Most of us have had the Holy Week experience every year for all of our lives. Excepting our new Catholics, of course, and those of us coming back to the practice of the Faith after years. But all of us can gain something from the liturgy of these days, and that simply by entering into the drama of it, standing as spectators or indeed jumping headlong into the stories, while the familiar scenes play out around us.
What may impress itself upon us throughout is perhaps the grave demeanour of the God-man: the Ancient of Days walking in the fragility of our mortal existence, facing down the pompous and hypocritical religiosity of His time and solemnly submitting Himself to His fate. This is a fate that He has chosen for Himself however, for at no time does it seem as if He is taken by surprise or unprepared for the horrors of it.
As He begins His torment in the Garden of Gethsamene, He has you and me in mind; as He allows men to lay hands upon Him at last, He is determined for His sacrifice, again for our sakes – for He will redeem us from sin and death. As He hauls the cross upon His exhausted shoulders, His thoughts are for His Church, for His Christians. If any of us is married and is prepared to give everything for the sake of our beloved spouse, we understand at least in part the depth of this furnace of Love that is the Sacred Heart of the Lord. This intense, self-sacrificial love is attractive, and we want to be a part of it. We want to love like He loves.
But it hurts, and we know from experience how love can hurt – for love should hurt – but in the midst of the pain we find the heart of Christ. And if we persevere, in the words of S. Paul, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 