(Given at the 5:30 pm Sunday youth Mass at OLP)
Today marks the beginning of Holy Week. The most holy week of the year where we enter into Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. We do this every time we come to Mass, but most intensely this week and at the end of the week with the Sacred Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. The changes in liturgy today and this week are meant to focus our attention on these realities. Mass isn’t just a service praising God. The Gospel readings aren’t just mere recollections of times past. No, for us as Catholics, when participate in these events, we are mystically, by God’s grace, transported to them through time and space. Or rather, they are made present to us through time and space. Though invisible, we really are at Calvary at each Mass. We really experience the Resurrection of Jesus whenever we receive him in Holy Communion. In a most radical way, you and I are more present to Jesus through faith than the Roman soldiers who were physically standing next to him 2,000 years ago.