When we go to Mass, we do not go only to pray, no: we go to renew, to bring about again, this mystery, the Paschal mystery.

It has been almost 20 years since I left New Orleans to join the Jesuits, and there are few things I miss more than Holy Week at my home parish.

The Crucifixion is not just an image of God’s love, but a mirror reflecting our sin back to us, saying, this is the evil you’re capable of.

Remember the jar of expensive, perfumed oil that Mary pours on Jesus’ feet. We know Mary, Martha and Lazarus weren’t rich, and this oil was expensive. They would have been saving it for a special occasion.

The dispossession Christ experienced in his crucifixion is an act of solidarity with the dispossessed of the world.

As part of that small number of parishioners able to take the Eucharist, I felt that holy burden to be present in the Presence for those who could not be there.