Today salvation has come to this house.
(Luke 19:9)
The time has arrived; Holy Week begins. For too many years I merely saw Easter as a relief from fasting and abstaining while I rushed to the freezer to thaw out my favorite chocolate candies! But as the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of the soul to its Creator, it sees with newfound vision the profundity of Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Now instead of chocolates, the paradox of the Cross cries out for my attention. His cross was intended to be the instrument of His torture. Instead, it is the instrument by which He chose to bring peace to His people. With this Holy Cross, He created the way for us to be reconciled with our Father.
You are God who sees me.
(Genesis 16:13)
His passion, death, and resurrection have conquered Satan’s power and fulfilled all covenants of old that He made with His people. Without this, we are confined to the false gods of this world. How easily, and how often, we risk our inheritance of Heaven for these false powers that surround us, begging for our attention. His Word teaches us to instead be like Zacchaeus who climbed up a tree just to lay eyes on Jesus. He didn’t allow anyone to get in his way, and neither should we. Zacchaeus resisted the jeers of the people following Jesus. Courage in the face of mockery is not easy, but once he made that effort and climbed the tree, he was rewarded with an encounter with the Messiah Himself. What people thought of him no longer mattered. He only wanted to see, and be seen by, Jesus.
We too are called to singularity of focus upon Jesus.
Holy Week is the opportunity for serious interior change, reflecting with God upon the past 40 days and all of our past life. Ask God to unveil how to go forward living life as a new creation. Ask for the grace that your dignity and value as our Father’s child are reflected in all that you do: your thoughts, attitude, behavior, dress, lifestyle, and treatment of others. He always protects His own with His grace, and no other can help us as He can. Our small efforts of virtue glorify Him; He in return glorifies us with His presence, power, and love. A clear message running through the entirety of the bible is that His favor rests on those who are devout in their love of Him.
Nothing matters but Jesus. Just as the saints before us, let our eyes never stray from His Holy Cross by which He chose to bring us eternal life.
Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered; and let those who hate Him flee before His Presence. As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; and as wax melts before the fire, so let the demons perish before the presence of those who love God and who sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and say in gladness: Hail, most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, for You drive away the demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified on You and who went down to Hell and trampled on the power of the devil, and gave us You, His venerable Cross, for driving away all enemies. O most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, help me, with our Holy Lady, the Virgin Mother of God and with all the Saints throughout the ages. Amen. (Prayer to the Venerable Cross)
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.
(Image by Anthony van Dyck, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
This post was originally published on the Face of Grace Project and is reprinted here with permission.
