The events we remember and celebrate during Holy Week are almost too much to comprehend let alone try to get our hearts and minds around, to grasp fully. It is as if the church is asking too much of us in offering Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Great Easter Vigil and the Easter itself as occasions for worship, reflection and remembrance.
But here we are. Even as late in the year as it is this year, Holy Week is somehow suddenly upon us and we are asked to clear our calendars and immerse ourselves in the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. And even if we can, and even if we do, once the week is concluded and we are back to our normal lives coming the day after Easter, we will find ourselves trying to put everything into some semblance of perspective.
So how do we get at least a small handle on some of what took place that week so long ago? How do we make some sense of it all and apply it to our own lives? How do we make Holy Week personal but not too personal so as to be so overwhelmed by it all that we throw up our hands and walk away believing that it is simply too much for one person to comprehend?
Perhaps we already have. Perhaps that is why the celebrations during Holy Week are so sparsely attended: we’re convinced that it is religion overload and we can only take so much at one time. Yes, our time is important and our calendars are already full and to ask us to clear those calendars to come and worship so often is just asking too much. Maybe so, but there it is.
Yet each of those celebrations/remembrances of events in Jesus’ life is also an opportunity for each of us to examine our own lives to discover that what happened to Jesus happens to us not just one week of the year but every week of every year. Palm Sunday’s celebration is a reminder that as Jesus was entering Jerusalem from the east, Pilate and his army was entering Jerusalem from the west. Every day we are asked whom we serve: Jesus or Caesar.
Maundy Thursday with our remembering Jesus’ washing the feet of his disciples and the institution of the Eucharist remind us that we are called to serve those less blessed than we and know that we can do so through the strength we receive from the Eucharist. How are we fulfilling that calling and how often do we take advantage of the offered Strength?
Good Friday reminds us that Jesus died because his living example of love for all was a threat to those whose lives were being lived contrary to what he taught. Do our lives model Jesus’? Do we back off on doing what is right on the one hand and do we do that which we know we should not on the other all because of peer pressure?
The events of Holy Week give us much to ponder about ourselves, about our lives, about how we live out our faith. The best way to do some needed pondering is by taking the time to do so, in church, at worship.
