Blessed is He that cometh in the Name
of the Lord.
The Holy and Great Week of Our Lord's Passion now
approaches and calls us all to lay aside our distraction
and indifference, to turn to the Lord with all our
hearts and glorify Him for all that He has done for
us, in the most profound repentance and thanksgiving.
Holy Week is our step-by-step
following of the Lord through the days leading
up to His Death and
Resurrection on the Third Day. If we immerse ourselves
in the Divine Services of each day and take their
meaning and power into ourselves, we will be transformed
by their power, which is the power of Christ's saving
Death and Rising.
On Lazarus
Saturday, we see Him coming to Bethany in the neighborhood
of Jerusalem. Jews from everywhere
are flocking to the Holy City to celebrate the Passover.
Countless witnesses see Him raise from the dead,
simply by a word of command, a man who had been dead
for four days. The leaders of the Jewish people,
consumed with envy and their love of the world, determined
to reject Jesus as the Messiah in spite of all the
evidence, are astonished and angry…they begin
to plot His death.
On Palm
Sunday, we see Jesus ride into the Holy City in
triumph, not as a general or king on a noble
charger, but as the humble Suffering Servant predicted
by the prophets, riding a lowly ass, the beast of
burden which serves the poor. But of the multitudes
who acclaim Him, how many will, just a few days later,
be shouting, "Crucify him!"? We must reflect
on the instability of our own souls and beg the Lord
to remain loyal to Him even unto death.
On Holy
Monday (Sunday night), we begin to chant Behold
the Bridegroom cometh at midnight… to
remind us that we must at all times be prepared for
His Judgment, both at the hour of our death, which
we do not know, and the hour of His Second Coming.
On Holy
Tuesday (Monday night), we behold Him confounding
the priests, the Pharisees, and the scribes in all
their sneaky arguments, and we hear Him condemning
their hypocrisy. Let us see our own hypocrisy, also,
and repent!
On Holy
Wednesday (Tuesday night), we see how an apostle
(Judas) secretly turns traitor and a sinner
(the sinful woman) publicly proclaims her loyalty
to the Lord. Let us ask, "Which one am I?"
On Holy
Thursday morning, at the Divine Liturgy
of the Lord's Supper, we hear how He instituted the
Holy Eucharist to feed us with His Body and Blood,
and then, only minutes later, we partake of them!
On Holy
Friday, we lament at His Cross.
On Holy
Saturday, we watch at His Tomb.
Then, in the night, we await His Resurrection.
Blessed is the King of Israel!
- from a homily of St. Andrew of Crete
Let us run to accompany Him as He hastens toward
His Passion, and imitate those who met Him then,
not by covering His path with garments, olive
branches or palms, but by doing all we can to
prostrate ourselves before Him by being humble
and by trying to live as He would wish. Then
we shall be able to receive the Word at His coming,
and God, whom no limits can contain, will be
within us.
In His humility, Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world, and He
is glad that He became so humble for our sake, glad that He came and lived
among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to Himself.
And even though we are told that He has now ascended above the highest heavens
- the proof, surely, of His power and Godhead - His love for man will never
rest until He has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made
it one with His own in heaven.
So
let us spread before His feet, not garments
or soulless olive branches, which delight the
eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves,
clothed
in His grace, or rather, clothed completely in Him. We who have been baptized
into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before Him. Now
that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving
waters of
Baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the Conqueror
of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of
His victory. Let our souls take the place of
the welcoming branches as we join
today in the children's holy song: "Blessed Is He who comes in the
name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel."