Holy Week at Work: Has Anything Changed Since Last Year?
Our C-Virus Mess continues, now encompassing its 2nd Holy Week. Despite claims that "the vaccine" will soon make everything just Jim Dandy, not much has changed around these parts. Sure, we're not as hunkered down and isolated as we were this time last year. But things are far from normal - at least as we knew "normal" before COVID arrived and the Mess began.
And yet, as with last year, Holy Week arrives despite it all. And this year - at least in our neck of the woods - we've been able to attend Mass. We couldn't do that last year. It was a Holy Week without the usual Liturgies, even without Easter Mass. You remember, right? (Maybe some of you remain bereft of Mass and the Sacraments even now.)
So how about we look back and see what we posted last year, by way of comparison. I think we'll find that, while some things have changed, even improved, much remains the same. We'll also see that what we referenced last year to help us keep Holy Week holy will work just as well this year...
From Holy Week 2020:
Last year around this time, most of us were likely at work on the
Tuesday of Holy Week. What a difference a year makes! This year, some of
us are working from home. Some of us may have been laid off or
furloughed from our jobs. And some small percentage of us - those who
work in "essential services" may still be out of our homes doing our
essential work.
Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, it's still Tuesday of Holy
Week. Even if things were "normal, this would be a week unlike any
other work week. And even in our "C-virus World," the Sacred Triduum
looms: Holy Thursday, Good Friday,
Holy Saturday.
Here's something we posted last year to help us consider the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ in a manner befitting
Catholic men at work. It comes from published remarks from a retreat
conducted by Archbishop James Leen, C.S.Sp. in 1940. Read it now,
maybe bring it with you to work. It can help you to recollect yourself
no matter where you are or what you're doing on this Tuesday in Holy
Week.
“The Cross of Christ is not merely a reminder of a historical fact;
nor is it merely the presentation of a dogmatic truth; nor is it only a
revelation of the awful gravity of sin and a warning of the rigors of
justice with which it is chastised; it is not even primarily an eloquent
plea for gratitude and love. It is, of course, all that, but it is
besides, something of yet greater moment. It is above all else a
sacrifice, which whilst redeeming mankind, is, at the same time the
unfolding of a theory of human existence for the instruction of mankind.
It both restores life to man and explains the conditions which underlie
that life.
"A contemplation of the Passion, no matter how sympathetic it may be,
no matter how deeply it may move the emotions, will be in large measure
robbed of its fruits, unless it issues for the contemplative in a clear
realization and a practical grasp of the lesson the Passion is meant to
convey. Each scene of the sufferings of Jesus as it offers itself to
the imagination and the thought of the Christian must have, as the
permanent background of all, the words that so often reinforced and
summarized His ascetical instructions to the people: “Whosoever doth not
carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).
The Cross is the symbol of the Christian way of living. It teaches that
sacrifice is the essential condition of attaining the good the Savior
won for men at the cost of His Precious Blood; and that sacrifice is the
lot not only of the Savior, but of the saved as well. The Cross is not
only for Christ, it is for the Christian also. The Cross is a sign, as a
book is a sign, for men to read. It gives all Christians to understand
that the Christian calling demands that each follower of Christ develop
in himself that attitude of soul which was Christ’s, and which found its
most significant expression in the Passion…”
This is meaty stuff. It's not too long, but long enough so you'll have
to actually concentrate on what you're reading. Maybe you'll even need
to or want to read it more than once. If you do that, maybe it'll spur some thoughts about Our Lord and His Passion.
It's not always easy to recollect ourselves on or off the job and acknowledge
the presence of God. But during Holy Week, it's important that we do.
Just pull out your rosary and glance at the Crucifix. Doesn't that
provide the motivation you need to make time for Christ during this Holy
Week?
Even in the midst of the continuing Mess, we can do this.
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