Lent is now over and this evening we will already be in Holy Week. During Mass and the evening Marian procession yesterday, many of us fixed our gaze on the Seven Sorrows of our Mother the Virgin Mary, who faithfully followed her only son all the way to the cross. Now, as from tomorrow, Palm Sunday, after contemplating together with her the suffering face of Jesus Christ, she will lead us to enjoy the light and joy that radiate from the splendour of the Risen Christ.
Holy Week and, especially, the Easter Triduum will help us relive the central event of the mystery of our salvation. We will fix our gaze more intensely on the face of Jesus Christ, a face of suffering and agony that helps us understand better the drama of the events and situations that have and are afflicting. His is a face radiant with light that gives renewed hope to our lives.
These will be important days of more intense prayer and meditation during which, with the help of the moving liturgical rites of Holy Week, we will reflect on the passion, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
On Holy Thursday, we will contemplate Jesus, the only Son of God, who, in the Upper Room in the Holy City of Jerusalem, on the eve of his Passion, made the unique gift of himself to the Church, instituted the ministerial priesthood and left to his disciples and to us the new commandment: the commandment of love and genuine service.
Thus, he wished to remain with us in the sacrament of the Eucharist, making himself the food of our salvation.
After the moving Mass of the Lord's Supper, which many of us should do their very best to participate in, we will keep a vigil of adoration with the Lord, obeying the desire that he expressed to the Apostles in the Garden of Olives: "Remain here and keep watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). A humble suggestion: Pastoral operators should organise a late evening Mass, say at 8 p.m. so that many more lay faithful could be in a better position to participate in the very rich liturgical celebration.
Good Friday will open before us once again the tragic chain of events of the Passion of our redeemer, leading to his crucifixion on the Golgotha.
At Gethsemane, we will especially be one with those who stagger beneath the burden of anxiety and loneliness. In meditating on the trial to which Jesus was subjected, we will remember all who are persecuted and die for their faith and for the sake of justice.
As we go with Christ on the sorrowful way to the Golgotha, we will also raise our confident prayer for those who are burdened in body and soul by the weight of evil and sin. At the supreme hour of the sacrifice of the Son of God, let us confidently lay at the foot of the Cross the longing that dwells in every heart: the desire for peace in the whole world, especially in the Holy Land.
During the afternoon liturgy, the Adoration of the Cross will help us understand more profoundly the infinite mercy of God. Our devote participation in the afternoon processions in our parishes and in the late evening Via Crucis on television from the Colosseum in Rome, led by Pope Benedict XVI, will definitely help us assimilate these mysteries.
By willingly experiencing that immense sorrow, the Only Son of God became the definitive proclamation of salvation for humanity. The way of the Cross is difficult indeed! Yet, it is only there that we perceive the mystery of the Death that gives life.
Then, the prayerful, silent atmosphere of Holy Saturday will offer us the opportunity to await with Christian hope the glorious mysterious event of the Resurrection, in prayer with Mary, already beginning to savour its deep joy.
During the Easter Vigil, singing the "Alleluia and the Glory to God in the Highest" the splendour of our destiny will be revealed: to forge a new humanity, redeemed by Christ who died and rose for us.
When, on Easter Day, in the churches in every corner of the earth rings out the Dux vitae mortuus regnat vivus - the Lord of life was dead, now alive he triumphs (Easter Sequence), we will be able to understand and love the Cross of Christ forever; on it Christ overcame sin and death forever!
Therefore, Easter is not simply one feast among others but the "Feast of Feasts", the "Solemnity of Solemnities", just as the Eucharist is the "Sacrament of Sacraments" (the great Sacrament). St Athanasius calls Easter "the Great Sunday" and the Eastern Christian Churches call Holy Week "the Great Week".
The meaning and fulfilment of human history lies in the Paschal Mystery (from the Teachings of Pope John Paul II).
"The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time until all is subjected to him" (Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 1169).
In his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, Pope John Paul II wrote: "Two thousand years after these events, the Church relives them as if they had happened today. Gazing on the face of Christ, the Church, His Bride contemplates her treasure and her joy. Dulcis Iesu memoria, dans vera cordis gaudia: how sweet is the memory of Jesus, the source of the heart's true joy!" (n. 28).
This is our hope: May it be a really holy Triduum, full of the joys and consolations of Easter!
A Blessed Easter to all!