Holy Week—Entering Into the Greatest Story Ever Told-Fr. Andrew Reckers

This Palm Sunday is the beginning of the most solemn time of the liturgical year: Holy Week.  It is an opportunity to deeply reflect on the most significant mysteries involving our salvation—the passion, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  The best way to enter into these mysteries is to participate in the beautiful and special liturgies commemorating these powerful events.  Through them, we have the chance to enter into and participate in the greatest story ever told.  Although I can provide only a brief survey here, I invite you to experience this story by participating in as many of the Holy Week liturgies as you can.  By doing so, you can glean profoundly life-changing spiritual insights and fruits for yourself and those you love. 

Palm Sunday:  This special Sunday commemorates both Jesus’ glorious entry into Jerusalem and His passion and death.  In the Mass, we welcome our Lord at the beginning of Mass with blessed palm branches and joyful song.  By means of this liturgical commemoration, we make present again the joyful welcome Jesus received when He entered Jerusalem on a donkey colt.  Jesus’ choosing such a humble animal on which to enter the city is a foreshadowing of the far greater humility He would endure by His passion and death.  As the Passion Narrative is proclaimed at Mass, we see the King of Kings crowned with thorns and enthroned on the cross.  We remember and make present this ultimate Sacrifice of love where Jesus gives Himself to God the Father and to us as a total gift of self.  We recall how this great sacrifice of love was so pleasing to God, that it cancels out the offense and displeasure of all the sins of the world. 

Spy Wednesday: Although this title for the Wednesday of Holy Week is not an official liturgical title, it is a popular title where we remember the fact that Jesus was betrayed by one of His closest followers: Judas Iscariot.  It is popularly understood that on this day, Judas made a deal with the enemies of Jesus to hand Jesus over to them in exchange for thirty pieces of silver.  Knowing that there is a traitor within Jesus’ innermost circle of disciples heightens the drama of the story of our Lord’s Passion. 

Holy Thursday:  The Mass of the Lord’s Supper on the evening of Holy Thursday begins the shortest and most solemn season in the liturgical year:  The Paschal Triduum.  On this night, we commemorate the Last Supper that Jesus shared with His disciples on the night before He was crucified.  On this powerful night, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist.  Also on this night, Jesus instituted the Priesthood for His Church.  The Mass on the evening of Holy Thursday is the last Mass that is celebrated until the Easter Vigil on the evening of Holy Saturday.  The Blessed Sacrament is solemnly transferred to a place of repose on this night so we can spiritually walk with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane and keep watch with Him in prayer. 

Good Friday:  The passion and death of Jesus Christ is solemnly celebrated in a special prayer service on this day.  Although this prayer service is not a Mass, it is a powerful commemoration of Jesus’ ultimate Sacrifice of Love.  The Church calls for the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion to take place at or near three o’ clock in the afternoon because that is the hour at which our Lord died on the cross.  At this celebration, the Passion Narrative is proclaimed and all the faithful are given a special opportunity to venerate the cross as the instrument Jesus chose to sacrifice Himself. 

Holy Saturday:  This is a day of profoundly quiet prayer in which no liturgies or Sacraments are celebrated during the day, except for possibly the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Last Rites.  Here, we commemorate the time Jesus spent in the tomb after His death on the cross.  We also commemorate His descent into the realm of the dead to proclaim liberty to all the souls who had been faithful to God before Jesus came into the world. 

Easter Vigil:  On the evening of Holy Saturday (preferably after sundown), the Easter Vigil is celebrated.  It is the celebration of the Lord’s glorious Resurrection, and this liturgy is the most solemn liturgy of the whole year.  Customarily, catechumens and candidates for full communion into the Church receive their Sacraments of Initiation on this joyful night.  This profoundly beautiful liturgy is most rewarding for those who have been preparing well for the moment by their fidelity to their Lenten disciplines in anticipation of the glory of Easter. 

Easter Sunday:  The celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection is a mystery of profound joy.  On this day, we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death by His rising from the dead.  The depth of this mystery is so profound that Easter has an Octave—a period of eight consecutive days to celebrate the event.  The Octave of Easter includes all the days from Easter Sunday through Divine Mercy Sunday. 

In conclusion, I invite all of you to take the opportunity to make all the days of Holy Week count through your fidelity to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  I pray that this week is an opportunity for you to deepen your relationship with the Lord as you enter even more deeply into the mysteries of our salvation.