Reading: John 11:45—57“Can you not see that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed?” So spoke the high priest, Caiaphas, as the beginning of what we call Holy Week was approaching. Jesus would soon be making his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. That is what we will be commemorating and celebrating the next time you come to Mass. Holy Week is about to begin.
Most of us here, if not all, will put ourselves into Holy Week as much as we can. We will attend the liturgies, we will recall the short-lived glory of Palm Sunday, we will join the apostles at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, we will be present with Mary at the foot of the cross on Good Friday. When Holy Saturday arrives we will be worn out, but ready to go through the long service when Christ will rise and his light will shine again.
As we go through all these services let us not allow it to be for us merely a series of liturgical exercises that we are present at. Let us keep our minds on the Christ they signify and reveal. Let us not come out at the end of the week with no more knowledge and love of Jesus than when we went in. But when Easter arrives let us have discovered more about him and his love, and be drawn closer to Christ and his Father than we are at this moment. Our focus is to be upon the Christ who is the reason for all that we will be doing, upon the spirit of the liturgy, not upon the letter.
“Can you not see that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed?” exclaimed Caiaphas? He didn’t really understand the significance of what he was saying. Let us become more aware of the significance of Holy Week. Jesus died for us, we are to live for him. May this Holy Week help us to do that.
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