful - as it indeed was by Judas. But Judas completely missed the point. What he didn’t realise was that Mary possessed a deeper understanding of who Jesus was. While Judas, obsessed with money, was constantly calculating benefits and losses, Mary was responding to Christ’s presence with all candour of her heart. She worshipped him with all she had, without worrying about finances or about what would others think of her or how they would judge her. Her strange and unusual action was an expression of her love for Jesus. Love was all that mattered there. What she did focused the attention of everyone present in the room on Jesus which then allowed him to speak of his impending death. Mary’s worship pointed towards the sheer extravagance of God’s love we discover in the Cross and Passion of Christ. Is it very fitting that we hear this story at the start of Holy Week as it reminds us about that one essential thing it would be good for us to discover afresh as we journey towards Easter – the love of God revealed to us in Christ Jesus. As we spend this Holy Week confined to our homes, not being able to worship in church buildings, perhaps today we could think of a few creative ways in which we can imitate Mary’s action and worship Christ in our homes? How can we be a little bit more generous and even extravagant in showing our love for him? We read in the gospel that ‘the house was full of the scent of the ointment’. How can we make our houses smell of love? Perhaps there is someone we haven’t paid enough attention to? Someone we love and care for but in all the hassle and bustle of life have almost forgotten about? If that person happen to live with us, perhaps we could spend more quality time together, forgetting about what distracts us from love (e.g. arguments about who is right or wrong, finances, etc.) and really focusing on each other instead? Or if we cannot meet with them in person, perhaps a phone call or a skype conversation could be arranged? Can we, by our actions, show to others how much they matter to us and to God? May this Holy Week be a time of discovery of what really matters in our lives while so much of what we normally take from granted is no longer available to us. Jesus, our Saviour and Friend, teach us how to love one other as you have loved us. Amen.
Today, we begin our journey through the most holy of all weeks. Holy Week is going to feel strange this year. We won’t be able to take part in any of the familiar rites and ceremonies which allow us to reconnect with the deepest roots of our life of faith. We will walk this spiritual journey in isolation, physically separated, but at the same time united in our shared faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who is our saviour, brother and friend. No one must be alone during this time, or at any time. One thing that no human or natural barrier can ever separate us from is the love of God we continue to discover in the cross and passion of Jesus (Rom 8.38-39). This journey through Holy Week towards the joy Easter is an invitation for each and every one of us to discover afresh the love God has for us. It was love that took Jesus to Calvary. It was love that made him die for us on the cross. It was love that raised him from the dead. When we reflect on the excruciating suffering of Jesus, we may find ourselves baffled by the sheer evil and cruelty he experienced. We may want to ask, ‘Why all this suffering? What is it really necessary for God to create such a horrific spectacle? Couldn’t God have done it differently? But then if God did walk into the world with a giant broom to swipe all the dirt of our sins away from a surface of the earth, would we still be able to relate to him as our Father? Wasn’t it essential for our redemption to happen in a way of this world, the only way we can really relate to? Wasn’t the suffering of the Son of God, his wholesome experience of a human condition, fundamental for us to be able to understand that God truly cares for us and treats us not as strangers but as his children? This Sunday is known as Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord. In normal circumstances, if our churches were open for public worship, we would gather to hear the Gospel of the Passion solemnly proclaimed by a whole liturgical assembly, with a congregation and individuals inhabiting various dramatic personae. We would do that not because we enjoy hearing about suffering, but because we know that the story of Jesus’s passion is the story of God’s love. When we walk the Station of the Cross, for example, we don’t do it to dwell on the horrific pain inflicted on Jesus, but to remind ourselves that in all difficulties of life, in our own experience of isolation, anxiety and fear, God doesn’t abandon us but is present right there in his Son.In the reading from the Letter of S. Paul to the Philippians we are told, ‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus’ (Phil 2.5). Paul then shares with us some wonderful words of the poem describing what the mind of Christ was. It was the mind of the suffering servant.Jesus wasn’t forced to accept suffering. After all, his equality with God could have provided him a way out of it all. But he didn’t grasp this divine power for himself. Rather, he used it in order to save us – he who was both God and man ‘became obedient to the point of death – even death on the cross’ (Phil 2.8). His mind was that of loving obedience and of trust in God. The mind of Jesus couldn’t have been more different from the mind of those who cared only for safeguarding of their own power and influence. The words of today’s Psalm help us understand the contrast between the attitude of Jesus and that of his opponents: For I have heard the whispering of the crowd; fear is all around; they put their heads together against me; they plot to take my life. But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord, I have said, ‘You are my God. My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me. Make your face to shine upon your servant, and in your loving-kindness save me’ (Ps 31.14-16).Jesus’ enemies wanted to stay in power and control. Jesus, on the other hand, didn’t trust in what the world had to offer. He knew that the reason why he was in the world was love. This is how the English Medieval mystic, Lady Julian of Norwich, described the mind of Christ:You would know our Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was his meaning. Who showed it you? Love. What did he who you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Hold on to this and you will know and understand love more and more. But you will not know anything else – ever! (Lady Julian of Norwich, “Revelations of Divine Love”)I think we will do quite well if in our minds we will understand this one essential thing – love. When during this difficult time of pandemic, we hear our ourselves pronounce the cry, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mt 27.46), let us not forget that this lament came out of the mouth of the Son of God in the hour of his agony on the cross.Let us take comfort in the truth of our faith that in the cross of Jesus we find both the assurance of life eternal and utter solidarity of God with our own human weakness and sense of abandonment. ‘For nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’. Amen.
