I find it hard to believe that Holy Week is almost upon us. Yet, if we feel Lent has passed us by way too fast, we still have time for prayer and reflection. I invite all of us to use next week as a time of retreat, where in the course of eight days, we can take time out to reflect on the living, dying, and rising of Jesus Christ and its intimate meaning for our own lives. The liturgies of Holy Week direct you and me to enter into a sacred time of walking and praying with Jesus in a way reminiscent of his own disciples as they accompanied him to the various stations of his Passover from death to life.
On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was welcomed so readily into Jerusalem, as portrayed in Season 5, Episode 1 of “The Chosen.” Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 and mentioned in Matthew’s Gospel. The episode captures the excitement of the crowds who greet Jesus with shouts of praise, laying down cloaks and palm branches, recognizing him as the “King who comes in the name of the Lord.” This portrayal highlights the contrast between the people’s hopes for a political savior and the spiritual mission of Jesus, but both ending in the need for “one to die for the people” (see Jn 11:50). Imagine what these events have to say to us and our world in the present moment!
It should not be lost on us that as Jesus was making his entry into one end of town, the Roman procurator and his soldiers were arriving through another gate to be in Jerusalem for the Passover feast, so there would be no trouble. As the evangelist Matthew notes: “And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken and asked, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds replied, ‘This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee’” (Mt. 21:10-11). Yet the question of the week will revolve around what this means to those who encounter him and for the world in general.
Our own pondering of what the next day will bring in our lives helps us to relate even more to Jesus’ disciples and friends as they journeyed with Him to the table, to the cross, and to the tomb. A commentary I read a few years ago on Creighton University’s Daily Prayer This Week noted: “This is the week we call ‘Holy’ because it is a memorial of God’s saving deeds for us in Jesus. There is a solemn nature to this week. We might be tempted to be sad or conflicted this week. It is not easy to get close to the reality that we are sinners, and our Lord and Savior went through this betrayal, suffering, and death for us. So, sometimes, we avoid looking at this week closely and praying with it, because we fear getting into our guilt. The invitation this week is to come closer to the reality of God’s profound love for us. Yes, we are all sinners. But we are loved sinners. We are being invited to be grateful, not to beat our breasts. We are invited, in this spirit to feel all that we can feel this week. Yes, we will feel some discomfort — after all, we feel discomfort when anyone puts themselves through some sacrifice for us. And, the sacrifice here is the gift of his very self — so that we might always know how completely Jesus entered into the reality of our human existence — ‘even death, death on a cross.’ [Phil. 2:6-9] Taken from the “Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer” on the Creighton University’s Online Ministries web site:
http://www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html Used with permission.
A line in this reflection that has significance for me is that, “We are invited, in this spirit, to feel all that we can feel this week.” During a time of retreat, one is invited to step back and take it all in and not just go through the motions. Think about how different Holy Week could be for you and me if we did this consciously for a period of time each day of Holy Week. Didn’t Jesus ask His disciples if they could spend an hour with Him watching and praying (see Mt 26:36-46)? Just taking a portion of the Passion Narrative of St. Matthew each day and reflectively reading it and sitting with it can help a person connect with Jesus evermore!
What you and I celebrate at Easter is not simply new life won for us, but new life one for us at a cost! In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, St. Paul declares: “Do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.”
This is the invitation we are being given as we are called to enter into Christ’s Passover feast. When the Jewish people celebrate Passover, it is not simply calling to mind a historical event in their history. Rather, they hold that they are partaking once again in that Exodus journey where they, too, are called to enter into this journey of covenant and deliverance. The same is to be said of you and me as we enter into Christ’s Passover sacrifice as the Lamb of God. Next week is not just a week of commemoration for Jews or Christians, instead the People of God are bidden to become who they truly are in God’s eyes! And the place it begins is in our homes, around our tables, where we are invited to read and share the sacred stories, allow them to mark who we are, and to cast out the darkness of the night!
I always wondered what the “house” church meant in the early days of Christianity and I am discovering anew how it was to be the building block of the early Christian communities. A moment where, from our prayer behind closed doors, bursts forth a renewed desire for the Sacraments and for keeping holy the Lord’s Day. A moment of introspection where we acknowledge where we have strayed from the Lord and His Word and seek to be reconciled with Him and His Way/His Church. A moment of sending forth of disciples into the world to make known the Good News of Jesus Christ, not only in proclaiming His message, but even more importantly, the way you and I live.
Each day this coming Holy Week, I invite you to join me in prayer and at liturgical celebrations as we come to know once again the meaning of the living, dying, and rising of Jesus Christ for us and for our world. I truly invite you in this moment to let our Crucified and Risen Savior into your hearts and into your lives. Jesus saves, brothers and sisters, that is the ultimate meaning of this week, as it was of Jesus’ life. And as the American spiritual sings out: “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives.”
A blessed Holy Week to all! May it truly be a time of retreat with the Lord, which helps us to face the tomorrows of our lives and gives us the opportunity to accompany one another in prayer.
