José Juan Sánchez Jácome / ACN.- The days of the passion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ are approaching. Regardless of the results we have obtained during this time of preparation, the excitement that the celebration of the Easter feast causes in Christian communities is felt.
Lent has been guiding us in this process of conversion, especially in moments of tiredness and confrontation that, in addition to revealing our own weakness, show the intentions of the evil one who attacks us with all his strength when we truly want to return to the Lord and be faithful on his path.
Indeed, there are adverse factors that have the capacity to shake our life and divert us from our purpose. In this process, not only do our weaknesses and sins appear, not only does tiredness and our own inconsistency emerge, but—as always happens every year—news, publications, and events arise that seek to discredit what we celebrate, induce scandal, confront Christian communities, strike at the moral authority of the Church, and subtract credibility from the Christian faith.
Nevertheless, this adversity with which we must battle, Lent has been sensitizing our soul to keep us on this difficult path and to arrive at perceiving, during the holy days, the mystery of God’s mercy and everything that Jesus’ suffering represented for the salvation of all humanity.
If by chance we have not prepared ourselves as we should have during these weeks of Lent, we trust that the very event of the passion and death of our Savior has the power to illuminate our own reality, lead us to pause in our life, generate deep reflection, and help us feel sorrow for our own sins. There is always motivation to rectify when we touch our hearts, contemplating the cross of our Savior.
If we have not lived Lent and we suddenly find ourselves faced with the Easter event, at least let us appear out of nowhere like the Cyrenian whom they force to divert his path and, without him expecting it, begins to look into the eyes of the suffering Christ, feels his labored breathing, ascertains the pain in his soul, and takes pity on his situation.
In case we have not lived Lent as we should have, let us not allow the evil one to make us fall into the trap of thinking that there is no point in celebrating Holy Week because, since we have not prepared ourselves, it will have no benefit for us.
There is always time to reflect, there is always an opportunity left to return to God. Let us not allow anyone to rob us of this kairós to accompany Jesus Christ on the way of the cross. We must begin this experience by discovering that suffering and death did not end the Lord nor were they able to defeat the plan of redemption, just as the hope that the prophets have maintained, over the centuries, of arriving to shake us in a structural way from the dominion of evil.
Having lived humanity in darkness, death, and subjugation, through the Lord Jesus there is a step into the light, into new life, and into the definitive triumph against evil, which we celebrate precisely during the holy days, especially when we enter the holy night of the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.
But we need to live the paschal mystery step by step and be aware of the aspects it entails, so as not to want to hurry this process. Previously, some said that it was too exaggerated to insist on the part of suffering, as if we were a people who got stuck on Good Friday and did not reach the resurrection; as if we were a people who remained at the cross and have not managed to contemplate the light of the Lord.
It will be necessary to point out that this identification of our people with Good Friday is not stagnation, nor a fixation; nor does it mean ignorance of Jesus’ triumph and what the paschal mystery entails. Rather, it represents a necessary stage to not succumb before the enormous power of evil that has also struck our people savagely.
Our people look at the cross because they feel that the Lord, who went through very hard sufferings, understands our suffering and is not indifferent to our tears. Our people feel understood and therefore do not stop fighting, because they never lose hope in the Lord’s glorious intervention.
Unfortunately, our situation as a suffering people has not changed, one that continues to endure the ravages of injustice, poverty, and violence. In this way, Jesus’ suffering and passion continue to be a reference for our people that infuses consolation, strength, and hope, in order to respond from faith to this adverse reality.
That is why our people do not stop crying, questioning themselves, identifying, and being moved before the passion and death of our Savior. Saint Paul said of the cross: “The days of the Passion are days when the very stones weep. And what! If the High Priest has died, will there not be weeping? One would have to have lost faith!”
These days move our soul as we contemplate the suffering of our Savior. The whole earth is moved by the injustices, outrages, and mockery that a good and innocent man like Jesus suffered. We are moved when we realize how, being God, he made himself one of us and was treated with so much hatred and malice. It is hard for us to detach ourselves and be indifferent, during these holy days, with respect to everything that reflects the suffering and humiliated face of our Lord.
To reach the resurrection and remain with a joy that no one can take from us, it is first necessary to weep properly. We have been losing the capacity to oppose injustices, as well as to be moved and sensitized before tragedies and the pain of others.
Our own conversion will not go beyond being merely an ethical improvement if we do not assume the Gospel and if we do not reproduce the feelings of Christ to solidarize with those who suffer and to continue fighting for peace and justice.
This exercise of contemplating and being moved by Jesus’ sufferings will be necessary to awaken our humanity, to overcome our own indolence, and to not abandon to their fate the people who are enduring unbearable problems and pains.
We cannot pretend that nothing is happening, nor turn to the other side, nor remain in our comfort when life is sorted out. It is necessary to be moved and react to the disappearances, kidnappings, violence, insecurity, and social decomposition. Many families have been struck by this scourge and continue trying to recover, as well as not to lose hope.
Constating and lamenting this environment of violence and insecurity, we must support the brothers who have been hurt, so that the mystery of evil—which takes pity on no one—does not come to strike them doubly, to the point of prostrating them in sadness, leading them to hatred and revenge, and driving them to live in despair.
May the contemplation of Jesus’ passion lead us to be moved by the Good Friday that our country faces and, in a special way, so many families in the towns and cities of Mexico. Sometimes we need to risk ourselves like Veronica so that, defying all dangers, we make ourselves present to clean the disfigured face of so many brothers. As those verses say: “Imitate the compassion/ of Veronica and her veil/ if you want the holy face of Christ/ in your heart”.
May we be able to say to the Lord: “Grant me the grace to be, like Veronica, the woman of compassion, who overcomes fear, who overcomes sadness, who overcomes her own pain and only concerns herself with You, only concerns herself with wiping your Face, comforting your heart, softening a little your sorrow, your abandonment, your pain”.
We also need, like the Cyrenian, to help them so that they rise from their falls and experience consolation, light, and peace, in the midst of the darkness they are living. As Saint Josemaría Escrivá says: “It is not late, nor is everything lost… Even if it seems so to you. Even if a thousand ominous voices repeat it. Even if mocking and incredulous looks besiege you… You have arrived at a good moment to carry the Cross: the Redemption is being accomplished—now!—, and Jesus needs many Cyreneans”.