If we truly understood the grandeur of Holy Week, and particularly the Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday/Easter Sunday), we would yearn for this holiest week of the year with every fiber of our being. This is the week when our salvation was accomplished. This is the week when Christ finished the temporal part of the work the Father sent Him to do. It is the week when the greatest evil in the world, the death of the Lord Himself, becomes the source of the greatest good: the salvation of all those who come to the Lord. This is the week of suffering and glory, of death and life, of good triumphing over evil. This is the Lord’s week, and if we allow Him to do what He wants to do in our hearts and our lives this week, this week can be the greatest experience of our lives. We cannot afford to relegate Holy Week to just another week. The Lord wants us to have an extraordinary Holy Week.
As we enter into Holy Thursday, we are confronted with the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the Lord Himself, Christ’s inauguration of the Priesthood, and the washing by Christ of the Apostles’ feet, an action which encapsulates the humble attitude Christ wants us to have as His followers. Then proceeding to Good Friday, we come face to face with unimaginable suffering. The God-Man takes upon Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane the sins of the whole world, then He is scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified in utter anguish. You and I can accompany Him on this way of our salvation by praying devoutly the 14 Stations of the Cross. At 3:00 PM, the Lord dies and surrenders His Spirit to the Father. You and I can kneel in adoration and join Jesus in surrendering our lives to the Father. Then on the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, the source and summit of our liturgical year, the Lord rises from the dead, triumphing over sin, death, and Satan. The Lord is victorious, and we are His people whom He calls to victory. He leads us as the captain of an army, as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let us follow Him by dying to sin and rising to newness of life.
I strongly encourage you to spend time asking the Lord how He wants you to celebrate Holy Week. Really invest in making this Holy Week the best one yet. The Lord is counting on us to give our hearts to Him and hold nothing back. Come Lord Jesus in the power of your Crucifixion and the glory of Your Resurrection.
