Lenten Thoughts

Holy Week

In the week which begins this coming Sunday – Holy Week – all that we ponder and do during Lent reaches its climax. 

We begin with Palm Sunday and during the liturgy of that day, we remember Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem and we will read the account of the suffering and death of Jesus from St Matthew’s Gospel.  On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we recall several incidents which lead to the death of Jesus.  Then on Thursday evening, we begin to celebrate the Easter Triduum.  We call it a Triduum because the feast is spread out over three days.  What we begin on Holy Thursday night does not conclude until Easter Sunday.

At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, on the evening of Holy Thursday, we celebrate Jesus’ giving over of himself to his death which will happen on the next day: ‘This is my Body given for you’ and ‘This is the cup of my blood shed for you and for all….”.

On Friday we celebrate that giving of himself in the suffering and rejection which his death involved.  But the liturgy of Good Friday is already presenting Jesus as Lord.  We read the account of Jesus’ death from St John’s Gospel in which Jesus seems to be already in charge.  And in the Veneration of the Cross, we already acclaim him as the Saviour of the World: ‘Behold the wood of the cross, on which hangs the Saviour of the World’.  His death takes on its full meaning in his rising out of death.

At the Easter Vigil, we celebrate the Crucified One as the Light of the World (Liturgy of Light), as the culmination of all that God has been doing in biblical history and human history (Liturgy of the Word), as the One in whom we gain new life (Liturgy of Baptism – life-giving water), and as the Risen One who makes us his own by our communion with him (Liturgy of the Eucharist).

His death and resurrection is the seed of our future life.  In his humanness, he has made his own, everything which is ours; as Risen Lord, he gives us everything which is his. 

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin