Celebrating the Fullness of Holy Week
It was as a seminarian that I had an opportunity to truly get into what it meant to celebrate my faith. It wasn't because of my status as a seminarian; rather, it was because I was told by the faculty to get involved as much as possible during the Holy Week celebrations at my home parish. As a youth, we would occasionally go to one or two Holy Week celebrations each year, but never any more than that. Part of that was due to my brothers and I complaining to our mother that it was "too much Church." It wasn't until I could put my faith in the context of the whole of Holy Week that I could truly appreciate what my faith was all about.
Every Palm Sunday, we hear one of three versions of the Passion narrative. This year, we find ourselves meditating on Luke's Gospel. And while the Passion gives us a great scope of what happened during the last week of Christ's life before His Passion, we never truly can appreciate the fullness of it because of how much detail is packed into one Sunday.
Participating in the celebrations of Holy Week truly did change my life as I could day by day walk with Jesus through faith. It is in celebrating the fullness of Holy Week that I could understand a little bit more of what He did for you and for me.
So often in the confessional, I hear phrases like "father, I need to better my relationship with Christ" or "father, can you make any recommendations on how I can increase my faith". If you are the type of person who is thinking this way, and believe me, we could all use a deepening of our faith, then I do challenge you to consider participating at your Church's Holy Week celebrations. Grow in your faith and appreciation for what Christ has done in your life.
