At mid-week in Holy Week, we are discovering that the Passion of the Lord is an enthralling story of betrayal, suffering, death, and finally Resurrection.
Isn’t it true that everyone discovers the reality of suffering soon enough? Its meaning, however, takes longer to discover.
Popular culture does not reveal the meaning of suffering to us – in fact, it goes a long way to make it invisible. It creates an infinite dream of comfort, satisfaction, and security that cannot possibly be true to actual experience. Even when the media show us gruesome pictures of human suffering, these are quickly followed by ads for sportswear, faster cars, and newer gadgets. Thus, the images of pain, loss, and hardship lose their power, and there is an unspoken assumption that it is all right to pass suffering by. But this week, if we choose to take our faith seriously, it is not wise to pass it by. Without suffering, life would have no depth, no growth, and no awareness.
Think about it, even the most carefully protective parents cannot protect their children from everything. God’s mercy did not protect Jesus from suffering, nor Mary, nor any of His disciples through the ages. We cannot expect that it will protect us. It would be protecting us from life, and that would be no mercy.
Any growing understanding of suffering comes from life-experience that continues day by day and is never finished. It is not the kind of knowledge that gives us security and control, but which opens us up to new life and new hope.
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¡Qué bueno poder estar con el Señor esta Semana Santa! Tenemos la oportunidad única de reflexionar sobre el inmenso amor con que Dios nos ama. ¿Cómo respondemos a su amor total? ¿En qué medida lo hacemos resonar y lo reflejamos como en espejo a los hermanos y hermanas alrededor nuestro?
Los eventos, ritos, y acontecimientos de la Semana Santa nos dicen que puede que nos resulte muy difícil discernir lo que es nuestra deber en cada situación concreta en nuestras vidas. Pero hay una forma de no equivocarse o de equivocarse menos. Como Dios, es siempre mejor que nos inclinemos del lado de la misericordia, de la paciencia, y del perdón, que por lo contrario.
