HOLY WEEK - Part One

There are many voices to hear during Holy Week, and many different characters in the drama of these days. Drawing on these, I will structure the next blogs as resource for prayer. We will focus on the: 

• The Voice of Jesus
• Voices From the People
• The voice of Satan (speaking through various people)

 .................... Journey to Calvary ....................

We Find Ourselves At: The Anointing at Bethany. Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. John 12:1

Consider:

• ... all that Mary's heart has experienced in these days. The words of Jesus drew her to place herself literally at Jesus' feet, awaking in her a deep and trusting faith in Jesus and everything he said. 
• ... how her trust was shaken when Jesus seemed to fail them when her dear brother Lazarus fell gravely ill and died.
• ... how the raising of Lazarus demonstrated that Jesus is Lord of all, even life and death, 
• ... that the faith Mary now has can not be broken, not even by death itself.
• ... that there are three stages in the birth a living faith, (as seen in Mary's experience):

1. Awaking of faith in the person Jesus. Evangelization.
2. The Purification of faith by the testing of the world, the flesh, the devil.
3. The Infusion of Living faith, the direct work of the hand of God; sanctification; gift of the Holy Spirit.  

The Voice of Satan: Then Judas the Iscariot, one [of] his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said,“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?” He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.

Consider: 

• Satan is speaking though Judas. His tactic is his signature one. If he is to draw souls away from Jesus, he must appeal to values that seem to come from Jesus, here, caring for the needs of the poor.
• Caring for the needs of the poor, is not a substitute for devotion to Jesus, it is something that flows from the Devout Life. 
• One might argue that atheistic communism was a product of the same reasoning that Judas puts forward.
• Fruit must have a tree to produce it. Good fruit can only come from a good tree. The tree that produces the fruit of true Christian works, is the Cross of Christ.

The Voice of Jesus: So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
Consider:

• In a world wounded by ignorance of God's truth, and deceived by the lies of Satan, injustice, neglect, and poverty will always remain. The greatest danger in all the world is the loss of communion with Christ.
• Each believer must prepare for the "Dark Nights" of the spirit, when faith is tested.

Voices from the People: So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will  come and take away both our land and our nation.” 

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them,
“You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year,
he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, 
but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.

So from that day on they planned to kill him.  

Consider:

• ... that no earthly authority can be master over the reign of Christ and the life that flows from his Kingship, that is his merciful grace. Your communion with his kingship can never be taken from you; only that you choose to give it up.
• ... that the stronger your communion with Christ grows, the stronger will Christ's enemies oppose you.
• ... that if Satan had defeated Jesus on the Cross, none of us would even know of this communion we live and the peace it brings.