Pastors share insights into Holy Week
Christians throughout the world are observing Holy Week, the most solemn week of the Church’s year.
The following reflections and examinations of Holy Week by Dominican Father Richard Litzau, Father Alexander Gabriel, Monsignor David Cox, Father Basil Dilichukwu Eruo and Father Tony Rinaldo are culled from local parish bulletins:
By Dominican Father Richard Litzau
Well, we’ve arrived at Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.
That pretty much says it all. The Liturgy opens with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; then Mark’s Gospel. Opening with an account of Jesus’ anointing by the woman with oil, “anointing my body for burial”; it builds inexorably through the meal in the upper room, His sharing of His Body and Blood; a gift to His friends.
Then we move to the Garden, Jesus’ “soul sorrowful even to death,” submitting His will to that of His Father.
Then comes Judas’ betrayal and all that follows: the abuse, the beating, Peter’s denial. I wonder what hurt the most.
We are on the journey to Golgotha “Place of the Skull” — so different from the triumph days earlier.
Then the nails, the derision, the darkness, the startling, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”
Then, “Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed His last.” The sacrifice of the Lamb to seal the Covenant is complete! Those who loved Him cared one more time for Him, “wrapped him the linen cloth and laid him in the tomb... .”
What a journey! We’ve experienced today the widest range of emotions, thoughts and prayers possible, it seems. And yet, it is only the beginning of the one of the holiest periods in the liturgical calendar.
We will revisit the Upper Room, more fully experience the gift that Jesus offers those He loved — “What I am doing, you do not understand now... .” Once more, Jesus ministers to His friends as He bathes their feet. Then, darkness and grief as we experience the passion and death through John’s Gospel; as we mourn at the foot of the Cross and, having “laid Jesus ... for the tomb was close by,” we depart.
Then, there is this time of almost holding our breath. Didn’t He say, “Destroy this temple and in three days, I will re-build it?” Wasn’t there something about dying and then rising again? What was that He said before Lazarus was raised from the dead? “I am the Resurrection and the Life!”
As we wait, breath held, this is a perfect time to look back over our Lent.
As a community, we asked, “What are you giving for Lent?” Now would be a good time to examine our experience. Now would be a good time to honestly ask if we are different now than before we began this journey.
The classic themes of prayer, fasting and almsgiving were before us always. How did we respond to the challenge? Were we intentional in our efforts to attain the goals that we had set; positive in our approach? Were we consistently able to set time aside for prayer and fasting? If we are satisfied with our examination, then I would offer that our Lenten journey has prepared us for what is to come.
In a larger sense, we have been moving toward a changed self, one who is more open to the presence of God in our lives. Hopefully, we’ve opened ourselves to an awareness of opportunities for ministry and responded to them.
If we have been successful in our journey, our prayer life has deepened, become enlivened and satisfying.
We ran the risk of experiencing a Lent that truly challenged us to prepare ourselves for the Son rise of Easter. We ran the risk of giving up old habits or routines that interfered with the grace that Jesus died to surround us with.
We ran the risk of beginning to live as a Child of God grounded in the Gospel message of love. We ran the risk of living more fully for Jesus, our brother and redeemer.
The questions are: Were we challenged? Are we changed?
Fr. Litzau, a member of the Order of Preachers, is pastor of St. Thomas Newman Center parish in Columbia.
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By Father Alexander Gabriel
With Palm Sunday, we enter into the Passion Week or Holy Week.
The Church commemorates the solemn entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, and then enters into His passion, death and resurrection — called the Pascal Mystery.
Mother Church invites all her faithful to take part in Holy Week services so as to relive this Pascal Mystery of Jesus Christ.
On Holy Thursday, we have Mass to remember the institution of two Sacraments by Jesus at the last supper: the Eucharist and the Priesthood, with the command to serve. It has a special rite of washing the feet as Jesus did. At the end of the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament will be taken in procession and placed in a separate altar for common Eucharistic Adoration to relive the agony of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
On Good Friday, we remember the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and it is very special day of prayer, fasting and abstinence. On this day, Holy Mass will be not offered but Holy Communion will be distributed during a service to commemorate His suffering and death. The Passion Reading and the Veneration of the Cross are important parts of the service.
The Stations of the Cross is also a meaningful mediation on the passion and death of Jesus Christ, walking and praying along the path of Calvary pausing at each station.
On this day, we start the Novena to Divine Mercy in preparation for the Feast of Divine Mercy to be celebrated on April 8, the Sunday after Easter. It is the time of special grace promised by Jesus to St. Faustina Kowalska.
At the Easter Vigil, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. It is the greatest event in the salvation history that God had done!
By this event, we have been redeemed from the bondage of evil and sin to be able to call ourselves children of God and to call God Abba and be worthy to enter into eternal home.
We begin by blessing the new fire and Easter Candle, proclaiming the Easter proclamation (“Exsultet”) the blessing of Holy water. The renewal of baptismal promises and the sprinkling of holy water are different parts of the celebration. At this time, our members will join the Church by receiving the sacraments of initiation.
Renewal of baptismal promises and the rite of sprinkling holy water will take place at the morning Mass on Easter Sunday, as well.
Fr. Gabriel, a priest of the Diocese of Daltonganj, India, is canonical administrator of Sacred Heart parish in Eldon and St. Philip Benizi parish in Versailles.
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By Monsignor David Cox
Holy Week always begins with the reading of Jesus making a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is always so joyful that all of Jerusalem is welcoming Jesus as the long awaited Messiah.
Within minutes we are joining the angry crowd as they shout, “Crucify Him!”
I always would like to think that if I had been there, things would have been different. But if I am honest with myself, I know that I betray our Lord in a thousand different ways. There is no getting around it, all of us are all sinners in need of the mercy of God.
I always find the services of Holy Week to be very emotional and at the same time very full of grace.
The three days before Easter, the Triduum, begin with Holy Thursday. This is the day that Jesus celebrated His Last Supper with His Apostles. It is the day that He first gave them the Holy Eucharist, taking simple bread and wine and saying the words, “This is My Body and this is My Blood,” thus giving them and all of us the gift of the Holy Eucharist. He also commissioned them to do this in memory of Him and instituted the gift of the Priesthood.
By the end of the Mass, we are aware of betrayal of the Lord. Judas is the one who betrays Him but all of His Apostles abandon Him.
As we move into Good Friday, there is an eerie quiet in the church. It seems bare and with the absence of the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle — something is just not quite right. We begin the service, not a Mass but a Liturgy of the Word.
This is the one day of the year when Mass is not celebrated. Again there is something wrong. And yet we still need our Lord in Holy Communion, and so we use hosts that were consecrated earlier. We venerate the cross, recognizing the terrible price paid for our salvation. We leave the church in a profound silence. Again, all is stripped and quiet because of the Lord in in the tomb.
But not to worry, because we know that Jesus is stronger than death. And within a few hours as darkness begins to descend on Holy Saturday night, we again gather in joyful anticipation as we celebrate the glory of the Resurrection.
As we begin the Easter Vigil, we hold our lighted candles in the darkness and we begin to sing our Easter praises.
We begin the Easter joy because we cannot wait for morning! Because Jesus is risen! He is truly risen!
Msgr. Cox is pastor of Mary Immaculate parish in Kirksville and St. Rose of Lima parish in Novinger.
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By Father Basil Dilichukwu Eruo
Come and celebrate Holy Week with us.
Palm (Passion) Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. On this Sunday, we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The people, who were mostly pilgrims, picked up palm branches and followed Jesus as he rode on an ass.
As they went they sang “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Within this week, also we have the Triduum which could be designated as the most sacred three days within Holy Week, and in fact the whole year of the Church.
The Triduum is the highest point of the Church’s liturgical year. These three days are Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
Holy Thursday commemorates the Passover meal that Jesus had with His Apostles. It was within this ancient Passover meal (which commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from the Egyptians) that Jesus chose to institute the all-important sacrament of the Eucharist, as well as the Priesthood.
It is called “the Last Supper” because it was the last supper before His journey to the cross.
Good Friday sounds like something that you may not want to use to designate a day of death, but how very appropriate to designate as “Good” the day our Lord and Savior died on the cross. His death is the only reason we have access to God.
He opened for us the way to the Father. Jesus is the grain of wheat that falls to the ground that more fruit may be produced from him. The cross is the center of attention on this day.
Holy Saturday is the night of Christ’s resurrection. On this holy night the one that was “defeated and silenced” that was betrayed and ridiculed surprisingly rose from the tomb. The shame and disappointments will be no more, for the simple reason that He rose. Not even His apostles expected Him to rise.
Alleluia! We are more than conquerors through and in Christ Jesus Our Lord.
May I personally invite everyone to come and celebrate the Triduum with us. You cannot afford to miss those three days. Through your participation within the three days, you can make sense of everything we do within the Catholic Church.
Come and be enriched all the more.
Fr. Eruo, a priest of the Diocese of Orlu, Nigeria, is canonical administrator of St. Joseph parish in Palmyra.
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By Father Tony Rinaldo
On Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, we remember the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, and we mark the final days of His passion, death and resurrection.
The crowd cries out “Hosanna in the Highest!” These same crowds of people will soon cry out “Crucify Him, crucify Him!”
How quickly they change their minds about Jesus, and how typical of human behavior. When all is going well, we find it easy to give praise to God, but when life becomes difficult, we turn our backs on Him. We soon forget our commitment to “take up the cross” and follow Jesus.
True Christian discipleship is found in the rough and the smooth, the good and the bad, the ups and downs of life. In all things, we continue to journey onward and upward in the life of faith.
Remember that the relationship between God and his people is often compared to that of husband and wife. The wedding vows a couple takes speak of that same kind of commitment: “In good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, from this day forward.”
Likewise, when a man is ordained a priest, the bishop asks him if he promises “respect and obedience to me and my successors.”
In other words, the promises of love and respect that tie us to one another in the Sacrament of Marriage and the Sacrament of Holy Orders are a reflection of the ties that bind each one us to Christ as His disciples.
Let us reflect upon these things as we remember and prepare for the sacred days of Holy Week and renew our commitment to our Christian faith.
Fr. Rinaldo is pastor of St. Andrew parish in Tipton and Annunciation parish in California.
