Living Holy Week

It is not enough to observe Holy Week. We are called to live it.

The mysterious events of Holy Week are timeless, or at least outside of time. We can insert our 21st Century lives into ancient times to meet Jesus on the road to Calvary. Here are some suggestions for how to accomplish that:

1. Make the Gospel accounts personal. “One way to approach Holy Week to live it like no other of the year is to unite yourself with one of the holy people who accompany Jesus in His Passion,” writes the Rev. Peter John Cameron, O.P., in the prayer devotional Magificat.

“So perhaps you might identify with one of the disciples sent to prepare the Upper Room, looking at everything in your life in the light of the Eucharist . . . or the woman who anoints Jesus in Bethany, begging for the grace of special compassion . . . or Simon Peter, weeping with true repentance over your sins . . . or Simon of Cyrene, eager to take up Christ’s cross no matter how it may appear . . . or the Good Thief, bursting with hope that Jesus wants us to be with Him in paradise . . . or John, daring to remain with Jesus on Calvary and accepting the gift of Mary to be our Mother . . . or the centurion, letting our profession of faith transform our life for ever: This man is the Son of God!”

2. Join in the sacrifice of the Mass, spend some time in Eucharistic adoration. Though Jesus died once and for all 2,000 years, He renews His sacrifice and makes it present to us daily in the Blessed Sacrament. Father Mark Kirby, OSB, expresses this beautifully though a poem on his blog, Vultus Christi. Here is a portion of the poem:

“There is not a single moment of My sufferings

that is not present in this the Sacrament of My Love for you.
Here you will find Me in every detail of My Passion,
for nothing of My Passion has passed away.
All remains actual and efficacious
in the mysteries of My Body and Blood given up for you.

“If you would be with Me in My sufferings,
come to Me in the Sacrament of My Love.
If you would keep watch with Me in Gethsemane,
come to My altar, and abide there with Me.
If you would accompany Me in My imprisonment,
in My trial, in My condemnation,
and in My being mocked, scourged, and crowned with thorns,
seek Me out in this Sacrament
where I wait for a little compassion from those who profess to be My friends.” …

“Would that My friends knew this:
that all of My Passion is contained in the Most Holy Sacrament,
not as something lost to a past that can never be recovered,
but as My perfect and all-sufficient oblation to the Father,
renewed here and now in every detail,
although sacramentally, and without a new shedding of blood.

“This all my saints understood:
the presence of My Passion in this Sacrament,
and this Sacrament as the memorial of My Passion.
This the Holy Spirit teaches even to the little and to the poor
who open their hearts to My mysteries made present at the altar.
This is the great reality that, today, so many have forgotten.
For this reason do I ask you to come to Me here
in the Sacrament where I wait for you,
and to offer Me the consolation in My sufferings
that only you can give Me,
and for which I have waited so long.”

From In Sinu Iesu, the Journal of a Priest

3. “Step outside.” This is Pope Francis’ advice for living Holy Week, taken from his first Wednesday audience address:

“Living Holy Week means increasingly entering into God's logic, the logic of the Cross, which is not first of all that of pain and death, but of love and of self-giving that brings life. It means entering into the logic of the Gospel. Following, accompanying Christ, remaining

with Him requires a ‘stepping outside,’ a stepping beyond. Stepping outside of ourselves, of a tired and routine way of living the faith, of the temptation to withdraw into pre-established patterns that end up closing our horizon to the creative action of God. God stepped outside of Himself to come among us, He pitched His tent among us to bring the mercy of God that saves and gives hope. Even if we want to follow Him and stay with Him, we must not be content to remain in the enclosure of the ninety-nine sheep, we have to ‘step outside,’ to search for the lost sheep together with Him, the one furthest away. Remember well: stepping outside of ourselves, like Jesus, like God has stepped outside of Himself in Jesus and Jesus stepped outside of Himself for all of us.”

May we all follow Jesus in His Passion so we can join in His Easter glory! Live Holy Week!

Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this from Susan Szalewski about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays.