Holy Week

There is a moment in our lives when we have a trigger,  a motivation to change our ways and to see the bigger picture.  Sometimes this moment is dramatic (in the conventual understanding) -- there's lighting, flashes, major action, a BIG BANG!!  Other times, this moment is quiet, is humble, is not too cinema-friendly.  Yet, the significance of each is the same.  These moments bring us closer to Our Lord.

Holy Week takes the two extremes -- excitement and tranquility -- and enfolds them in the one drama of the Passion of Christ.  Many of us have seen Gibson's remarkable work, The Passion of the Christ.  Many of us likewise wept either during or after (or both) the film.  Why?  We see the reality and ugliness of man's infidelity toward his Creator and Redeemer that took place 2000 years ago and we find that it has not changed.  And not just in man -- universally -- but in ourselves.  That's the key of Holy Week and of the entire CHristian experience.  We see OURSELVES personally, individually, uniquely in the schema of original sin and concupiscence.

Yet, in the dramatic movement of Holy Week, the encounter does not end in sourness or pity, but culminates in victory, in that great deep SIGH of the Resurrection.  I can imagine some sports fans after having endured the quarterfinals and semifinals with their team coming through to that one Championship Game.  Sitting on the edge of their seats during that last game where the victor and Champion are ultimately determined.  It comes down to the final minutes of the last quarter in the game and their TEAM WINS!!!!!  The fans jump with excitement, throwing up their hands, which are filled with sodas, hoagies, french fries, hot dogs, beer.... it doesn't matter... all these are thrown up in the air as well and we are CHEERING... YEAH!!!!!.... YEAH!!!!!!..... because we had won! our team had won! -- this same feeling and emotion are to be our anthem.... we are to throw our hands up, screaming in victory and JOY at the Resurrection of Christ..... Let that be our sentiment.  Let us move through these somber and solemn days ahead..... but let us not forget that we don't stop at the Cross; we await at the tomb for the Resurrection of Christ, Victor over DEATH!!! ---- SCORE!!!!!!!!