Ave Maria!
HOLY WEEK 2024
The silence of the night put an end to yesterday’s hosanna. The palms and cloaks that littered the ground yesterday in honour of the King were picked up. The branches lay there in the dust trampled by men and animals. These soiled, forgotten palms, which only yesterday were waving in the air, are a symbol of human and ephemeral glory. Glory on earth, no sooner manifested than dissipated, for here below time shatters all that begins with an end.
The One who yesterday walked under the palms of glory, the One who alone knows the eternal glory of his Father and who taught it to us on the Galilean roads, did not ponder these human tributes “knowing the heart of man”.
However, He wanted us to experience the striking and terrible contrast between the acclamations of joy, felicity and happiness and, three days later, the cries of hatred, revolt, envy and jealousy.
On earth, the unwary human heart often passes from euphoria to sadness, and what most often provokes this change is the bite of envy. As soon as the devil, or human nature wounded by original sin, sees in our neighbour an improvement, a joy, a happiness, a profit of any kind, the soul’s reflex, egoism, kicks in: “I don’t have that! Resentment amplifies the movement: “why him and not me! Hatred makes the thing its own by denying and lying: “He stole it, it doesn’t belong to him!
The triumph of Jesus yesterday was too modest in the eyes of the Jews. He should have taken the opportunity to perform a few more miracles, like driving the Romans out of Jerusalem with all the crowds following him. But Jesus doesn’t want that kind of success. He came to redeem souls, wills, minds and hearts, and He wants to redeem them by a means unknown to selfishness: humility, suffering offered out of love for others, the Holy Cross. This is why Jesus hides from their eyes just after his triumph…
Alors, dans les cœurs des princes des prêtres l’égoïsme s’active : « moi, je n’ai pas ça ! » Non, ils n’ont pas le modeste triomphe de Jésus. Le dépit amplifie le mouvement : « pourquoi lui et pas moi ! » La haine s’approprie la chose en niant et en mentant : « Il l’a volée, ce n’est pas à lui ! Les miracles et la gloire qui l’entourent, ne sont pas de Dieu mais du démon… »
« Ce court triomphe est de trop ! Il n’y a pas droit, il faut le lui enlever ! » La jalousie, l’envie et la haine vont détruire sur terre la gloire extérieure de notre Roi.
So, in the hearts of the princes of priests, egoism kicks in: “I don’t have that! No, they don’t have the modest triumph of Jesus. Contempt amplifies the movement: “Why him and not me! Hatred makes it its own by denying and lying: “He stole it, it’s not his! The miracles and glory that surround him are not from God but from the devil…”.
“This short triumph is too much! He has no right to it, it must be taken away from him! Jealousy, envy and hatred will destroy on earth the outward glory of our King.
He came to heal us with his wounds. Priests, passers-by, labourers, craftsmen, young men and women, mothers, children and old people who only yesterday were acclaiming Christ the King, when you see in your souls these wounds of envy and jealousy, run to the Way of Calvary and there, at the foot of the Cross, enter into his wounds through the hands of the Immaculata, to be healed.
By doing this, little by little, the glory you give to the Father through the Son will be more the fruit of the Holy Ghost. By showing your wounds (through confession) and hiding them in his, he will cure you.
Later, in Heaven, from the throne of glory that are his Wounds, you will be able to wave the palms of victory and pay eternal homage and glory to God.
In Corde Mariæ.
