This year, Holy Week will be a very different experience. Due to the Coronavirus, lay people will for the most part have to watch Holy Week services from their homes, while priests lead them by themselves, with perhaps a handful of people assisting at most. It will be very different experience not to be going to church for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and especially, Easter Sunday. (Technically, Easter Sunday is not a part of Holy Week, but we will still consider it part of the Holy Week experience for our discussion here.)
Many of us will experience isolation and solitude this Holy Week. But perhaps to a certain degree this reality might be able to help us draw closer to the mysteries we celebrate during this special week every year. Those themes are very much a part of the whole experience. Let us consider some selections from this week’s readings:
Palm Sunday procession Gospel (Matthew 21:1-11)
Say to daughter Zion, “Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”
Our Lord road into Jerusalem, alone, on an ass. No one was on it with him. Yes, there were a lot of people laying down cloaks and palms and praising Him, but he was alone on it. He also knew that the cheers would not last long. In that sense, despite all the praise, he likely felt alone, too.
Palm Sunday 1st Reading (Isaiah 50: 4-7)
I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.
Our Lord fulfills the prophecy of the Suffering Servant, who as we see here, turns the other cheek when he is being tortured by the crowds. This to me implies no one is around to help him, a lonely experience.
Palm Sunday Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 22)
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
When one feels abandoned, one feels very much alone.
Palm Sunday 2nd Reading (Philippians 2:6-11)
Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
Social relationships fill us. When one is in solitude or isolation, without those fulfilling relationships, one can certainly feel empty.
Palm Sunday Gospel (Matthew 26:14-27:66)
So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?
His disciples cannot stay awake with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He also asks God that if it is possible, the Cup be taken away from Him. When people cannot stay awake with us, or we feel our prayers are not answered, we can feel very alone.
After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And they placed over his head the written charge against him: This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left. Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, and come down from the cross!” Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way.
Our Lord was crucified with two others on the same hill. But he was alone in the sense that he was the only innocent one among the three, and they too, were taunting him like many in the crowd were.
Monday of Holy Week 1st Reading (Isaiah 42:1-7)
Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, Upon whom I have put my Spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations, Not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street.
The Suffering Servant is quiet, as many who live in isolation and solitude are. We feel like we have no voice.
Monday of Holy Week Gospel (John 12:1-11)
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.
The ones we love are not always with us, as we have all been experiencing painfully these days.
Tuesday of Holy Week 1st Reading( Isaiah 49:1-6 )
The LORD called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me.
We may often now feel concealed and hidden due to the circumstances of our times.
Tuesday of Holy Week Gospel (John 13:21-38)
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.”
Where we are, others cannot come. How true that is for many of us nowadays!
Wednesday of Holy Week (Isaiah 50:4-9)
(Same reading as Palm Sunday 1st Reading)
I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.
When no one is around to support us, to defend us, we feel alone.
Wednesday of Holy Week Responsorial Psalm (Isaiah 69:21-22)
I looked for sympathy, but there was none; for consolers, not one could I find.
How alone one must feel who looks for love and compassion and cannot find it.
Wednesday of Holy Week Gospel (Matthew 26:14-25)
When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
One of Our Lord’s closest companions betrayed Him. Being hurt badly by someone we are close to and dearly love is a terribly isolating feeling.
Holy Thursday 1st Reading (Exodus 12:1-14)
For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD! But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you.
During the Passover, Israelites huddled in their homes, as we are now. Like them, we should be seeking God’s protection.
Holy Thursday Gospel (John 13: 1-15)
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
During the Last Supper, Jesus knew he was going to be cut off from his close friends, at least physically. They would desert him, and then he would die. This feeling of impending isolation must have given him sorrow.
Good Friday 1st Reading (Isaiah 52:15-53:12)
He was spurned and avoided by people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.
The Suffering Servant was avoided by people. He loved us so much, but we hid from him. He was an outcast, alone.
Good Friday Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 31)
For all my foes I am an object of reproach, a laughingstock to my neighbors, and a dread to my friends; they who see me abroad flee from me. I am forgotten like the unremembered dead; I am like a dish that is broken.
People run from the Suffering Servant; they do not wish to associate with him.
Good Friday Gospel (John 18:1-19:42)
When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!” They cried out, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
Imagine being the rightful King and your people do not acknowledge you. How lonely that must feel.
Easter Sunday Gospel (John 20:1-9)
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
By the time the first witnesses arrived, the tomb was already empty. Therefore, nobody was an eye witness to the actual Resurrection. Our Lord rose from the dead alone. Often in our life, even when we are joyful, or an incredible event happens, we are, or at least feel, still alone, and have nobody to share it with.
In these days of the Coronavirus, when we have to celebrate and practice our faith more in solitude than usual, it may be comforting to hear that the themes of isolation and solitude are prevalent in Holy Week. We can use these circumstances to unite ourselves more fully to the Lord if we choose. May we do just that.
