Brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday, we begin the solemn commemoration of everything that we have to remember this Holy Week. It is the most important week in the whole liturgical year of the Roman Church and the Eastern Catholic Church, marking the crucial events in the history of our salvation.

Let us all become ever more aware and attuned to our actions, words, deeds, and every part of our lives and existence. Have we been truly ready to commemorate Jesus’s Passion, Death and Resurrection? Have we realized that it was our many sins, faults, stubbornness, and wicked deeds that Our Lord Himself took up as He carried His Cross onto Calvary?

Otherwise, this Holy Week will just end up becoming another regular week and event when we go through the motions, attending the Masses and services year after year, repeating the events but without true spiritual growth and without growing in relationship and closeness to God.

Let us all remember the great and ever-enduring love that the Lord Himself has shown us, manifested perfectly through His Son, in His Passion on the Cross, in all the sufferings, pains, humiliations, and everything that He had to endure for our sake but which He willingly took upon Himself out of His ever-generous and enduring love for us.

We must never take this generous love for granted. We must keep in mind that if we continue to remain in a state of sin, disobeying God and His commandments, then there will be no path for us to come close to God and His salvation simply because it is by our own decision and conscious choice that we decided to reject Him and refuse everything, all the love, compassion, and mercy that He has shown us all this while.

It was, after all, the same people who welcomed the Lord Jesus to Jerusalem as we commemorate this Sunday, who would also cry out on Good Friday, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’

Let us all be aware of our many sins, wickedness, unworthiness, and all the things in our lives that have kept us away from God. Let us all realize that every time we commit sin against Him, we have brought about hurt and pain for Him. All the wounds that have been inflicted upon Him and all the sufferings He bore were due to our sins.

He still bore all those sins, sufferings, and pains because of His ever-enduring and great love for us, but we must not take for granted all that He has done for us. As long as we continue to walk in the path of sin, we will continue to fall deeper and deeper into darkness, and in the end, if we continue to do this, we may end up being lost forever from God. Let us reject the darkness and wickedness of the world, Satan, and all those evil forces.

I encourage you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, to make good use of this time we have been given, especially during Holy Week, to renew our commitment to God. During Holy Week, the Church opens its doors to us repentant sinners. Let us avail of the Sacrament of Confession in the churches that we are going to visit this Holy Week.

Let us deepen our relationship with the Lord, our most loving and merciful God, by being good role models and examples, inspirations, and encouragement for one another and for our fellow brothers and sisters all around us.

May the Lord continue to strengthen our faith and help us in our journey of faith and life, especially as we embark on this most solemn journey this Holy Week, this time of intense commemoration of Our Lord’s Passion, His suffering, and death on the Cross. May God be with us all.