Holy Week

Holy Week is the week before Easter, the most important week of the Church’s year. It begins on Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and crowds welcomed him like a king, waving palm branches and shouting hosanna. At Mass, the Church blesses palms and carries them in procession. In many Hispanic homes, families weave the palms into small crosses or figures and keep them behind a crucifix or a holy picture. A year later they are burned to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday.

On Holy Thursday Jesus shared a last supper with his twelve apostles. Like a servant, he washed their feet and told them to do the same for one another. He took bread and wine and gave them as his body and blood, the first Eucharist, which the Church continues at every Mass. And he gave them a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. John’s Gospel tells that night at length, and tradition says that John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. After supper Jesus went to a garden to pray, and he asked his Father to spare him suffering if it were possible, and he trusted: not my will, but yours.

On Good Friday Jesus was arrested and condemned, and he died on the cross. He gave his life freely, out of love for every one of us, and even from the cross he forgave. The Church teaches that it is this love, to the very end, that gives his gift its great worth. The disciple whom tradition names John stayed beside Mary at the foot of the cross, and Jesus gave her to him as a mother. On Good Friday there is no Mass: the Church prays in silence and honors the cross. In many Spanish-speaking towns, people walk the Way of the Cross and silent processions carry statues through the streets.

Holy Saturday is a day of quiet waiting. The Church keeps silence, the altars are bare, and we wait with hope, because Sunday is coming. The Gospel that tradition ascribes to John begins its account of those days with the night of the Last Supper, and it puts the whole of Holy Week into one sentence about Jesus’ love: