HOLY WEEK

From the time I started school until I graduated, Holy Week was a big deal.  It meant going to church a lot.  There were many rituals connected to each of the three days, which today we call The Triduum.  I remember the incense, the extra candles, the flowers around the Holy Thursday altar.  We used to go and visit other churches and each one seemed to out-decorate the one before it.  Good Friday meant absolute silence and fasting from Noon to 3PM.  That is one custom I have kept even though the Church itself has pretty much abandoned it. 

It wasn’t until my children were teens and we had no transportation to church for the services that I began to research all the meaning behind the ritual.  From there I began to actually work in the Church and participate in the preparation and execution of those same events.  It was then I began to have a true understanding of the awesome drama that unfolded and how the Church has created ritual to dramatize these powerful events. 

In the weeks prior to Holy Week, we read how Jesus was preparing his disciples for the inevitable events that were to come.  Even though they were afraid, they did not abandon Him but made their way to Jerusalem with Him.  Palm Sunday finds them in the midst of tumultuous welcome. They must have felt so relieved. They did not understand that by Friday they wouldn’t have a friend in the world. 

Holy Thursday is ironically a day of celebration.  It celebrates the institution of the Eucharist, which is the foundation of our faith life.  At the very end of the service, though, the church recreates the desolation of the Agony in the Garden and the Arrest of Jesus by stripping the altar bare and removing the Blessed Sacrament from the tabernacle.  All this is to turn our hearts to the dreadful events to come; the fear of the Apostles, the scourging of our Blessed Lord and the traitorous behavior of Judas. 

Good Friday, which some would say is the Original Black Friday, is called thus because it once meant ‘holy’ and since the day leads to the Resurrection it has not been altered.  In our world, however, there is little or no recognition or commemoration of the day so it presents a challenge to Christians to observe the day quietly and in their own way.  I worked in a store once and asked the management to turn the music off during those hours.  They complied and many workers thanked me for helping them observe the day and still do their jobs. 

Whatever your situation is, there are ways to observe these days and think on the meaning of them.  Christ, our beloved, is subjected to worst the world has to offer.

Our prayers and readings and thoughts will bring us closer to Him.  Recognizing the reality of the events of Holy Week is essential to our understanding of what Christ’s sacrifice means to the world.  His solidarity with the human race is the greatest lesson of all. 

May God Bless you and give you peace.  May you walk with Jesus in his last hours filled with gratitude and love.

 Carol  Lemelin OPA