By Father Rich Tomkosky
This is Holy Week. It is holy because it is the week we recall, each year, in a poignant way, the events that led to the salvation of the human race: the Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He alone is the Savior of the human race. “There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved” (see Acts 4:12). Never forget that truth! And do your best to try to invite those who have fallen away from the faith, or who have no faith, to come back.
We all called this week to renew our faith in Jesus and to invite Him to re-live His Passion, Death and Resurrection in us. Let us pray for the grace to enter mystically into the Passion of Christ this week – to the extent we are able, as God alone knows. Please come to as many of the Holy Week Liturgical events as possible. It is meant to be a week of deep spiritual reflection and great grace: somber and melancholic on some deep level as we think of Holy Thursday and Good Friday and Jesus’s time in the grave, but culminating in the great joy of the Resurrection, at the Vigil and Easter Sunday.
Finally, during this Holy Week, let us ask our Heavenly Father in love to help us to unite ourselves with Christ not just in our memories and intellects, but also in our hearts and wills, so that the Holy Spirit can then mold us increasingly into a living image of Christ, in our entire being, over the long term – and not just this week once a year. This is what a call to embrace a life of spiritual reparation involves. May our focus be on holiness by entering intimately into the saving events of this week with Christ, in Christ, and through Christ to the glory of the Blessed Trinity and for the salvation of our souls and for the souls of other people. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
