A World Upended
Tuesday in Holy Week
Reflection By Jan Kwiatkowski
We won! We Won! The world turned upside down.
- from the song Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down), from the musical Hamilton; music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
I love Hamilton and have lost count of how many times I’ve watched it on the Disney channel. I saw the play live when it came to Milwaukee, and my alarm ringtone is My Shot. I recall the scene from Hamilton where the Revolutionary war was won despite enormous odds. The world seemed as if it had turned upside down. Given that we’ve all experienced the COVID pandemic, we have a shared sense of what it’s like to have our world turned upside down and perhaps feel like we are in survival mode.
The world must have felt like it was turning upside down for the followers of Jesus as they witnessed the events we now call Holy Week. Everything they knew and believed in seemed to be coming apart at the seams. In my professional work and personal life experiences, I have seen that when our worlds seem to be turning upside down and we are in survival mode, loving compassion for ourselves and others is hard to come by. It’s also the time compassion and love are most needed.
I’m guessing that most of the people who walked that last week with Jesus felt they were in survival mode and that compassion for self and others was hard to come by. And yet, I see compassion in Simon of Cyrene, who helped carry the cross, the women of Jerusalem who wiped the face of Jesus, and in Jesus’ loving compassionate response to them. What might we learn from them or other Holy Week characters about extending compassion and love in a world turned upside down?
Making it Personal: Have there been times in your life when it’s been harder to practice compassion than at other times, and what made that so? Were there other events in the Holy Week story that speak to you about compassion? Who is someone this week (include yourself as a choice) who needs a gesture of compassion?