‘God built humanity so that humanity might build for him’: churches, yes, but also societies, culture, the visible or invisible networks which sustain a ‘Eucharistic’ relationship between human beings and the earth. God comes near to us unendingly in the bread of life, the food of resurrection. Everything has to be built up around this seed of fire.
OLIVIER CLÉMENT The Roots of Christian Mysticism
When we began our Palm Sunday procession, we heard this passage from the gospel of Matthew: “And when (Jesus) entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?” Who is Jesus? This is the most important question for us this Holy Week. Everything revolves around it: “Who is this?” We will hear many answers to this question during Holy Week. What answer will we give? God is waiting.
The crowd following Jesus into Jerusalem gave this answer: “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Why would they refer to Jesus as a prophet. The prophet Isaiah just gave us a list of the most prominent characteristics of a prophet. He speaks on behalf of God and interprets what God wants. He suffers for his prophetic mission, but he will not be deterred. This is what many saw in Jesus. He spoke with a well-trained tongue to rouse us from our torpor. He did not turn back or rebel against divine providence, even under persecution. Jesus’ determination is like a rock when it comes to completing his mission. The crowd could see these characteristics in Jesus. But eventually they could see that he was more than a prophet. He was the mysterious Servant of the Lord, the origin of all prophets. They have all been stamped with his image. No wonder the whole city was shaken.
The early Church recorded its own answer in the Letter to the Philippians: Jesus is fully a man, but he is also equal to God. The hymn points to this identity: “Although he was in the form of God…” Bue even more, he shows his divinity by his willingness to empty himself of all the honors of God because of his love for his Father’s plan: “… (he) did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.” Here we are immersed in the depths of the Holy Trinity. Jesus voluntarily unites our human nature with his divinity in perfect harmony with his Father’s will. He will overcome our revolt against the God by his obedience, something we could not do on our own. The Holy Spirit effects this emptying by bringing about the conception of Jesus in the womb of his virgin mother. He prepares a body in which Jesus can carry out the Father’s work, taking upon himself our guilt and removing it by his obedience. That is why God so highly exalted him.
Finally, the gospel provides another answer to the all-important question of who Jesus is: He is a man like us with all the human emotions and affections that we feel but without sin. The scene in the garden of Gethsemane reveals this clearly. Jesus trembles at his approaching death. He longs for human companionship and support. In his deepest moments of anguish, he asks his three disciples to remain alert and watch with him, imploring their support as his friends. But they fall asleep. He bore this human disappointment, not once but three times, urging his friends to rouse themselves. He needed their love and support at this hour. This loss of human, and even paternal support, was crushing. In the end with human resignation, all he can say is, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Get up, let us go. Look, my betrayer is at hand.”
As we continue our journey through Holy Week, we will hear more answers to the question “Who is this?” Who is this prophet, this emptied one, this man whose heart felt the bitter disappointment of friends who could not watch with him one hour? The Church invites us to ponder all this today and give our answer to the question, “Who is this?” answer the question for ourselves. It is the most important question we face in life.
The will of God often appears repulsive, but faith enables us to see it as it really is. If we live by faith we shall judge things very differently from the way people do who rely only on the evidence of their senses and so remain unaware of the priceless treasure hidden under appearances.
JEAN-PIERRE DE CAUSSADE Abandonment to Divine Providence
God's Fatherly love flows over a man as God created him. That is to say over a man that God created free, because for Him only a love freely given possesses worth. But because he is free, man is also fragile. It is this man that the Father in His love leads gradually across the scheme of time toward complete fulfillment. This is the whole mystery of divine teaching, of the progressive education of humanity. This man, that God created in order to heap him with His gifts, has closed himself to God in his thirst for independence. That is why he needs to be saved—that is, to be restored to his integrity.
JEAN DANIELOU God’s Life In Us
There are souls who seek solitude merely in order to find themselves: there are others who seek it so that they may give themselves. Still, it remains to be lived! Happy those who know how to put their whole soul into all they do. Because they are giving themselves, they will be able to bear much suffering, but their happiness will exceed their suffering, since the gift of self is the source and condition of life, and therefore of spiritual growth and joy. Go on, then, giving yourself: go on suffering… seek your joy in that precious suffering that the gift of self entails. God who became man new no more excellent way than this when he was on earth.
AN ANONYMOUS CARTHUSIAN They Speak by Silences
If God at times seems to be slow in responding, it is because he is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us. We well know that the long-awaited gift is all the more precious for the delay in it's being granted… Ask, seek, insist. Through this asking and seeking you will be better prepared to receive God's gift when it comes. God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to have a lively desire for his greatest gifts. All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.
ST. AUGUSTINE
When I see people very anxious to know what sort of prayer they practice, covering their faces and afraid to move or think, unless they should lose any slight tenderness and devotion they feel, I know how little they understand how to attain union with God, since they think it consists in such things as these. No. Our Lord expects works from us! If you see someone sick whom you can relieve, never fear losing your devotion; have compassion on her; if she is in pain, feel it as if it were your own, and when there is need, fast so that she may eat, not so much for her sake as because you know your Lord asks it of you. This is the true union of our will with the will of God. If you possess fraternal charity, I assure you that you will attain the union I have described.
ST. TERESA OF JESUS