His Story, and Ours

Only two times during the Church year are we given the option to read the Gospel in the way we just did. One is today, and the other is this Friday.

I’ve sometimes wondered why that is. Why, on these specific days, Palm Sunday and Good Friday, with this specific Gospel passage, are we given the option to read the Gospel in parts, with various speakers, not just those who are ordained? On the one hand, there’s the practical element of making it a little more engaging. It’s just a little easier to pay attention when there are different speakers, especially when the Gospel is so long. But I think there’s another reason too, which is this: participating in the Gospel, having a role and saying a few words ourselves, makes it come alive for us in a new and more profound way.

And isn’t that ultimately the goal of this coming week? The mysteries of Jesus’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection lie at the heart of our faith all through the year, but in this Holy Week, they are meant to come alive for us – not only for us to find meaning in them, but that they may resonate with meaning for our lives here and now. In these next few days, we are invited to participate in the story of salvation, and realize that in some way, in the deepest ways, it’s our story too. We are the crowds that cheered Jesus into Jerusalem, and those that shouted for him to be crucified. We are the disciples who ate and drank with him at the Last Supper, and who then fled in fear and denied him. We are the women who wept and mourned him on the Way of the Cross and who stood with him at the foot of Calvary. We are all of these things; we are faithful and fickle.

Christ's Entry into Jerusalem (c. 1860) by Hippolyte Flandrin

But ultimately, the point of our faith – and the point of this Holy Week – is that Jesus himself is the one with whom we identify the most. We are present in him, and he in us. That’s what it means to be the Body of Christ, and that’s what ultimately makes this week holy. In him, our sufferings become redemptive; in us, he is at work, to bring us by our faith and hope to a share in his victory. Let’s participate again in his story, in our story. Let’s enter into this week with prayer, and with participation, joining our story to his, so that his triumph may be ours.