Holy Week Begins

I jump from "Saturday closest to March 24" entry in the Divine Hours to "Holy Week." The readings are lengthier, specific to the events of the last week of Christ's earthly life before resurrection. I find myself wondering about the sequence, about what Jesus was thinking as he faced the inevitable. I have some very small idea how that might have felt - sort of like making yourself walk into the cancer clinic infusion center to get chemo and radiation even though you know it will make you feel terrible for awhile. Very small scale.

But the week begins with joy. Jesus is celebrated as the answer to all life's problems, adorned as a King, worshiped. So we begin our service today, so we begin our cantata. Hosanna! Then we move in twenty short minutes straight to the cross. We miss out on so much by not celebrating Holy Week over a week's time. We have collapsed and condensed the ancient story into an abstract. No wonder we scarcely understand the full impact of this sacrifice.

Bach wrote musical works for Holy Week that were to be performed each day for the entire week in the services the church normally held. I have a vague recollection that when I was in elementary school, Catholic churches were open every day during Holy Week for prayer and meditation, and people took advantage of that. At very least I remember Good Friday services that began at noon and lasted until 3 pm. People sat in the pews reading Scripture, and from time to time, some hymn or picture was presented at the appropriate time, as if we walked through the day beside Jesus, experiencing what he might have experienced.

I never encountered a Saturday vigil until a friend of mine invited me to an Eastern Orthodox Easter vigil. It was fascinating. People stay up all night long, sometimes taking candles and walking en masse out into the night and around the church building, singing and chanting. It sent shivers down my spine. The next day there is a feast!

The choir did a marvelous job singing the cantata. The readers brought us into the action and the pictures helped us comprehend how it must have seemed to the disciples back then. It was an excellent start to this most sacred week of the year. A whole page is devoted to it in my liturgical calendar. Called Gethsemane and picturing Christ in an agony of prayer in the Garden - accepting God's will.

For some reason, this year Holy Week is special to me. Perhaps it is because I made it through such a grueling year of treatment. Or maybe because of my Dad's recent passing. Whatever the reason, I try to absorb every little detail, every nuance, to capture these times for posterity. I am looking forward to what the grace of God will bring each day. May your Holy Week be as special as mine is turning out to be.