Saturday 19 April 2025

Welcome to the Saturday Examen.

Each of this week’s readings has the impact of a hammer blow. We begin with the extravagant gift and loving touch of Mary of Bethany and Jesus’ quick defence of her in the face of Judas’ condemnation. We move on to the moment of betrayal, as Judas chooses to go out into the dark, while Peter makes promises of a loyalty he’s unable to fulfil while also being unable to face his hidden vulnerability. The moment of truth comes to all the disciples round the table of the Last Supper, as it has come to Peter. All will fail, and through the mercy of Jesus, all will come to be reconciled and to grow in faith and self-understanding. Jesus gives the great sign of service by washing his disciples’ feet, while his last gift to his disciples and to us is his Mother.

What has most caught your attention in this week’s readings, and why? The conversations we hear between Jesus and his disciples are short and very much to the point. Has he said anything that touches into your own life or your sense of discipleship in a particular way?

Jesus gives the sign of his body in the Eucharist and in what Pope Francis calls ‘touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others’. His body and his whole life are given for us. How does this speak into your own understanding of the Eucharist and what it asks of you in terms of service of Christ in others?

From the Cross Jesus cries out his thirst. Psalm 63 says to God, ‘My body pines for You like a dry, weary land without water.’ Here God’s dying Son expresses his physical need and God’s thirst for our response to his grace and mercy.

As you think about all that Jesus gives to us in the name of his Father as his Passion unfolds, what do you find yourself wanting to say? Perhaps it is sorrow and repentance for sin, perhaps a prayer for help in your struggles or for God’s healing of the wounds you carry, or those of our broken world. Perhaps it is a reaching out to Jesus in love and a desire to serve. Whatever your thoughts and feelings right now, take time to speak, to ask or simply to ‘look at the one whom [we] have pierced’.

We adore you O Christ and we bless you
For by your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Amen