The days of Holy Week and what they mean
Holy Week is the eight days from when Jesus entered Jerusalem for Passover (what Catholics today call Palm Sunday) to his Resurrection on what is now celebrated as Easter. This period is called the “Passion,” which comes from the Latin word for “suffering,” because of what Jesus endured — betrayal, abuse, false accusation, and crucifixion — during the week.
Holy Week is the most sacred week in the liturgical year for Catholics and all Christians. Here’s a day-by-day of Jesus’ last week.
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is the celebration of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. He rides in on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
The people rejoice and lay palms in his path, symbolizing triumph. Matthew 21:9 says, “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’”
Palm fronds are given out on Palm Sunday during Mass, and some churches have a procession through the church with a donkey.
Holy Monday
Jesus curses a fig tree, turns over tables in the Temple, and heals the blind and the lame.
According to Matthew 21: 12-17, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.’”
Those who hear and witness Jesus’ miraculous healings that day sing praises to Him, which causes authorities to begin looking for a way to kill him. The Gospel of Luke says that “they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.” –Luke 19:48
According to Mark 11: 12-13, “The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard him say it.”
Many will begin a spring cleaning on Monday, known as the Passover cleanse. The home must be aired out to remove the evils accumulated during the winter.
Holy Tuesday
On Holy Tuesday, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and other religious leaders attempt to entrap Jesus by challenging his beliefs while he teaches at the Temple. First, they question his authority. He answers with three parables: The Parable of the Two Sons, The Parable of the Tenants, and The Parable of the Wedding Banquet. The second trap challenges Jesus’ allegiance, the third trap attempts to ridicule Jesus’ belief in resurrection, and the fourth Jesus answers by claiming God’s greatest command to be “Love.”
Peter notices the fig tree has withered. Some biblical scholars believe this is a metaphor for the religious of the day — it looks lovely but produces no fruit, which foreshadows Israel’s punishment for unbelief.
The spring cleaning is continued on Holy Tuesday.
Holy Wednesday or Spy Wednesday
“Spy Wednesday” is in reference to Judas betraying Jesus to a religious leader in exchange for 30 silver coins. Judas fulfills a prophecy from Zechariah 11:12-13:
“I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.’ So, they paid me 30 pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the handsome price at which they valued me! So, I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.” According to John 12:1-8, Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus’ feet and then wipes them with her hair. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ actions at the Last Supper, when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. (John 13:1–20).
The Paschal Triduum begins after Spy Wednesday. The Triduum is the three-day time span from nightfall on Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday’s nightfall and is one, unitive feast.
Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday
On Holy Thursday, Jesus shares his last meal with the apostles, undergoes agony in the garden, is betrayed and arrested.
At the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus breaks bread and passes around wine, foretelling his sacrifice as the Lamb of God. According to Luke 22, “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’”
He also washes their feet and, according to John 13:34:, says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.”
All four Gospels tell of Jesus’ Agony in the Garden. Bringing Peter, James, and John, Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray and asks the apostles to keep watch and pray. Jesus asks his Father to remove “the cup he was about to drink,” but he submits to his Father’s will. When Jesus returns, he has to wake the apostles who have fallen asleep. After Judas’ betrayal, he is arrested in the garden.
A Mass of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated that commemorates Christ’s Washing of the Feet and the institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper. Toward the end of the Mass, the Transfer of the Eucharist rite calls for a separate place for the Eucharist to be reserved other than the tabernacle. The focus should now be on the cross, not the tabernacle.
After Mass, the sanctuary is stripped of all decor and the crucifix will be covered by purple cloth in preparation for the solemn Good Friday liturgy.
Good Friday
Jesus is found guilty of a crime he did not commit and sentenced to execution on a cross. He dies on the cross. According to1 Peter 3:18,“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”
In Matthew 27:45-54, his death is described: “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, ‘This Man is calling for Elijah!’ Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, ‘Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.’ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
“Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
“So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’”
Churches will hold somber services Friday at 3 p.m. — when he is thought to have died — to remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Stations of the Cross devotions are also held.
In the Scriptural Stations of the Cross, the Agony in the Garden is the First Station of the Cross versus the traditional stations which have Jesus condemned to death as the first. The Scriptural Stations of the Cross has the second station as Judas’ betrayal. Pope John Paul II began the new form of the Stations of the Cross devotion in 1991.
According to the US Catholic Conference of Bishops: “They are presented here as an alternative to the traditional stations and as a way of reflecting more deeply on the Scriptural accounts of Christ’s passion.”
The 14 stations with Jesus’ condemnation at the first station were established by Pope Clement XII in 1731 and as many Stations of the Cross were installed prior to 1991, that version is still used in many churches today.
The Scriptural Stations of the Cross by Pope John Paul II
The Ecumenical Stations of the Cross by Pope Clement XII
Holy Saturday
After Jesus dies on Friday, the women bury him in a tomb. On Saturday, he remains buried.
The Church will hold the Easter Vigil on Saturday after sundown. At the Mass, Catechumens who were elected by the Church (in the person of the archbishop) to become members at the Rite of Election in February will be baptized and become full members of the Church.
Easter Sunday
Jesus conquers death and rises again. First, he appears to Mary Magdalene, then to the disciples, then to over 500 witnesses. Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday, marks the third day after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and the day of his miraculous resurrection, fulfilling the Messiah prophecy told in Isaiah 53.
The period between his Resurrection and Ascension is known as Epiphany.
This year, the Archdiocese of Newark is observing Holy Week with several liturgies celebrated by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark. For the full schedule, click here.
