Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020

Dear Sisters, Dear Friends,

This year, we are living a very special Holy Week... Confinement... and for some of us a complete isolation which is very trying.  No more physical contact other than that of caregivers, whom we thank wholeheartedly for their availability, dedication and generosity.  Protecting yourself and others is the advice everywhere.

At the heart of this situation, we will celebrate the days of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord, in a total letting go. Pope Francis celebrated Palm Sunday in a completely deserted St. Peter's Square...   In his homily he said: The drama we are going through right now pushes us to take seriously what is serious, and not to get lost in things of little value, to rediscover... that life is measured by love.  So, in these holy days, at home, let us stand before the Crucified Christ - look, look at the Crucified One!  - the measure of God's love for us.

Let us contemplate the solitude of Christ in the face of his Passion: his solitary struggle in the garden of Olives at the heart of which he turns to the Father saying: not my will, but yours... the disciples who turn their backs on him... Peter's betrayal... the experience of God's silence:  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,  followed by the total handing over of himself into the hands of the Father:  Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. For Christ, while it was a human struggle in which he confronts, questions and becomes discouraged, this solitude is also a space of relationship with the Father, a space where the gift of himself and his trust in God are strengthened.  Let us enter this space with him and take with us all the people who are experiencing enforced loneliness because of the health crisis we are experiencing. Let us entrust them to the Father.

In contemplating the suffering Christ, we can be in communion with all those who suffer in the world: the sick deprived of the loving presence of their loved ones, the families who have lost loved ones without having had the opportunity to be with them, to say goodbye.  Let us believe in the strength of our prayer and our fraternal thought, which can touch them and sustain them.

Despite all of this, Christ, who has promised to be with us every day, wants to revive his Presence at the heart of our lives through the Paschal Mystery.  In what we go through, we sometimes feel, like the disciples of Emmaus, overwhelmed with discouragement, our hearts full of questions... and at other times, we experience that a Word of Scripture can suddenly restore us to peace and serenity, giving a new impetus.  Yes, Christ joins us in the ordeal we face today.  He wants to awaken our Easter faith so that we can recognize him present at the heart of every event and draw from his Presence and His Word the strength, light and hope we need.

Whether we are on the way, in confinement or in isolation, the encounter with the Risen Christ is always possible. He meets us where we are and as we are.  He is alive!  His closeness and his Word make us live and give us courage.   Let us say, like the disciples of Emmaus, through this experience: Were not our hearts burning when he spoke to us... Like them, let us allow the call to resound in us to live from his Life, to bear witness to his Presence, in all circumstances.

                                Wishing you joy, peace and serenity in the Risen Christ.

                   With you wholeheartedly

                   SisterJosette Bijloos