Last Sunday, which is commonly recognised as Palm or Passion Sunday, marked the beginning of unarguably the holiest week in the Christian calendar. It is considered holy not because of some super-spiritual feeling or nostalgia concerning a particular religious event, but because of the insistence on the power of sacrificial love that is wrapped up in it. It captures the best of what the human spirit is capable of in terms of the relevance of one’s concern for the other; the extent to which one is willing to put one’s life at risk in service to the welfare of the other person.

All of this sounds abstract in a world that is fast losing a sense of its moral underpinnings. It does not comport with a world obsessed with materialism and a rugged individualism that has no patience with the cares and concerns of others. Yet, the more we push the concept of sacrificial love to the periphery of human concern, and the more obsessed we become with rampant materialism and with our own needs, the more we confront the realities of life that all that glitters is not gold. That, as Jesus said to the devil as he rebuked him in his attempt to seduce him to fulfil his physical appetites, man shall not live by bread alone.

One does not have to be spiritual to know that there is more to life than the glitter we see around us. There can be no real meaning in life if it is just about satisfying the material appetites. There is a greater nobility in the human spirit that cries out for something better; a greater yearning for meaning and purpose which cannot be satisfied by the fleeting glitter of worldly goods. There has to be more to life than the fleeting pleasures in which we often indulge and which bring no lasting satisfaction to a soul devoid of empathy or regard for the other.

Often, as I listen to politicians talk about prosperity or making a nation great, I am moved to ask what are the moral or spiritual underpinnings that are necessary to make for a prosperous nation. Often the accent is on how macroeconomic targets can be met, how investments are to be enhanced, and how much at the end of the day people can have money jingling in their pockets. It is not necessarily the responsibility of politicians to provide a moral centre to economic reality, but creating a prosperous nation is essentially a people-centred activity. It takes into consideration people’s hopes and longings and one wonders to what extent one can make a people great if the concern is largely material or physical.

Is it any wonder then that the nation is being drained of its nobility? We are where we are with violence because we have lost the basic respect for the intrinsic worth and dignity of human life. We measure our relationships with people on the basis of what we can derive materially or sensually from them, not because we have an abiding respect for who they are as persons. At the heart of the sexual assault on our children is the primitive desire to satisfy the base instincts for pleasure. This primitive retreat to lustful indulgence ignores any damage that is being done to the victims’ psyche or any holistic future for them.

Lives can be snuffed out for less than a “Manley” ($1,000 bill) or a “Shearer” ($5,000 bill). This is done because what is seen is the money which does not even have any real value in terms of what the one contracted to kill can do with it. But the “contractor” is even more heartless than the “contractee”. Because he did not pull the trigger he feels no sense of remorse that a life he ordered snuffed out by exploiting the gullibility and poverty of another no longer exists. Such a person has no moral frame of reference, and he or she may even be a church board member or some other seemingly respectable person in society. Such a person may even partake at the Holy Communion.

This Holy Week the shadow of the cross falls on all our hypocrisies and pretences. The sacrificial love of the one who dies on it exposes our frail attempts at putting a blanket over our worst sins and fears. It exposes fragile egos that cannot stand up to self-scrutiny much less the scrutiny of others. Superficial spirituality, which masquerades as love for God, is exposed for what it is for under the shadow of the cross all falsehoods melt to nothingness.

My suspicion is that since Sunday there are not many people, Christians included, who may have spent time or will spend the rest of the week seeking to understand the deeper things of life for which the soul craves. Perhaps it is just another week filled with the routine of social media engagements, work commitments to pay the various taxes imposed by Government or simply to pay the bills and put food on the table. The physical aspects of life must be satisfied, and once this is done there is hardly any space left on one’s agenda for mundane spiritual preoccupations.

Yet, in our quieter moments we will not escape the urgings and promptings that come to each of our souls on Good Friday (yes, this coming Friday is Good Friday) that there is indeed some meaning to the day than just a day off from the office or the farm. Interestingly, it is the day that some people feel more compelled than any other day in the year to read their Bibles or watch a movie or documentary on the life of Jesus. The solemnity of the day is not missed, especially by the elders in the community who have had this experience emblazoned in their psyche since the days of Sunday or Sabbath school.

Holy Week awakens the yearning to transcend the mere physical presentation of one’s existence. In that search for transcendence we come face to face with the crucified Lord who is willing to be pushed out on the boundaries of human existence and to become obedient unto death, even death on a cross. If even a glimpse of the meaning of that sacrifice can be grasped, then the one who grasps it will find himself or herself in a better place. He or she would have transcended that narrow space where selfishness resides to that wider and more expansive experience where true joys are to be found in his or her love for others. Jamaica badly needs such a person.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest and social commentator. Send comments to the Observer orstead6655@aol.com.