No week of the Christian year comes with the weight of this one.  Far from the anticipation of Advent, this one comes with near dread.  Each day of the week comes with heightened intensity as the cross looms larger and larger.  What started off at Ash Wednesday as a small figure on a far horizon, now towers over us as we start up the steep hill of Calvary.  However, without this week coming back to us each year, how easy it would be for us to forget the unfathomable love of God and price Jesus was willing to pay for us to find life abundant and eternal.  This is the week we exchange our decorative cross for our crucifix. Without this week, there is no Easter, and without immersing ourselves once again in the story and in the liturgical events of this week, Easter comes with too little appreciation.  I return each year to the following passages:

Monday-  Mark 11:12-19   The Cursing of the Fig Tree and the Cleansing of the Temple
Tuesday-  Mark 11:20-13:37  The Day of Challenge and Teaching
Wednesday-  Mark 14:1-11  The Anointing at Bethany
Thursday-  Mark 14:12-72  The Last Supper, The Garden, The Betrayal, The Arrest
Friday-  Mark 15:1-47  The Suffering and Death of Jesus

     This week calls us back from our preoccupation with life to contemplate the source of our life.  It calls us back from our false sense of self-sufficiency to knowing with Paul, "my life is not my own, it has been bought with a price".  May this Holy Week bring us all back to Jesus the crucified that we might fully adore and serve Jesus the risen Christ.

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