Holy Week and You

For those of you that are Catholic and have been living under a rock lately, it's Holy Week!  In just a few days our Lord will once again die and rise for our sins. It is so amazing that Jesus loves us so much and gets to pour that out this week through His death and resurrection, but if you don't give some of it back this week, you're missing the point.  We have to take advantage of this opportunity.

To be honest, this is really the first time I've taken Holy Week seriously.  I mean I would go to Easter Mass and maybe attend a Good Friday service or something, but it was just another week.  Luckily, I have a priest here at UNC that doesn't stand for that.  On his Monday homily at mass, he challenged us to really dive into Holy Week.  So I did.  And I am going to pose the same challenge to you.  Here is why.

I've been spending some extra time in prayer throughout the week just mediating on the day. For example, just imagine what it would have been like Wednesday night.  Only two people knew what was going to happen just 24 hours from that moment; Jesus and Judas.  The other 11 didn't know.  Mary didn't know.  They were just living life knowing something awesome was about to happen at Passover, but having no idea what was in front of them in just one short day.  Or spend some time in the chapel on Good Friday without Jesus there.  You can feel it.  That feeling that comes with Jesus being in the chapel or on the altar that we take for granted so often is gone.  And it sucks. 

Holy Week is purifying.  It's a week in which we truly get to love Jesus and understand the weight of all that He took on.  He didn't sweat blood in the garden because it was really hot, but because the weight of every sin the entire world committed was causing Him so much agony that the emotional distress was too much for His body to handle. Father Matt was talking about this last night during a talk about the Shroud of Turin (disclaimer: if you don't know what the Shroud is...google it) but he mentioned that when your body sweats blood like that, it actually leaves a bruise all over your body.  Imagine taking that into the scourging that was next up...yeah.  And all of this was for you.  You.  Jesus saw your face up there on that cross.

So what does this all mean?  It means that JESUS LOVES YOU!  He loves you all the way to calvary.  He has given you a chance at eternal life and you can't let that just fly by.  So here is the challenge for the rest of the week.  You may have had a rough lent or maybe have not done anything special during Holy Week but there is still time.  Take the next few days and give Jesus your biggest problem.  Maybe it's a sin.  Maybe it's a worry.  Maybe it's a relationship.  Give that to Jesus and watch what happens.  In today's Gospel Jesus reads a passage from Isaiah and tells us that He is going to release the captives, give sight to the blind, and  set free those who are oppressed.  Those are some pretty large claims.  But if you believe and trust that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead 3 days later, why can't you trust that Jesus can heal the sick?  Why can't you trust that He can free you from that sin or heal that relationship?  All I ask is that you give it to Him this week and watch.  Jesus will come through for you.