What to Do This Holy Week

I’d decided not to listen to the news this week, in an attempt to turn my focus more to God, than to the world.   At mass on Sunday, the pastor mentioned that today’s mass was for …he said my mom’s name.  On Palm Sunday, the mass offered at my parish, was for her.    My kids love for me to make crosses out of the palms, and I was able to give them to some of my children.  It was an offering of hope.   However it did keep me from fully focusing.

That evening, my son needed to go to adaptive Religious Education in preparation for Confirmation.  So I got to hear the readings for the day a second time, to let them steep into my heart.     God came prepared for helping me.

Not listening to the radio or surfing the internet for what’s new didn’t mean I remained uninformed.  Just going on Facebook to deal with my writing class, I saw post after post of the interview between the President of El Salvador, and our President.  I read their despair and wanted to answer the question, what should we do?

This is the truth of our faith, the heart of what we are to embrace not merely during Lent, but all year round.  Today, I’d been dealing with paperwork, and my daughter recognized my stress and made us stop for ice cream.  Not fasting, but it was a stop for joy, breathing, and a break from the world.   Small goods like gardening, like playing games, like chocolate and books, wine, walks, baseball, prayers, flowers, all of these little things are forms of resistance against the ugliness the world offers.

Christ died for our sins, and it is our job to participate in the redemption of the world.   Offering our gifts, our sufferings, our trials, our joys, our everything, is our mission, most especially in Holy Week.   So go about your business but be prepared to be Simon, Veronica, or at the foot of the cross.  Recognize how often we fail and stumble, how much we need Christ to carry us on that cross all the way to His crucifixion.

In this week, break open the nard.  Wash the feet.  Kiss them.  Give alms.  Get yourself to confession and pray the stations of the cross.  Hold meals for your family, and for Christ.   Be a source of joy for someone, and you will help them cope with the hard things of life better than they otherwise would have.    It is the surest path to peace for both your own heart and others.   Kindness, like beauty, will help the world participate in its salvation.

Have a blessed Holy Week! Pray for a conversion of every heart.