Pastor's Corner: Holy Week 2019

In the Roman Catholic faith we begin Holy Week on Psalm Sunday the Sunday before Easter. We are all invited to take full part in the celebration of the Lord’s Paschal Mystery with the following words:

“Dear brothers and sisters, since the beginning of Lent until now we have prepared our hearts by penance and charitable works.

Today we gather together to herald with the whole Church the beginning of the celebration of our Lords Paschal Mystery, that is to say his Passion and Resurrection.

For it was to accomplish this mystery that he entered his own city of Jerusalem.

Therefore, with all faith and devotion, let us commemorate the Lord’s entry into the city for our salvation, following in his footsteps, so that, being made by his grace partakers of the Cross, we may have a share also in his Resurrection and in his life.”

For us as Christians, this is the holiest week of the entire year. It is during this week that we come to recognize the great love God our Father has for us. Also during this week, we can see how fickle our human nature is. One day we are celebrating Jesus as savior and messiah and just a couple of days later we are calling for his arrest, torture and death. Then, a few days later, we are allowed to see the power that God holds over death by witnessing the resurrection. So, as we commemorate this Paschal Mystery, we are also called to “follow in his footsteps.” We are to be “partakers of the Cross so we may also share in his Resurrection and in his life.” What does it mean to “follow in his footsteps”? What does it mean to be “partakers of the Cross”? How do we “share in his resurrection?”

To “follow in his footsteps” is going to look a little different for each of us. As each of us grows in our relationship with Jesus we will come to recognize how we are to follow Jesus, which parts of our lives we have to let go to the cross and experience death, so that we might rise to new life filled with the hope that relationship with Jesus brings.

We also know that as we live our lives we experience loss and suffering; especially if we are willing to risk loving others. The loss and suffering that we experience could be looked at as comparable to the passion which Jesus experienced. We experience the same helplessness that Jesus did. We may or may not experience physical pain but we will experience the emotional sense of abandonment and wonder why God seems to have left us. While our individual suffering cannot redeem anyone else, it has the great potential to soften our hearts and open them to the grace and mercy of God and thus lead us to the redemption that Jesus offers us; thus it can be called Redemptive Suffering.

To participate in the celebrations of Holy Week it is important that we do not look at this week as something that we remember as happening to an individual long ago. We are to look at this Holy Week as happening now to and with each of us. It is a living event that holds as much (if not more) meaning for us now than it did 2000 years ago. As was announced in the invitation above we are “being made by his grace partakers of the Cross, we may have a share also in his Resurrection and in his life.”

Let us pray:

Loving God, as we celebrate this week your glorious entrance into Jerusalem, may you enter our minds and hearts as Messiah and King.

As we celebrate the Lord ’s Supper on Holy Thursday, may we recognize in you the servant King that we are called to become.

As we celebrate your Passion and death on Good Friday, help us to choose to accept the pain and suffering of this world as an opportunity to forgive and love more deeply and to die to ourselves.

As we celebrate your resurrection help us to rise to new life with you and with each person you place in our lives.

Loving God, we offer this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

——

Deacon Tim Maroney

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church