DO-IT-AT-HOME CELEBRATION OF THE HOLY WEEK (Introduction)

Passover is a feast celebrated by the Jews commemorating Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Almost all of us know this story from the Old Testament of the Bible. It is about God who guided Moses to lead His people out of Egypt to travel to the promised land. In the story, we learn that God sent the last plaque wherein every firstborn offspring died on that night except those who remained in houses where a lamb had been sacrificed and its blood painted on the doorposts of those houses. God promised that everyone in those houses would be safe. DEATH would “pass over” those houses. Thus, the feast is called Passover. After that night, God instructed His people to observe the Passover Feast as a lasting memorial.

Jesus too celebrated a Passover. He celebrated a new Passover on Holy Thursday (because the Old Passover is celebrated on Friday evening).

In the Old Testament, a male lamb was sacrificed, roasted and eaten with unleavened bread. In the New Testament, Jesus is the new Passover Lamb. Remember, John the Baptist said this about Jesus: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29) and in another occasion St. Paul said, “For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7). Jesus celebrated the new Passover for our deliverance from the slavery of sin and has opened the door for us to the promised land of heaven. 1 Peter 1: 18-19 says, “Realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.”

We, Catholics, continue in our Holy Mass the celebration of this new Passover (Luke 22:19-20). But in a special solemnity every Holy Week, we do not just celebrate the Last Supper but also recall the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. I am afraid, however, that most of us will celebrate this year’s Holy Week (2020) in our houses as the global situation demands. This is not new actually because both the first Old Testament Passover and Jesus’ Passover were held in houses.

Here is what one can do to celebrate Holy Week 2020 while at home. He or she can participate in the Church’s celebration by following their parish’s Holy Week masses and activities on TV, radio or internet via live streaming.