My Dear Friends,
During his Sunday Angelus Address last week, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the liturgies of Holy Week that begin today:
The liturgy thus invites us… to relive the events of the Lord’s Passion — the entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the trial, the crucifixion, the burial — so that we may grasp their most authentic meaning and open ourselves to the gift of grace they contain.
These events are fulfilled in the risen Christ, who has conquered death and lives within us through Baptism, for our salvation and the fullness of life.
His grace illumines this world, which seems to constantly search for novelty and change, even at the cost of sacrificing important things — time, energy, values, affections — as if fame, material goods, entertainment and fleeting relationships could fill our hearts or make us immortal. It is a symptom of a longing for the infinite that each of us carries within us, a need that cannot be satisfied by passing things. Nothing finite can quench our inner thirst, for we are made for God, and we find no peace until we rest in him (cf. Confessions, I, 1.1).
We enter Holy Week burdened by so many things, yet we are called to walk with our Lord on the way to the Cross. The liturgies of this week draw us deeper into the mystery of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection and challenge us to cast aside our burdens to embark on this journey with Jesus.
Imagine being at the gates of Jerusalem with palms in your hands to triumphantly welcome the Lord. Then sitting with Jesus at the Last Supper to partake in the First Eucharist and having your feet washed by the hands of the Master. Watch him be arrested like a common criminal and put in chains. “Behold the Man” when he stands before the treacherous crowds thirsting for blood as he quietly stands there tortured and beaten yet looking on all of us with love. Journey with him down the Via Dolorosa as he struggles to carry his cross up to Calvary, falling along the way, yet encouraged by the sight of his Mother and our Mother. Feel the pain of those nails as they pierce the gentle and loving hands of our Good Shepherd who willingly lays his life down for his sheep. Look up as he is raised on the cross between two criminals with the crowd jeering at him, his Mother weeping, and with what little breath he has, he forgives us and thirsts for us. Feel the sorrow of Mary as she sees her Son commend his spirit to his Father and draw his last breath. It is finished. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world has been slaughtered for our offenses. “Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed (Isaiah 53:4-5).”
We were healed. By the blood our Lord shed on the crossed, our sins have been washed away. As we begin this Holy Week contemplating the Lord’s Passion, we look ahead to bright promise of the Resurrection. This is the week that changed the world. Walk every step with our Lord as we brace for the hope that Easter Sunday will bring. Immerse yourself in the liturgies of this week, and quench your thirst for the transcendent, for the living God who conquers sin and death.
God bless you all,
