Message of Abbot Paul - Friday - 22nd March 2024

When I was young, I often spent Holy Week and Easter with my grandmother in Italy. That was when school holidays coincided with Holy Week and Easter Week. I remember that today, the Friday before Palm Sunday, was the traditional day for celebrating Our Lady of Sorrows, the Addolorata. I loved following the procession through the streets of Perugia late into the night. This was when Holy Week really began, with the first great procession. Then, when Fr Luke, Fr David and I went out to Peru in 1981, we discovered that they had exactly the same traditions there for La Dolorosa and that tonight’s Mass and procession, followed by the whole town and lasting all night long, marked the beginning of ten days of endless processions and celebrations. Holy Week came to life. How I loved it all.

 

​In today’s Gospel passage from John, (Jn 10: 31-42), the crowds want to stone Jesus for blasphemy. “The Jews fetched stones to stone him, so Jesus said to them, ‘I have done many good works for you to see, works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?’ The Jews answered him, ‘We are not stoning you for doing a good work but for blasphemy: you are only a man and you claim to be God.’” This is the charge, that he is only a man, yet claims to be God. Jesus reminds them of the words of the psalmist and tells them that scripture cannot be rejected. He goes on to say,

​​“You say to someone the Father has consecrated

and sent into the world,

‘You are blaspheming,’

because he says, ‘I am the son of God.’

If I am not doing my Father’s work,

there is no need to believe me;

but if I am doing it,

then even if you refuse to believe in me,

at least believe in the work I do;

then you will know for sure

that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’”

Jesus’ proof that he is the son of God, sent into this world, are the works he does, which are the works of God his Father. Even if you don’t want to believe in me, believe at least in the works I do and which you see with your own eyes, he tells them. From my works alone you can see that, “the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Whereas the religious leaders want to arrest him and have him put to death for blasphemy, the people see things differently. “He went back again to the far side of the Jordan to stay in the district where John had once been baptising. Many people who came to him there said, ‘John gave no signs, but all he said about this man was true’; and many of them believed in him.” They see in Jesus the words of John the Baptist fulfilled. They recognise him to be the Messiah, the Son of God.

 

​Lord, may the celebration of Holy Week strengthen our faith and fill us with grace to do our Father’s will and so continue the works you began while on earth. Amen.