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Father Muench Says...

Holy Week, proof of God’s love for us

March 31, 2021

By Father William Muench
NCC columnist

Holy Week – the holiest week of the Church year. This is the week we recognize each year the events of our salvation. This is the week that we celebrate by walking each day with Our Lord Jesus – a week when we take the opportunities to recognize each day God’s great love for us. We are truly a loved people.

Recognizing God’s great love for us, this is the important time for each one of us to build up our relationship with our God. In this way, we discover the simple answers of life. Realizing that God’s love for us is unconditional – God loves us – and asks nothing from each of us, we respond by surrendering to God’s love. We surrender as we live, by bringing God’s love, his Spirit, to others with kindness, compassion and understanding.

To find this Spirit requires we find some quiet time with God. Holy Week is a perfect time for this contemplative time with our Lord and Savior. Alone time with God gets us out of our heads and into our hearts. It is a time of quiet silence. There are no words necessary when we spend time with our friend, Jesus. As we walk with Jesus in his sufferings, he asks only for our love. The Lord seeks our love – no words to say, no words to read – only a love given in silence and surrender.

God is always loving and never condemning. The reason we walk with Jesus in his sufferings is not because we feel guilty for our failing and sins. Jesus suffered to demonstrate how much God loves us – God is always loving.

Each year we again remember all that Jesus did for us as we read the Sacred Scriptures of Holy Week. I want to remind you again that the Sacred Scriptures are always about us – you and I – now. In this present moment, you and I, must be experiencing that God always loves us. God’s love is so powerful, so perfect, that he reaches out to us even now that we may realize just how wonderfully God cares for us today.

I must admit to you that I know only too well that I have had my day when – and there is no other way to put it – I have resisted God’s love. I have literally searched for ways so that I could block God’s love and concern. My heart has been in so many other places. However, God breaks through all of those efforts to find satisfaction in other places. I have noticed that every year during Holy Week that God finds me and transforms me with his love – even in a year that is filled with illness – even in a year when there is a pandemic. I can only say we must be open and never get in God’s way.

We will change our world, we will make our world a better place, when we live in the love of our God. We are noticed by others and without realizing it we can lead others to God’s love by the path of gentle goodness, patience and kindness we walk. Today as I was considering these words, I came upon an image that fits here – Jesus coming along to help me carry my cross. Each one of you has experienced a cross of different sorts – a cross that seems too much to carry – and Jesus comes along to be the one who helps us – who steps in to help us carry our cross.

One more thought – greater commitment to silent contemplation changes our lifestyle and makes us more respectful and accepting of others as they are. I hope you will see that truth in your life experience.

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