Holy Week - Intro

St. Andrew of Crete, an 8th Century theologian and monk, homilized on Palm Sunday. This is what he said: "Let us go together to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today he returns from Bethany and proceeds of his own free will toward his holy and blessed passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation....

"Let us run to accompany him as he hastens toward his passion and imitate those who met him then, not by covering his path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before him by being humble and by trying to live as he would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at his coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.

"...So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him...Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children's holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Blessed is the king of Israel."

Christians, everywhere, re-celebrate and re-experience "Palm Sunday" as the beginning of Holy Week, the one week in the year that is most meaningful in any of the Christian Religions. While some non-Catholics may forget this, Catholics are first, and foremost Christians, because our entire religion is based on Jesus Christ. The Global Internet reaches all corners of the world. Many people do not believe in Jesus Christ. Generally, those are people who are non-Catholic and non-Christian, and that's OK. However, when we pray for peace in the world, we include everyone in that prayer.

The words of St. Andrew of Crete are inspiring, because he places emphasis on the quality of our praise and admiration of Jesus as He comes into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. To place olive branches on the trail leading to the Jerusalem Gate is nice, but what we're looking for is an adoration that comes from within. So when we say "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, our praise and admiration for Jesus comes from the Heart, and not just from our lips, or hastily placed garments and branches.

As Holy Week progresses, the Apostles are busy setting up the Last Supper. I've always wondered what happened in those days. Nowadays a meal for so many people would be catered but somehow I doubt there was a catering business in those days. And, by the way, Leonardo Da Vinci painted the scene of the Last Supper in 1498; Da Vinci wasn't at the Last Supper.

The passion account, with its condemnation of Jesus by the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:53,55-65; 15:1a) and sentencing by Pilate (Mark 15:1b-15), is prefaced with the entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-11), ministry and controversies there (Mark 11:15-12:44), Jesus' Last Supper with the disciples (Mark 14:1-26). There is more, of course, but this is the span I'm covering in this Reflection. Not much is said about the preparation for the meal itself.

It is more important what happened at the last Supper, than the Supper itself. At that well-documented meal, Jesus instituted what Catholics now celebrate at every Mass, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. We celebrate Holy Mass so frequently because Jesus told us to do so. Jesus gave us a most precious gift, Himself, in the Holy Eucharist.

Holy Communion (Eucharist) is not only our relationship with Christ in the Eucharist, but also our relationship with each other, specifically with other Catholics who believe, as we do, in the real presence of Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.

More of the homily of Cardinal O'Connor:
"To receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church means that one believes one is receiving, not a symbol of Christ, but Christ Jesus himself. One is not engaging simply in a memorial gesture toward the Last Supper and the crucifixion, however reverent and well intended. The Eucharist is the fruit of the Sacrifice of the Mass today. Christ is spiritually, mysteriously sacrificed today. This is what we believe. We are receiving the same Christ the Apostles received at the Last Supper. We are receiving in actuality the same Christ conceived and born of Mary, crucified and risen. It is not a symbolic Christ, it is the same Christ. It is our belief in this reality that is essential to our being a Catholic community, that unity, as the Catechism says, "By which the Church is kept in being...the sum and summary of our faith."

He continues:

"What would our faith be without our belief in this gift of the Eucharist? Here is what our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, says of the Holy Eucharist:

"The sacrifice of the Cross is so decisive for the future of man that Christ did not carry it out and did not return to the Father until he had left us the means to take part in it as if we had been present. Christ's offering on the Cross--which is the real Bread of Life broken--is the first value that must be communicated and shared. The Mass and the Cross are but one and the same sacrifice. Nevertheless the Eucharistic breaking of bread has an essential function, that of putting at our disposal the original offering of the Cross. It makes it actual today for our generation. By making the Body and Blood of Christ really present under the species of bread and wine, it makes--simultaneously--the Sacrifice of the Cross actual and accessible to our generation, this Sacrifice which remains, in its uniqueness, the turning point of the history of salvation, the essential link between time and eternity."

Fred Schaeffer, OFS
2/6/2023

Next Holy Week Reflection and Prayer

Lumen Cbristi

The Light of Christ

Easter Vigil