Easter Retreat Day 1: Passion Sunday: “This is how much God loves me. But am I worth all these love?”

Read: Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66

Whenever a woman or a man encounters the unconditional love of God, She or he is struck dumb or enveloped by silence. No words, no matter how refined, can express adequately the kind of Love that God has for us. That was the reason why the Word had to become flesh and dwell among us. For there is no other way we could have ever believed that God could love us that much.

In the passion narrative of Jesus, we see the profound love of the Father for us. This is a love that asks of nothing for itself and gives away everything. Why would God love us this much? Let us allow this unimaginable expression of God’s love to sink within our hearts. Holy week is about this kind of love.

What would God not do for us? What would God not sacrifice for us? He can even stop the world just to recover us. God is investing God’s everything, His son, in us without asking for any collateral even when He knows that we may not be faithful. During this Holy week, the question of Jesus is very important: “Are you still sleeping?” Let us be awake and be aware of God’s unfathomable love for us.

So, my dear friends, today, the battle for our heart begins and the Lord wages this war against the demons and sins that reside in our heart. In Holy Week, the Lord breaks open all the prisons of our heart, and He calls forth from our graves all our beauties, hopes and dreams, that sin had killed, to the light of the resurrection. So let us fight this battle with Him; let us reclaim our humanity, and let us restore in our hearts everything that sin had destroyed. The Lord pays the ultimate price, his very life, to win our hearts over to God.

I will encourage us to stay with these questions during this holy week: Am worth all these? Do I feel this loved by God? Do I live as if God’s sacrifices for me never happened? Enter into the areas of your life where you feel helpless and powerless and conquered by habits or sin, and allow the Lord to win the battle in that area of your life. Let us do this today, because today, the Lord marches into the Jerusalem of our lives.