So the Great Week begins! Holy Week also known as the Great Week is that time of year when we most fully, not just recall, not just remember, but actually re-present the great actions of our salvation. What is salvation? The promise of eternal life, freely offered to us by GOD.

GOD lives in an eternal now, GOD is outside the bounds of time. So the actions of GOD are continuous and ongoing in an eternal now. Hence, when we celebrate the actions of Holy Week, beginning today with the solemn celebration of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we are not recalling, but re-presenting, making ourselves present to the actions of GOD. In #559, the Catechism of the Catholic Church asks this question: “How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah?” He enters in and is acclaimed by the people who sing Hosanna, a word which means ‘Save’ or ‘Give Salvation’, thereby acknowledging their need for salvation while also recognising the source of that salvation. They go on to acclaim: ‘Blessed is HE who comes in the name of the LORD.’, which we too acclaim in the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) of the Mass.

But what does all this mean? Obviously it prefigures the Passion of Christ,  the culmination of Holy Week, it prefigures the very reason for Christ going to Jerusalem: “It cannot be that a prophet should die away from Jerusalem” (Lk. 13:33). But what else does it mean? Saint John Paul, said: “That Christ’s whole life was a continual teaching…” (CT 9)* For this reason we are to conform ourselves to Christ until HE is formed in us. (Gal.4:19). So we read in Lumen Gentium “For this reason we, who have been made to conform with Him, who have died with Him and risen with Him, are taken up into the mysteries of His life, until we will reign together with Him.” (LG 7 )**. The events of the Great Week are not only the fulfillment of our salvation, not only the Passover of the New Covenant (Testament), but are in fact a model of humble self giving in the service of others following the example of our Messiah, who we see riding on a donkey. How will Jerusalem, the city/people of GOD receive their Messiah…this year?

*APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION CATECHESI TRADENDAE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II ON CATECHESIS IN OUR TIME

**The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Vatican II (Lumen Gentium)