As a Christian, Holy week has always been filled with busyness. When I served as a pastor, I always felt like the religious world around me rushed to Easter without paying attention to the steps that were required for there to be a resurrection, but now Holy week 2020 has a different pace.
This global pandemic that we collectively face has forced us to replace our fast-paced world with an order to stay at home. This privileged time has helped me rediscover and cultivate moments of peace that I forgot were there. One of the peace-filled moments I have discovered this Holy week is in the rereading of Christ’s journey to the cross with my Dad. Each morning I rise to take the time to read Christ’s journey to the cross and then I send my father questions for us to reflect on together. I could have done this without a global pandemic, but this crisis has invited me to engage in practices I have taken for granted like writing and reflecting with the ones that I love.
As my father and I have re-read the gospel writer’s memory of Christ’s journey to the cross I realized something that I have often overlooked and simplified and it is Christ’s full humanity. Christ’s humanity existed in the midst of a crisis, a crisis that replaced his innocence and tried him for murder. And in those moments of crisis, He never disregarded his emotions. Christ experienced grief, betrayal, injustice, and torture. He felt every moment and chose to stand in dignity to reveal truth and love. It is the memory of Christ’s full humanity that I reflect on in this Holy week. Christ’s humanity allows me to reckon with the crisis of today, as I grieve the uncertainty of these times, the injustice of the lack of access and resources for all, the death of innocent lives, and I continue to stand in dignity to reflect truth and love.
Rereading the memory of Christ’s journey to the cross restores my connection to my faith and a resurrected hope for the future that will come.
This Holy Week, I am grateful for these slow moments that reconnect me to what is important.
Maybe for you, it is not scripture that gives you hope for the future, but what are those practices, memories that have journeyed with you and your family for generations that remind you of the hope that is to come?
May we take time to remember and reflect on the tools of hope that strengthened our ancestors then, and sustain us now in the present and for the coming future.
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