The Thing About Holy Week
Every year when Holy Week rolls around, there is a time of great stress and pressure to make everything go right.
I work for the Church, so it’s kinda a big deal. The parish staff gathers to help those critical to liturgical ministries to make Holy Week truly special for the community.
We decorate the sanctuary, cover the statues, count out the candles, and ready everything for the big three days. The Triduum. We know it’s coming; there is stress and anxiety and a desire to make everything perfect.
The thing is, Holy Week will always be perfect. Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem a king, prophet, the Messiah, and days later, he was put to death. The triumphant kings’ story just begins at that point. Easter is coming, the king will rise, and the resurrection of the dead is true.
I love Holy Week; it is a time for us to remember the gift that is the Lamb of God, the one who gave himself for all of us. But it’s also a time to remember that he did it without us ‘earning’ it. None of us earned the right to heaven. Only Jesus’ sacrifice and death made that possible. The joy of Easter isn’t in the way we do good deeds or celebrate how awesome of people we may be; it’s about Jesus.
He died, so we may live. And he rose from death so that our life would be eternal. No matter how many mistakes occur during the Triduum, if we run out of candles or someone spills the water, Jesus Christ still rises from the dead. Easter is always perfect.
