In March of this year, Regnum Christi consecrated woman Deb Bauer was blessed to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with other members of the Regnum Christi family and staff. Following is one of her meditations from the Holy Land. (More to come…)
Each day at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Mass is celebrated at Calvary.
As a consecrated woman, I have always had a special devotion to Christ’s Passion and Death.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not a “sour puss” gloom and doom Christian. I just live in the joy and hope of Christ’s most loving act – how “He humbled himself and took the form of a slave, and became obedient, even unto death, death on a cross.”
In my vocation, I have had the rare privilege to enter into and accompany people in their own hardships and sufferings. I even have to admit I could get angry at God when I see their desolation and pain, from infidelity, the death of a young child, sudden death, betrayal, rejection; the pain goes on and on.
Yet, when I kneel at Gethsemane and Calvary, through the powerful grace of being there, I remember. I recall and recount that He took on these sins, these sufferings. He knows rejection, betrayal, loss; in fact, He gave up everything – His very Self.
Calvary and Gethsemane represent to me the very purest love one can find – unconditional love never counts the cost; love gives. Love goes out to the other. He put a love into our hearts to be able to accept and bear our pain and sufferings. When life seems cold, desolate, hard, and hopeless, He models the way. His innocent self-offering redeems and transforms our sufferings, if we want to let Him in, if we let His love penetrate our hearts.
These thoughts stir my heart as I quietly pray with a handful of people who made the vigil at Mt. Calvary. They unite their hearts with Him, and around them tourists clamor with their cameras and eagerness to see the famous sites. Devout pilgrims make lines to venerate the place of Calvary – overwhelmed with emotion and eager to have their turn. Amidst this, the miracle of the love takes place each day at Mass. Jesus re-presents Himself in this sacrifice of the Passion and death, and feeds us so we can love and bear our pains and toils – following Him.
