I AM In Holy Week

The death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus are the decisive events remembered and celebrated by Christians. Our faith in Christ is in turn rooted in the faith of Israel, who trusted in the God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and brought them into His presence as the people of God. The Hebrew people responded in faith to the God who identified Himself as I AM WHO AM when he appeared to Moses out of the burning bush. The worship of I AM, of HE WHO IS (YHWH), is at the heart of Jewish and Christian faith. We believe that this One God created the Kosmos of space-time out of nothing, and guides the course of events through His wisdom and loving care. The uniqueness of Christian faith, as distinct from that of the Jewish people, is the conviction that the eternal I AM was fully present in Jesus of Nazareth, and in Jesus, God experienced suffering and death for every creature, to bring them from death to life eternal in union with God. To the best of my knowledge, this insight forms the centerpiece of Christian truth.

The liturgies of Holy Week demand and seek to build in us a response of living faith and of love for the I AM who experienced suffering and death in Jesus. Our task is to continue the incarnation of I AM in humankind. Crowds cheered Jesus when he entered Jerusalem, believing that he was a delivering, conquering messianic hero. They were soon disappointed by Jesus, who was put to death. In the Mass of the LORD’s Supper, we experience the pathos of self-emptying love, of utter humility, by the I AM, the One who is from all eternity: I AM in man washes the disciples’ feet. In meditating on Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane, we can feel nearly torn by the tension of truth: that HE WHO IS was in Jesus enduring torment, torture, desertion, abandonment for us. St. John captures this tension of truth in Gethsemane when Jesus declares, “I AM,” and his fellow Jews fall to the ground, as Moses did at the burning bush; but then a few moments later, the same men arrest the I AM as if He were a criminal.

And then Good Friday. The most painful paradox of all, it seems to me, is that the God-Man Jesus experiences utter God-forsakenness on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The man who embodied the I AM now feels utterly abandoned by God, experiencing in his soul what each human being deserves through rejecting God in sin. In Christ, I AM accepted our humanity, even our sinfulness and rejection of God. And all of us, with our sins, Jesus takes into God. For regardless of being tortured and feeling abandoned, Jesus remained utterly loyal to God, to “my God.” Here we see real love, true love: not sweet feelings and affections, but being faithful to one’s Beloved even when feeling tortured and abandoned.

Holy Week Note, Part I

Catholic public worship centers on the Eucharist, and the celebrations of every Eucharist center on the death and Resurrection of Christ. Although each Sunday liturgy is “a little Easter,” the great celebration in our Church year is the Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil / Easter Day Mass. Whereas Christians have gathered to remember the death and Resurrection of Jesus from the dead since immediately following the events, observing the birth of our LORD came centuries later. Pentecost is a Jewish feast in honor of the giving of the Law through Moses, and from early centuries Christians modified that feast into thanking God for the gift of the Holy Spirit through Christ. Holy Week, Pentecost, and Christmas form the high points of the Church year--mountains rising from the sea, as it were. And without doubt, the Pascal Mystery remembered and observed in the Easter liturgies is the supreme climax and celebration of the entire year. “Christ our Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast--not with the old leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Cor 5).

During the homilies this week-end through Easter, and on Passion (Palm) Sunday, I will offer some thoughts on the meaning of the death and Resurrection of Christ for us. I encourage as many as possible to attend the liturgies of Holy Week, to prepare before each service with some quiet prayer, and to be attentive during the liturgies. The Catholic Church offers these “high holy days” for our benefit, to bring us closer to God through Christ. The services are a gift of Christ in the Church.

This year on Passion / Palm Sunday, we read St. Mark’s account of the Lord’s suffering and death for us. Only twice in the Church year do the faithful hear an entire Passion narrative: on Passion Sunday and on Good Friday.

Three main services compose the Triduum--Mass of the LORD’s Supper on Holy Thursday; the Good Friday liturgy; the Easter Vigil / Easter Mass. These three are integrated liturgies, representing the Passover of the Lord. Hence, we are instructed to celebrate them in one church. Holy Thursday and the Vigil are joyful, although Christ’s Passion overshadows the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Washing of feet symbolizes Christ’s self-giving love. After Mass we repose the Blessed Sacrament outside the sanctuary, with space for the faithful to remember and to adore. Good Friday, the one day in the year when Mass is not celebrated, focuses on reading the Passion according to St. John, prayers for all, the veneration of the Cross, and holy communion. The Vigil and Easter are joy to those who made the Passover with the Lord.