Week of Pain
The Week of Pain is a spring of deep spiritual contemplations, for what it carries of reflections, in which the final chapter of the story of salvation and redemption is concentrated..
It is a week dedicated to worship.
We have no work in it except prayer, hymns, listening to the readings of the Scripture and the contemplations of the saints, focusing all thought on the sufferings of Christ for our sake.
And the sufferings of Christ are—in their origin—our sufferings, which He bore on our behalf.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.”
“He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4–6)
If He has borne our sufferings, shall we not share with Him in His sufferings?!
The sensitive soul must enter into the “fellowship of Christ’s sufferings,” and cannot tolerate negligence during the Week of Pain.
And we thank God, as He has granted us the Week of Pain for our spiritual benefit.
For pain has its deep effectiveness in the soul, and it has its spiritual impact.
The more we distance ourselves from pleasure and delight, and the more we enter into the seriousness of life, and the more we live in pain—tasting it, contemplating it, and experiencing its effectiveness within us…
Then our spirits are elevated, and rise above the level of the earth, and above the level of matter and sin… and we enter into the depth…
Therefore: “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” (Philippians 1:29)
Thus, pain is a gift from God…
How beneficial it is for us, if we use it well. And the most beautiful thing in sufferings is contemplating the Cross of our Lord Christ…
Contemplating the sacrifice of love and بذل…
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
And the sufferings of Christ were not only in His crucifixion, for His entire life on earth was suffering…
He lived: “a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
And He saw in His sufferings joy for His heart, and we saw in them salvation for our souls and liberation.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Kiraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Fourteen) 8-4-1977
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