The Holy Week is upon us once more. In a few days' time, the Church is going to enter into the deepest of Mysteries in the holiest days of the Calendar. Some Catholic bloggers have likened entering the Holy Week to putting on a full (spiritual) battle-gear for this last stage of Lent. Some likened it to herding cats—it is almost impossible to get all of them into a 'pen'—just like it is impossible to get rid of all our faults in one Easter.
I could identify very much with the second kind of experience; no matter which resolutions have been 'achieved' this Lent, there are bound to be those which did not get nailed down. In any case, Holy Week and soon, Easter, pounce upon us just like Christ unexpectedly passes by in the lives of the apostles, and in more recent times, in our own lives. Yet, too often, thinking about how 'ready' we are after the five weeks of Lent, made me focus on "my" Lenten experience, "my" feelings and "my" response to the whole redemption saga.
Thinking this way I realize, tends to bring out my shallow, selfish side: how can His sacrifice and resurrection be measured by the way we 'feel' in 'response' to such abundance of grace? Obviously, our tainted nature made our response always incommensurate to the actual grace poured out, and this too despite multiple chances & occasions: many seasons of Lent and Easter, instead of just one.
As such, spiritual warfare is actually going on at all times. Sometimes it's more obvious, sometimes less so: in Palm Sunday's Mass we read the Entrance to Jerusalem at the beginning, and then read the whole account of the Passion for the Gospel. What a stark contrast in the change of my fickle heart, what a stark reminder to my own sinfulness!
This Holy Week, after many weeks of grasping, I think I will heed the advice to stand still beneath the Cross and let grace flow from Him whom we have pierced: for it is time.
May you have a holy week.
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