by Br. Nicholas Hejka, O.S.B.

     As we enter Holy Week on Palm Sunday, it is good for us to remind ourselves what Our Lord’s passion and death are all about: Jesus’ love for us and His love for the Father, Who also loves us.

     We were lost, enslaved, and dead because of our sins.  Our situation was so dire that we could not save ourselves or reconcile ourselves with God.  Only God could save us, and He loved us too much to let us be eternally lost without any hope of salvation.  Therefore, the Father handed over His Beloved Son as the sacrifice for our redemption.  Since, as God, Jesus could not suffer or die, He willingly emptied Himself and became man.  By His humility and obedience, Jesus overcame our pride and disobedience.  By His suffering and death, Jesus paid the price to cancel out our sins, reconcile us with the Father, and obtain even greater things for us than we can imagine.

     Being God, Jesus knew all that He would suffer, and it weighed so heavy upon Him that His bloody sweat trickled to the ground.  However, Our Lord’s love for you and His desire to obtain the good He willed for you was so intense that no force in Heaven, on Earth, or in Hell could have stopped Him from offering Himself for you.  Our Lord was not going to hold anything back; He was determined to give everything to save each of us and prove His love for each of us.  At each moment of His passion, Our Lord was thinking of you, loving you with a passion that no words can describe.  When Jesus’ Sacred Heart was broken by betrayal, denial, mockery, rejection, and unjust condemnation; when His flesh was torn apart by scourges; when He fell beneath the weight of His cross and barely had the strength to move; and when His pain was unbearable, it was Jesus’ love for you that kept Him advancing toward His sacrifice when any other man would have collapsed or turned back.

     At the very moment that Our Lord looked utterly defeated and broken, His victory was won!  Jesus has given us irrefutable proof of God’s love for us and an unshakeable foundation for our hope.  Let us gratefully, joyfully, and confidently walk in the way Jesus has set before us.  By following His example of self-emptying, relentless, merciful love, we cooperate with Him, bringing the freedom and restoration of His victory to those around us.

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