Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Holy Week, the Great Week, has begun. As palms were blessed and we heard the words “Hosanna to the Son of David” we joined, as it were, with those who welcomed Him into Jerusalem and we shall continue to walk with Jesus in the coming week, as the days of His Passion and Death approach. I encourage you to think, in these coming days, of this great Cathedral as the city of Jerusalem for us. On Thursday, we shall be in the Upper Room with the Lord as he celebrates the Last Supper and washes the feet of the disciples. We shall go with Him to Gethsemane, watching with Him into the night. On Good Friday, as hear again the words of the Passion, we shall stand with Mary and John at the foot of the Cross and we shall wait in silence on Holy Saturday as we await the celebration of His Resurrection.
While the Palm Sunday scene, Jesus riding a donkey and the acclaim of the people, might be viewed as idyllic, we would do well to remember that the Jerusalem he entered was a city in a world that was, in some ways, not so different to our own. There were tensions within the city, just as we see in our own time. As in our present times, the world of Jesus’ day was not at peace. This Holy Week, let us pray ever more intently for peace across our world and grow in courageous witness to the peace that the world cannot give, the peace that comes from the Lord, through the very events that we celebrate this week.
The Passion has been proclaimed for us today. These words we must hold in our minds and hearts in these coming days. Return to them in your reading of the Scriptures this week. Take some verses each day for prayer, that the events we mark this week may truly find a home in mind and heart. Place yourselves in the events of these coming days, stand with the Apostles in their frailty and fear, with Peter in his denials, with Mary in her grief, with Simon of Cyrene as he comes to the aid of the suffering Lord.
Join in the liturgies of Holy Week with renewed intensity. I call on you all today to recognise that this is a sacred call, a demand laid upon us by the faith we profess – for we must enter ever more deeply into the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Only if we take this journey with the Lord shall the words and actions of our lives begin in Him. Only then shall we bear fruit as His witnesses in a world that needs to hear and to know, that Jesus’ death and resurrection is for all, bringing peace and salvation, enabling us to live in the love that exists in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Image: Mazur/cbcew.org.uk