In memory of Vanessa Yasintha Wambura (August 2003 – August 2023).
Today, I have very good news to share with you. It’s all about this special week! A Holy Week in Christians’ history!! As you may recall on my previous article (Observing Lent), Lent is an important period in Christians lives. During Lent we can prepare ourselves spiritually in many ways such as fasting or almsgivings as Jesus begins his journey to his crucifixion. Well, all journeys must come to an end. This week is the last week of Lent; it is very special because this is Jesus’s final days on earth and his resurrection to heaven. This week is called the Holy Week. It is very fascinating, meaningful, and it’s an eventful week too with different rituals. I’ll share with you a bit of why I said so and think so.
As you might be familiar, the Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. It includes two important days which are Holy Thursday (which is today), and Good Friday (tomorrow). Palm Sunday was on Sunday March 29th this year. On Palm Sunday at the church, we are asked to take a palm and may clutch it during the mass. This represents when Jesus entered Jerusalem and the public threw down their cloaks and palm branches for the Lord in triumphant of his arrival (Matthew 21:1). At our church, we celebrated the mass on Palm Sunday to honor Jesus as he is led to his place of crucifixion. In the story of Jesus’s Triumphant Entrance into Jerusalem Jesus tells his disciples “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This was a very important day in Jerusalem for many people.
Holy Thursday, four days after Jesus entered Jerusalem, he celebrated his last supper with his disciples. Therefore, today the Roman Catholics around the world are celebrating the Holy Thursday mass in remembrance of Jesus’ Last Supper on Earth when he shared his meal with his disciples and so as with us. In Matthew 26:17-30 Jesus said to the disciples that Judas, (one of the disciples) was to betray him. After this Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Peter was horrified, a man of such highness bending down to wash a lowly person’s feet? He would not let Jesus wash his feet so Jesus told Peter that before the rooster crowed Peter would have denied Jesus three times. Jesus and the disciples then went to Mount Olives where Jesus prayed and the disciples fell asleep. After Jesus has finished his prayer, Judas returned with a crowd of people who arrested Jesus and brought him forth to the Pilot. Then Pilot handed him over to the crowd of people for crucifixion and this lead us a Good Friday.
On Good Friday Christians remember the day that Jesus was killed on the cross. He was nailed to a large wooden cross by Roman soldiers. This is the reason why the cross is an important sign for Christians today. There are crosses in churches and they symbolize our burden and our sins that we must carry. Good Friday is a sad day and churches never have flowers or decorations on this day. The church is dark and there is just a simple cross on the altar. It is known as Good Friday because Christians believe that Jesus gave up his life for the good of everyone. The Crucifixion is remembered in Jerusalem even today. Large crowds of Christians take the same path as Jesus. In some countries such as the Philippines people act out the story of Jesus’ last day while others watch and think of Jesus and his great bravery. Joseph asked Pilate to remove Jesus’s body; he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb. Only three days later the rock had been removed and Jesus was no longer in the tomb.
As I said earlier, the Holy Week ends quietly and sad before Easter. Now most likely you already know what happens next? Well, next eventful day is the joyful day of Easter Sunday. Jesus is resurrected and goes to heaven to open the gates for a second life. When Mary finds that there is no longer a rock blocking the entrance nor is there Jesus, an angel appears and tells her that Jesus has gone up to heaven. This year’s Easter is on next Sunday, April 5, 2015.
Happy Holy Week and have a blessed EASTER!!
Vanessa Wambura.