THE HOLIEST OF WEEKS!

It is HOLY WEEK!

Holy because during this week we come to the climax of our Lenten observances. It is the week toward which our Lenten preparations looked.  

Holy because during this week our Lord enters into the city of his ancestor, David, to fulfill the purpose for which he became man. He no longer hides, neither does he avoid arrest. In fact, he goes to it, of his own accord.

Holy because the work of our salvation begun in the Incarnation is wrought and brought to its completion.

Holy because God sleeps in death, not out of weakness but to display by his resurrection his power over the claws of sin and death.

Holy because our Lord goes to his passion and death and destroys the power of Satan that holds humanity captive.

Holy because Jesus pays to the Eternal Father the price for our redemption IN FULL. The Lamb rescues the sheep. God's innocent Son dies for guilty humanity.

Holy because all of God’s plan for the redemption of fallen humanity finds its fulfillment.

Holy because during this week our Lord Jesus institutes the new covenant in his blood and establishes forever the new priesthood to offer this singular sacrifice to the Father for the expiation of humanity’s sin.

Holy because Christ is victorious over the grave and death could not hold him down.

Although holy, it is a week of contrasts. The teeming crowd chanting Hosannas will quickly be replaced with another chanting “Crucify Him.” We all can find something about ourselves in either crowd. When we acknowledge his Lordship over our lives and affairs, we identify with the crowd singing his praise and welcoming his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. On the other hand, when we fail to acknowledge his reign over us and choose to go our own ways, we invariably pitch camp with the crowd calling for his death. The choice is always ours.

It is a week of contrasts because God dies. The one who gives life now gives his up in death. The Creator of heaven and earth, the one who asks us to carry our crosses daily and follow him is too weak to carry his own cross without another helping him. The one who gave drink to the thirsty, who promises living water to the woman at the well exclaims, "I thirst!" And the list goes on...

May I invite you, if you have never experienced HOLY WEEK in its fullest before: make the sacrifice to attend all of the liturgies of this week. Beginning with Palm Sunday, when Jesus enters Jerusalem to embrace the cross in accordance to the will of the Father, then Holy Thursday at 7pm when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and the institution of the Priesthood and the Holy Eucharist with the call to service.

On Good Friday we commemorate the Lord’s Passion and death at 3pm, and on Holy Saturday, the Mother of all Vigils at 9pm we begin outside with the blessing of the fire and the Paschal Candle and then celebrate that night when the light of Christ dispels the darkness of night. A night of which we sing in our Easter Proclamation “O truly blessed night, when things of heaven are wed to those of earth, and divine to the human.”

May Jesus bless you, and may Our Lady protect you!

Fr. Julius