Holy Week

Holy Week is Sunday for the entire year.

Early on in our history, the Church celebrated but two holy days: Sunday, the weekly day of Resurrection; and Pascha, our Lord’s annual Passover from death to life. While most Christians throughout most of history have continued to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection as Pascha, we in English call it Easter. Even so, you can hear echoes of the Greek in terms such as Paschal Lamb or Paschal Candle—for indeed, Jesus is our Passover Lamb.

In liturgical traditions, Holy Week marks the culmination of the Church year, celebrating with great solemnity and jubilation our Lord’s Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. It all begins with Palm Sunday, when Christ rides triumphally into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna!” while crowds lay their cloaks and palm branches before Him.

Keep in mind that Jesus has journeyed to Jerusalem several times a year throughout His life in order to celebrate the biblical holy days, especially Passover: the foundational story of God’s people Israel, marking how Moses led them out from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land of their ancestors.

Every year, the Passover meal ritually and spiritually reconnects the Jewish people to this act of divine liberation, a process known as “anamnesis”—which means not simply remembrance of something long ago, but a reconnection to the original event. Spiritually speaking, those who partake of the Passover meal are there at the Exodus, at the moment of liberation.

Why, then, if Jesus came to Jerusalem several times a year, does His entrance into the city cause such an uproar leading up to this particular Passover? According to John’s Gospel, it’s because Jesus has recently raised up Lazarus from the dead in front of a great crowd of mourners from Jerusalem. This is the event that seals His fate: Lazarus’ life will be the death of Christ. Now the City of David welcomes Him as Messiah and as King.

The Roman occupiers, for their part, keep their swords sheathed. Passover is already a volatile time, with pilgrims streaming into the city, burning with religious zeal. Rome wants to keep the peace: if killing Jesus will do that, they’ll kill Him. If keeping Him alive will keep the peace, they’ll spare Him. The fact that He rides in on a donkey is significant, as it is the ancient sign that a king approaches in peace. This means that Jesus has not come to start an uprising—but it also means that He approaches as the King.

Rome doesn’t care if you claim to be a god; they have plenty of gods. But they’ll kill you dead for claiming kingship. Rome will tolerate no king but Caesar.

Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus cleanses the Temple and teaches the crowds. On the Wednesday of Holy Week, known as Spy Wednesday, city authorities convince Judas Iscariot to betray Him, so that Jesus might be arrested by night, when He’s not surrounded by crowds who are likely to riot. This brings us to Maundy Thursday—from the same root as “mandate,” or command—when Jesus celebrates the Passover with His Apostles. Maundy Thursday is the first of the Triduum, the Great Three Days.

Here He flips the usual Passover script. The flatbread, which traditionally represented God’s liberation occurring so quickly that the Israelites’ bread had not time to rise, is now His Body, Jesus says. And the cup of wine, which holds such significance, is now His Blood. Disturbingly, Judas gets up and flees into the night—and Jesus, before finishing the Passover meal, also plunges into the darkness, through the tombs of the Kidron Valley, up to the Mount of Olives across from the Temple. His Apostles are frightened.

Judas leads the Temple guards to arrest Jesus atop the mountain. But why? Judas has been with Jesus throughout His ministry, has seem Him perform wonders and signs. Why would Judas betray Him now? To force His hand, methinks; to make Him fight. Judas knows that Jesus is the Messiah, and he wants the Messiah to wage war against Rome. Why else would Judas show such anguish and regret when things go so poorly for Jesus?

Maundy Thursday commemorates the institution of the Eucharist, the washing of the disciples’ feet, and Jesus’ last commandment, or mandate, that we love one another as He has first loved us. This then leads directly into Good Friday, when Christ is sentenced by Pontius Pilate, tortured, and crucified. He dies upon the Cross, taking one last taste of wine—which He said He would not taste again until His Father’s Kingdom—and pronouncing, “It is finished.” What is finished? Why, the Passover meal, of course, with Christ as the Lamb whose Blood delivers us from death to eternal life.

The Great Sabbath, or Holy Saturday, marks Jesus’ Harrowing of Hell, when He descends to the dead to ransom all the damned and topple Satan from his throne. Then on Saturday night the Church celebrates the long and lovely Easter Vigil, when new catechumens are baptized and the first Easter observance is celebrated with the Holy Eucharist. Each of the Great Three Days—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil—is a unique liturgy that the Church uses only once a year. In truth, the three together form one unified worship service spread out over three days.

Easter Sunday is of course most wonderful, but it is a Sunday liturgy: a big Sunday, one hopes, but a Sunday nonetheless. Should you have opportunity, I encourage every Christian to walk through the whole of Holy Week—be it Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox—and especially the Great Triduum. It is truly Sunday for the year, and the height of Christian bliss.

In Jesus. Amen.

-Eminent Grand Prelate Sir Knight Ryan Stout