Apr
2
The Catholic Priest
April 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The Intensity of Holy Week
It is the supreme privilege of the Catholic priest to enter into a realm at once within and outside of time, in which the saving action of the high priest Jesus Christ becomes present to us again at Mass. At no time is the intensity of this experience greater than in Holy Week, when Mass is celebrated in the liturgical context of the culmination of Our Lord’s mission: The Last Supper on Holy Thursday, His crucifixion on Good Friday, His glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
While the Incarnation of the Word of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, might be a greater mystery (and clearly it is the mystery from which all else flows), Holy Week is the high point of the year for every priest and bishop. Here we have the richest possible manifestation of the events by which we are saved. And here the Catholic faithful receive the greatest possible opportunity to enter this priestly world by becoming incorporated into the Paschal mystery.
Papal Intentions: for Sanctity and Vocations
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- During the month of April, Benedict XVI will pray that every Christian may answer the call to sanctity.
The Holy Father will ask that every Christian may answer enthusiastically and faithfully the universal call to sanctity, allowing himself to be enlightened and guided by the Holy Spirit.
The Apostleship of Prayer announced the intentions chosen by the Pope.
The Pontiff also prays for an apostolic intention each month. For April, his intention is: “That the number of priestly and religious vocations may grow in North America and the countries of the Pacific Ocean, in order to give an adequate answer to the pastoral and missionary needs of those populations.”
ZE07040203Capitalizing on Lent
We are now entering the time of year in which we are finally able, if you’ll pardon the phrase, to capitalize on Lent. The long slog of prayerful self-denial (minor though it may be) is nearly behind us, and we can deepen the spiritual impact of our Lenten sacrifices by taking Holy Week seriously, especially the Sacred Triduum—the three days leading up to Easter. To rise with Christ, we must die with Him; this opportunity to die is the whole purpose of Lent. Now we must bring it into focus by increasing our devotion to the way of the cross in these final days of darkness before the dawn.
Even if we have kept Lent badly (and which of us has not?), it is not too late. If worse comes to worst, we can unite our hearts with Our Lord’s Passion in the last split-second before Easter Mass. But it is precisely this week before Easter which presents the best opportunity. Hearing the Gospel of the Passion on Palm Sunday will heighten our awareness of the task before us. Then we will have a few days—a sort of new mini-Lent—to prepare for the Last Supper. Finally, we can participate liturgically in the key events, allowing the commemorations of the Triduum to draw us further up and further in. It is, of course, the Eucharist itself that incorporates us into Christ and all His saving work. But in the context of Holy Week, by focusing all our faculties in a special way, we can participate more deeply, and be sanctified anew.
Steps Ordered by the Lord
Proverbs 20:24 reminds us that “a man’s steps are ordered by the Lord; how then can man understand his way?” The answer, of course, is by incorporation into Christ. This is the whole reason God made us. It is both our purpose and our destiny. We were made to glorify God in both time and eternity by coming into union with Him, and so to enjoy an indescribable happiness. If we are to capitalize on Lent, then we must recognize the quintessential business of Catholicism. Holy Week is a microcosm of this Catholic business. It is both the paradigm and the reality of how Catholic business gets done.
One wonders, knowing all this, if any of us will dare to let another Holy Week slip by with…little or nothing. There are two ways to do this. One is to be unable to participate fully in these sacred mysteries through no fault of our own. The other is to suffer the same lack of participation through our own fault. I refer here to our own lack of preparation, our own preoccupation, our own laziness, our own carelessness, our own sin.
As the Church looks toward the celebration of Easter, this week, we are reminded that before we can experience the joy of the Resurrection, we must first encounter death. Holy Week calls us to reflect and experience that defining moment in the story of our salvation, when our Savior is betrayed, nailed to the cross, and overcomes the power of death to rise again.
If a poll were taken asking people which, in their opinion, is the greatest event in history, relatively few respondents would name the Resurrection of Christ from the tomb. The reason? A misunderstanding concerning the very nature of the Resurrection.
Most people imagine that Jesus simply came back to life, like Lazarus. Not so! Though the Resurrection of Christ took place at a particular place and time, what happened to his humanity transcends the limitations we experience in space and time. This was a glorious resurrection or transformation of his body. He truly conquered death in himself and for us too, for we shall rise when he returns in glory.
We celebrate this mystery of salvation every Sunday of the year, but in a special way on Easter Sunday after having remembered the suffering and death of Christ on Passion (Palm) Sunday and on Good Friday. On this occasion, we also celebrate our own dying and rising to supernatural life through Baptism.
