In 1963, Andy Williams first crooned “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” In it, he waxed eloquently about Christmas traditions—old, like the Victorian custom of telling “scary ghost stories” and new(er), like hosting parties and telling “tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.” Williams made the song famous; the song made him a legend.
Ask Christians what the “most wonderful time of the year” is, and most I suspect, would agree with Williams that Christmas holds pride of place.
And they would be mistaken.
Back in the early ‘90s, Campus Ministry kicked off Christmas break with a prayer service in which members of the Saint Ignatius community were asked to reflect on and share their thoughts on the meaning of the holiday. I had just finished Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s masterful “The Life of Christ” and was eager to share my takeaways from that great book.
Alluding to Christmas, Sheen’s opening chapter noted that:
…every other person who ever came into this world came into it to live; He came into it to die. Death was a stumbling block to Socrates—it interrupted his teaching. But to Christ, death was the goal and fulfillment of His life…Few of His words or actions are intelligible without reference to His Cross. He presented Himself as a Savior rather than merely as a Teacher (Sheen, “Life of Christ”).
That saving work manifested itself in the Upper Room, on Calvary, and most importantly in the open Tomb. The meaning of Christmas I shared—indeed the meaning of the whole of Christian faith—is Easter.
This coming week, we recall that celebration requires sacrifice, and that is never truer than as we prepare for what St. Gregory the Theologian called “the feast of feasts.”
Sunday, we begin the week with Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, or as we cheekily called it when I was growing up, “Marathon Mass.” Combining the two “Passiontide” Masses of Passion Sunday during the 5th Week of Lent in the Tridentine Rite and Palm Sunday during the 6th Week, this Mass begins with the Gospel account of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem and continues with the account of Jesus’s Passion later in the Liturgy of the Word.
Mid-week, on what has been called “Spy Wednesday,” we will encounter Judas going to the Temple authorities with the offer of betraying his Friend for thirty silver pieces…a move he would soon regret.
Thursday begins the Triduum, the “Three Days” of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. The day centers on the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, recalling Jesus instituting the Eucharist. Traditionally the pastor of Roman Catholic parishes will wash the feet of twelve members of his congregation, obeying the mandatum “command” of Jesus Who washed the feet of His Apostles and told them that “as I have done for you, you should also do” (Jn 13:16). Sometimes called “Maundy Thursday” in reference to the mandatum, the day reminds us of the inseparable link between the Eucharist and acts of justice and loving service.
Holy Thursday and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper also recalls the institution of the priesthood as Jesus, having inaugurated the Eucharistic Liturgy, commissioned the Apostles to “do this in memory of Me” (Lk 22:19). Priests in many dioceses meet in their cathedrals that morning for the Chrism Mass to reflect on and renew their priestly vows and receive the sacred sacramental oils (the Oil of the Sick, the Oil of Catechumens, and the Holy Chrism) which are blessed by their bishops. The Triduum being, not surprisingly, an amazingly busy time for our priests, in the Diocese of Cleveland, the Chrism Mass takes place on Tuesday evening of Holy Week.
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion is the most solemn day of our liturgical year. Our churches, having been stripped bare and the Blessed Sacrament removed, host reminders of the great love Jesus showed us in enduring the humiliation and literal excruciating (“from the Cross”) pain of Calvary. Praying the Stations of the Cross (with its veneration) and joining at 3 o’clock for the recounting of the Lord’s Passion are the order of the day—as are fasting and abstaining from meat. On Good Friday (so-called because we are reminded of Jesus’s great goodness in offering Himself up for us “while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8)), we remember our complicity in His death.
And His loving us into eternal life.
On Holy Saturday, we ponder Jesus in the Tomb, awaiting His Resurrection. Alone and abandoned.
Holy Saturday at sundown brings with it the start of the Easter Vigil. And the Easter season.
Holy Week is literally our ultimate preparation for that preeminent season. It is a time to put ourselves with Jesus in His final days before His Rising and ask ourselves whether we are, in our daily lives, that much different from those who denied, betrayed, and abandoned Him. It is also the time to remember those who, like us today, were forgiven by the One Who literally loves us to death…and back.
During this, the most wonderful time of the year.
A.M.D.G. / B.V.M.H.