By Fr. Fred Jenga, CSC

As we enter into the most important week on the worldwide Christian calendar, I am drawn to the most dramatic scenes about the suffering of Jesus that are artfully illustrated in the gospels.

In the Catholic tradition, the events of Holy Week are described as the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary (Ebikolwa eby’ Okunyolwa in Luganda). The powerfully emotive biblical scenes have been for centuries, offered as food for reflection, especially in the week.

The five Mysteries include The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 12:27-28), The Scourging at the Pillar (John 19:1), The Crowing with Thorns (Mark 15:17), The Carrying of the Cross (Mark 8:34-35), and The Crucifixion (Mathew 27:33-36).

Almost 600 years before the birth of Jesus, the Prophet Isaiah wrote about a yet-to-come “suffering servant” whose “wounds” would “heal us” (Isaiah 53:1-9).

The prophet wrote that the future suffering and faithful servant would be one who would be despised, humiliated, carry our pains, be punished, and crushed for our wrong doings, pierced for our offenses, and by his wounds we who had gone astray like sheep will be saved.

In the events that unfold in this this week, we do not merely remember or re-enact what happened, rather we “re-live” the events of the first Holy Week in Jerusalem.

In this special of all weeks on the Christian Calendar, we see an innocent man get physically and emotionally abused for no crime he committed; and eventually he was murdered. Underlying his acceptance of abuse was a desire to save the guilty due to sin, so that they may have life, and have it to the fullest.

When we think about Jesus in this Holy Week, may it not be lost on to us how his “wounds” have healed us, saved us, and given us hope for life eternal.

May we in this special of all weeks, slow down just a bit, focus on the suffering servant, and participate in different spiritual programmes as we can.

Holy Week is one of the most dramatic celebrations of sacrificial love that human history has ever seen. As the Lord teaches us, “there is no greater love than this, for a man to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). The holy days of Holy Week are meant to stir our hearts to respond with love to Christ’s love for each one of us.

Additionally, hidden inside the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary is a “social gospel” that invites us to interrogate how society is arranged, and how its institutions functions.

In the Sorrowful Mysteries, we learn about an innocent man who was falsely accused and condemned; underwent severe torture for crimes he did not commit, and eventually suffered murder. Uganda being a Christian country, Holy Week is a good time for us to reflect on what the events surrounding the arrest, condemnation, torture and murder of Jesus mean to us a society.

It is a time to reflect on how we do law enforcement, how our judicial system functions, and how we treat the incarcerated, some of whom surprisingly might be innocent. Like other societies around the world, we are an imperfect society, and a process of self- reflexivity can be beneficial to us on various levels. May Holy Week provide an opportunity for reflection on an individual, familial, and societal levels.

The writer is a Catholic Priest and President, Holy Cross Family Ministries