Passion and Holy Week

During the last two weeks of Great Lent our attention during the liturgy and also in our prayer life turns more and more to the Passion and Death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The services and practices of these two weeks speak to us strongly and help us to more fully participate in the Easter celebration that is to come.  We must participate in these liturgies to have the full experience of the joy of the Resurrection at Easter.

Beginning on Passion Sunday, two weeks before Easter, many of our parishes begin to cover the statues within the Church and some traditions do this even earlier.  This action reminds us of the loneliness and desolation that is going to come upon us in the upcoming Passion of Jesus.  In the gospel of this same Sunday, we hear on the lips of our Lord a prediction of His coming death, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)  This saying, while certainly a familiar part of the planting process for the people who heard it, would be recalled following the crucifixion, as a summary of what would be
accomplished through the death of Jesus.  In the death of the single grain, Jesus, many will then come to life.  While Jesus was still alive, He spread the message of love and peace only to those around Him, only to the immediate disciples and those He encountered, but because of His saving death upon the Cross, this message, and more importantly the gift of forgiveness, would begin to be spread around the world.

Jesus then goes on in the description of His death, “Now My soul is troubled.  And what should I say ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’  No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.  Father, glorify Your name.  Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’”  (John 12:27-28)  This voice again would remind those later that the death that Jesus would suffer, a death of shame and extreme pain upon the Cross, was not a failure as it might have seemed.  It was rather a death of victory.  It would be a victory since in the Resurrection Jesus would conquer all that the powers and authorities of the world could throw at Him and yet He beat them.  And finally Jesus tells those around Him and us, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.” (John 12:31-32)  Jesus’ approaching death would be an opportunity for all people to draw closer to Him and God, the Father.  It is in each of us who draw closer to Jesus and accepts His forgiveness won through the Cross, that God the Father, “glorifies again” the name of Jesus.

In the first reading of Passion Sunday, we also see that the covenant that would be enacted through the death of the Son of God is something that had been a part of the continuing plan of God for His people.  “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33, 34b)  Again we see here that a new covenant is made and the Jews knew that to enact a covenant there would need to be a sacrifice.  But this sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Cross, would be unlike any other.  Through this one sacrifice all people would be drawn to the Lord and their sins would be forgiven.

Passion Sunday prepares for the upcoming Holy Week that will follow the week after.  It begins with Palm Sunday. This Sunday is a day of contradictions. It is known as the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, but we know that He comes to die.  He rides into the city as its leader, but on a donkey, not the charger of the warrior.  Even in our liturgy, we sing ‘Hosanna’ in joy at the beginning of the service and then during Holy Mass we read the account of the Passion from the Gospel.  We are reminded through all of this that, though this aspect of the life of Jesus is a sad and tragic one, it will be one of ultimate joy.  Through His sorrowful death, the way to eternal life will be opened for us.

We then enter Holy Week proper and this too has its contradictions.  Through the Holy Days to come, our mood will fluctuate from joy to sorrow and back again.  On Holy Thursday, we commemorate the occasion of the Last Supper.  We feel here the joy of Jesus celebrating the release from bondage of the people of Israel.  And yet He will change the meaning of this Passover meal when He takes bread and wine and tells the gathered disciples, “This is My Body which is given for you,” and “This is the cup of My Blood, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant, which shall be shed for you and for many.”  We can rejoice here that we have received so great a gift from our Lord and Master.  And yet too we feel the sorrow of knowing that Jesus must go to His death to achieve this great sacrifice.  This sorrow is amplified when this service ends as the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the main altar in Church reminding us that on that Thursday evening, the passion of our Lord begins.  When He went out to the Mount of Olives, He was going out to His arrest and the beginning of His Passion.

On Good Friday, our grief is intensified once again.  During the liturgy of this day, the organ and any other musical instruments are silenced and the clergy are somber in their prayers.  The passion, now from the Gospel of John, is read.  A Cross of adoration is placed at the center of the Church, so that all attention may be focused upon it.  Often during Good Friday, our parishes will once again celebrate Stations of the Cross or Bitter Lamentations, but on this day these services take on even more profound thoughts realizing that this is the day upon which these events took place.

On Holy Saturday, our sorrow from Good Friday begins to lift, but it is not entirely gone.  Knowing the Easter day that is to come we begin to prepare for that great day.  A new fire is lit outside of the church building and brought into the Church proper.  All lights were extinguished on Good Friday and now it is time for the new light to enter.  This ceremony reminds us that Christ is the light of the world, especially now in His coming Resurrection.  The Paschal candle, which is lit with this new light, is blessed and the nails of incense affixed to it.  It is also inscribed with the current year.  This ceremony is done each year to remind us that the celebration of the Resurrection is ongoing within the Church.  The ceremony ends with the blessing of holy water and baptismal water.  Again on Good Friday, all of the older water was disposed of and again there is a renewal within the Church.  This day is a wonderful and traditional day to celebrate a baptism.  In the early Church, catechumens were baptized this day so that they could fully participate for the first time in the Holy Eucharist on the day of the Resurrection.  Even if there is no baptism to be held in a parish church, those present during the service will renew their baptismal vows as a reminder to participate in a full way on the Resurrection Day that is to come.

My dear brothers and sisters, as a bishop and priest in the Church, I often lament that there are only a few days out of the year when the Church is full.  I know that Easter Sunday is one of them.  While we are glad that many have come to share this special day, we also know that it means so much more with proper preparation.  I encourage you, be a full participant of the services of Holy Week leading up to Easter.  I know that those who work may not be able to attend them all but most parishes have services at times when many can participate.  I guarantee you that if you do, then the day of Resurrection, the day of the triumph of Jesus, will be even more full and joyful.  You will have walked the entire Passion with Jesus, and you can more fully enjoy and celebrate the day of His Resurrection.