Each weekday for the next 14 days, Father James Lyons (Wellington) will be helping us reflect on God’s Word while we are in lockdown. What is God saying to us as we globally unite to defeat Covid-19?
HOLY WEEK (3)
SETTING: the Cross, with two lit candles.
Prayer at the foot of the Cross:
There’s a barrier between us, dear Jesus.
Everyone’s being kept at a distance
I cannot draw near to touch,
to hold, or to comfort.
I hear you forgive those who nail and spear you
I sense your peace and I wonder at your
courage and the strength of your love.
A virus has brought suffering to our world
and we seek someone to blame.
But standing here, our suffering seems
such a small wound.
Help us walk the path of forgiveness that
we might return to one another
healed and at peace.
This is the final of three reflections centred on Holy Week. Their themes are not confined to this particular week so can be used at any time. However, they may have special relevance for you in this lockdown phase of our struggle with Covid-19.
Scripture Reading – Isaiah 52:13-53:12
This beautiful, powerful and haunting reading from the Good Friday liturgy is proposed for today’s meditation. It is a long reading [Isaiah 52:13-53:12] containing many images relating not only to the Passion of Jesus but also to the present and any difficult situation:
- when you have to watch someone suffering (a terminal illness) and are powerless to help
- when you feel you are witnessing something never heard before (as in this pandemic) and cannot tell where it will lead
- when you sense someone being misjudged or deliberately misunderstood
- when you are aware of any kind of prejudice
- when you see heroism or strong, courageous leadership
- when you come across self-sacrificing service
Pray Psalm 30
– for yourself, your loved ones and for the world’s population caught up in the Covid-19 crisis:
In you, O Lord, I take refuge.
Let me never be put to shame.
In your justice set me free.
Into your hands I commend my spirit.
It is you who will redeem me, Lord.
In the face of all my foes I am a reproach,
an object of scorn to my neighbours
and of fear to my friends.
Those who see me in the street run far from me.
I am like someone dead, forgotten,
like a thing thrown away.
But as for me, I trust in you, Lord.
I say, “You are my God.”
My life is in your hands, deliver me…
Let your face shine on your servant.
Save me in your love.
Be strong, let your heart take courage,
all who hope in the Lord.
Pray this response as a mantra through the day: Father, I put my life in your hands
THE CRUCIFIXION
…standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother,
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary Magdalene. [John 19:25]
to relive the death of Jesus, to stand with Mary at the foot of his cross, to feel the terror in the hearts of the Apostles, to see the bewilderment of many in the crowd and the open hatred and anger of others – is to enter into a dialogue with the two-fold mystery of love and suffering. It is to ponder anew the parting gift of Jesus: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Let not your hearts be troubled, nor afraid. [John 14:27]
In a book-length poetic narrative, A Woman Wrapped in Silence, John W Lynch vividly captures the agony of Mary as she embraces the agony of her Son:
Her palms curled inward, seeking for the nails
That might not be in them, and asking pain
She might not hold, and on her feet, a plea
For thrusted iron ached and spread within
A wholeness that was yearning unrelieved.
Her arms cried out for bracketing along
The wood that strained Him. She would take this pain,
This brace, this agony, she’d be His heart.
[John W Lynch, 1941, p.231]
The cry of Jesus, Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? [Matthew 27:46] would have been the moment the point of the sword predicted by Simeon reached Mary’s heart; the final thrust that stabbed her trust and threatened her very soul. Compassion personified, as she identified completely with Jesus and felt her words to Gabriel echo with new and troubled meaning: How can this be?
But then, Luke recalls the final words of Jesus – the prayer of a Jewish child before sleep: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. [Luke 24:46]. What comfort those words would bring to a grief-stricken mother. Her trust, all but destroyed, renewed by the memory of a night-time prayer that always carried hope that a new day would dawn.
We accompany Mary whenever we stand by the cross of another; when we enter the agony of another person, support and gentle someone else’s pain.
Consider: how might the Covid-19 crisis be crucifying someone, testing trust, making life resemble a wavering flame or a broken reed? Can you stand beneath their cross?
– If you are familiar with the tradition of the Rosary, pray the 5th Sorrowful Mystery, the Crucifixion, focussing on the part you might be able to play (however small) in relieving the suffering or anxiety of another at this time.
