To Golgotha

 Palm Sunday of the Passion of our Lord Year B - 28th March 2021

Gospel Mark 15 (abridged)

They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.

It was the third hour when they crucified him. The inscription giving the charge against him read: ‘The King of the Jews’. And they crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, ‘Aha! So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Then save yourself: come down from the cross!’ The chief priests and the scribes mocked him among themselves in the same way. Even those who were crucified with him taunted him. When the sixth hour came, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you deserted me?’ When some of those who stood by heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling on Elijah’. Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink saying, ‘Wait and see if Elijah will come to take him down’. But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, ‘In truth this man was a son of God’.

Reflection from St Beuno's Outreach

I settle myself, perhaps in front of a cross, and slowly read the passage.

Perhaps in my mind’s eye I place myself at Golgotha ... maybe as a follower of Jesus ... a persecutor ... a robber, or the Roman centurion? I watch what happens; I notice the place, the smells, the people; I sense the atmosphere. I listen to what they are saying and perhaps speak with one of them.

Can I accompany Jesus myself?

Knowing how much he experienced the mental agony of loneliness, rejection, physical suffering and death, how might I respond?

Maybe I ponder what caused the centurion to recognise Jesus as God’s son. How easy is it for me to declare my faith as he did?

I tell Jesus how I am feeling.

I listen to what he might be saying to me, or just sit quietly with him.

I ask Jesus for the grace of inner strength, to help me walk in his footsteps more closely in my own life. I close my prayer with the sign of the cross.

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