Today begins the week that we call “holy.” All of us have a special obligation this week to reflect on the events through which our salvation was won for us by Jesus Christ.
Palm Sunday – This day should remind us that we are often no different than the crowds in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. At the beginning of the week, they gave Jesus a triumphant welcome as he entered the City, greeting him with cries of “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” At the end of the week, many of these same people would cry for his blood as Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate. “Crucify him! Crucify him!” When life is easy and our troubles few, we have no problem with singing the praise of Jesus even if our faith in him is superficial at best. But when life is hard, or when we face hostility as a result of our commitment to Christ and to his Gospel, we can suddenly find ourselves angrily rejecting Jesus and his ways because what he demands of us is more than we are prepared to give.
Holy Thursday – The heart of this celebration is the Last Supper of Jesus in which Jesus took bread and wine and transformed them, through the power of God’s Spirit, into his own body and blood. But we must also pay attention to the radical act of service that Jesus performed when he washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus feeds us with his body and blood so that we, too, can give of ourselves selflessly and generously in service to all as Jesus did. How generously have I served others?
Good Friday - God, in the person of Jesus, suffered and died for us. What a remarkable proclamation of faith! God loves us so much that God willingly died for us so that God could break the power of sin and death and open for us the way to salvation. Spend time before a crucifix on Good Friday and pray for the grace to appreciate the depth of God’s love for you as you are and the deep desire of God that one day you will live with God forever.
This week is only ‘holy’ if you make it such by your attentiveness to what we celebrate.