During Holy Week we enter into Christ’s Passion. Let us be like Simon of Cyrene and spent this time close to Jesus by helping to carry the cross. Josef Rodriguez, SJ, reflects on this encounter with Jesus in this week’s One-Minute Homily. Based on the readings for Sunday, March 28, 2021.
What can Simon of Cyrene teach us about the Passion?
I’m Josef Rodriguez, and this is my One-Minute Reflection.
We’re entering what is arguably the richest time in the Church’s liturgical calendar: Holy Week. If you’re able to attend the liturgies this year, it can be easy to get lost in the readings, the responses, the candles, the incense, the music, the movements. We’re commemorating the drama of all dramas.
With all the drama we’re going through now, we may feel fatigued at the thought of entering into Christ’s drama. Yet this is precisely the time we should be with Him. We are called to be like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus carry the Cross. It is here that we come face-to-face with a God who didn’t exempt himself from human suffering. It is here we discover that, all along, it has been Jesus who helps US carry OUR cross. And if Jesus does this for us, shouldn’t we do the same for others?