It's Now or Never

Here we are. The Holy Triduum of Holy Week. Today is Holy Thursday, representing the night where Jesus was handed over by his own disciple Judas. Are you ready for the next few hours? Become a part of it. That's why we relive this every year...so we get a glimpse of what this experience might have been like when it was actually happening.

By feeling the emotions of tonight, when Jesus and the apostles have the Last Supper, we can hear what Jesus says, and reflect on his thoughts before everything goes down. What is interesting about reading the Passion is that before Jesus goes into the garden to pray, they all sing a hymn. I would love to know what kind of hymn they sung. Was it joyous? It's hard not to sing without great feeling and emotion, and in this case, Jesus was hours away from death, so I would imagine this hymn wouldn't be any different when it came to emotions. Knowing what was about to happen in its entirety, maybe Jesus wanted to settle everyone down by singing, and distract them through song.

After the hymn, they go into the garden, where Jesus isn't so joyous, even asking God to not let him go through with it. We get that all the time in life. There are things we simply do not want to do, but have to, either for the prospect of a better future for ourselves or for someone else. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do...and Jesus is a perfect example of that. He did it not for himself, but for the rest of salvation. Because of Him we have something to believe in. If every one of us did one one-hundredth of Jesus' sacrifice, our world would be that much better.

So, participate in each of the next few days, and maybe you'll be able to take what is learned now, and let it last not just until Easter, but well beyond that into our future.