Jesus Should be Focus of Holy Week

Holy Week, the summit of the liturgical year, beckons us to set aside our sufferings and struggles, which have likely been many in this past year, and accompany Jesus in his Passion and death to save humanity. 

By preparing and being open in mind and heart we unite those trials with Christ’s and we experience joy, rebirth and renewal at Easter, say priests of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

“In the midst of the death and suffering we are passing through, is it possible to focus on what truly matters and not pursue shadows?” said Father Eliseus O. Ibeh MSP, pastor of St. Benedict the Moor Church in Napoleonville. “Yes, we can because we are not alone in our present situation. He is with us, he is still our Emmanuel.”

The first thing as we prepare for Holy Week is to accompany Jesus in his Passion and death with prayer. It should be a time of spiritual renewal of our relationship with Jesus,  a time of encounter with and for Jesus. We can create an atmosphere of peace and silence in our hearts and homes in order to be “still and know that ‘I am God’ (Ps.46:10.),” he said.

Acknowledging that the distractions of our daily schedule can at times block us from the source of our being, who is God, Father Ibeh emphasized that Holy Week is a time to rekindle the fire of prayer.

The second focus should be on the person of Jesus, Father Ibeh pointed out,

“He must be at the center of our Holy Week preparation,” he said. “Nothing should distract us from him, not even our daily problems of life including COVID-19. This is the week that he took away our infirmities and bore our diseases. Therefore, we should face the future with hope, knowing that evil and suffering will never have the last answer. If we focus our attention on him at this time, he will give us the spiritual strength and grace we need tomorrow with hope.”

Delving into Scripture can also put us in the midst of the events of this sacred time.

“Holy Week is also a time to feed ourselves with the word of God in the sacred Scripture, especially the Passion, a time to accompany him in his journey like the women of Jerusalem. “It is a time to return to one of the sources of our faith, a daily meditation on the Bible will help us to walk in his footsteps to Calvary,” Father Ibeh said.

Father Kevin Zubel CSsR, superior of the Redemptorists of Baton Rouge and chaplain of the Hispanic Apostolate Diocese of Baton Rouge, looks forward to Holy Week and the sacred triduum with excitement mixed with a touch of anxiety. 

“The liturgies represent the pinnacle of our church at prayer, and thus call for a tremendous effort in preparation and celebration,” he said. “But these days offer us more than reenactments of the events of Jesus’ Passion, death and resurrection. We are not an audience to events of the past but witnesses to our own story of salvation and redemption.”

Celebrating these days with families or as single persons, to prepare for this immersion into the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, calls for a creative balance of planning and spontaneity, Father Zubel noted. The church envisions the triduum as a single movement over three days, and we can enter more deeply into the power of these mysteries if we prayerfully observe the moments between the liturgies.

To develop a plan for Holy Week, Father Zubel encouraged people to use missalettes or online resources to review how the liturgies flow and what they include. We can develop expectations but also allow room to embrace the experience.

Father Zubel said, “When we return home, we can reflect and talk about what we just celebrated and continue the spirit of prayer.”

After the Holy Thursday liturgy, following a silent vigil in front of the Blessed Sacrament can be a good time to observe a sense of quiet through the night and into Good Friday. 

“Maybe it is also a good time to put away the screens,” said Father Zubel.

“When a parish celebrates baptisms during the Easter Vigil, parishioners can pray for the Elect as they can reflect on our own baptism,” he said. “By previewing the rituals and readings and developing a plan to mark the hours between the liturgies, we can immerse ourselves deeply into the paschal mystery and encounter there our own story of redemption in Jesus Christ,” said Father Zubel.

And perhaps the best way to prepare for Holy Week is with humility.

“Holy Week is a time we celebrate the fact that Jesus surrendered himself on our behalf and paid the ultimate price on the cross,” said Father Ibeh. “Therefore, we too need to think less of ourselves and think more of the others. It is time to come out of our comfort zone and feel the needs, the pains and sufferings of the other, to experience the crosses they carry on a daily basis and see how we can help them. It is a time to show the less privileged the tender loving care of Jesus ‘who went about doing good’ (Acts 10:38). By putting smiles on the faces of others, God will put smiles on our faces too.”