Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Readings of the Day

“While waiting in anticipation of a joyful religious holiday, an unseen danger grows in strength and power, threatening to take away all that we hold most dear…”

Could this be an excerpt ripped out of today’s headlines? Or is it instead a synopsis of the situation that Jesus and his disciples faced as they approached that very first Holy Week? It really could be both!    

When we began our Lenten journey, few could have predicted what the world finds itself in today: confronting a dangerous, world-wide pandemic, socially distanced, economically ravaged, stuck inside our own homes – some of us by ourselves – in close proximity to ongoing tragedy, feeling overwhelmed, helpless, and perhaps even at times hopeless. Though we are only one week away from the Resurrection joy of Easter, from where we stand today – both figuratively and literally – we still have a long journey through Calvary before we experience the hope of that first Easter morning.

In these scary, uncertain times, we are very much like those companions of Jesus who accompanied him to Jerusalem during that first Holy Week. They were undoubtedly unaware of the danger that lay just ahead. As today’s Gospel makes clear, Jesus’ enemies – frightened by his rising popularity and how the Roman authorities would respond to it – resolved to eliminate the threat by planning to kill him. Unbeknownst to the disciples, the road on which they were walking would be marked with pain, uncertainty and even death.

As we look ahead towards several months of social distancing, we are in shoes similar to those of the disciples: unsure of what the future holds for us both individually and collectively. Many of us – including those who work in the Church’s social mission - journey forward whipped by winds of uncertainty and apprehension.

This particular Holy Week – prevented from coming together at liturgies as we usually do - we have the opportunity to contemplate the salvific mysteries of our faith in a brand new way: frightened, confused, and unsure of where exactly God is in all of this. It would be good to walk along with those first disciples of Jesus who, despite witnessing the unimaginable suffering of the one they loved, never lost hope or faith in God: a trust that was rewarded a hundredfold on that first Easter morning.

Easter has always been a story of paradox: a death leading to abundant life for all. In our current moment, we are witnessing another life-affirming paradox: through distancing ourselves from one another, we seem to be rediscovering the importance of community, togetherness, and how much we mean to one another. Catholic Social Teaching has always held up the importance of such social solidarity. But seeing such life-affirming, life-sustaining action all over the globe should give us hope that - despite what looks like a Calvary of a bleak few months to come - we can together strive as an Easter people to build a just future better than the past we have left behind.      

Tom Dobbins Jr. is the Justice and Peace Coordinator of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, a Producer for the “JustLove” radio broadcast on Sirius/XM’s Catholic Channel, and Chair Emeritus of the Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors. 

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