Holy Week 2022
Journeying with the Lord into Jerusalem and to Golgotha
With Palm Sunday, Holy Week begins, marking the day Our Lord entered triumphantly into Jerusalem with shouts and praises, preparing the world to witness the great love God has for them, a love that includes judgment, betrayal, humiliation, suffering, and death, but ultimately new life, life that is eternal and life that is God Himself.
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion
7:00PM - 7:30PM
Our Lord enters triumphantly as a king, perhaps to the Jews the long awaited Messiah who will restore the Davidic Kingdom on earth. The Jewish leaders tell Jesus to rebuke His followers, but He refuses, saying that if they will not cry out, the stones will. Our Lord enters triumphantly into the climax of His Father’s will.
Monday
of Holy Week
6:00PM - 6:30PM
The Prophet Isaiah speaks of the Suffering Servant who will establish justice and open the eyes of the blind and set prisoners free. Later the Psalmist cries out that the LORD is his light and salvation. In the Gospel our Lord is treated with kindness and luxury is poured out unto Him only meeting the criticism of His own disciple.
Tuesday
of Holy Week
6:00PM - 6:30PM
The Suffering Servant is spoken of as a sharp-edged sword and who through him Israel will be gathered once again. He will also be a light to the nations, the Light that will bring about the salvation of the world. But not without betrayal and suffering, even at the hands of the Lord’s own disciple. This is when the Lord says the He and the Father are glorified.
Wednesday
of Holy Week
6:00PM - 6:30PM
Although the Suffering Servant has been given a well-trained tongue, he does not rebel or argue. He doesn’t even shield his face from “buffets and spitting.” Perhaps in his heart, the Suffering Servant is uttering the prayer of the Psalmist, “In your great love, Lord, answer me” because he knows the Lord hears him and will deliver him from his enemies. While the Suffering Servant and the Psalmist both know that the Lord will deliver them, it is Judas now who delivers the Lord into the hands of the Chief Priests. It is this irony that brings about our deliverance from sin and death.
Entering the
Sacred Paschal Triduum
Holy Thursday
Pre-Recorded due to Mass of the Lord’s Supper
At the Last Supper Our Lord instituted the Eucharist and the Priesthood, leaving unto us the Church and a share in His inheritance. This moment was foreshadowed in the Passover when the LORD God spared the Israelites the death of their first born by the blood of an one-year old unblemished lamb. Today, the true Lamb of God will be led to His slaughter so that not just the first born will be spared, but rather all who will come to believe in Him, who is the Son of God.
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
8:00PM - 8:30PM
After being arrested, struck, questioned, sentenced, Our Lord was led to the praetorium to be scourged. He was then mocked by being crowned with a crown of thorns, dressed in a purple cloak and given a reed. Little did the soldiers know that they were truly crowning a King, a King who was chosen by God to gather all the peoples to Himself so that all who looked upon Him might be saved. His glory is shown not on a chair or throne like Herod or Pilate or Caesar, but rather on the Cross which He carried to His execution. We proclaim Christ crucified. It is by His wounds that we have been healed, by His death and Resurrection that we have life. Jesus loved His own to the very end. Jesus died for love of us.
Holy Saturday
2:00PM-2:30PM
Our Lord’s body was taken down from the Cross and placed in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two devout Jews and Pharisees. On this day, the earth stood still, waiting for the gates of the place of the dead to be broken so that the souls of the just may be ushered up by the Lord. Today the earth is still and silent, eagerly anticipating the rush and noise of new life.
