Holy Week

From an ancient homily of Holy Saturday:

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. He whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sleep. Greatly desired to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the son of Eve. (…)

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. (…) See on My face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. On My back see the marks of scourging I endured the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See My hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree. I slept on the cross and a sword pierced My side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. (…)

Rise, let us leave this place. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

St. John’s account of the final events leading to Jesus’ death begins in the garden where Jesus is arrested. It is a place where Jesus often gathered with His disciples. From a setting of peace and tranquility it becomes a place of betrayal, confusion and violence. The narrative ends in another garden, now one of sadness, where the dead body of Jesus is laid in a new tomb.

At the beginning of his Gospel, St. John repeats the opening words of Genesis, “in the beginning.” It is as if, in painting these gardens into the canvas of his picture of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering and death, he takes us back to the origins of sin. Whereas the first man and woman in the garden of Eden chose to do what they knew was wrong and thereby lost control of their God-given gift of free will, Jesus gave himself totally to the will of His Father and remained steadfast to the end.

Jesus Christ takes all elements of our human nature and raises them up to communicate His divine life to us. At the foot-washing, the apostles immediately see that Jesus is taking on the role of a servant. There is also something very intimate about washing the feet of someone else. But as well as that meaning, is there a deeper meaning that Peter doesn’t see? It seems so, as Jesus says, “At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Jesus as the great, eternal high priest, is about to enter into the liturgy of His own passion and death. This is the ultimate and eternal sacrifice. He wishes to initiate His apostles into this great high-priestly action.

Of course, all of us are washed by Christ in the sacrament of baptism. By that washing we receive the Holy Spirit and the gifts of faith, hope and charity. We also receive a share, a part, in the offices of Christ as priest, prophet and king. Other Gospels concentrate on the gift of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, and John’s Gospel complements their accounts with this emphasis on the ritual preparation of the apostles, by Jesus using a gesture from the religious ritual of the time. So these two great sacraments, the Eucharist and Holy Orders, are celebrated tonight. As we meditate upon these two great gifts to the Church on this holy night, we can be full of gratitude to God. We can see how close God is to us, and how, in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus again hands himself over to sinful humanity.