Ashes to Glory

Details: 15 April 2011

Special Week

Palm Sunday annually ushers in the most sacred and important week of the year for us who are Catholics. Although the secular world largely ignores this week, filling it with its ordinary entertainment, normal sporting events, every day television news and amusements, and the usual commercial life, we, who are privileged to be Christ’s disciples, should strive to set aside to the greatest extent possible our worldly affairs and occupations in this coming week in order to participate in the sacred liturgy, particularly in what are called "the very holy three days". The phrase in Latin is the Sacred "Triduum", that is, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and, most important of all, the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening, "the mother of all vigils", as the Pope calls it. Of course, the Chrism Mass on Monday of Holy Week invites us all, along with the urgent custom of making a devout Easter Confession. We also have an invitation to attend as well the many para-liturgical or extra liturgical devotions which take place in our parish churches during this special week, such as Stations of the Cross, Liturgy of the Hours, Devotions at the Sepulcher, Devotions to the Five Wounds and Last Words of Jesus, Tenebrae, Tre Ore Services, the Blessing of Easter Food on Holy Saturday, etc. It is in the sacred liturgy and in its accompanying halo of prayers and devotions that the events of our salvation are made present for us, pushing aside the veils of time and space. It is in the liturgy that Jesus touches us with what He merited for us on His cross and in the Garden of the Resurrection.

Holy Week is when we not only remember but actually relive in sign, symbol, word and sacrament the history of our salvation. We recall the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, the cowardice of Pilate, the fickle and manipulated crowds, the time when the King of Ages is crowned with thorns, the Holy Strong One is fastened with nails to a cross, and the Holy Immortal One dies. Each year we are requested, for our spiritual benefit and enrichment, to weep with Mary, to be vigilant with the Beloved Disciple, to be deeply thankful for the Eucharist and the priesthood of the New Covenant instituted in that Upper Room, to mourn our sins, and to see in the bloody sweat, the scourging, and the stab of the lance, what is our own doing by our sins and their profound wickedness, and to see also, in contrast, God’s infinite pardon and His eternal love for us made visible on a hill called "Skull Place". Holy Week is the time of our Christian Passover, when the Paschal Lamb of God is slain, and when His precious Blood, if we allow It, marks the doorposts of our souls to prevent our deserved damnation. Pope Benedict XVI says, "I urge you to live these days intensely so they may decisively direct the life of each one to generous and convinced adherence to Christ, Who died and rose for us."

What it Does

Saint John Chrysostom says, "We call Holy Week the Great Week because in it many ineffable good things come our way: the Devil’s tyranny is relaxed, his pomps are destroyed, his curses are lifted, man is again reconciled with God, and from being God’s enemies we are changed into His friends and His children, made once more into the brothers and sisters of Jesus by our baptismal renewal. In Holy Week heaven is made accessible and our spiritual shadows are cleared away. It is the week when we no longer wander in the desert for we have found the right way. We no longer are outside the palace for we have found the entrance. We no longer fear the flaming arrows of Lucifer, for we have seen where the font of water is located." The days of Holy Week, especially the Sacred Triduum, constitute the stepping stones toward our genuine and authentic celebration of Easter.

It is true that in Holy Week we are given a golden opportunity to share the tears and pain of our suffering Redeemer, and to sorrowfully lament the evil of our sins and those of all mankind, which are the real cause of His horrible torture and hideous death. However, as Father Pius Parsch observes, there is also, throughout the entire week, a note of victory and joy, a realization that Christ’s sacred passion was, by God’s will and arrangement, a necessary prerequisite to His risen glory (Acts of the Apostles 24:25-27).. The theme of triumph, therefore, permeates all aspects of the sacred liturgy of that week. A Friday called "Good" is a most important part of the story of our salvation, but it is utterly incomplete and meaningless without that Sunday called "Easter". "The cross and the resurrection are inseparable." Holy Week is when we must vividly remember what is sung in the great Easter Proclamation on Holy Saturday evening: "It profits us nothing to be born if we are not saved."

Important Reading

One of the fine ways to enhance our celebration of Holy Week is to take up our Bible, which might be gathering dust somewhere in our house, and prayerfully and thoughtfully read some texts that will enrich our liturgical participation throughout the week. Texts might include our Lord’s last discourse and His high priestly prayer (John, chapters 14-17), appropriate for prayer time before the sacred repository on Holy Thursday evening. Read Psalm 22 (21), containing the words Jesus spoke on the cross on Good Friday, Psalms 38, 69, 89, 102, etc. along with some of the "Suffering Servant of Yahweh" passages from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (chapters 40-55), the Lamentations and the Book of Jeremiah, and the accounts of the passion and death of the Savior according to Saint Mark (chapters 14-15) and Saint Luke (chapters 22-23).

Pope Saint Leo the Great said of Holy Week: "Dearly beloved, the festival of the passion, so earnestly looked forward to, so desired of all men, is now here, a subject, in that it is so unutterable, gives matter without end for speaking, nor may what we say fall short, for of what we speak never can there be enough." Saint Augustine of Hippo said, "Since our Lord Jesus made a day of this week glorious by His resurrection, and another which He had made doleful by His death, let us recall both days in solemn memorial, keeping vigil in recollection of His death and rejoicing in His resurrection. This is our greatest annual feast, our Pasch." Saint Ambrose of Milan preached, "We must observe both the day of the passion and the day of the resurrection, having a day of bitterness and one of joy, fasting on the one day and being refreshed on the other." Blessed John Henry Newman wrote, "We cannot truly feast unless we first have fasted." Saint Gregory of Nyssa said, "Holy Week is week like none other."

The biography of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary notes, "Nothing can express the fervor, love, and pious veneration with which she celebrated those holy days of Holy Week, on which the Church, by ceremonies so touching and so expressive, recalls to the mind of the faithful the sorrowful and unspeakable mystery of our redemption." May what was written about that splendid woman be also said one day of us. May her example and that of all of the heavenly court serve to inspire and move us to properly celebrate this "week like none other".