By Bishop James Conley
This past Sunday, in his Angelus address from St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo – after urging a fervent plea for peace in the Middle East and other global hot-spots – reminded us to prepare our hearts and minds to enter more fully into the upcoming events of Holy Week. Pope Leo invited all believers “to relive the events of the Lord’s Passion – the entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the trial, the crucifixion, the burial – so that we may grasp their most authentic meaning and open ourselves to the gift of grace they contain.”
As we prepare to listen to the proclamation of the Passion narrative from St. Matthew on Palm Sunday, and from St. John on Good Friday, our major focus is on the holy wounds of Christ, the injuries inflicted upon Jesus during his Passion.
Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Norway, preached the papal retreat early in Lent for Pope Leo and his closest collaborators in the Roman Curia. In his reflections on the Passion, drawn from his most recent book entitled, “Healing Wounds,” Bishop Varden noted that the Cross of Christ “is the emblem of the fatal wounding of the God-made-man. It is central, literally crucial to the kerygma.”
Bishop Varden goes on in the book to explain that without the Cross of Christ, all suffering, all pain, all human misery and anguish is rendered meaningless and absurd. The Cross of Christ holds the key to making sense of the drama of human existence.
Last spring I listened to a talk on YouTube that Bishop Varden gave to undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame. I am told it was one of the most impactful and talked-about events on the campus of Notre Dame in recent memory. I highly recommend listening to his lecture, posted by the McGrath Institute for Church Life. It is entitled: “Living with Wounds: The Passion in Theology and in Our Lives.”
Bishop Varden begins with a video clip of the American singer Gracie Abrams, daughter of the film director J.J. Abrams, director of the Star Wars sequels, performing at a concert in Madrid, Spain in February of last year. The song he chose to play was Camden, a song that tells of a need to hide one’s grief, “bury baggage till it’s out of sight” while outwardly “towing the line, calling it fine, calling it fine,” hoping that someone might “notice how I’m trying.” Throughout the song runs the refrain: “All of me a wound to close, but I leave the whole thing open.”
The song is obviously a plea for the healing of deep wounds, but not knowing where to turn, she just leaves herself exposed and only pretends that she is fine, “calling it fine, calling it fine.”
The word for wound in Latin is vulnus. It is the root for our English word vulnerability. Jesus makes himself absolutely vulnerable before Pontius Pilate and the Roman authorities. He puts his divine powers aside and allows himself to undergo the wounds of humanity. And not just the physical and bodily wounds, but also the mental and emotional wounds, the wounds of betrayal, abuse, mockery, shame, fear, insult and ridicule. He lays them all open before us in the Passion. As St. Peter would write years later, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Could this be what Gracie Abrams was crying out for in her song when she sings “all of me a wound to close, but I leave the whole thing open”?
As we enter into Holy Week to ponder in prayer the wounds of Christ, let us unite our suffering to his. Let us make ourselves vulnerable before him and not be afraid to show him our wounds. Let us “leave the whole thing open,” and let him transform our wounds through his healing love.
With all of this in mind, listen to the words of Sr. Miriam James Heidland, SOLT, from a moving meditation she recently gave on Lent Pray40 from the Hallow app, entitled “Love is a Person”:
“We cannot avoid suffering. None of us moves through this life without encountering pain. That is the reality of life outside of Eden. The brokenness that sin has brought into our world. The ripple from choices made by Adam and Eve, by our parents, and by us, even today. Sometimes we suffer as the innocent ones, the victims of someone else’s cruelty. Or maybe just from circumstance, perhaps no one’s fault at all. Those are perhaps the sufferings that make us most confused and most aching.
“But Jesus Christ does not abandon us in our suffering. He is not distant, he is not indifferent, nor is he silent. His answer is Himself. His arms stretched wide on the cross. This is what he says to us: see these hands pierced by nails, see this body beaten bloodied by the cruelty of man, weighed down by the sins of the world. And still, these arms are opened for you. This is the mystery and the miracle of our faith.
“Jesus took on all our suffering, all our sorrow, all our pain, and offered it up to the Father, to redeem us of our sin.
“Come to the cross. Picture yourself there on Calvary and hold in your mind the image of Christ who suffered for you. Bring with you everything you carry: your questions, your anger, your confusion, your doubts, your grief, your pain. Lay them all at the feet of Jesus. Pile them up as high as you need to. There is nothing too heavy, nothing too small, nothing too messy, to bring to the Lord right now.
“He is here, he is waiting, he will hold it all. Christ can handle it. He is not afraid of your anger, he is not afraid of your doubts, he is not afraid of your confusion, he is not afraid of your pain, and he is not overwhelmed by your questions.
“And when you’ve laid all down at his feet, how does Jesus respond? Let your eyes meet his. Hear him say to you, “my child come to me, see what I suffer, see how much I love you.”
“If you can keep your eyes on him, allow your heart to be filled with the love he has for you and just take your time here and let your heart speak to him, however you feel moved.
“We adore you Oh Lord and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”
Editor’s Note:
Sr. Miriam James Heidland will be one of the featured speakers, along with Dr. Bob Schuchts and Bart Schuchts at the “Healing the Whole Person” conference April 16-18 at North American Martyrs Church in Lincoln.
The conference is presented by the John Paul II Healing Center of Tallahassee, Fla., Online registration is now open.
A separate but complementary event, a “Day of Equipping,” will be held April 17, and requires a separate registration. Online registration is now open.
For more information on both events, visit jpiihealingcenter.org.
