The Three Lessons of Holy Week
I am going to let you in on a secret of the clergy preaching schedule here at St. Hubert’s. Usually, I preach on the first or second weekend of the month. Occasionally, in cases where a particularly important liturgical celebration takes place on those Sundays, or there is some other schedule conflict, Father Rick will preach instead.
We have a particularly important liturgical celebration today. It is the first Sunday of April, but it is Palm Sunday. And so a few weeks ago, I asked Father Rick whether I would be preaching, even though it was Palm Sunday. He got back to me a few days later. He said I would be preaching, but because of the long Gospel describing the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, his words to me were uncharacteristically blunt: You can preach, he said, but KEEP IT SHORT.” And so in due deference to Father’s wishes, I plan to preach tonight this morning for only 45 minutes. If I do that, next year, you most assuredly hear from Deacon Larry Jesmer on Palm Sunday.
As I said, the Gospel from Mark tonight (this morning) is the Passion of the Lord. The Passion story is a remarkable drama, the most remarkable we will read anywhere at any time. A moving array of human emotions is laid bare before us, anxiety, fear, agonizing pain, courage, betrayal, death, sadness, and ultimately the redemption and resurrection that follows the Passion.
The most beautiful liturgies of the Church year also take place this week. They are very moving, divine, and sacred theater culminating in the Easter vigil this coming Saturday, the most beautiful of all of our liturgies as Jesus passes over from the death on the Cross to resurrection so that our bodies might too rise again.
We suggest to all of you that you attend as many of the Holy Week liturgies as you can. These liturgies illuminate the meaning of Holy Week in a most beautiful and meaningful way. They help remind you why it is such a joy to be a Catholic. But if for whatever reason you cannot join us again before Easter, I want to leave you with three clear lessons for our own lives that we can take from the commemoration of Holy Week.
The first lesson is this. Fame and riches in this life are fleeting. We hold palms in our hands this morning. (In the procession into church,) (we read) of Jesus’ (had ) a triumphant welcome into Jerusalem, with the crowds hailing him with palm branches. On Palm Sunday, Jesus’ was at the pinnacle, if you will, of his earthly power. But just five days later, God Himself was given a death reserved for the worst of criminals and the utterly despised.
Human history is full of famous figures that, in a way like Jesus, had their lives snuffed out while at the pinnacle of their power. For us the less famous, many have experienced the loss of a loved one in the blink of an eye, or seen children die well before what we think should be their time because of diseases or accidents.
It is then we realize that everything we have comes from God. All we have is given to us to glorify God and serve others. Yes, we have responsibilities to our families and we need our daily bread. But Christians are called to be ready to lose all of it for the Gospel life.
In the final analysis, as St. Paul says, all that we gain in riches and fame will count as loss, if we are not living the Gospel life. For we do not live for life on this earth, but for the next life. Jesus prepared for us for that next life by his model of living, and by His Passion that we read about this morning.
Second, much as we wish we could avoid it, suffering is a part of life. Americans spend an enormous amount of time trying to have the good life, to limit the amount of adversity they or their children must face. At one level it is an understandable sentiment.
But such a course will never fully be achieved. If Jesus, God Himself, suffered horrendously in the Passion story we read about this morning, how in the world are we going to avoid it? But the reality of suffering need not be ultimately depressing. Our reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah reminds us that we can never be disgraced for the Lord is our help. If we join our suffering to that of Jesus, if we ask for his help, if we ask God to activate the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are joined to His way of life. Suffering becomes an inevitable part of the path toward redemption and eternal life with Him.
Finally, Holy Week reminds us of the incredible, overflowing merciful love of Jesus Christ that we are called to imitate. God, as St. Paul says in our reading tonight (this morning), took human form and died for people, including us. But people do not deserve eternal union with an all-loving God. We as Christians are not saved because of our actions alone. We can be saved because God loves us so much that he died for us. He would pay the ultimate price for all of us. At the heart of Christ’s love, and therefore Christian love, is unbounded service. It is this service-based love, the laying down of one’s life for others, that gives us true freedom. Loving as Jesus loved resurrects us from our sinful bodies into life in the Spirit. Such a life is not about us; it is about God, about others.
Let us pray, brothers and sisters, that God gives us the grace to remember these three lessons of Holy Week; that fame is fleeting, that suffering is inevitable but can be redemptive, and that we are called not only to admire God’s love for us, but live in that love. May we remember and live these three lessons, not just during the moving and inspiring days of Holy Week, but for the rest of our lives.