At the beginning of Lent, many of us may resolve to give up something – or, indeed, to take up something – as part of our discipline of ‘fasting’ during the season. And, rather as with New Year resolutions, we can soon find that we have not managed to maintain our fast. This is just a normal part of our being human and we should not beat ourselves up over it. We certainly shouldn’t despair and abandon all Lenten observance until we try again next year! As we reflected four weeks ago, as Christians we don’t despair but we may lament and lament has a purpose: it brings us hope because our faith is that our lives have been redeemed and that we belong to a community of the redeemed.
That redemption was brought about through the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, events which we recall as we travel together through Holy Week which begins on Palm Sunday (13 April). If we do feel that we haven’t done very well in our Lenten observance this year, we are given the opportunity nevertheless to finish well by keeping a good Holy Week. It is the most significant week in the Christian calendar beginning with the celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem when we join the crowds shouting ‘Hosanna’, a shout of praise, which turns all too quickly to ‘Crucify him!’ just a few days later.
Holy Wednesday is sometimes known as ‘Spy Wednesday’ because the Gospel for the day tells of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus – ‘spy’ is used in the sense of Judas being a ‘sleeper’ or ‘mole’ amongst the disciples.
On Maundy Thursday we remember the Last Supper and Jesus’ institution of the eucharist. This is the start of the great three days of what is often called the Easter Triduum. Jewish days started at sundown – ‘there was evening and there was morning, the first day’ and so on as is recorded in Genesis. In John’s Gospel where Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet is recorded, there is no direct reference to the eucharist. Instead, Jesus tells his followers, ‘…if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.’ (John 13.14) Rather than wash each other’s feet, we shall have the (entirely optional) opportunity – as at last year’s service – to wash each other’s hands symbolically during our celebration of the eucharist together at 8.00pm on Maundy Thursday (17 April) at Christ Church.
While Good Friday (18 April) is a Bank Holiday in the UK, as it is not so here in France, rather than mark the events of that day between 12 noon and 3.00pm as is otherwise traditional, we shall have a quiet service of reflection at 8.00pm lasting for about an hour based on The Way of the Cross and using pictures, extracts from scripture and the psalms and intentions for prayer.
Holy Saturday is an empty, bleak day of mourning as Jesus’ body lies in the tomb. Sometimes it is called the Harrowing of Hell although there is considerable debate about what exactly is meant by that phrase. One possibly rather sentimental but nevertheless attractive suggestion (which has no scriptural or other authority) is that, on Holy Saturday, Jesus went to find and forgive his friend, Judas.
And then …