On Palm Sunday, with the commemoration of the Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem, the Church begins her yearly accompaniment of the Lord on his way to accomplish his paschal mystery. By means of the three classic pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we have been preparing ourselves to participate in the great mysteries of this coming week. The point of our penitential practices has been to help us to grow in purity of heart so that we might enter into this week in a spirit of deep prayer and be more available for the Lord.

In this time, especially, we want to turn away from our usual concerns and keep our eyes firmly fixed on him. Now is the time to hand ourselves over wholly to him who has handed himself over wholly for our sake. In this way we give the Lord the freedom to draw us into ever greater intimacy with him and his mysteries.

We do not enter this week simply as individual seekers, but accompanied by the whole body of Christ, the Church, gathered together in prayer for the great liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. Within this reality, we walk together alongside our spiritual friends and fellow believers, those closest to us with whom we share the journey of faith.

In addition to these, it is a good practice to choose other spiritual companions to accompany us, like a favorite saint, whose life and teaching has nourished us over the years. Even better, we might choose those disciples of the Lord who were present at the event itself, specifically those whom the gospels tell us were present under the Cross: especially, Mary, his Mother, Mary Magdalene, and the beloved disciple, John.

In the Blessed Virgin, his Mother, we are accompanied by the one whose total, unconditional yes to the will of the Father made the whole mission of the Son possible. Mary’s place is with her son. In her, we go wherever the Son goes, even to the Cross. As his Mother, and in the purity of her Immaculate Conception, she shares in his passion as no one else can. The example of Mary gives us the courage to bear this sorrow.

With Mary Magdalene, we gaze upon the crucified Lord as the community of redeemed sinners who know the Lord’s great gift of the forgiveness of sins. We were trapped in our sins with no way out. We had separated ourselves from God with no capacity to restore the relationship on our own. Yet, as St. Paul says to the Romans, God’s love for us is so great that, “while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 8:5). From under the Cross, we can see the cost of this forgiveness, all that the Lord has undergone to make our new life a reality. In gratitude, we open ourselves to share in his redemptive suffering.

In John, we accompany the Lord as his beloved disciples who have been invited not only to be present at Lord’s banquet but to lean our heads on his breast, those to whom he wants to open up the deepest mysteries of his Sacred Heart, who are called to witness the blood and water that flows from his pierced side. In John, we belong to those to whom it has been given the grace to have Mary as our spiritual Mother, and the task of guardian of her presence in our heart, in that inner reality where we have been washed clean and made pure by the cleansing waters of baptism and participation in the sacraments.

The other women whom the gospels tell us were present at his crucifixion, who do not play a prominent role in the gospel narratives, represent for us the experience of the ordinary believer. Their presence reminds us that the Lord does not only invite extreme cases or those with a special mission to stand under the Cross, but the ordinary believer as well, in so far they are willing to offer themselves in unconditional surrender, just as he has.

If we walk with the Lord in this way, in loving faith and prayerful solidarity, we will find ourselves ready to celebrate the Risen Lord in the joy of the Holy Spriit on Easter morning.

Reflection by Fr. Timothy