It’s Holy Week. And by complete happenstance, a meme about fear showed up in my feed.

When we get into the thick of Holy Week, I think hard about Jesus. He was a human, and He knew what was going to happen to Him. He saw the trajectory He was on, and he was afraid. The human man asked his Father to not make him submit to being beaten and killed; the Divine knew he was going to have to do it. 

During this brutal journey to the cross, JC was accompanied by his friends. He told them what was coming, but they couldn’t understand it in the language he was using. They thought he was being metaphorical. He wasn’t. Still, it all seemed so incredible that his friends were quite sure that it would play out differently.  His friends weren’t able to hear how afraid he was of facing his fate. JC had to do it afraid. 

In the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to listen harder to the people I love. There is a difference between asking “How are you” and asking “Are you OK?” One friend was able to say, “No, I’m not”.  And from there, I can try to support her. If I can’t take away what she’s facing, I can at least sit with her while she works through it.

During Lent, may I be a better companion when I’m invited to share someone’s journey. This Lent, may I have courage in the face of my own fears.