My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:
In the loving providence of the Lord, we begin yet another Holy Week, a special time for us to experience in a new and more profound way the abiding presence of Jesus Christ and our call to share more fully in His victory over sin and death. As we begin Holy Week 2007, it is vitally important we remember we are not simply recalling past events of world history. As people of faith, we celebrate a "living memory"; we commemorate the way the Lord Jesus is still living out His Paschal Mystery for us in the Church — in our liturgy and through our works of service in His name.
For the person of faith, every day is a sacred time, a unique and unrepeatable moment of grace. In a special way, Holy Week offers us the special privilege of entering into the mind and heart of Jesus Christ as He embraced the process of suffering, rejection and death, hoping for resurrection. While every day of the year we should act as Jesus would have done, during this sacred week, more than ever, one of our goals and objectives should be to live and die like Christ and with Christ, to experience the whole process of our salvation in a very intimate way, trying to feel and experience all that must have been part of the human nature of Jesus.
It is also important to remember the closer we draw to Jesus, the more we should be drawn into loving communion with and respectful concern for all our brothers and sisters for whom He gave His life. To love the Lord Jesus is to love His whole body, the Church as it is today — all its members with their strengths and weaknesses, their gifts and needs. Part of the mystery of salvation we celebrate this week is a call to a deeper immersion into the communion of faith and love we call the Church. Our journey of Holy Week, therefore, is necessarily communal, even as it also requires of us personal commitments of time and resources.
This dual energy and focus of Holy Week — personal and communal — is clearly manifest in the flow of the liturgical celebrations we will commemorate this week. On Palm Sunday, part of our joy is sharing with others in a procession, carrying palm branches and singing our "hosannas" to the Lord. There is something very intimate and deeply personal about our desire to proclaim Jesus as Messiah, and yet, we do so in a public and communal way.
Holy Thursday morning, many of the priests, religious and pastoral ministers of the archdiocese will gather with countless lay faithful to celebrate Jesus as our Messiah, the Anointed One. At the chrism Mass, we will bless the oil of the sick, the oil of the catechumens, and we will consecrate the sacred chrism for use during the year ahead in all of our parishes and institutions of health care. We will rejoice in the healing power of the Lord Jesus, considering the sacramental nature of the Church. At that liturgy, our priests will also renew their commitment to service in the name of the Lord and the Church; again, in this action, they will be professing something that effects every aspect of their inner being, and yet, they will be doing so in a public statement and with one voice.
The communal and very personal come together in a touching way on Holy Thursday evening as we celebrate the Mass of the Lord's Supper. I encourage all of you to consider participating in your parish celebration of this Mass or joining me at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. It is truly one of the most beautiful liturgies of the Church year, but regrettably, many good Catholics miss out on this opportunity.
The Gospel of the feet washing and putting the message of Jesus into action is truly humbling and inspiring, and helps us enter into the mind and heart of Jesus and His love for the least of our brothers and sisters. The washing of the feet is of course much more than simply a gesture of humble service; it truly symbolizes the Lord's desire to completely immerse us in the act of His saving love, a gift we must be willing to accept.
Celebrating the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday evening takes on special meaning and tenderness for the words of consecratory prayer truly come alive: "This is my body… this is my blood…" And with great reverence and tenderness, we carry the body of the Lord in solemn procession, singing together our praise and our love for Him, our desire to live as a Eucharist people in communion of life and love.
The Good Friday liturgy also allows us the opportunity to experience a connection between the personal and the communal. We hear God's Word and reflect on the Passion according to St. John but then each of us individually comes forward to kiss the cross, to show our affection in a very intimate gesture, but yet in a public setting.
Finally, the Holy Saturday Easter Vigil is the most sacred night of the whole Church year when we recall how we were all called through the waters of death into the promised land of new life. We gather in darkness to be warmed by the fire and guided by the paschal light as we proceed down the darkened aisles of our churches. In our humble, perhaps even confusing procession, we are drawn to the light of the Lord and begin to see one another in a new way thanks to the new glow of the Easter candle and the risen Christ.
The Scripture readings open for us new insights into the way the story of salvation is happening anew in our own life and times, and then, we share in the experience of the baptism and reception of new members into the Catholic communion of faith. We rejoice in their confirmation and share with them the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus. Our Easter celebration would be greatly diminished without the gift and presence of those who join us through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults; through them and their faith, the family of the Church throughout the world is renewed and strengthened.
Yes, Holy Week is a time to know the Lord and to share His story — very intimately, and yet, in a communal way. I hope and pray you will take full advantage of participating in the services of the Church. If it is not possible to do so because of health or other impediments, please know that you will not be forgotten. More than ever, this Holy Week, we are one with the Lord and so, one with each other!
May we truly experience a holy Week as we commemorate or make present anew the mystery of the Lord's Death-Resurrection for the salvation of us all.
