Holy Week 101

Sorry about the tardiness of this post… the week went by in a whirlwind…

This Sunday we begin the most sacred liturgical time of the Church: Holy Week. We begin with Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as we rejoice in His presence and hail Him King and Messiah, Hosanna in the highest! But as the liturgy of Passion Sunday intimates, we quickly turn from cheers to jeers, as this joy sours into hatred and Christ’s Passion.

Nonetheless, these are holy days, as “the Church celebrates the mysteries of salvation accomplished by Christ in the last days of his life on earth” (no. 27), and these “days of Holy Week, from Monday to Thursday inclusive, have precedence over all other celebrations” (no. 28).

Passion Sunday (or Palm Sunday) shows vividly the contrast of the crowds, but also the connection between Jesus’ mission to save the world, His true Kingship and the Passion that He must undergo for the salvation of the world. This, in a way, sets the tone for the Paschal Triduum (triduum is Latin for ‘three days’).

“This time is called ‘the triduum of the crucified, buried and risen’; it is also called the ‘Easter Triduum’ because during it is celebrated the paschal mystery, that is, the passing of the Lord from this world to his Father. The Church, by the celebration of this mystery through liturgical signs and sacramentals, is united to Christ, her spouse, in intimate communion” (no. 38).

The Triduum begins with the Holy Thursday Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, when we recall Christ’s institution of the Eucharist, the Priesthood, and the great mandatum (command) to love one another as He has loved us. This joyful moment then leads us into the Garden of Gethsemane to watch and pray with the Lord as He anticipates His Passion with fervent prayer.

In this same moment, as the Lord is arrested, we return to penance and begin the sacred fast and abstinence of Good Friday, “because the Spouse has been taken away” (see Mk 2:19-20). (For this same reason, after Mass on Thursday, the altar is stripped bare, and Mass cannot be celebrated again until the Vigil.) We are highly encouraged, if possible, to continue this fast and abstinence into Holy Saturday, “so that the Church, with uplifted and welcoming heart, be ready to celebrate the joys of the Sunday of the Resurrection” (no. 39).

On Good Friday, “when ‘Christ our passover was sacrificed’ (1 Cor 5:7), the Church meditates on the Passion of her Lord and Spouse, adores the Cross, commemorates her origin from the side of Christ asleep on the cross, and intercedes for the salvation of the whole world” (no. 58). This is perhaps the most sombre Liturgy of the Church, as we reflect on the brutality of our sins and the love and mercy of God.

Silence, stillness, sorrow for sin, and gratitude to God are key elements of this Liturgy. These lead us to adore the Cross as an act of worship offered to Christ for His loving sacrifice. It is the only time we genuflect to something other than the Eucharist.

After the Liturgy, the altar is once again stripped bare; only the Cross remaining, with four candles, so that we might contemplate the mystery of the depth of Christ’s love for us (see Rom 5:8). The Cross is bloodied; Christ is dead; the temple is empty, the Tabernacle deserted… “On Holy Saturday, the Church is, as it were, at the Lord’s tomb, meditating on his passion and death and on his descent into hell, awaiting his resurrection with prayer and fasting” (no. 73). We will not rejoice or celebrate again until the following night, when we gather for the Vigil.

The excerpts cited above are taken from Paschale Solemnitatis, the instruction on the preparation and celebration of the Easter feasts issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (1988).

Homily – Palm Sunday

Mt 21:1-11

Is 50:4-7

Ps 22         R. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Phil 2:6-11

Mt 26:14-27:66

 

Entry into Jerusalem, by Bl. Fra Angelico

My brothers and sisters, with this Mass today we enter into Holy Week, the most solemn week of the year, as we journey with Christ in His Passion and remember God’s great love for us. In these next days we’re going to relive the last moments of the life of Jesus through the various liturgies that will take place, and I encourage you to really enter into these events with prayer and reflection so as to encounter the drama of this week in a deeper way.

I use the word ‘drama’ here not in the sense of theatre, but in the sense of the emotions that we experience at the unexpected events of Christ’s Passion. You see, we began Mass today with Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, when He was joyfully greeted with cheers and waving of branches: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! (Mt 21:9).

The pilgrim crowds who followed Jesus from the countryside were essentially proclaiming Him King. The whole scene is filled with strong Messianic symbols for Israel: the king had the right to borrow without permission someone else’s donkey for his own use; Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was reminiscent of Solomon’s riding to Gihon on a donkey to be anointed king (cf. 1 Kg 1:32-48); and the Prophet Zechariah had prophesied, Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zec 9:9).

But by the time we got to the usual place of the Gospel, we heard nothing of joy, but only anger and jeering: Let him be crucified! Let him be crucified! (Mt 27:22, 23). The residents of Jerusalem — who were not the same crowds who greeted Him earlier — didn’t know Jesus, so they refused to acclaim Him; they rejected Him.

My brothers and sisters, the drama of today’s Mass is a microcosm of the whole of Holy Week, as begin today with joyful hosannas and end on Friday with the gruesome Cross. But is this drama not also a microcosm of our own lives?

How easily we often turn away from God when we don’t take the time to know and recognise Him, when we don’t take the time to pray! The drama of this day — indeed of the whole week — reveals to us the ugliness of sin, which brings about only death.

But more than that, the drama of these events reveals God’s tremendous love, the Love that urged Jesus to carry His Cross and offer His life for us! And so our journey with Jesus in this Holy Week is meant not only to help us grow in our sorrow for sin, but also in our love for God and in our joy for the gift of His love.

Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, humbled Himself and willingly accepted His Passion and embraced the Cross for love of us. May we, in turn, enter into His Passion and embrace the Cross for love of Him. Amen.