“At the name of Jesus…”

There is a window in the chapel of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA with the name of Jesus inscribed in more languages than I can even identify. It is a beautiful window near the tabernacle. In the center of this cluster of names you’ll find today’s quote from Philippians 2: “ At the name of Jesus every knee should bend.

Today’s gospel is long and the story while familiar is difficult. As we think of that name, the name of Jesus, we often focus on the resurrected Jesus. We know how the movie ends; perhaps Mass should begin with a spoiler alert. The story and the power of the passion can seem so intense that there is a tendency to move through it quickly and jump to the resurrection. But if we really want to understand why every knee should bend, we must go sit with the intensity of the passion. This week, spend some time sitting with the tension in which our gospel leaves us. In these days of waiting for Easter we should feel unfinished. We are unfinished. We are waiting.

—Fr. Eric Sundrup, S.J., a Jesuit of the Chicago-Detroit Province, serves in campus ministry for the University of Michigan at St. Mary Student Parish, Ann Arbor, MI.