Holy Week Helps

During Holy Week we are reminded of what we are commemorating, the very love that Christ has for us, the great love of God who was so good to us that he experienced a cruel death out of love for each and every one of us. The Gospel of the Passion tells us what it is that the Lord suffered for us during these great events and how they affected us as Christians to this day. So we see the Last Supper. We see Good Friday and the death of the Lord on the cross. And ultimately, once the stone is rolled across the tomb, we await the Resurrection.

And so we see two Passovers. Remember the Passover that the Jews were to celebrate at the time of these Passion events. Why was everyone going to Jerusalem? It was to prepare for this great feast where the Jewish people commemorated the Passover by slaughtering the Passover Lamb. Remember the first Passover? The angel of death passed over the homes where the blood of that lamb marked the lintel of the home and the first born was saved. From that event, the people of Israel exited Egypt, exited their slavery through the Red Sea to go to the Promised Land. That was the first Passover.

The Gospel of the Passion discusses a second Passover. At this Passover so many years later we see a new lamb, the Lamb of God, that unblemished lamb whose sacrifice we partake of, who has washed us in his blood. Once the blood of that Lamb enters our souls, we also will be saved. Not only will the firstborn be saved, the firstborn of God, the people of Israel, but now all people can be saved, all people who partake of the lamb have that ability. We the Gentiles can be saved because we been marked with the blood of that Lamb, the blood of Christ who died for us.

During Holy Week, we enter into these great mysteries just as the Jews did. They did not merely remember these past events but they also entered into them as something that is still happening in their lives and we do the same. The sacred rites that we celebrate this week are outward signs of a reality that we continually partake in. We continually partake in Holy Thursday when we participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We continually partake of Good Friday when we receive the Eucharist. We are  washed in the Blood of Christ in the confessional. We continually partake of the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord every time we come to Mass. This is not just a past event. It is an event that should have an effect on us every day. So this week is set aside as holy, to be holy, and we should make this week holy for ourselves.

 Make this week a remembrance of Christ’s Passion. Do things differently. Allow Christ to enter your normal schedule, to interrupt your normal life so that you might pray more, have more time for quiet. Turn off the TV. Silence the phone. Just think. What if you did not listen to a single ounce of news this week? No newspaper. No CNN. You wouldn’t need any more Prozac! But, too, you will be recognizing that there are many events that happen throughout the world, but none of them are more important than the event of Christ’s Passion, death and resurrection. Let us make that truth a priority this week. Make it a priority to enter into this Holy Week with more silence, more prayer, more introspection, more church. Why? Because we need this. We need this intense week of holiness to remind us for the rest of the year that the sacrifice of Christ is more important than anything else in the world. If Christ did not die for you, your life would be nothing. Death would still have power over you. If Christ did not die for you, you would not have grace. If Christ did not die for you, you would not have heaven. If Christ did not die for you, you would be worthless. But because Christ died for you, you have grace in this world, and you have heaven in the next world. Your nature has been exalted above even that of the Angels. Why? Because Christ died for you. Let us show him how much we love him by our actions this Holy Week.

--Father Jacob Meyer,Visitor, Confraternity of Penitents