As I write this, I am now on the seventh sojourn of my life as a solitary pilgrim. I began this life after retirement when homelessness was imminent and that’s when I decided to embrace uncertainty. Embrace what is yet to come. Embrace what you don’t know. Embrace life as it comes. And that’s when I thought of volunteering for food and a place to lay my head. And it has been a most meaningful life of retirement one could ever live. A life in solidarity with the poor and marginalized is a life that is so much worth living for. A life of freedom and a life that gives the best lessons on humility. (As you age, you need more help from people, right?)

Today’s Gospel reading is taken from an extended narrative, a farewell discourse by Jesus before His arrest (John 13-17). And thanks to the Gospel writer (s) for including this poignant and comprehensive account of the last hours of our Lord before leaving the then-frightened disciples of His.

I have been away from everything familiar to me for the last seven weeks living in Antigua, Guatemala. I am learning Spanish at a language school and living with a Guatemalan family. Like a child, I am trying to learn the basics of this language. It is humbling to be told so many times that I am not getting it right and that I have to exert more effort. Walking the streets of this old Guatemalan city was a joy in the beginning but after some time reality sinks in that I am far from home. Familiar it may be after so many weeks, there is that lonely thought that I am alone and away from home.

The atmosphere of fear and doubt prevailed among the disciples. Some of the disciples at the moment have not seen Jesus after rising from the dead. They continued to be in hiding after Jesus’ brutal death on the cross in fear of being caught and put on trial as one of those who followed Jesus, whom the authorities have called a blasphemer.

Contemplate the metaphor of yeast and unleavened bread, inviting us to examine the presence of malice and wickedness in our own lives. What old ways of thinking and being, and how might we clear out the old yeast of oppressive colonial ideologies, embracing the sincerity, truth instead, and love of our kapwa-tao that lead to freedom and unconditional love of neighbor?

By this time, we, Christians are in meditation as we enter the last week before the Palm Sunday. It is the fifth Sunday of Lent and we begin to anticipate Jesus’ passion and death, before finally, getting to the promise of resurrection. In some traditions, it is called ‘Passion Sunday’ as it marks the final two weeks which ends on Holy Saturday.

The season of Lent invites us to commemorate Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. In this holy season, we are called to reflect on Christ, who was beaten by Roman soldiers, humiliated, stripped naked, wounded, hung on a cross, and suffered until death.