Gospel – Matthew 26:14-27:66  ‘Stay awake with me’

Today we meet Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘grieved and agitated’ as he wrestles with the prospect of death.  The cross is visibly present in our world, where oppressive systems crucify people, where war and terror inflict death and suffering, where environmental destruction endangers the very fabric of our planet.  Here too we meet the crucified Jesus, plummeting into the depths of situations where even God seems absent.  But we also look for those who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’, those who stand against oppressive systems even though the path is dangerous and lonely.  In today’s narrative we meet Simon of Cyrene, who helps Jesus to carry the cross, Joseph of Arimathea, who comes to the aid of Jesus’ friends in their darkest hours, the two women who stay with Jesus until the end, Mary his mother, and Mary Magdalene, sitting outside the tomb when all the other have fled.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, the world looked on in horror at the death and destruction inflicted on innocent people, but we also saw the outpouring of love and solidarity offered to the millions of refugees created by the war.  The helpers were out in force: parents left buggies at train stations, aid convoys from all over Europe, millions of euros raised.  The American TV host, Fred Rogers, once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping.’”  The many small acts of kindness shown in the aftermath of terrible events add up to a great movement.  Our only response to terror and prejudice must be increasing love and solidarity. Yes, we sit with the horrors of the cross this week, but we can also look for the helpers, and we can be the helpers too.

© Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2022.  A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Matthew.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2022).

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“Africans believe in something that is difficult to render in English.  We call it Ubuntu/botho…  You know when it is there and when it is absent.  It speaks about humaneness, gentleness, hospitality, putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable.  It embraces compassion and toughness.  It recognises that my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only br human together.                – Desmond Tutu