The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I have been terrified of suffering since I was a little girl. Some pain was unavoidable: deaths in the family, the divorce of my parents—but experiencing it didn’t lessen the fear. As I got older, this fear kept me from trying out for sports and applying to join leadership organizations. The fear of rejection caused me so much anguish that I did whatever I could to escape discomfort. My identity was in my desire to make others like me, to never fail.
In contrast to my fear of emotional suffering, we arrive at the scandalous Palm Sunday. We begin by entering into mass jubilantly waving our palms, reenacting Christ’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. By the end of the service however, we shout, “Crucify Him!” twice, jeer as the Crowd, and solemnly leave. In this Sunday’s Gospel, Christ experiences the best and worst that humanity has to offer. He witnesses the love and joy of acceptance and feels the hurt of rejection from fickle hearts that turn on Him.
Yet fear of rejection never stopped Him from reaching out to us. C.S. Lewis once said, “Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest upon reciprocity.” Christ will reach out to us again and again because He is Love, and Love never fails.
Reading the Gospel this year, I am struck by Jesus’ words: “I thirst.” He isn’t thirsting for our suffering; in fact He carried it for us. He desires our repentance, our hearts. Lent isn’t about making us suffer as much as possible, but rather turning our hearts and our minds back to Him. Once again, as C.S. Lewis puts it so beautifully, “I answer that suffering is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads.”
The juxtaposition of glory and suffering in Christ’s sacrifice is mirrored in our own Lenten journeys. The discomfort of our penance paired with the glory of God’s grace giving us the courage to turn from whatever is keeping us from Him.
It is in the drama of this Sunday’s gospel that we encounter suffering and sorrow, paving the way for God to transform it into peace and joy come Easter Sunday.
Regina Gray is a NET Canada alum who serves as a youth minister in San Antonio, Tx and desperately wants to be holy. She is a counseling intern at a local women’s shelter and an aspiring artist. You can check out her art on Instagram.