Meal From Below: A Lenten DevotionalExemplo

Holy Week Reflections

MAUNDY THURSDAY

Jesus calls us friend today, knowing we will betray him tomorrow. If there is an order to salvation, this is it. Friendship and forgiveness precede confession and repentance. Until we see ourselves as loved by God, we will never know the true nature of our sin. Our sin is known after it has been thoroughly soaked in grace. Until then, we confess and repent by hints and guesses. This is why our salvation can never depend on our repentance, which is always a work in progress. Complete repentance will have to wait for that day when see God face to face. As we receive the fullness of grace given, we come to know the true essence of God, neighbor, self, creation, and yes, even our sin. Dear friends of Jesus, who will soon be enemies, we are forgiven—now—completely.

GOOD FRIDAY

“Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’” (Mark 15:37-39). Consider the mystery of the phrases: “who stood facing him” and “in this way.” What does it mean that the centurion stood facing Jesus on the cross?How did this affect what he saw? What does it mean that he saw the particular way in which Jesus breathed his last breath? How does this help the centurion proclaim that Jesus is God’s Son?

May we stand facing Jesus and see the peculiar way in which he breathed his last breath so that we, too, might declare the true nature of his identity—and ours.

HOLY SATURDAY

“The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). Spirit of God, hover in the chaos and darkness of this day and call forth life, we pray.