Going along with the crowd

All of us want to be cheering for the same team or at least be on the winning side. There is a sense where a sporting event, a concert or even an election can engage us completely in the moment. Something happens on these occasions which connects us not only to each other but also to a deeper sense of what it means to be alive. We want to be present and experience what is going on and to be changed by that occasion.
The question, however, are we there as spectators or participants, as tourist or as pilgrims? An experience can be life changing if draws us into a place where we can reflect upon it more deeply. No longer is it just something that just happened but it calls us to live differently now. This is how we are called to move into Holy Week. We can become aware that in many ways that this is a time of awful injustice, cruelty and torture. We can observe how the crowds, the authorities and even his own disciples abandon Jesus and the time of his greatest need. But this is more than just a human reality. It calls us to ponder on how God's love transforms this event rather than just be amazed by it. We are called to relate deeply with the person of Jesus whose life, death and resurrection reaches out to us. It changes us from the inside out. It allows us to encounter, struggle and become in communion with the God who walks with us even in our darkest night!