We have journeyed for five weeks through Lent. We now stand on the brink of the holiest week of our year. We may have had a rich Lenten journey, or it may have never really got off the starting blocks. Even if we struggled this year to engage with the Lenten journey, in this moment there is another invitation, an invitation to be with Jesus in his passion in the days of Holy Week.

Once we enter into the Passion narrative this Palm Sunday, we begin walking through the events of the days that lead to Jesus’s death. Each of us in our own way have been through very difficult moments or times in our lives; the loss of a parent or child, a serious illness, betrayal or loss in a close relationship. Having a close friend walk the distance with us, even though they cannot change the situation, makes an enormous difference. We need different things at different moments. Sometimes a call to check in; sometimes practical help or support; someone to listen; or someone just to stay physically close. This week offers us an opportunity to stay close to Jesus and to sense what he needs from me – his friend.

This may mean making extra space and time to sit with Jesus in prayer – or to do something for someone else who is suffering as a way of staying close to Jesus. It may mean attending the Holy Week liturgies and finding some quiet moments to sense what Jesus may be feeling as the event of the week unfolds. Even though the events of the Passion happened over 2000 years ago there is a sense as we remember and enter again into these events that we are in some mysterious mystical way present to them as if they were happening now. It is as if time and space collapse and we are able to offer the gift of compassionate presence to the one who loves us. 

What is the particular invitation to you as we approach Holy Week?

How can you make space and time to be compassionately present to Jesus in these days?