Reflections on the story of the Greatest Love of all
Holy Thursday
Jesus shared the Last Supper with the apostles and, after washing their feet, said:
“Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and rightly so. If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet… I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done for you.”
Good Friday
“Jesus carried his cross… to the place called Golgotha. There they crucified him with two others” (Jn 19:17–18)
Reflection:
“We hear about the cross in Lent, kiss it on Good Friday, hang it in classrooms… but we have not understood it. Perhaps the whole mistake lies here: we still have not understood what love is… Love is God’s life! It is love that led Jesus to the cross… that saved humanity and formed the saints… The cross is the key that opens a treasure: it unites humanity with God.”
– Chiara Lubich
“At noon darkness came over the whole land… and at about three o’clock Jesus cried out: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mt 27:45–46)
“We began to understand that Jesus Crucified and Forsaken is the model for those who want to love God with all their heart… for those who are poor in spirit… who let go of their own ideas… He is the model of perfect unity… of one who places all hope in God… who, feeling abandoned, entrusted himself completely to Love.”
– Chiara Lubich
“God’s love is greater than betrayal, abandonment, insults, violence, hatred, envy, cruelty… God’s love is greater than all this, and we see it in Jesus on the cross… ‘No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ We were not his friends, yet he treated us as such and gave his life for us. This is the great love we see in the crucified Jesus.”
– Bishop J. Galea Curmi
Easter Sunday
After the silence of Holy Saturday, lived together with Mary, we eagerly await Easter Sunday.
In one of his audiences on “The Resurrection of Christ and the Challenges of Today’s World,” Pope Leo XIV said:
“His Resurrection on the third day is the beginning of a new history. The disciples became true brothers—not only because they shared the sorrow of Jesus’ death, but above all because they recognized Him as the Risen One and became His witnesses.
Brothers support each other in trials; they do not turn their backs on those in need: they weep and rejoice together… This is what Jesus told us: ‘Love one another as I have loved you’ (Jn 15:12). Christ, who died and rose for us, wants to make us all brothers and free us from selfishness and division… leading us back to our original calling through love and renewed hope each day. He shows us the path to walk together with Him, so that we may truly become brothers and sisters.”
