If you had only one thought to guide you through Holy Week, what would that thought be?

I was asked by some friends of mine in Kansas City to help one of their friends out.  Their son was getting married in St. Louis in a Methodist ceremony, but they wanted a Catholic presence there.  I agreed.  Though I pleaded (with the same lack of success as the parents had) for any day but the Saturday of Palm Sunday / the beginning of Holy Week, the ceremony was held at 6:00 pm last night.  It was strange to be celebrating a wedding after having set up the church for palm Sunday.   I wasn’t in ‘wedding mode’.  I was in ‘Holy Week’ mode.  But there I was and there was the bride and groom, right in the middle of a wedding. 

However, there was one moment that suddenly moved me right into the heart of “Holy Week”.  The Bride had a particularly expressive face.  And at one point, I thought I could read her mind.  For a brief instant it seemed like the only possible thought that could have been in her head to match the expression on her face was this:  “Will I ever be worthy of this love?”  This was not the guilt ridden, unredeemed kind of expression, but an awestruck, amazing kind of revelation.  “Will I ever be worthy of this kind of giving, this kind of laying down of his life for me?” 

Perhaps you know that in one form or another, through the gift of the people who have loved you well in your life.  And if you have, then I invite you to call that experience back to your head and heart this week.  And if you have not, then let the story of the Passion of our Lord be that gift in your life – of a love that gives everything for you.  The one thought that will guide my reflection this week is that simple one.  Perhaps it can guide yours as well.  Not in a shame based, loathsome, guilty kind of way – but in the awestruck amazement of this bride before her beloved: “Will I ever be worthy of this kind of love?  Will I ever be worthy of the love I know in Jesus? 

For that is what Calvary always says to us.  We are never deserving of any love, but the one who has died has indeed chosen us for this love.  He has chosen us like a groom chooses a bride and a bride chooses her groom.  And we can rejoice and exult in the love that surrounds us and saves us...