Monday of Holy Week

Reflection

Travel in your heart and mind to being a small infant cradled in your parent’s arms in church.  Warm, milky, totally safe, supported and trusting.  Hear the sounds of the liturgy, the music, the rustling in the pews, the little nuzzling noises your parent makes for you and the steady beat of their heart against your whole body.  Return in your mind’s eye to the fractured colors of the stained glass windows, the blurry glints of gold leaf and brass, the geometric patterns on the ceiling, your parent’s eyes gazing into yours.  Inhale your parent’s smell of rightness, with traces of incense and wax and old hymnals and wet coats overlaid.  Of whom should you ever be afraid?  There, at the most primitive level, we begin to feel in our whole being God’s unconditional love.  Isaiah tells us that this too is the charge of God’s chosen, the Christ: not to shout and demand and break, but to hold and to heal, to bring gentleness and justice, to teach and enlighten.  We are held always in Christ, as in a parent’s arms, held and cherished, taught and formed.  We can always return to the safety of His arms, for having died and risen, He is now with us always.  He is indeed our light and our salvation.

Prayer

Lord, You are my light and my salvation, my comfort and my safety.  From our trust in You, bring us to justice, without shouting in the streets, but through enlightenment, freedom, and Your everlasting promise.

Jo Ellis-Monaghan, Professor of Mathematics

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-7
Psalm 27:1-3, 13-14
Gospel: John 12:1-11

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website