The Repentance Experience was a great retreat which allowed the participants to experience how the early Christians celebrated the Easter Triduum in the catacombs. As participants, we reflected on how the disciples of Christ felt when Jesus was crucified and their thought process after His death.

We were brought into the columbarium (catacombs) after Maundy Thursday Mass and we started with an opening prayer. During the opening prayer, a facilitator read the participants’ names out loud and asked each participant to be not afraid. After my name was called, Father Terence, prompted by the Holy Spirit, called my name again and said ‘Anand, your mind is clear but your heart is burdened’. This was really impactful as it was only after he said that did I realise that I have always known Jesus as my saviour, my friend, and my brother, but all these were just in my head. However, my heart was very far away from accepting these truths. It was a wake up call for me to know and experience Jesus personally.

On the last day of the retreat, I had a very personal experience with Jesus when I embraced the crucifix. This happened during a session where we hugged the crucifix and reflected on the passion of Christ. When the facilitator gave me the crucifix to hug, I felt very guilty and started to thank Jesus for dying on the cross for me and apologised profusely. Suddenly, something in me prompted me to stop thanking and apologising. I sensed that He loves me very much and even if He needed to be crucified again, He would not hesitate.

This made me realise that He is not just my Saviour and friend, but also my brother who loves me immensely and nothing can separate me from His love. At that moment, I felt my heart opening up to His love.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

– Romans 8: 38-39

By Anand Putti