Coming in after the end of classes, there will be those looking forward to Holy Week as part of their summer vacation. Friends will already have made plans about where to go. The usual favorite destinations, the beaches especially, will be swarming with visitors. The malls will also be enjoying their large share of clients.
The Holy Week is also often the time for reunions. Those from the cities will be going home to visit their families and friends back in their provinces. Again, there will be much laughter, outing and food to be shared as well.
In contrast or together with these secular practices, the Holy Week also serves to remind all about the sacred: About how God so loved the world, He gave His only Son who, in turn is remembered for His obedience to the Father and for His love for us all, sacrificing Himself through the Last Supper, betrayal, scourging, crowing with thorns, carrying of the cross, and finally, His crucifixion.
Holy Week can be a time for respite from the secular: To ponder and meditate upon one's own life, whether it is going in the direction of the sacred or whether the secular is motivated and lived out according to God's plan, based on one's obedience and love for the Lord. Of course no mortal can equal God's immeasurable love for His creations but God certainly welcomes all who offer their secular lives always as their way of thanking Him for His great love for all.
Holy Week is, also, always a reminder of love. It is the greatest Valentine story ever told. Year in and year out, during Holy Week, we are reminded about the unfathomable love that God has for all humankind, redeeming and saving us, through the blood and sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, who in turn, also demonstrated the deep meaning of obedience and love for His Father as well as His love for us all. Even as we sinned, He came to save us. Even as we continue to sin, His love for us is unchanging, eternal...
Holy Week also reminds us about humility, how a divine God will lower Himself to become human in order to save all humanity and bring us all back to the Father. It is also a time when we see how the Master bends to wash the feet of His disciples, clearly defining the meaning of being a Master - a servant for all, not one to be served and waited on by servants!
Holy Week, replayed every year in the lives of believers, shows how a God is betrayed or denied by those He loves, and how those who betrayed and denied God ( as Judas and Peter did ). Holy Week also shows us all, however, how sinners can be either restored ( through sincere repentance and faith in God's boundless mercy and forgiveness ) or be damned ( through complete denial/rejection of God's love and mercy for those who erred ).
It is a week that reflects weakness and strength, of fear and of faith where those who wanted to win points with their secular leaders spat, scourged, ridiculed the one true Divine Lord of all. Within Holy Week, one sees how the weak and the fearful will not be near, will keep as much distance from the Crucified Lord. Yet, it is also within Holy Week that one sees the strong and the faithful who did not hesitate to carry the Lord's cross for Him, or wipe His blood-stained face, or take Him from the cross for a decent burial.
Holy Week completes the drama that started with God's love for us all and that ends with the best manifestation of love for us all: The Cross. It is not the Crucifixion, but the Resurrection that serves as the climax of the Holy Week, not the defeat due to betrayal or sin but the triumph of love and redemption. Secular life ends, but sacred, divine life and love last forever.
Holy Week then is another occasion for a reunion not only with our family but with God. It is another beautiful occasion to be with the Lord, to speak to Him, to listen to Him, to reflect on His great love for us all, to praise and honor Him for loving us deeply.
Holy Week is a time when we again tell the Lord, in a song, that we remember "how You loved us through Your death and still we celebrate for You are with us still, and we recall that we will see You when You come, in Your glory, Lord, we remember, we celebrate, we believe..."
We believe and so we celebrate Holy Week in our own secular and sacred styles of doing so. The week ends in joy, not in sadness, in hope, not in despair, and in love, in renewed faith.
The Holy Week is really a happy occasion to be with family and friends, and more importantly, with our God. It is a week that reflects the beautiful union of the sacred and the secular, of what is human and divine among us all.
So much treasures to discover and reunions to relish every time Holy Week comes around.
Experience both the secular and sacred joy that Holy Week offers! May the joy, reflections and inspiration of the Holy Week see us all through all the weeks beyond.