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AND SO IT BEGINS…
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Holy Week is upon us—the most sacred, solemn, and important time of our entire liturgical year. It is the time of marking our atonement and salvation in Christ.
But it’s not Good Friday yet—why do we read the Passion on Palm Sunday? That’s a question that requires historical perspective. In fact, until the beginning of liturgical reform in the 1950s (spearheaded by Pope Pius XII), no one but clergy celebrated the Triduum, and then often in the mornings. Vatican II decided to take Pius’ reforms to their logical conclusion and have a proper Triduum. But before then, when folks only came to church on Sundays, Palm Sunday was the (2nd) Passion Sunday; the next time people arrived it was Easter. We do things differently now, but some of the practices have carried over even to today.
Today we read Mark’s version. Sadly, because we still cannot have items commonly touched in the pews (hymnals, Mass parts booklets…), we cannot have the Passion proclaimed in parts in quite the same way. We’ll have one person representing the “Crowd,” and if you know the words, join in!
We’ll be limited in other ways during this Triduum—no outdoor Stations of the Cross on Palm Sunday morning; no foot-washing on Holy Thursday; no touching or kissing of the cross during veneration on Good Friday; no individual candles for the Easter Vigil… But we will be doing what we can to make our Holy Week at least a bit more like it should be. There will be outdoor Stations in the courtyard on Good Friday; there will be the Eucharistic procession to our “Garden of Gethsemane” in Jennings Hall, with Adoration until midnight; there will be a baptism, a reception, and confirmations at the Easter Vigil. We limp along, slowly but always forward. What is critically important is our entering into these liturgies with humility and prayerfulness, and with gratitude to God in Jesus Christ, with gratitude for the immense gift of love.
What if you or I had been with the women that morning, bringing burial spices to the Lord’s tomb, to finish the rituals that were cut short by lack of time? What would have our emotional condition have been? What would our Friday night/Saturday have been like, in terms of grief? How early would we have awakened on that first day of the week? Last week’s Gospel related how Greeks asked “to see Jesus”—so did the women, but they saw Him in a way they never dreamed possible—transformed, risen, glorious: truly the Son of God, truly Christ the King—bringing the message of mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, and charging His followers to spread that message: not just by proclaiming but by doing. We are also His followers: what will we do?
