Holy Week: An Engagement of the Whole Person

Growing up, I always looked forward to Holy Week. As a kid, I remember saying things like: “This is my favorite week of the year.” I stand by that comment and would probably double down on it today. Holy Week is also very connected to my first memories of wanting to be a priest. I have always loved the liturgies of Holy Week because they are so unique from the rest of the liturgical year. There is something special about this week, something different. I think it is even safe to say that there is something mysterious about this week, Holy Week.

One of the things I loved most about Holy Week was all the extra pageantry (excuse the phrase) of the liturgies. I do not think that it is fully accurate to put that sentence in the past tense, it is true today as well. I think one of the unique aspects of the Holy Week liturgies is how engaging and how sensory they are. I always look forward to the procession with palms on Palm Sunday; the washing of the feet and stripping of the altar on Holy Thursday; the veneration of the Cross on Good Friday; and the blessing of the Easter fire and singing of the Exsultet on Holy Saturday. The liturgies of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday engage all the senses, they engage the whole person. They are so human – they acknowledge the fact that God created man with both body and soul and that both are good.

As these liturgies engage our senses, we are brought into an encounter with the living God and the central mysteries of our faith. All these different elements make the mysteries we are celebrating come alive. If we allow ourselves to truly experience the liturgies of Holy Week, I think we can in a real and profound way experience the mysteries that we are celebrating. Rather than being a mere spectator, we are invited to become active participants in the unfolding drama. We are actors in the story, the story of our salvation. We can see and experience how there are moments in our lives when we are being invited to carry the cross of Christ with Him, where our lives seem like a constant Good Friday and Holy Saturday. We can see and experience how there are moments in our lives where things are going really well, and we know in a unique way the joy of the empty tomb. Reliving the events of Holy Week through the liturgy, allows us to recognize that as Christians we are invited to experience and live the Paschal Mystery. St. Paul reminds us: “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in the newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection” (Romans 6: 3-5).

Now, I understand that this is not always possible because of work schedules and the challenges of family life, but I would like to suggest that we try to approach Holy Week differently. I think it can be helpful to think of Holy Week as a retreat in which we slow down, try to make some more time for prayer, make attending the Holy Week liturgies a priority, and try to avoid any unnecessary activity. I think if we allow ourselves and our families to slow down, we will be able to experience more fully the liturgies and everything they contain.

Liturgically, the liturgies of the Triduum are one celebration. I think it can be helpful to think of the rest of our lives between the celebrations as the ongoing, unfolding of the mystery. It could be helpful for us during the days of Holy Week to be intentional about limiting technology usage, especially our phones, so that our minds can be more focused on the unfolding drama that we are participants in. We should seek to remove distractions so that our minds can be focused on the mystery, and we can fully enter into the experience of what God is doing in us. As Pope Benedict XVI said: “The liturgy is not the memory of past events but is the living presence of the paschal mystery of Christ, who transcends and unites times and places.... The conviction must grow within us every day that the liturgy is not our or my 'doing' but rather is an action of God in us and with us” (General Audience, 3 October 2012).

Through our experience of the beauty of Holy Week, the Lord wants to work in our lives. He is inviting us to experience the Paschal Mystery as our mystery, the story of our lives. He wants us to really experience His Passion with Him and journey with Him through the Cross to the glory of the Resurrection. He wants us to experience the silence of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, so that the joy we experience at the sight of the empty tomb may burst forth into an endless song of “Alleluia.”