Meditations for Holy Week

During the Jubilee Year, we will be called to be tangible signs of hope for many brothers and sisters who live in conditions of distress,” writes Pope Francis. We have reread the Gospel accounts of Holy Week and the Passion in the Gospels, to see how Christ gives hope to the crowds neglected by the authorities, to women and children, and to everyone else who came across him, especially between his entry into Jerusalem and his burial. We highlight a few of these biblical passages for you.

It was mainly the poor and marginalized who made up the crowd rejoicing at Jesus' arrival in the holy city. The oppressed put their hope in him.
Jesus rides on a colt, a symbol of humility, and is recognized by the crowd, no doubt because of his gestures of liberation towards people who are hungry, thirsty, sick, foreigners and oppressed. The people make a path with their clothes, and some have foliage, while shouting: “Blessed in the name of the Lord is he who comes. It's the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee”. Jesus is the hope of the marginalized and excluded.

During this week in Jerusalem, there are discussions with the Sadducees and Pharisees. Asked which is the greatest commandment, Jesus replies that the greatest is to love God with all your heart. He adds: “A second is just as important: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. This neighbor is everyone I meet, whatever their origin, history or place in the world, and with whom I weave this “social covenant of hope”. Jesus is the hope of those who love and welcome their neighbor.

In his parable of the Last Judgment, the Lord presents the six great vulnerabilities of our neighbor. He is hungry, he is thirsty, he is sick, he is a stranger, he is destitute and he is in prison. Jesus identified himself with them and, in the spirit of the Jubilee, every action towards them manifests God's love, which passes through our eyes, our words, our hands and our feet. Doesn't this unique parable by the evangelist Matthew, set a few chapters before the account of Jesus' passion, shed light on Christ's ultimate gift on the cross? Jesus is the light of hope for the most fragile and vulnerable.

Jesus invites us to take a close look at the gift of the poorest and most excluded.
Unfortunately, society judges them harshly, often seeing them as parasites. As believers, we need to take a critical look at our prejudices towards the least of these. See how the Lord pointed this out to his disciples: “This widow has put in more than all the others. For all these have taken from their superfluity to put into their offerings; but she has taken from her poverty to put all she had to live on”.
Jesus is the hope of those who give everything of themselves.

Despite the betrayal of one of his disciples, Jesus offers his body and blood in a covenant meal. Four verbs for this new covenant: take, give thanks, break and give. But the disciples soon start arguing about which of them is the greatest. Jesus' answer is unlike anything the world values: let the one who commands take the place of the one who serves. Quite a different perspective! Jesus is the source of hope for those who serve to the point of giving their lives!

As the spiral of betrayal is set in motion, Jesus prays for his people. He asks his Father to keep them in his name, to keep them from evil, to keep them united and to consecrate them with the truth. And Jesus ends his prayer by sending them on mission: “As you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world”.  Jesus is the hope of those who, in the midst of challenges, recognize themselves as being sent by him.

Violence has no place for Jesus during his arrest. In a context of great tension, one of those with the Lord takes up a sword and wounds one of the high priest's servants. Jesus tells him to let it go, and he touches the wounded man's ear and heals him, a gesture of compassion he has never hesitated to make throughout his life. Jesus is the hope and wisdom of those who work for peace.

Jesus is arrested and taken to the high priest. A servant recognizes that Peter, seated in the courtyard, was with Jesus. Peter denies him three times. But the Lord looks at Peter with hope and forgiveness, reminding him of what he had said to him a few hours earlier: “I have prayed for you, so that your faith may not disappear. And you, when you come back, strengthen your brothers”. Jesus is the hope and light for those whose faith is fragile.

Jesus is beaten, insulted and mocked. He is interrogated, dragged before the Sanhedrin, then Pilate, then Herod and back to Pilate. He in no way denies his fidelity to the Father, his love for the least and the outcasts, his teachings to the crowd and to his disciples. Jesus is the Truth who does not bend before the powerful of the world. Pilate finds nothing worthy of death, but chooses to satisfy those who demand death. So he delivers Jesus to their will. Jesus is the hope and anchor of those who courageously bear witness to their faith.

The cross is carried by Simon of Cyrene, like a disciple, behind Jesus. A great multitude follows Jesus, lamenting. In front of the women, Jesus calls for vigilance: if the green wood is treated like this, what will become of the dry wood? Jesus is the hope of those who have no voice and no power in our fractured world.

Jesus is crucified. His clothes are drawn, his dignity mocked and his person disrespected. The powerful sneered and the soldiers mocked him. He sits on the bench of the most excluded of the excluded, those for whom he was sent. On the cross, he prays to his Father: “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”.  Before those who take prisoners, execute and kill, Jesus asks for God's infinite mercy. Jesus is our hope, because “forgiveness allows us to change the future”.

Despite his suffering, the Lord welcomes this evildoer, who recognizes that Jesus has done nothing wrong. Opening the way to hope, Jesus replies: “Today, you will be with me in paradise”.  This “with me” is a powerful and consoling word from the Lord for this man imprisoned by his actions. Jesus is hope with these words: “You will be with me”.

On the cross, Jesus is thirsty. He takes the vinegar from the sponge on the hyssop branch and says, “It is finished. He has accomplished the mission his Father gave him. He has gone to the end of love. He has given hope to those who hunger for bread and thirst for justice, he has proclaimed the Good News to the poor. All is complete. Jesus restores the spirit. His own people take his body and lay it in a brand-new tomb in a nearby garden. Jesus is the hope of all those who mourn separation and must say goodbye.

The women close to the Lord come to the tomb early in the morning. Surprisingly, the stone has been rolled away. It is to them, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary of James and their other companions, that the incredible news is announced: He has risen!  This divine seal affirms that love is stronger than death, that hope opens up new paths, that Jesus has revealed the true face of the Father's mercy. Jesus is the hope that breaks the stones of death.

The evangelist John confirms that Jesus performed signs that are not recorded in his gospel. But he indicates his intention concerning those he delivers to us: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”. Life is the Lord's promise, especially for those in need of hope: those who are hungry and thirsty, sick, homeless, displaced and foreign, prisoners (there are all kinds of prisons) and oppressed. That all may have life, “life in abundance” (John 10:10), isn't that the spirit of Jubilee 2025?
With Jesus, every heart finds the light of hope and the promise of new life.