People will often seek knowledge about Jesus, which is important. They will study, write papers go to conferences, give talks on Jesus etc., yet that is not the same as meeting Jesus. Study is important, necessary in fact, but unless it leads to a deeper love and trust in our relationship with God, it is more or less a hobby, or perhaps part of a job.
In Holy Week we have the chance of meeting Jesus, of seeking to enter the events of Holy Week and seek to connect with his humanity, his realness and not as something abstract to study.
A theologian can’t remember who, wrote this: “God meets us where we are”. I believe that kind of statement can be passed over, or thought interesting, but the depth of the meaning can be lost.
During Holy Week, each of us who seek or at least attempts to accompany Jesus on his way to Calvary will be met by Jesus where they are, and not where either they or others think they should be.
We are overwhelmed with images everyday of suffering, torture, killings, poverty and natural tragedy. It can numb us. Perhaps it has to in order to protect us from the toxicity of our communication networks. Yet we know of the reality of suffering in our own lives, of illness, death, poverty and in many cases addictions and mental illness that can pile up as the years go by. It can cause many to harden their hearts, which is understandable; others will seek to escape in other ways. Destructive escapes that in the long run only add to the chaos and pain in our own lives and in the lives of those we love.
We know people who are stuck in poverty, and we experience the suffering of not being always able to help them. Sometimes because we can’t, at other times, because they are involved in addictions and to help them, is in reality not helping at all. Yet it still leaves one in pain and uncertainty at times.
So yes there is no one is free from suffering who lives past a certain age and add to that simple anxiety and fear that is also so much a part of life, is it any wonder that we often burn out or go numb.
There is of course joy, pleasure, friends and family, yet happiness does not seem to wake us up to ourselves in the same way. Perhaps it is because joy and happiness are our natural state and since we live in a ‘broken’ world, that state is not something that can be constant and enduring.
So where does God meet us? Perhaps Holy Week can give us insight if not an actual one size fits all answer. “God with us”, what does that mean, what can ones meditation on the life and death of Christ tell us about that?
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery
