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March 25, 2024With this celebration, we solemnly begin the Holy Week, which leads us to the heart of our Christian faith - the Paschal mystery. For us Christians, these are the most important days of the year. We celebrate the foundation of our faith, the origin of our hope; the greatest love is revealed to us.
We never tire of re-living in the liturgy these holy events, the passion, death, and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We find meaning of our life, birth, death, joy, and pain in them. The Paschal mysteries reveal the sense of our life, the world's destiny and of the entire universe.
We begin this Holy Week with Palm Sunday. On this day we remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. He enters the City of King David. A crowd of followers acclaims him, while the city's people are amazed at the arrival of Jesus sitting on a donkey.
In his public life, with his preaching and miraculous signs, Jesus had aroused the great hope of fulfilling ancient promises. He is the one who was to come, as predicted by John the Baptist. As we know that festive acclamation will be followed by the dramatic days of the passion that we, too, will re-live in the Easter Triduum until the joy of the resurrection.
For this reason, the liturgy of this day is not content with presenting to us the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem among the cheering people waving their palms. Still, it gives us a vision of these dramatic days in which the world's light clashes with the power of darkness, who want to overcome it.
Through the story of the passion, we find ourselves involved in the heart of the mission of Christ, who came to save the world. The words of prophet Isaiah show us how Jesus manifests himself as the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies about the coming of the Servant of God who takes our faults upon himself and does not shy away from insults. The Servant of God announced by the prophets is Jesus of Nazareth.
Furthermore, Saint Paul provides us with a profound look at the entire event of redemption: his words make us understand that the passion of Christ did not happen by chance; everything was written in the Father's pre-established plan. Jesus did not fail in his mission, even to his death. Jesus is the son of God who became man for our salvation. Saint Paul says that Christ emptied himself by becoming man and dying for us on the cross.
What is this emptying? Can God, who is eternal and omnipotent, empty himself? This is the mystery of Holy Week: we are called to contemplate this emptying of God for our love. We empty ourselves to make space for others. God empties himself to embrace all of us, all sinners, and bring us back to the full communion of divine life. Therefore, on the cross, we contemplate the immense love of God, who empties himself in Jesus to offer his mercy to all of us and to make us new creatures.
Brothers and sisters, I invite you to live this Holy Week intensely. Let us contemplate Jesus and consider his free love for us. Let us contemplate the emptying, the self-emptying, and the humility of God for our love.
On the cross, Jesus embraces every man and woman, embraces the entire universe, and brings it back forever into the communion of the Father. Here is the beginning of a new creation.
Let us allow ourselves to be embraced by Jesus Christ. Let us allow ourselves to be reconciled with God. I invite you to reread the passion of the Lord this week, to pray before the Crucifix adoring the Crucified, and to approach the sacrament of reconciliation.
May the Mother of God, who was close to Jesus under the cross, help us to live these days intensely and participate fully in the joy of resurrection.
