Holy Week Message from Bishop Lucinda

Image: Duccio, di Buoninsegna, -1319?. Agony in the Garden (left); Arrest of Jesus (right); Panel from the Maesta Altarpiece of Siena

Dear Beloved of El Camino Real:

It is a beautiful spring, with flowers in bloom, birds chirping, and lovely weather—a time when it is good to feel our hearts lift in song and cry out with praise to God.

Those who greeted Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem experienced this same lifting of their hearts. The Liturgy of the Palms, which opens our service outside on Palm Sunday, is a simple reenactment of that scene in the Holy Week story; that part of the service concludes with the Sursum Corda or “lift up your hearts,” as we prepare to enter the nave for the next part of the liturgy.

As we progress through Holy Week, our hearts at first lifted, come crashing down in the dark human experiences of betrayal, denial, falsehood, and rumormongering driven by greed and lust for power. Holy Week puts us, as followers of Jesus, deeply in touch with our darkest selves, in the places of both the inner circle and the crowd, as we walk along the way of pain, La Via Dolorosa.

The ups and downs of Holy Week are emotionally and spiritually reminiscent of the chaos of Jesus’ walk through that time. Probably, as with many others, we would rather step away or even run from the highs and lows of that journey. Yet, amidst the chaos is an invitation to sit quietly and touch the parts of our lived experiences as they connect with the Holy Week story.

Being in Holy Week means to be in discomfort. It is an essential place of being, as Mary Oliver reminds us in her poem, “When Death Comes,” with the words, “I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”

This week is a time to fully engage, to walk not as a tourist, an observer, or a visitor but as a participant, calling up from within those things that are difficult and lifting them toward God for forgiveness and grace.

But first, we need to “go there.” May this Holy Week be for you both a blessing and a lesson as you walk with Jesus.