 |
George Rouault, "Jesus will be in agony,
even to the end of the world" |
Holy Week is more than a memorial. It's a time of participation. We
celebrate Holy Week as a way of participating in the great story of
Jesus' rejection, suffering, and death. We are among the crowd that
cheers and waves palm branches when Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey.
We are with Jesus when he shares his last meal with his friends. We
share in their astonishment when our Lord stoops down to wash our feet
and tells us to do likewise. The next day we join our voices to the
crowd that cries out, "Crucify him!" And we are there when Jesus takes
up the cross and lays down his life for the ones who have rejected him.
That's what makes Holy Week such a momentous experience of the Church Year for me. This is more than simply recounting events all those years ago -- this is my participation in those very events, as I follow Jesus all the way to the cross.
This is what makes things like Pergolesi's
Stabat Mater or
Improperia of Good Friday so painful to hear, but so important for the week.
Holy week is hardly simply history -- it's life.