It’s crucial to keep in mind the significance of Holy Week for our faith as Christians around the world get ready to celebrate it. A time for introspection, repentance, and renewal is Holy Week. It is a time to reflect on Jesus Christ’s suffering and sacrifice and to recommit to the life of love and service he exemplified.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still having an impact on our lives, Holy Week this year has a unique significance. Throughout the past year, many of us have gone through loss and sadness, isolation and loneliness, and financial difficulties. In the face of such suffering, it can be challenging to find joy and optimism.
Nonetheless, Holy Week serves as a reminder that there is always a glimmer of hope, even in the most hopeless of circumstances. Although Jesus’ death on the cross was a time of extreme anguish, it was also the height of love and selflessness. We are given hope for a brighter future and the assurance of eternal life through his death and resurrection.
Let’s accept both the suffering and the joy that Holy Week provides as we observe it this year. When we carry our own crosses, let us wave our pine branches and chant Hosanna. Let us attempt to emulate Jesus’ cruciform, vulnerably loving example in our own lives by keeping it in mind. And let’s use the tools of our faith, such as Easter gardens and Passover feasts, to make this a memorable and transforming season.
The message of Holy Week is ultimately straightforward but profound: despite all of our sorrow and pain, there is still cause for hope. As followers of Jesus, we are obligated to live lives that represent the values of love and service that he instilled in us and to put our faith in the assurance of eternal life that his death and resurrection provide.
Thus, let us observe Holy Week with joy and reverence, meditation and atonement, and the knowledge that, despite the challenges along the way, the goal is one of unending peace and love.
