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What else is one to read during Holy Week? #Catholic

Reading for the week.

Outstanding! Probably my favorite book by Pope Benedict, period. His close examination of the last hours of Jesus on Earth was profound and moving. I kept my Bible close by because there were so many scriptural references. Benedict changed the way I had been reading certain passages. Honestly, I can't even put into words how much I recommend this book. Loved it.

It is clear that Pilate prefers the nonviolent "fanatic" that he sees in Jesus. Yet the crowd and the Temple authorities have different categories.... They would like to see a different solution to the problem. Again and again, mankind will be faced with this same choice: to say yes to the God who works only through th power of truth and love, or to build on something tangible and concrete -- on violence.

Francis S. Collins says 'The language of God was revealed.' Indeed, in the magnificent mathematics of creation, which today we read in the human genetic code, we recognize the language of God. But unfortunately not the whole language. The functional truth about man has been discovered. But the truth about man himself - who he is, where he comes from, what he should do, what is right, wrong - this unfortunately cannot be read in the same way.

Jeremiah - against the blindness of the then dominant circles - prophesied the destruction of the Temple and Israel's exile. But he also spoke of a 'new covenant': punishment is not the last word; it leads to healing. In the same way Jesus prophesies the 'deserted house' and process to offer the New Covenant 'in his blood': ultimately it is a question of heading, not of destruction and rejection.

[In the Gospel of John, he] highlights the contradiction between the scrupulous attitude to regulations for cultic purity and the question of real inner purity: it simply does not occur to Jesus' accusers that impurity does not come from entering a Gentile house, but rather from the inner disposition of the heart.

About the Church of Jesus' Agony:

[Here is] one of the most dramatic moments in the mystery of our Savior: it was here that Jesus experienced that final loneliness, the whole anguish of the human condition. Here the abyss of sin & evil penetrated deep within his soul. Here he was to quake with foreboding of his imminent death. Here he was kissed by the betrayer...abandoned by all the disciples. Here he wrestled with his destiny for my sake.

In contrast to the cattle-trading & money-changing, Jesus brings his healing goodness. This is the true cleansing of the Temple. Jesus does not come as a destroyer. He does not come bearing the sword of the revolutionary. He comes with the gift of healing. He turns toward those who, because of their afflictions, have been driven to the margins of life and society. He reveals God as the one who loves and his power as the power of love.