STOP!

There are STOP signs everywhere.

Bloody red stop signs.

Stop to see them this week - Holy Week.

Stop! See that guy over there – the guy with the reddish grey beard – yes him, the medium size guy wearing the tan robe - with the palm branch in his hand – praising Jesus with loud Hosannas today. I don’t know if he’s going to be wearing the same tan robe next Friday – but he’s going to be in the crowd screaming, “Crucify him. Crucify him.”

Stop! Realize people can switch so quickly. You have to dig to get depth.

Stop! See Judas this week – realizing ahead of the rest – that it’s all over. "That’s it. Jesus has been warning us – why he came to Jerusalem for the Passover – and we wouldn’t hear any of this kind of stuff from him." See Judas wanting to get something out of the whole mess – his whole investment of dream and time. So he sells Jesus out. He betrays him for 30 pieces of silver – and he bags the money.

Stop! See Jesus wanting to celebrate this last Passover Meal with his disciples – and he knows of a well furnished upper room. Unlike at his birth, there was room – even though the city was crowded – packed for the Passover – with the sound of thousands of Pascal Lambs being slaughtered and sold for silver coins for the feast. At that Sacred Meal Jesus washes his disciples feet. He feeds them with bread and wine. He speaks powerful words of love – that are still available for our digestion 2000 years later.

Stop! This week read the last sections of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – especially John.

Stop! Hear Jesus at the meal also talk about betrayal and denial. Judas turns red blood blush when Jesus says the one who is about to betray me is the one who dips his bread in the red sauce on the table. At this Judas has to rush out into the night. He feels caught, trapped red handed. And Peter – big mouth Peter – pounding his fisherman’s fist on the Last Supper table – announces, “Even if everyone leaves you Jesus, I won’t!” And Jesus says, ‘Before the cock crows three times, you will have denied me three times Peter!” And that’s what Peter does: “I deny….” “I deny….” “I deny….”

Stop! See the scene in the garden that night. See the disciples unable to stay awake with Jesus even for an hour – that night when Jesus almost despairs – when he feels so all alone – without God, our Father, without friends.

Stop! See the kiss by Judas – the arrest – the disciples panic and running to escape and save their skins. See Jesus dragged, ridiculed, laughed at, spat at, beaten and crowned with thorns.

Stop! See the contrasts: good and evil, light and dark, sin and grace, Friday and Sunday, death and resurrection. See the contrasts between Pilate and Herod – dealing with what to do with Jesus – and how they are concerned with the crowd. See the contrast between Peter and Judas. One commits suicide – because he can’t stand himself; the other discovers himself anew through forgiveness.

Stop! See the trial and the contrast in the bizarre contest created by Pilate to choose Jesus or Barabbas. See Jesus being dragged to Calvary.

Stop! Study the faces. Station yourself in a church. Sit and study so many faces on the wall in the Stations of the Cross in every Catholic church in the world. Stop! See the contrast between the two thieves crucified next to Jesus in the twelfth station.

Stop! Hear Jesus' Seven Last Words.

Stop! See Jesus die.

Stop! The cross is a STOP sign.

Stop! You know Jesus will rise – but pause before all that and sort out your thoughts – where you fit into the story – where you fit into the crowd. Would you have climbed the hill that day? Would you take that risk? Few did. Mary did. The Beloved Disciple did.

Stop! Would I?

Stop! This is the week to stop and see. This is the week to stop and hear. This is the week to stop and learn – and then start again – next week, next Sunday, Easter Sunday with the Risen Christ. Alleluia. Alleluia.