Entering Holy Week

Palm Sunday 2008

During Holy Week we are entering into a special part of Church calendar when you and I will accompany the final moments of our Lord – his agony in the Garden, his arrest, his abandonment by his friends, the denial of Peter.

On Holy Thursday we will remember the Last Supper and the betrayal of Judas.

On Good Friday, the arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus Christ.

Holy Saturday, the Sabbath on which Jesus rested in the grave.

Easter Sunday, the glorious Resurrection of our Lord.


You and I, and the rest of Catholic around the world, are invited during this Holy Week to enter prayerfully and meditatively into the heart and mystery of our salvation. It’s the mystery of dying and rising, the mystery of humiliation and exaltation, the mystery of suffering and glorification, the mystery of death of one person in order that we live eternally, the mystery of defeat which is crowed with victory.

We just heard the narration of the Lord’s Passion according to the Gospel of St Matthew. The scripture story invites us all to enter into the story of Christ’s passion, his psychological torture, physical torment of the scourging and the crowning with thorn.

There are several characters in the story that perhaps we can relate with - Pilate, the crowds, Judas, Simon of Cyrene, Barabbas, the good thief, the bad thief, the crown, etc. Let us journey with them this Holy Week. Gradually we will experience during this week our Lord’s desire to be near us, to be so intimately closed to each one of us and reveal his love.

Jesus wants you and I, to always remember how he loves us, love that caused his own death on the cross.

Commitment
Today, let us make a commitment to celebrate this holy week in the way never celebrate before. Let us participate in our liturgical activities during the week as an expression of our desire to encounter Jesus and not to abandon him.

Jesus knows our own suffering too, the burdens we bear, depression, conflict in our family, health problem and all other conflict we carry in our mind and heart. During this week we ask our Lord to give us the strength and courage to carry our own crosses in life and make sacrifices for others sake.

With all this in mind and heart we are ready for Holy Week.