Holy Week is the pinnacle of the Christian faith

Our 40-day journey of faith – marked by prayer, fasting and almsgiving – culminates this week with Holy Week, when the church recounts the passion narrative in the Gospel of John of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.

We begin with Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, where the crowds waving palm branches greet him with hosannas and fervent chants: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Just a few days later, those same crowds will turn on him and demand of Pontius Pilate: “Crucify him!”

On Tuesday, priests of the archdiocese will gather at St. Louis Cathedral with me and students from our Catholic schools for the annual Chrism Mass, during which the sacred oils and chrism used in sacramental ministry in every parish for the coming year will be blessed. As a group, we priests also will renew the promises we made at our ordination to serve the people God has entrusted to us.

On Holy Thursday – sometimes referred to by the Latin term “Maundy” Thursday (for “mandatum” or “mandate”) – we begin the Sacred Triduum. It is on this day, we commemorate the Last Supper: Jesus’ final meal with his disciples. He blesses the simple bread and wine and says: “This is my body … This is my blood.” He then asks the apostles to perpetuate this meal with the faithful after his resurrection, instituting the Eucharist. Jesus also kneels down to wash the feet of the apostles and gives them a new commandment (a “mandate”) to love one another as he has loved them, instituting the priesthood. He then goes with his apostles to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Good Friday is the most solemn day of the Christian year. Jesus goes before Pilate and is condemned to death, stripped of his garments and whipped beyond torture. Many Catholics in the archdiocese maintain a somber tradition of walking to nine churches in the area, symbolically following in the footsteps of Jesus as he carries his cross to Calvary. Seeing hundreds of local Catholics and others making that annual walk (see the nine-church walk map on page 28) edifies my own faith. This year, the Passion Liturgy at each church will include the proclamation of the passion account from the Gospel of John (18:1-19:42). This is the only day of the year that Mass may not be celebrated. We leave the church in silence, contemplating the agony, death and burial of Jesus.

Holy Saturday concludes the Holy Triduum. The Easter Vigil always begins after sunset and with the church in darkness. The Paschal (Easter) candle is lit outside the church. As we process into the church with the lit Easter candle, we sing three times, “The Light of Christ!” Our grateful response to each proclamation is, “Thanks be to God!”

Those words and the procession with the Paschal candle symbolize that the Risen Christ comes to bring light into our darkness and invites each of us to be open to that light through our continued prayers and our actions to bring about peace to restless hearts.

At the Easter Vigil, we joyfully receive hundreds of women, men and children into full communion with the church. They have been preparing to receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Eucharist, and we welcome them to the table! (A list of the names of all new Catholics is available on page 4.)

The glory of the resurrection of Christ is at the very heart of our Catholic faith. As we joyfully proclaim “Alleluia” this Easter, let us recall that our faith flows from our Lord’s resurrection and that our celebration is one of joy and victory over death through the light of Christ.

Happy Easter!

Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to [email protected].