Notice how in our lives there is are constant ups and downs? This Holy week, begins with Palm Sunday. From our reading in Mass, we were able to participate how the people cheered Jesus coming into the city, and at the same time, others were calling for his death. This point on, we see why we need to have a God Friday in order to celebrate Easter.
For me, this is one of the most emotional times of the year. While there is so much joy that is in our hearts when Jesus enters Jerusalem, there is also that sorrow that we know what is to come.
A few months ago, I came across a quote from Fulton Sheen.
I’ve come across people who assumed that belief in Jesus would mean life would be easy. No troubles, no problems, no worries. But we know that is not true. (scripture quote) We know that when we say He is our Lord, and Savior, we are setting ourselves up to be hated. We are putting a target on our backs, and we have to be able to withstand the attacks. But when these attacks come, we shouldn’t be sad or angry–we should rejoice.
Why rejoice when it feels like my life is falling apart?
Odd right? Why should we rejoice when we are at our lowest? When we are in pain? When we are suffering? I can tell you, personally, that this is hard to do, but it helps you to appreciate the Good Friday. We rejoice not because of the problems that are facing, but we rejoice because we can appreciate that God loves so much to test us.
[Tweet “What body builder can say they are strong if they never lifted weights? Same goes for our faith.”]
Without these days of mourning, and sadness, we cannot celebrate the happy events in our lives. We cannot mourn what we don’t love. We cannot miss something that we never had. So these moments are necessary for our growth.
How empty our lives would be? The loneliness that we experience, knowing that we cannot see Him in the Tabernacle. These things we reflect on during the Holy Week. Most of all, we can reflect on his suffering that he experienced. Not just at the hands of the people who called for his death, but try to understand what he felt like too.
It is through this reflection, mourning, and sadness that our faith grows. Our love for our Lord intensifies, because we know He will be back for us. We know that all of this was done for us. That His love is so great, nothing would stop Him from doing what He needs to do.
In life, we may wish that there was no Good Friday, that everyday is Easter Sunday, but if that was the case, we would never appreciate the good times when it comes. Its during these dark times in our lives, that we come to appreciate. We know that they won’t last long, and there is an Easter at the end of all this.
Some awesome Holy Week Reads:
Confession, Jonah, and The Prodigal’s Sons
Google+