What is Holy About Holy Week?
This week is Holy Week.
Holy Week is that week between Palm/Passion Sunday and Easter in which Christians around the world reflect upon the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. For several years now I have done a Palm/Passion Sunday service that involves a dramatic reading of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, followed by the Gospel story of the events surrounding his death, commonly referred to as the Passion. Those stories are found in this year's readings in Luke 19:29-40 and Luke 22:14-23:56.
These readings follow us through Holy week. The events of Holy Week and Easter are the two sides of the same coin of salvation, as it were. They must be taken together. Holy Week without the resurrection of Jesus leads to despair and cynicism. Easter without the suffering and death of Jesus is hollow and lifeless.
Why do I say this? One important reason is that these stories define the way that the Christian faith addresses the issues of tragedy, suffering and death. At some point in time, every person experiences some sort of personal or communal tragedy, be it the terminal illness of a loved one, an untimely death by means of a traffic accident, or a natural disaster such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or the ravages of war, terrorism or human-caused environmental disasters. Even if the causes of such tragedies are understood rationally, the human soul still cries out for deeper understanding, for a way to find meaning and significance and even hope in such events. The quest for these deeper answers is what the spiritual quest is all about.
Holy Week is holy precisely because it confronts these very questions head-on. Questions of "What happened" and "How did it happen?" deal with the physical and temporal aspects of events. When we ask, "Why did it happen?" and "What is the significance of what happened?" as well as "How do I live my life after what has happened?" we are asking spiritual questions.
Spirituality has to do with the direction our lives are taking. Spirituality is predicated upon the recognition that all reality is vectored. I borrow this notion from mathematics and physics, in which a vector is defined as "A quantity, such as velocity, completely specified by a magnitude and a direction." A thing existing in Reality is defined by its physical constituents, its dimensions and situatedness (i.e., where it is in relation to other things). These are the elements most commonly explored scientifically and technologically. However, things also have a dimension of purposefulness, of existing toward some goal, end or purpose. Often the purpose is simple and rather mundane. For existence, a container, such as a cup, exists in order to contain things. When we use the phrase "in order to" we recognize this tacit purposefulness. In religion and philosophy the word for this recognition of purposefulness is "teleology," which means "a doctrine explaining phenomena by their ends or purposes."
Many people, especially in the hard sciences (I was trained in Biology), are uncomfortable with the notion of ascribing purposefulness to things. This is understandable. Science deals with that which is objectively quantifiable, physically observable, and empirically repeatable and verifiable. Purpose and meaning are much more slippery, and subject to subjective variability. However, that doesn't change the fact that the structure of language acknowledges purposefulness: a cup exists to hold liquid, a chair exists to be sat upon, etc. Even hardcore atheists such as Richard Dawkins can't discuss the "selfish gene" without speaking of organisms existing so that genes can replicate and perpetuate themselves. It is possible to speak teleologically without speaking theologically.
But during Holy Week and Easter, we do speak theologically. The events surrounding the last week of Jesus' life on earth were remembered and edited by the early church in order to address the meaning of Jesus' life, death and resurrection as it applied to the lives of his followers. They were recorded to remind anyone who wishes to follow Jesus and live a life as one who sits at this feet (i.e., as a disciple) that he suffered just as we suffer, he wept just as we weep, he knew pain and sorrow just as we do, and he died just as we will all one day die. The message is plain and clear: Jesus was one of us in every way. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews puts it this way: "Because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18).
Holy Week is holy precisely because the events of this week demonstrate how God has folded the perils, trials and terrors of human existence into Divine existence. We will explore this idea more deeply this week as we prepare for Easter by traveling through Holy week. The subjects for this week's blogs will be:
These readings follow us through Holy week. The events of Holy Week and Easter are the two sides of the same coin of salvation, as it were. They must be taken together. Holy Week without the resurrection of Jesus leads to despair and cynicism. Easter without the suffering and death of Jesus is hollow and lifeless.
Why do I say this? One important reason is that these stories define the way that the Christian faith addresses the issues of tragedy, suffering and death. At some point in time, every person experiences some sort of personal or communal tragedy, be it the terminal illness of a loved one, an untimely death by means of a traffic accident, or a natural disaster such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes or the ravages of war, terrorism or human-caused environmental disasters. Even if the causes of such tragedies are understood rationally, the human soul still cries out for deeper understanding, for a way to find meaning and significance and even hope in such events. The quest for these deeper answers is what the spiritual quest is all about.
Holy Week is holy precisely because it confronts these very questions head-on. Questions of "What happened" and "How did it happen?" deal with the physical and temporal aspects of events. When we ask, "Why did it happen?" and "What is the significance of what happened?" as well as "How do I live my life after what has happened?" we are asking spiritual questions.
Spirituality has to do with the direction our lives are taking. Spirituality is predicated upon the recognition that all reality is vectored. I borrow this notion from mathematics and physics, in which a vector is defined as "A quantity, such as velocity, completely specified by a magnitude and a direction." A thing existing in Reality is defined by its physical constituents, its dimensions and situatedness (i.e., where it is in relation to other things). These are the elements most commonly explored scientifically and technologically. However, things also have a dimension of purposefulness, of existing toward some goal, end or purpose. Often the purpose is simple and rather mundane. For existence, a container, such as a cup, exists in order to contain things. When we use the phrase "in order to" we recognize this tacit purposefulness. In religion and philosophy the word for this recognition of purposefulness is "teleology," which means "a doctrine explaining phenomena by their ends or purposes." 
But during Holy Week and Easter, we do speak theologically. The events surrounding the last week of Jesus' life on earth were remembered and edited by the early church in order to address the meaning of Jesus' life, death and resurrection as it applied to the lives of his followers. They were recorded to remind anyone who wishes to follow Jesus and live a life as one who sits at this feet (i.e., as a disciple) that he suffered just as we suffer, he wept just as we weep, he knew pain and sorrow just as we do, and he died just as we will all one day die. The message is plain and clear: Jesus was one of us in every way. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews puts it this way: "Because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18).
Holy Week is holy precisely because the events of this week demonstrate how God has folded the perils, trials and terrors of human existence into Divine existence. We will explore this idea more deeply this week as we prepare for Easter by traveling through Holy week. The subjects for this week's blogs will be:
- Tuesday: "Cruciform Reality"
- Wednesday: "Suffering’s Meanings"
- Thursday: "The Power of Friendship"
- Friday: "He has Borne our Griefs"
Welcome to the Journey!
(Clipart Images from the Hermanolean website: http://www.cruzblanca.org/hermanoleon/)
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