Holy Week Thru Pope Benedict XVI

The time of Lent is commemorating the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It speaks of the tremendous love of God for humanity.  Lent is a call to repentance, fasting, and alms giving; It is the constant call of God to each of us to journey with Him, in Him, and through Him.

The aging process brings new dimension to things, and with the devaluation of life around us in a culture of death.  I, now, meditate on the Holy Week through the eyes of a mortal man, Benedict XVI.  To die with Jesus.

“I will simply be a pilgrim who is beginning the last part of his pilgrimage on earth.” (Benedict XVI, March 28, 2013)

Good-byes are always difficult.  It cuts through our hearts – the HOLDING ON and the LETTING GO of good-byes. That is good-bye in whatever form, whether physical death, geographical separation, or end of a relationship. The significant other is responding to a call.  For someone like Pope Benedict XVI, it is definitely, a response to God’s call.

“The Lord is calling me to ‘climb the mountain’, to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation.” (Benedict XVI, March 24, 2012, Final Angelus)

And in all of Benedict XVI’s writings, everything in life is about an encounter with Jesus – with God.

“As pilgrims, we go up to Him; As a pilgrim, He comes to us and takes us up with Him in his ‘ascent’ to the Cross and Resurrection, to the definitive Jerusalem that is already growing in the midst of this world in the communion that unites us with His body.” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, vol 2)

There is always that point of intimate contact with God, so much like Michelangelo’s painting of the creation.  A reaching out of hands to the point of touching. Not just God’s but also our hands.

But then, there is always that inescapable CROSS that we have to face.  Abandonment, betrayal, failed aspirations, physical sickness… that we would rather drown in the accumulation of things, whirlwind of activities, fame and fortune.

“[Mount of Olives]: it was here that Jesus experienced the final loneliness, the whole anguish of the human condition.  Here the abyss of sin and evil permeated deep within his soul. Here He was to quake with foreboding of His imminent death. Here He was kissed by the betrayer. Here He was abandoned by all the disciples. Here He wrestled with His destiny for MY SAKE.” (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol 2, p 149)