This week begins with Palm Sunday and progresses through Holy Thursday and Good Friday. It culminates with Easter Sunday celebrations. On Palm Sunday, Jesus’ followers cheer him waving palm branches as Jesus enters Jerusalem. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples on Holy Thursday. And the last meal with Jesus is commemorated. Holy Thursday is also referred to as Maundy Thursday, which means “commend” coming from a shortened form of
mandautum
(Latin): “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34). The crucifixion of Jesus is remembered on Friday. On Good Friday we focus upon prayer and reflection on the suffering and death of Christ. After the service on Holy Thursday we begin our Prayer Vigil to participate in the suffering and death of Jesus. At that time we meditate on the passion of Jesus, along with looking back on how we have lived and thought and acted.
Holy Week will not take place in the church this year. Last year, we processed with our youth carrying palms, celebrated the last meal and ate bread and drank wine on Maundy Thursday, and reflected the Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross on Good Friday. But this year is different. This pandemic is our Holy Week for us this year. Holy Week really happens in our lives.
Holy Week is about deepening our humility and finding ourselves before crucifying Jesus. In this regard, we are so grateful for all of those in our community working so hard during these days of the pandemic with their sacrificial love: doctors, medical personnel and all the nurses in nursing homes where they are separated from their loved ones, warehouse workers, pharmacists, security service persons, grocery store workers, bank employees, the news media, and trash collectors.
We as Christians have died, before we died with Christ, in order for us to live with Christ. That is the key of Easter faith. "We have followed in the self-emptying steps of Jesus, a path from death to life as we all celebrate this week. Following Jesus, we need to trust the “down,“ and God will take care of the “up.” Richard Rohr presents
five consoling messages
:
- It is true that life is hard, and yet “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28)
- It is true that you are not important, and yet do you not know that “your name is written in heaven?” (Luke 10:20)
- It is true that your life is not about you, and yet “I live now not my own life, but the life of Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20)
- It is true that you are not in control, and yet can any of you, for “all of your worrying, add a single moment to your span of life?“(Luke 12:26)
- It is true that you are going to die, and yet “neither death nor life. . . can ever come between us and the love of God” (Romans 8:38-39).
Reflect:
Five Consoling Messages
