HOLY WEEK

April 3, 2009

One of the most basic beliefs of Christian faith is that God is present in the world to save and sanctify it.  We believe not simply in God, but in God as he acts in our lives drawing us into deeper and deeper communion with him.

God's activity on our behalf is a continuing mystery and reality.  It is something happening now. So, when we gather for worship, we are not just harking back to the distant past, dreaming about events that happened far away and long ago.

Holy Week is the most important week of Christian worship during the year, and the Church has been preparing for this week throughout the five weeks of Lent, by prayer and works of charity and self‑sacrifice.

The week begins with Passion Sunday, also known as Palm Sunday.  On this day, the Church the world over takes blessed palm branches and celebrates Jesus' triumphal entry into his own city of Jerusalem to complete his work as our Savior: to suffer, to die, and to rise again.  He entered amidst shouts of an enthusiastic welcoming crowd.  They cried out, "Hosanna to the Son of David, the King of Israel.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord."

On this same day, the passion and death of the Lord Jesus is proclaimed, to remind us of how fickle and unfaithful our hearts can be, cheering "Hosanna!" one minute, and then "Crucify him!" the next.

The last three days of this week form a unified, three‑part celebration of Christ's victorious death and resurrection. First, on Holy Thursday, the Church celebrates the first Eucharistic Banquet, when Jesus gathered his Apostles around himself the night before he was to die, and for the first time gave them his own body to eat and his blood to drink, telling them and us, "Do this, in memory of me". Then he washed their feet as an example of the humble service we should give one another. By this simple gesture he powerfully showed us our need to be washed and to wash others.

On Good Friday, we focus on the Lord's passion and death for our salvation. The cross, the most powerful of all signs of Jesus' love for us, dominates this liturgy.

The culmination of the three-day celebration comes with the Easter Vigil on Saturday night.  The liturgy begins with the lighting of a new fire to celebrate Christ the light penetrating the darkness of sin and death by the blinding glory of his resurrection. The scriptural story of salvation is told, and new members are initiated into the Church through Baptism, Confirmation, and first Eucharist.

This is the climax of the Church's year of worship.  The ritual activities of this night capture the whole faith and meaning of the Church.  These are the central sacraments of the Church, the holy signs.  They are not mere reenactments of Jesus' last hours of his death, and of his resurrection. No, the liturgies of these days involve us in the most crucial actions of history, the most important deeds of which we as humans are capable.  In joining ourselves to the man Jesus Christ in his saving action, we enter into the mystery of the life of God, for Jesus was and is true God.

The Church's public worship enables us to open our minds and hearts to God. It enables us to allow God to take his rightful place at the center of our lives. In fact, Jesus Christ himself calls and gathers us, and he moves among the members of the gathered assembly as the Church's head and Lord.

Here is what the Second Vatican Council said about Christ's work of salvation:  "To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations.  He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister, but especially under the Eucharistic form of bread and wine.  He is present in his word, and in the prayer and song of the people.  Christ always associates the Church with himself in the truly great work of giving perfect praise to God and making his people holy. ... Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. Every liturgical celebration because it is an action of Christ the priest and of His body the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all the others.  No other action of the church can match its claim to efficacy, nor equal the degree of it...  In the earthly liturgy, by way of foretaste, we share in that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the holy city of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, and in which Christ is sitting at the right hand of God."

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 09-Jun-2010 10:44 sitemap