Suzanne Woolston-Bossert, a contributor to
the recently published Feasting on the Word, writes:
Despite its universally famous conclusion, Holy Week is a flickering
collage of colliding images and mistaken identities. Despite the way
Easter Sunday has grown into a colorful arrangement of lilies and
trumpets, pastel eggs and new white Sunday school gloves, underneath it
is fed by a dark compost of blood and bone and mystery. Like the Russian
nesting doll, the bright painted face of the resurrected Christ is but a
final exterior.
Indeed! Holy Week is nothing short of a
multi-scene drama that begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday.
During the week we dramatize the last week of Jesus’ life:
• On Palm Sunday, using the Passion Narrative as our script, we reenact the
triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem by waving palms over our heads as
we take part in the procession as pilgrims ourselves.
• The propers for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week help us trace
the steps that Jesus took early in the week that led to his death.
• On Maundy Thursday we recall and dramatize the Last Supper, the meal that
recalls the story of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and
memorializes the “saving history” of God that sets the stage for our
understanding of God’s action in our lives to this day. The gospel reminds
us of the humble act of Jesus as he washed his disciples’ feet and beckons
us to a life of servanthood. Overnight, as we keep watch with the Reserved
Sacrament we recall Jesus praying in Gethsemane and the high drama that will
soon unfold.
• On Good Friday we dramatize the death of Jesus. We come to the darkened
church and recall the suffering of Jesus on the cross. The Passion Narrative
is again read, this time with a somehow different intensity. As we venerate
the cross, we identify with Jesus’ suffering so that we can identify with
his eternal power made known to us in his resurrection.
• On Holy Saturday, the day that “the whole earth keeps silence because the
King is asleep,” we recall through Scripture and prayer the burial of Jesus.
The church remains darkened; the starkness of the bare altar and sanctuary
are vivid reminders of the events of the week and of yesterday.
• The drama reaches a climax as darkness descends Saturday evening. As we
gather for the Great Vigil of Easter, “the keystone about which the rest of
the church year is built,” the words of the Exsultet ring in our ears: “This
is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and rose
victorious from the grave.” We are invited to participate, through word and
action, in the Passover of the Hebrews from the bondage of slavery in Egypt
to the freedom of the Promised Land, in the Passover of our Lord Jesus
Christ from death to new life, and in our own Passover from the bondage of
sin and death to new life in Christ Jesus.
• As the light of the new morning shines brightly on Easter Sunday, we
gather to find that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb. “Jesus
Christ is risen today. Alleluia!” This is indeed “our triumphant holy day.”
Things are no longer the same. Not only has God entered the world as one of
us, “but God has overcome the meanness that we did to the Incarnate One” and
in doing so has led us through our own darkness, death, and guilt to a new
understanding of forgiveness and life in the resurrection.
I invite you to take part in this powerful and life changing drama. There
are lead roles for everyone! No previous experience is required, just a
willingness to enter into the drama. Casting begins on Sunday of the
Passion: Palm Sunday and continues each day during Holy Week.
--Fr. Paul +
