(Snippets to mull over on GOOD FRIDAY modified by Jacqueline Colaco)
1. Jesus you are condemned to death because you stood up for honesty, simplicity, justice, took the side of the sick and disabled, oppressed and weak, sinners and ordinary people. The authorities feared the huge impact you had on people by your teachings to LOVE.
When I try to reach out, my selfishness comes in the way. I am materialistic. I also want to stand up for honesty and justice but I feel afraid to go it alone, and I compromise because it is easier to follow the masses and bend the rules, rather than have friends jeer at me for being the odd one out. I need your help Lord!
2. Jesus you bore your cross as all human beings must in ways large and small, to share with us that it is an inevitable part of life. Various parables teach that it can be borne cheerfully and patiently or with misery and whining. You carried it bravely, and were an example to others by acceptance of it as your father’s will. It may culminate in spiritual and/or temporal healing or maybe death but in the process bringing out the winner in us. Lord assist us focus less on ourselves and our ills in order to enable us reach this objective with good cheer!
3. Jesus fell three times on his journey to Calvary on the way to being crucified. The Christian belief is that the weight of our failings caused these falls. Despite our best intentions to improve certain areas in our lives where we are prone to compulsively give in to weaknesses time and time again, we trip. With persistent effort we can come out conquerors. It is worth renewing our promises to change, and we pray for this strength again today Lord!
4. The role of Jesus’ mother Mary at the crucifixion is one of tremendous pain and in-effectualness as she beholds what becomes of her son in the hands of his tormentors. How many mothers feel helpless when they behold and suffer on behalf of their tormented children, unable to reach them, because they cannot discern what troubles and perhaps misleads them in today’s perplexing world. Lord Jesus and Mary our Mother, in our anxieties and worries as mothers we beseech your steadfastness and guidance as we cling to our belief in our children …
5. A stranger Simon is forced to assist Jesus as his friends are too scared to assist him when he is struggling to drag his cross up the hill to Calvary. We too abandon our friends when they begin to embarrass us perhaps? Yes! But, thankfully, there are persons like Veronica in this world who come forward with wiping cloths and Jesus rewards her with the imprint of his blood stained face on her towel. These are symbolic gestures to remind us that being faithful strangers or friends in our outreach to those who suffer and are in need (we do not need to look far beyond our homes even for such folk) will never be forgotten by the Lord…
6. The women of Jerusalem are so much like all of us. Ready to weep at the failings of others. To gossip and moan and groan and discuss ad lib about unhappy situations in families, the neighbourhood, the city, the state, the country, the church, the environment, the world, the climate etc. etc. We now have Facebook and other social network and the media to go on and on 24/7 on and on and on! Lord help me to ‘do’ something about improving such situations even if it is a small gesture of assistance to someone in need that I’ve not offered before. Let me begin with today Lord! Help me take the first step to eliminate the beam in my eye…
7. Jesus is stripped of his garments, nailed to the cross and crucified between two common thieves. This was the height of humiliation for someone who is deified as a God. Yet he accepts his fate with such humility and as his father’s will. Being God he could have saved himself even at the last moment. But he accepts to be humble. Often we do not. We have to learn the lesson from this to let go of that all encompassing quality in us – ‘ EGO’ and ‘PRIDE’ which is the hardest of weaknesses in leaders. LORD please change my attitude and assist me with this!
8. Jesus is laid in the arms of his mother and in the tomb giving a feeling of great sadness to his disciples that he was as human like anyone else and succumbed to death. But when the soldiers pierced his side out flowed blood and water and they were amazed and remarked ‘Truly, this is the Son of God!’
We accept you LORD as our GOD and follow your commandment to LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU!
Jacqueline Colaco, who at 68, enjoys writing life-related stories with a touch of thought-provoking humour, describes herself as an ‘Armchair Minister’, a ‘People’s Person’ and a ‘Winner, not a Whiner’! A former Bank Executive whose highly active and successful life underwent a sea change when Rheumatoid arthritis struck at age 37, she resigned when 45 and co-founded Arthritis Foundation (I). She passionately advocates for better accessibility infrastructure in India to enable mainstreaming persons with disabilities. Also promotes awareness against female foeticide/infanticide.
Owing to limited mobility and therefore largely housebound, Jacqueline’s interests range from a love of her garden to reading, music and films, TV, writing for the newspapers and other publications, interacting on social networks and visitors.
She has participated assisted by an escort in 10 marathons in her wheelchair, raising funds for disability NGOs. Also involves in a Saturday soup kitchen that feeds about a hundred hungry homeless. Enjoys her monthly outing to Catholic Club for intellectual stimulation at a book club called ‘IBrowse’.
She has retired to a Senior Citizen Home at Bengaluru to fulfill her dream of being part of community caring and sharing.
In 2010 she published her autobiography ‘Just Me, Jacqueline on My Way’ typed with a single finger!