The Week of Love (for the weak of love)

Palm Sunday: 14 April 1946 (from Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and Therese of the Child Jesus)

Marcel: Little Jesus, I am very tired and I don't wish to write any more. And because of my extreme fatigue my hand is shaking a lot. Today, after returning from Mass, I had to go and work straight away; that is why I am very tired and have no further wish to write down Your words, little Jesus. Are You happy, nevertheless? I really would like to write but since I am too tired I can hardly hold my pen.

Jesus: Marcel, are you very tired? All right, that's enough, try to rest. I love you dearly little brother and I gladly allow you to rest. You will write again when you wish to do so However, although tired, do not be sad, agreed? Little brother, you are very sensitive; the slightest vexation causes you suffering. Offer all of it to Me. If you suffer in this way it is because of your weakness; do not trouble yourself about it since it does not offend me in any way. That's enough, take a rest. I am kissing you and I do not cease to hold you tightly in My arms, on Mary's bosom.

*   *   *

Jesus is full of surprises, or as He expressed it through the prophet Isaiah in the very words we heard last Sunday at Holy Mass (Isaiah 43: 18-19):

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing something new;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

His chosen apostles, prepared by the acclaim that greeted Him as they entered into Jerusalem on this day about 2000 years ago, surely did not expect - despite His predictions and warnings - that soon He would be tortured, crucified and then would die in order to save us and bring us into His true Kingdom, that of His own eternal life in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity.

But so too, I surely didn't expect, when I picked up Marcel's book this morning, to have the very reading I was looking for (that of Palm Sunday) fall open in my lap . . . and I was even more surprised to find what Marcel and Jesus had to say to each other. Not too surprising that I had forgotten this day's conversation, but I am mightily touched by the gentleness with which Jesus, not at all concerned to draw Marcel into a deep meditation on His Passion as Holy Week begins, instead reassures our little brother - and us through him - with exactly the words we need to hear.

I have reached the end of my major treatments for cancer, and I am so grateful for all the prayers! Thank you! The radiation oncologist and her wonderful staff (nurse and techs and even another terrific radiation oncologist I got to see) let me know I might feel fatigue this week, but praise God it is mild. Mostly, I'm feeling like Marcel does (not surprising, since I am Miss Marcel; or rather I am Miss Marcel because this coincidence of feelings happens often), namely weak. Not primarily weak in body, but weak in spirit, weak in love. 

I don't find myself in a hurry for Holy Week and Easter . . . and yet, again as happens so often, Jesus is there in Marcel's transcriptions, reassuring me with exactly the right words. If we're feeling tired because we didn't get enough sleep because we stayed up a little too late or woke too early or worked hard or simply because we are little ones and could always use more sleep, or even if we're well rested but a little hesitant about entering this Week of weeks . . . no matter what ails us, Jesus is here for us. He suffered so He could be with us who are already suffering, or would be, or will be or have been. It wasn't about making us suffer more, but joining us in this inevitable mess that has ensued from those early days of Adam and Eve. He's come down into the muck to join us, and so He reassures us that He loves us, and He uses whatever words He knows we will hear and understand.

A friend told me recently that her spiritual reading had been leaving her anxious. I've been in that situation, and sometimes just about all spiritual reading leaves me anxious because the anxiety I'm feeling when I begin my search for His words to me is just too great to be alleviated by the first words I find. Or the second or third!

In those times, even Marcel's words, even Jesus' words to us through Marcel can rub us the wrong way. That's when we depend on the Holy Spirit to take us to the unfailing words of Love, the words of the Song of Songs or those Jesus spoke to us on the night before He died (I go to John's gospel, chapters 14 to 17), and we find what we've been needing to assuage our pain, our unrest, our anxiety and vexation: our Good Shepherd, Him whose voice we know, calling us to His arms, lifting us to His bosom, reminding us that He will do the heavy lifting - even lifting us! - and our job is simply to rest in Him and let Him.

I was relieved and consoled that the Holy Spirit led me to exactly what we needed today so I could share the Father's Word with you:

"Offer all of it to Me. If you suffer in this way it is because of your weakness; do not trouble yourself about it since it does not offend me in any way. That's enough, take a rest. I am kissing you and I do not cease to hold you tightly in My arms, on Mary's bosom."

You are in my prayers this Holy Week. Thank you for loving Jesus! Now let's let Him love us.

Draw me; we will run!