A message for Holy Week

Great Lent has now finished. This week we take another spiritual journey, that of Holy Week. During this week we journey with Our Lord to Jerusalem where we witness in the spirit, His betrayal, crucifixion and burial. To share in Christ’s suffering we keep the fast and attend all the services. If someone dear to you were dying, you would keep vigil or at least visit them everyday. Let us not abandon Christ in His time of suffering. Do not let the affairs of the world distract you but rather put the world to one side this week and join Our Lord in His Passion. Fasting this week is a pilgrimage, a journey. Pascha is the destination. Pascha is the fulfillment of our journey, of all our efforts – it is the source and beginning of our spiritual struggle. The Kingdom of God is here and yet is to be consummated at the end of time. We partake of the Kingdom, which is still to come. We foresee and taste but still struggle on earth. On Wednesday we will commune at the Vespers of the Presanctified. We need this Holy Communion to stay alive on our journey through the spiritual struggle against evil. Our physical hunger from fasting is a reflection of our spiritual hunger. Both will be fulfilled if we share this week in Our Lord’s Passion. For the faithful that observe this Holy Week of Passion, Pascha will be the fulfillment of our physical and spiritual hunger. Then fasting will have no meaning for we will be feasting with the Bridegroom.