Meditations for Holy Week: Tuesday 4 April

Apr 4, 2023 by Jill

TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: In many countries, passion plays take place during Holy Week. These are often “sacred representations “which can justly be regarded as pious exercises. Indeed, such sacred representations have their origins in the Sacred Liturgy. Some of these plays, which began in the monks’ choir, so as to speak, have undergone a progressive dramatization that has taken them outside of the church.  Tuesday of Holy Week is the day when the famous incident between Jesus and Pharisees is thought to have taken place. This was when the churchmen tried to trap Jesus into making a blasphemous, or, anti-god remark. This day is important also on another count. Jesus discoursed to his disciples on the Mount of Olives about the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of the last day.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY: These three days, leading up to the Triduum have within the liturgical development of Holy Week a very definite purpose. They place all its celebrations into the perspective of the End; they remind us of the eschatological meaning of Pascha. So often Holy Week is considered one of the beautiful traditions” or “customs”, a self evident “part” of our calendar. We take it for granted and enjoy it as a cherished annual event, which we have observed since our childhood. We admire the beauty of its services, the pageantry of its rites and, last but not least, we like the fuss about the Paschal table. Then when all this is done, we resume our normal life. But do we understand that when the world rejected its Savior, when “Jesus began to be sorrowful and very heavy….and his soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death,” when He died on the Cross, “normal life” came to its .

For they were “normal” men who shouted, “Crucify Him!”, who spat on Him and nailed Him to the Cross. They hated and killed Him precisely because He was troubling their normal life. It was indeed a perfectly “normal” world, which preferred darkness and death to light and life. By the death of Jesus, this “normal” world, this “normal” life was irrevocably condemned, or rather, they revealed their true and abnormal nature (e.g., their inability to receive the judgment of this world.” (John 12:31). We want to think that we would never have such thoughts or take such actions. Our best assurance  lies in a thorough examination of self and a resubmission to the power of the Father just as Jesus did.

PRAYER OF THE DAY: Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Holy Week Discipline – Spend time in prayer for those in the Sudan, Congo, Ukraine who are risk of betrayal and violence. Commit to become an abolitionist by signing the Petition to End Modern Day Slavery https://www.endslaverynow.org/act/action-library/sign-the-petition-for-the-end-modern-slavery-initiative Take the petition to your school, family, friends, et al., have them sign it as well.

ANCIENT WORDS/PRESENT GRACE: “True reverence for the Lord’s passion means fixing the eyes of our heart on Jesus crucified and recognizing in him our own humanity.” —St. Leo the Great

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