Dear Friends in Christ,
Again, we come to another Holy Week; the week we journey with our Lord Jesus as we recall his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, His celebration of Passover, His agony in the garden, His betrayal by Judas, His arrest and torture by the centurions, His bloody way to Calvary, and the inhumane cruelty of His execution. We remember the horrors of that momentous week. We deliberately recall Jesus’ tremendous pain and suffering. We meditate on His bloody wounds. We contemplate the physical, mental, and spiritual anguish Jesus underwent. We do so not in any perverted sense, but out of appreciation for Jesus’ sacrificial love for us. We do so to remind ourselves of the depth of His love for each and every one of us. We do so because we know that the real cause of Jesus’ suffering and death is our sinfulness.
Chocolate bunny rabbits and marshmallow eggs notwithstanding, we cannot sugarcoat the harsh reality of Holy Week: the shallowness, duplicity, treason, pettiness, timidity, fear, cowardliness, betrayal, hatred, perjury, arrogance, disloyalty, cruelty, despair, torture, agony, death. The brutality of a sinful world is made manifest in the events of Jesus’ passion. On that long and dreadful Friday, two thousand years ago, it appeared as though the world and the powers of this world had won. It looked, to so many then and to many even now, that Jesus and the power of His message were defeated. The apostles themselves seemed resigned to the defeat of their master and friend in whom they had placed so much hope. But in reality, they defeated themselves. They defeated themselves by their falling asleep when Jesus asked for their company in prayer. They defeated themselves as they allowed each other to be overcome by fear of the crowds. They defeated themselves when, much like Peter, they turned away and forgot who brought them to this moment. They defeated themselves as they failed to remember Jesus’ words of promise to them. They defeated themselves as they prepared to go back to their former lives as though Jesus no longer existed or was ever a part of their lives. They defeated themselves as they doubted that He was the Messiah who promised to conquer sin and death, but had instead been conquered. They defeated themselves as they believed that the power of sin and death were invincible. They defeated themselves as they allowed their hope and their faith to evaporate in the face of pain and struggle. Sadly, like the apostles, we too often give in to defeat, lose hope, give in to doubt, abandon faith, and long for the ‘sugar coated’ life. We do this every time we sin, when we forget that Good Friday is not the end of the story.
Holy Week and Easter remind us that victory has already been won by Jesus Christ. The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus proclaims to the whole world that evil has been conquered and defeated by Jesus on the cross. Holy Week reminds us that while the power of sin and death are real, God’s love is even more powerful. This week we recall again that the joy of Easter Sunday follows the pain of Good Friday. This Holy Week renews within us our faith and our love for our crucified and risen Lord. More than anything else, this week is holy because, “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (Jn 3:16-17)
We adore you O Christ and we praise you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world!
Have a blessed Holy Week.