For 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, this week marks the single most important week of the year: Holy Week.
Holy Week – which culminates with Easter Sunday – enters into the heart and soul of Christianity, which is the death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago. As Fr. Robert Barron puts it: “Without the Resurrection, Christianity collapses. It’s the standing and falling point of the faith. Therefore, to deny the Resurrection is to cease to be Christian. You might pick up bits and pieces of Christianity here and there, and you might follow Jesus as a wise spiritual teacher, but without the Resurrection the whole thing falls apart.”
Of course, when the historical figure of Jesus comes up (and it is the mainstream position among historians that Jesus did, in fact, exist), many try to do just that – reduce Jesus to another wise spiritual teacher, like a Socrates or Confucius. But can you imagine if your teacher or mentor said something like “I am the way, the truth, and the life”? But this man did; and so he was, as CS Lewis noted with his “trilemma”, either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. (Some add legend, or mystic – but these falter too.)
But was Jesus who he said he was? That is the question; and it all hinges on this news of Resurrection, an event that billions of Christians around the globe – backed by a heap of historical and philosophical evidence – still profess to this day.
But just what happened that week? And why has it mattered so immensely to so many down the centuries?
To answer that, here is a day-by-day musical guide to Holy Week. Each day (and its corresponding verse in Matthew) is followed by a song by Josh Garrels and a meditation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church – gems that both reveal, in their own way, the power and glory of the week that changed the world.
Palm Sunday: Jesus Arrives in Jerusalem (Mt 21:1-11) Continue reading
Sources
- Aleteia, from an article by Matthew Becklo, a husband and father, amateur philosopher, and cultural commentator at Aleteia and Word on Fire.
- Image: Et Resurrexit