As we approach Holy Week, we have spiritually moved through Lent, seeking to empty ourselves of egoism, complacency, distraction, and self-seeking, so that the Lord finds greater space and capacity within us to receive His divine grace.
Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving have opened us up to deeper and fuller relationships with God and others.
Our reflection on the Scriptures has expanded our experience of the Lord’s love for us, made manifest in Christ Jesus.
The saving events of Jesus’ final week
We are about to liturgically enter once again the saving events of Jesus’ final week — His triumphant entrance into Jerusalem; the drama of the Last Supper; and the Agony in the Garden; the moving and disturbing details of His arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death; and His glorious triumph over sin and death in the resurrection.
One of the striking aspects of Holy Week for me is the vulnerability of Christ.
He enters the city humbly, seated on a donkey, not on a powerful horse or in a majestic carriage. Jesus stoops down to wash the feet of the apostles, doing the work of a slave. He suffers violence, mockery, spitting, calumny, torture, and crucifixion with a peaceful equanimity, forgiving His enemies and commending Himself to the Father. In all of this astonishing detail, we see God redeeming us, not from a position of safety or distance, but from a humble vulnerability which I find both shocking and consoling.
The Love which washes feet; forgives a thief, a coward, and a traitor; and suffers a terrifying crucifixion, all the while being reviled and hated, is so beyond our human capacity to grasp that it takes our breath away. No wonder kings will stand speechless in the presence of the Suffering Servant, as Isaiah prophecies.
At the center of this complete self-giving and self-emptying of Christ, stands the enduring gift of the Eucharist.
At the Last Supper, the Lord hands over His Body and Blood in sacramental form to His apostles, and through them, to the Church, just as the next day, He hands over His Body and Blood on the Cross.
“Do This in Memory of Me” is quite clearly a commandment of Jesus which the Church has fulfilled unfailingly for 2,000 years.
We share in His sacrifice
The Mass is our sharing in the sacrifice of the Lord, this offering of the Son to the Father, drawing us into the very life of the Trinity, who is constantly pouring out divine love upon us. The Eucharist is the fruit of the death and resurrection of Christ, drawing us into the Paschal Mystery, as we enjoy a union with the Lord in Holy Communion which is both physical and spiritual.
Ponder the events of Holy Week through the prism of the Eucharist.
Just as the crowds shout, “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” as Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, so too we sing the “Hosanna in the Highest” right before the Eucharistic Prayer, as the Lord descends upon the altar and enters into us.
Every Mass is a privileged moment when we receive the Body of the Lord, as the apostles did at the Last Supper. They have no spiritual advantage over us. As the Lord gives His life on the Cross on Good Friday, so too He offers His life to us in every celebration of the Eucharist. The disciples on the road to Emmaus recognized the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread; so too, the fullness of Christ’s life fills us when we experience the power of the Mass. When we receive Holy Communion worthily, we digest the great secret of the resurrection, as St. John Paul put it.
Our belief that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ is a challenging conviction to fully embrace, for it means that God, who is beyond time and space, whose eternal power, knowledge, and love know no bounds, is fully present in the humble form of bread and wine.
This divine gift changes everything, for the Lord so binds Himself to us, becomes one with us, linking Himself to our body, mind, heart, and soul that we now live in a profound union with Him.
In the Bread of Life discourse in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus promises that those who feed on His Body and Blood will live forever with Him.
This commitment is absolutely amazing!
If I am faithful to the Lord, believing in Him, seeking holiness, rooting out sin in my life, and participating in the Eucharist worthily, I will live forever in the glory of God! This gift is the extraordinary good news of our Catholic faith!
When such holy people die and the Lord looks at their souls, what will He see? Will it not be as if He were looking into a mirror, because they will be so filled with Him, that He will see an image of Himself?
The entire purpose of the death and resurrection of Christ is to ransom you from sin and Hell, so that you can live as a child of God, know the abundance of His love now, and live with Him forever in the joy of Heaven.
I encourage you urgently to attend all of the Holy Week liturgies. Open your heart to the Savior whose Heart was pierced, so that you can taste the glory of the Eucharist.