Easter 2024 - A Guide to Holy Week
As the name suggests, the week from Palm Sunday through to Easter is the most sacred week of observance in our Christian calendar. It is a time to focus our attention on the central events which form the foundation of our Christian faith: the passion (suffering), death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Celebrating these events in our life of worship as a community is far more than a simple recounting of history. To walk through the story, from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to his resurrection, is the first step, but it is just that – a beginning. Holy Week is a time to reflect on the story, to open hearts and minds to the voice of God speaking to us today about who we are and who we are called to be as the people of God here and in this place now.
In our baptism we have been united with Christ through the Holy Spirit; we have died with Christ and have been raised to new life; we have been reborn by water and the Holy Spirit. All of this is possible because of what happened more than two thousand years ago. More importantly, it all happens again for us and for our world. God seeks to heal and transform our lives as we relive the death and resurrection of Christ in the days ahead. Each of us and all of us are invited to join with the Church throughout the world as we celebrate the truth of our faith once more.
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday - 24th March
There are two events commemorated on this day. The first part of the liturgy focuses on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This year (Year B) we read the account from the Gospel of Luke. We hear of Jesus’ entry to the city on a donkey colt, of the palm branches waved in welcome and spread before him in the streets of Jerusalem and we hear the shouts of Hosanna to greet the Son of David.
Having heard the description of the event, we become part of the crowd ourselves. We will begin with the bidding to recall the triumphal entry to Jerusalem and its outcome several days later. The focus of the liturgy becomes the story of the Passion. In reading the Passion story together we follow an ancient tradition. We become attentive to the suffering and death that is to come and establish a tone of solemnity that pervades the rest of the week. We enter into the story as it is read dramatically. We are invited to be witnesses to all that happens and to reflect on what we see through the lens of our own tensions and conflicts.
Perhaps the starkest contrast on this day is the change in mood from our joyful proclamations of Jesus as King to the dark chorus of “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Like those people in Jerusalem long ago, rejecting the Son of God is our sin also. The service ends with the celebration of the Eucharist. At this most solemn time in our life as a community, it is so very important that we recognize God’s grace at work among us.
The Palm Sunday services end with no recessional hymn and no dismissal. Like the crowds in Jerusalem we each quietly leave as we are ready.
Wednesday in Holy Week - 27th March
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Holy Week are days traditionally set aside for reflection and prayer. For some, they are days of fasting as well. The intent of this time of worship is to draw us together as a community as we sustain each other and pray for our parish on the eve of the Triduum. The Latin word triduum means a three-day period, and specifically, the three days from Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
Maundy Thursday and the Ceremony of Foot Washing - 28th March
The name ‘Maundy’ comes from the Latin verb mandare which means to command. The Maundy Thursday liturgy is based on the text in the Gospel of John in which Jesus, at his last supper with the disciples, gives them a “new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34)
Ever the teacher, Jesus modeled the servanthood he expected of his disciples. As they gathered together for the last time, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples – a task usually performed by the lowliest servant in the household. In carrying out this ceremony, Jesus taught the disciples that his own mission of love was rooted in serving others; his challenge was that they too should serve each other and the world in the same way that he did. If they wish, members of the congregation are encouraged to come forward and participate in this very dramatic moment. As the words of invitation spoken by the Celebrant say, “… come forward, that I may recall whose servant I am by following the example of my Master. But come remembering his admonition that what will be done for you is also to be done by you for others.” Witnessing this rite rather than physically participating in the washing of feet is something you may also choose to do.
The second focus of this night is the institution of the Eucharist in which Christ presents in the bread and wine of a shared meal the ultimate symbols of his love for us all: his offering of himself on the cross for our redemption. In receiving this sacrament week by week we are fed by his life, and we repeatedly renew our covenant with him as the people of God. As the familiar words remind us, “This is the blood of the new covenant which is shed for you, and for many, for the forgiveness of sins.” On this special night of remembering we recall with gratitude this gift by which we are united with Jesus and with one another throughout our lives.
At the conclusion of the Eucharist, the church is stripped of all its decorations and the lights are dimmed in preparation for the solemn observance of Christ’s crucifixion on the following day. The congregation leaves in silence.
Good Friday - 29th March
On this day the liturgy has an especially solemn tone to the devotions. Throughout Lent and Holy Week we have journeyed to the cross together as a community. Today the focus for each of us is our own individual need for redemption and the price Jesus paid on our behalf. The remembrance of the Son of God hanging on the cross permeates our worship with a sense of awe, reverence, and gratitude. The liturgy includes the reading of scripture culminating in the story of the Passion being told once again, this time from the Gospel of John. For John, the crucifixion of Jesus is his ultimate moment of triumph – a moment in which the crown of thorns is truly a mark of kingship and the cross is a throne.
In the Solemn Intercessions, our usual prayers for the Church, for the world, and for all in need are greatly expanded as we recognize this moment of offering in which Christ, through the cross, gave himself for the life of the whole world.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Good Friday liturgy is known as the meditation on the cross. It is the moment when we come most intentionally to stand at the foot of the cross as we are called to a deeper sense of worship and gratitude for the great act of love and sacrifice by which Christ has reconciled each of us to God.
Holy Saturday - 30th March
Holy Saturday commemorates the repose of Christ’s body in the tomb and his descent to the dead. The tone of the day is one of waiting, expectation, and rest.
Easter Sunday (the Feast of the Resurrection) - 31st March
Today we join with Christians throughout the world in celebrating this most holy of days. Together we renew our baptismal vows and proclaim our faith:
Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Stretching from the Day of the Resurrection to the Feast of Pentecost, the season of Easter in known as the great Fifty Days. It is a time of joy and celebration in the Church. In some parishes The Gloria is sung or said at every Eucharist and the Confession is omitted.