The God Slot: Holy Week – Easter joy

by Father Declan Boland

For the past six weeks Christians all over the world have been preparing for this most sacred week when we celebrate the very foundations of our faith – the institution of the Eucharist, the passion and death of Jesus, and his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. During these days we are invited to ponder the meaning of these great events and to try to live deeply out of the power and grace given to us when we embrace them more fully in our lives.

During Holy Week which began with Palm Sunday last, we remember the last days of Jesus before he was arrested, tortured and killed for challenging the religious and political orthodoxy of his time. He always stressed compassion and love over the observance of rules and regulations. He refused to join in violence, whether to defend or overthrow the state.

He would not kowtow to kings and governors but instead spoke in defence of the poor and marginalised. He fed the hungry without demanding anything in return. He healed the sick and brought peace to those possessed by demons. Even sinners flocked to him because he personified the mercy of God.

While the common people followed him, those in power derided him for upsetting the status quo. He did not come from the elites but was a carpenter who recruited his followers from fishermen. And when he preached, he told stories rather than quoting respected authorities. For all of this, the people loved him, but the establishment hated him as a disruptive force. They did to him what they do to all troublemakers. They arrested, tortured and killed him.

However we have not been deserted, for on this day Holy Thursday we celebrate the fact that he gives us his real presence in the Eucharist to sustain us on our journey. When we enter a church to celebrate Eucharist it is not about ‘me’ but ‘us.’ It is a communal event. The Word of God is not a private meditation, but a public proclamation that forms us a community. ‘Body of Christ,’ is not just what we receive, it is what we become. The original name, ‘the breaking of bread,’ tells us that the Eucharist is an action we do together. It is a ritual at which we are all in some way concelebrants. While the Eucharist is intensely personal, it is not private. Therefore I need to reach out and engage with those around me. There is a challenge here for we cannot be satisfied with just going along and getting something out of it for ourselves. As I often tell our people we are not passive spectators but active participants.

Good Friday is a stark day when we celebrate the Lord’s passion and death on the cross. On this day the church’s gaze is fixed on Calvary itself where Christ offered his life in reparation for our sins. We are reminded that the cross is ‘the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces.’

As we gaze at the broken body of Jesus on the cross we are reminded of pain and loss, suffering and death, limits and unfairness that life brings our way. Suffering and grief are universal experiences, and so, too, are the limits that life presents us when our goals or dreams are not fully achieved, or any time an accident or health issues or separation come our way. No one is spared the suffering that life brings our way, but in the power of Christ’s passion and resurrection we are given the strength to take up our cross every day and follow him.

Good Friday is not the end for on Easter Sunday Christ rises from the dead and the church cries out in glory, ‘Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia – Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.’

This Easter proclamation means that all forms of limitations and darkness have been conquered, the radical and freeing truth that evil has no ultimate or lethal power. Faith in Christ’s resurrection is not just a creed but a life orientation that flows from the conviction that Christ’s new life is ours as well.

The resurrection is not a mystery to be clung to, but a practice to develop in ever new and deeper ways.

As we live into it, our lives will proclaim Christ’s presence and we can dare to proceed in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

God our Father, creator of all,

today is the day of Easter joy.

May the Risen Lord

breathe on our minds and open our eyes

that we may know him in the breaking of bread,

and follow him in his risen life. Amen.