The sixth century Benedictine Rule is very concerned with time. The monastic day is divided up into hours for liturgical prayer, manual labor, spiritual reading and recreation. Too often today we see time as the adversary. It is something we are running out of or racing against. St. Benedict challenges us with a different point of view. He saw the passage of time each day as an opportunity to give glory to God, to stop and reflect in praise and thanksgiving. Awareness of time is a tool for spirituality, not something to lament or panic about.
I think as Christians we have to reclaim time from our frantic, fast-paced world. The concept of the weekend seems to be a good place to start. From this perspective Sunday is not just a time to go to Mass, but is also a time to celebrate throughout the day in different ways the reality of the Resurrection.
To do this effectively, perhaps we cannot wait until Sunday morning to get started. Traditionally the church has always taught that the preparation for Sunday involves an awareness that begins on Friday, a day meant to be a time when we seriously reflect on the passion of Jesus. This is no more meant to be confined to the season of Lent, than the celebration of the Resurrection is confined to Eastertide, but Lent is certainly a good time to think about our practices and attitudes.
We can do this in a number of ways. Devotions such as the Stations of the Cross, the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, or one of the beautiful litanies associated with the passion immediately come to mind. Abstinence from meat, a prayerful reading of a passion account from Scripture, are also possibilities. According to the Benedictine spiritual writer St. Gertrude of Helfta (1256-c. 1302), even taking the time to gaze quietly with a loving heart upon a crucifix is a powerful way to remind ourselves of the true meaning of Friday:
“Again, as Gertrude was holding a crucifix in her hand with devout attention, she was given to understand that if anyone were to look with a similar devout attention at an image of Christ crucified, the Lord would look at them with such benign mercy that their soul, like a burnished mirror, would reflect, by an effect of divine love, such a delectable image, that it would gladden the whole court of heaven. And as often as anyone does this on earth with affection and due devotion, it will be to his eternal glory in the future.”1
St. Getrude the Great
Reflecting on the passion of Christ should also lead us to think about all those in our society who suffer, and about what we are doing personally to help. Our fellow human beings and their needs are icons of Christ, just as a crucifix or pietá are. When we look upon their pain, we see the wounds of Christ. Reaching out to help them, we stand with Veronica and the other women of Jerusalem who comforted Christ on the Way of the Cross. Like Christ, we must not only be willing to comfort, but also to allow others to comfort and minister to us. Perhaps Friday is a good time to pause and ask ourselves how we are living up to our responsibilities.
St. Veronica, by Hans Memling
It has long been a part of Catholic wisdom that to appreciate and share in the glory of the Resurrection, we must also recognize and participate in the sorrows of the passion. Let part of our rest and thanksgiving from a hard week’s work involve a special remembrance of the passion, as expressed in this ancient Irish poem:
“O King of the Friday
Whose limbs were stretched on the cross,
O Lord who did suffer
The bruises, the wounds, the loss,
We stretch ourselves
Beneath the shield of thy might,
Some fruit from the tree of thy passion
Fall on us this night!”2
- Gertrude of Helfta. The Herald of Divine Love. Translated by Margaret Winkworth. Paulist Press. New York. 1993. p. 210.
- Anonymous traditional poem found in Daily Prayer from the Divine Office. The Talbot Press. Dublin. 1982. p. 571.
Festina Lente 