April 16: Holy Week III / Semana Santa III

As we celebrate these days of Holy Week and the life-saving events that they commemorate, there is continuous flow from one day to another. The Last Supper is intimately connected to the Cross, and both of them are intimately connected to the Rising of Jesus at Easter. As we mentioned yesterday, there is a beginning of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper with the Sign of the Cross, but no end is reached until the final blessing, the solemn Easter Blessing, at the end of the Easter Vigil Mass (and on Easter Sunday morning).

In all of this, the Church is inviting us to enter into Jesus’ experience of being surrounded by His closest friends and supported by His Father – but also His experience of being alone and abandoned, being betrayed and deserted, not only by friends and followers, but even (so He thought) by God.

By daytime on Holy Saturday, we will be quiet around His tomb, as we remember the injustice, hostility and cruelty, of all those evil men who murdered Him. Then, late on Saturday, we will move from the darkness of our journey to the place of the brightly burning fire. We will then join the procession of the great Easter Candle, representing the Risen Christ, as He lights up the darkness of our church and our lives.

At the Easter Vigil Mass and on Sunday morning, the pain and sadness of our journey with Jesus to Calvary will give way to the hope and joy that come with our renewed awareness: Jesus Christ is not dead and gone. No, He is alive, strong and powerful ... alive in Himself, and alive in us.

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Some words to guide us in the days ahead, reassuring words heard by Juliana of Norwich in her vision of Christ Crucified (heard from His own lips): “All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.”

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¡Qué bueno poder estar con el Señor esta Semana Santa! Tenemos la oportunidad única de reflexionar sobre el inmenso amor con que Dios nos ama. La Última Cena el Jueves, Viernes Santo, y la Vigilia Pascual y el Domingo de Pascua: vamos a ver como Jesús comerá la comida Pascual rodeado de los que le han seguido. El traidor los deja para traicionar a Jesús. Pero Jesús, el Siervo de Dios y del pueblo, afronta su muerte con la más plena confianza en Dios. Jesús celebrará esta Pascua de una forma nueva, transformándola en la Eucaristía. Esto es como un testamento que Él deja a sus discípulos. Es la forma más profunda y misteriosa de estar en medio de sus discípulos, entonces y ahora. 

¿Cómo respondemos a su amor total? ¿En qué medida lo hacemos resonar y lo reflejamos como en espejo a los hermanos y hermanas alrededor nuestro? ¿Qué hacemos para que nuestros niños y jóvenes perciban y sientan el amor de Dios en nosotros?