There is an old gypsy song  which they sing in Andalucia in southern Spain. It goes: ‘who will lend me a ladder,  so that I can climb up to the cross,  and remove the nails from the hands of Jesus on the cross’. When we see Jesus suffering so much,  when se see him dying like this, someone who has given so much love in his life,  our hearts are full of sadness, empathy and grief.  It would not surprise us if one of us would like to climb up to the cross and  and remove the nails and the crown of thorns. But Jesus did not have to stay on the cross,  he could have come down,  he stayed there because he loves us,  he does not ask us to take him down from the cross,  but to accompany him,  to stay with him,  to look into his eyes and listen to his voice;  and to say: ‘Jesus I know why you are there’.  We are starting Holy Week, the most important week of the year for us Christians. It is a week when we journey with Jesus, through those final days of his lfe, his passion, his death and his resurrection. For this journey,  we don’t need a suitcase, we don’t need a passport,  we don’t need an aeroplane.  He invites us to accompany him to Jerusalem, where one of his friends, Judas, would betray him. He invites us to go with him to the supper room, where he would kneel and wash the feet of his apostles,  and celebrate the first mass,  he invites us to accompany him to calvary where he would die for us on the cross,  and to the tomb from where he would rise from the dead. We can be as close to Jesus as Mary Magdalene,  as close to Jesus as John the Apostle when he stood under the cross;  we can stand beside Mary,  and accompany her in her sorrow and grief.  We can tell her we will never leave her.  We can contemplate the face of Jesus and listen to his last words.  This has been a very difficult and challenging year for all of us, and our struggles continue. Once again as a Christian community  we cannot gather together for our religious services. This will not prevent us from uniting spiritually to Jesus and taking time to pray, to reflect and to make this Holy Week a truly enriching experience of the presence of God in our lives.  At the same time, let us try to be as patient, kind and forgiving,  with our family and those around us.  This will be the sign that we have accompanied Jesus in his Passion in Holy Week.