For the most part of the week leading up to Easter Sunday, a majority in our society will come to a halt, tucked in the arms of family and away from the usual grind of daily work.
It will be a long weekend’s worth of ceremonies, isolating from all disturbances for the whole duration of Holy Week. This is the time when people usually flock to the churches for the Holy Week, starting from the Palm Sunday, and highlighted by the commemoration of the death of our Savior on the Cross during the afternoon of Holy Friday and finally, the Passover Vigil and the Resurrection that completes the Paschal Mystery.
While some among us have forgotten some ceremonies, there is still that determined flock who remains true to the rites—fasting, Palaspas, Siete Palabras, Veneration of the Cross, Pasyong Mahal, Visita Iglesia, the Way of the Cross, Salubong, among others. Other Christian denominations likewise have their own celebrations commemorating the Holy Week and Easter Sunday in their respective churches.
The stoppage is a throwback to that one story of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who offered His life to save mankind from slavery and sin, while beaten down left an unusual yet eternally wise word—Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Concise yet so exponential.
What are these rites for in the name of love for when, after Holy Week, we will be back as citizens who applaud all the killings, applaud at rape jokes, sell our votes, and forget the basic tenet of the rule of law? Where in the world is that love you promised this holy week?
We should remember that this week isn’t for us to connect with God to ask for what we want from him. It’s about paying our dues. The real essence of Holy Week is remembering and acknowledging the sacrifices Jesus Christ endured to redeem humankind. Holy Week has always been about God, and not about us. We shouldn’t forget this fact even in these troubled times when none of us are safe and the only assurance we can count on is the divine kind.
This week, let us pause and think awhile. Reflect and enrich our spiritual being. Stay where we are at our best and gentlest. Fight deceits, reject deceptions and dishonesties, speak out against irregularities, and tell the young people that there is still a glimmer of hope that lies ahead. That is how to be holy beyond the Holy Week.