As Holy Week approaches, our Lent Series with Deacon Paul, Clearing the Clutter, concludes with a profound reflection from Dr Maeve Heaney VDMF. She shares the deep significance of this sacred time, emphasising the need to slow down, create space, and focus our prayers on Jesus as He journeys to His crucifixion. Dr Heaney also emphasises the importance of uniting with Jesus’ suffering, which can help us become more attuned to the pain of others. May we walk closely with Jesus this Holy Week and open our hearts fully to Him.
Transcript
Over the past five weeks we’ve heard from people across Centacare and the Archdiocesan services respond to insights and questions raised by the gospel and Jesus about how to clear the clutter for clarity, how we can prioritise what’s important not what society tells us is important. Today I’m joined by Sr Maeve Heaney at the oratory in the Holy Spirit Seminary. Maeve, as we approach Holy Week, what’s important to you about that week?
Thank you Paul, great question. For me, Holy Week is a time of internal and where possible external space, the main invitation that I feel is to slow down and make space to listen, and what I would call accompany. The main focus of my prayer tends to be the person of Jesus as he walks to His end and I have to say I feel as though the slowing down and the making space Jesus does that as well. Like He tends to speak less and act more. It’s as if He realises that He’s spoken, that people don’t understand Him, and they need to see His life in action rather than just His words. So He spends more time in prayer, He seeks to have moments with His own, with His own friends, He brings them with Him in the hope that they will understand. We see His struggles in prayer we see Him struggling with prayer, which I think is a real gift. We see the women who loved Him stay close and they live that as connection which I think is also another gift. So I think there’s so much to watch and learn from and accompany. And I understand in the process that Jesus’ invitation or attempt is to walk with His friends, to share His hopes, His dreams one of the most poignant gospel readings for me is the one where He says I call you friends, I don’t call you servants, I call you friends. So I think for me it’s about, how do I accompany this person? This man, the humanity of this man God, this walk to His end. And how can I stay as close as possible to Him?
So Maeve, how do you experience that?
Well, for me I think it’s for me it’s a life of prayer kind of thing, so I feel as though when we learn to listen to the suffering of Jesus in prayer, in the gospels, it also attunes you to listen to suffering elsewhere. Yesterday a friend of mine who I hadn’t heard from for ages actually at work called me and asked to chat and I realised it’s because she has cancer, she has chemotherapy, and she heard that I had it. So I think it attunes you to kind of the what’s going on beneath the surface, the spaces we don’t talk about. Because the body of Christ, like Jesus, yes, He went to His resurrection and we celebrate, we will celebrate the resurrection but the body of Christ is real and the suffering of Jesus in His members is real. Therefore, it’s a living thing, so learning to listen to Jesus in prayer attunes me, I feel, to listening to underneath the surface, what people might be living inside and really engaging then with the needs of the world and being drawn into those needs. Yeah, and the needs in the world as they manifest in the people next to us because sometimes we can look at the world, and the world is suffering let’s face it, it’s hard to watch the news these days. So to that, and to try and have hope in the midst of that disaster or those disasters but also yeah the people next to us who can look okay, but often aren’t.
In reality often aren’t. Well, I hope that you are able to engage in that Holy Week experience and to engage and walk and accompany Jesus and engage them with the needs of the people beside you, the needs in your own heart and discover yourself and others as beloved of God. Thanks again.