We are now entering into the holiest week of the year (23). It is topped by the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, which, along with the resurrection of Lazarus, constitutes a glorious, joyful introduction to the painful humiliations that will follow.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Great Week are preparation for the Passion. Therefore, it has a clear tone of sadness and repentance. As for Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays of the same week, they are part of the Easter celebrations, and each of them highlights an aspect of the Easter mystery. We can say that this Easter mystery has three faces, each of which is related to a specific day of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. We can also say that each of these three aspects relates to a specific place: the upper room, Golgotha, and the tomb. Holy Thursday commemorates the mystery of the Upper Room, Friday commemorates the mystery of Golgotha, and Saturday commemorates the mystery of Christ’s tomb. On Thursday in the upper room, through sacramental action, Jesus announces, consecrates, and presents what the following days will bring. As for Friday, Jesus fulfills our redemption on Calvary by his death on the cross. On Saturday, Jesus lives in the grave. But the Church, hastening Easter Sunday, has been speaking ever since about the Savior’s victory over death. This anticipation of the Resurrection, which occurs on Holy Saturday, allows us to say that the mystery of the Resurrection of Christ, celebrated on Easter Sunday, is in a sense part of the Great Week. Thus, this week is a summary of God’s entire saving plan.
We make a grave mistake if we approach one aspect of the Paschal mystery in isolation from the others. The phrase “Easter” does not refer, in the traditional language of the Church, to the Day of Resurrection only, but also includes the Eucharistic Mystery, the Mystery of the Cross, and the Mystery of the Empty Tomb. The days of Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and finally Easter Sunday all together constitute the one and only Easter mystery. It is the Christian equivalent of what the Jews used to call “Passover.” (24)Crossing, passing from one place to another. The elements of the Jewish holiday were similar in form to the elements that make up our Paschal mystery. There was the table where the lamb was eaten. The blood of the lamb, a sign of salvation, was sprinkled on the doors of houses to prevent the angel of death from passing through them. Finally, there was the crossing of the Red Sea, the exit from the land of Egypt and slavery, the receding of the waters of the miraculous river, the passage on dry land, and finally the arrival at the other bank, the bank of freedom and hope. The Holy Week will not take on its true meaning for us unless we make it “Easter,” that is, a passage from death to life.
If the time of birth and the divine appearance expresses in a way the “first conversion” of the soul, the first appearance of Jesus, his first meeting with us, and the beginning of the shared life between the teacher and the student, then we can say that the Passion Time, or rather the entire Paschal Mystery, expresses the “second conversion.” The student's confrontation with his teacher's cross and grave. It is not enough here to follow Jesus on the paths of Galilee, the paths of his earthly wanderings, and to rely on his friendship and the sweetness of his association, this friendship and this association that have long been destroyed by our betrayals (but Jesus will quickly restore what was damaged).
The Holy Week shows us the saving ministry of Jesus more than it shows us his person. This week presents to us the grace of salvation achieved through Christ and the possibility of experiencing it internally. He also puts before us the great truths in which we are called to participate: awareness of sin, repentance, the fact that the Lamb of God represents the place of the sinner and bears his sins, the sacrifice of the cross, and God’s acceptance of this sacrifice expressed in the resurrection. We are called to let the blood of Christ flow over our spiritual wounds, and to unite with his sacrificial death in order to also be united with his new life. Death and life. Death in Christ and life in Christ: This is (the second conversion). This is the experience to which the Great Week calls us.
Let us not approach the mysteries of this week - the mysteries of Christ, but also ours - without trembling and fear, but at the same time with infinite confidence. (God so loved the world that he gave his only Son) (John 3:16) (...Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life) (John 15:13).
Grant me, O my Savior, to realize, through you this week, the profound meaning of the only Son’s sacrifice by his Father, and of the Son’s giving of his life. And to also realize the meaning of this (greatest love) that the Paschal Mystery proclaims. And make me understand well what this (giving up of life) and (the greatest love) require of me as well.
(23) The Greeks call the week before Easter Sunday Great Holy Week, while the Latins call it Great Week or Holy Week. The Russians call it (Holy Week). But this name creates confusion, because the Latins give this name to the week preceding Palm Sunday, which the Greeks call (Palm Sunday). It appears from historical documents that, in the late fourth century, the entire Christian world was celebrating Great Holy Week with special ritual services and very severe fasts. We find a lot of valuable information about this celebration in Jerusalem, in the novel that she wrote, around 388, an eyewitness, Ataria, who visited the Holy Land.
(24) The Greeks considered the word (Paskha) to be derived from the Greek verb (Paskhein), meaning to suffer, to endure, but this word is actually derived from the Hebrew word (Pessah), which means (to pass over).