De Leon: Holy Week reflection

HOLY Week is a great time of the year. I know that many people love Christmas. But the commercialization and spending of everything at that time of the year make some of you cringe, too.

But we don’t have the consumer Easter — not much anyway. Holy Week pretty much is solely a religious holy day. And there’s no covering up what it’s about either. The Easter Bunny doesn’t have the same stature as Santa.

There’s just no way to spin Holy Week into some kind of buying frenzy. Rather, in Holy Week we hear about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey with palm branches waving at him. People there must have thought they were cheering for a politician who was going to set everything right, or make Israel great again, or was bringing hope and change for their them. He was, but not in the way they understood.

Holy Week is the time we hear about a Messiah getting triggered and flipping of the tables in the Temple. We hear about clashes with Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, the chief priests and elders.

We hear about the Roman occupiers stressing fear and power. We hear about a “trial” and punishment. We hear about betrayal. We hear about mockery. We hear about violence and death.

And there is no way to hide these things.

Holy Week speaks clearly to us because we still live in that world. It is still a part of our reality — whether we want to admit it or not. Jesus shows us the reality of a broken world — and shows it right in our face.

Thus, it is uncomfortable for so many of us. If only we could fast-forward to Easter and sing Alleluia again!

But Holy Week is supposed to be this uncomfortable. It’s Jesus holding up a mirror to us and showing us who we are — The ones who yell out--- “Crucify him! Crucify him!” We claim this every time we choose violence, hatred, war, and death. Every time, we let go and defend Barabas for a false-sense of human rights.

Yet, the same blood that is on us and convicts us, is the same blood that will be shed for us and will cover us in forgiveness.

Holy Week is a time when we see who God is, who we are. Holy Week is scary for so many. Yet it is beautiful.

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