Holy week... The most important seven days in the history of man... Although the exact sequence of events is not always clear to us, we can discern, even now, the straight lines of divine order... Sunday: The garments in the dust - the Hosannahs as the prelude to the "Crucify."... Monday: Sermons with the urgent note of finality - the withered fig tree - Caesar's coin... Tuesday: The terrifying wrath of the Lamb over institutionalized and personal sin among the Scribes and Pharisees - the fire and color of His last sermon to the city and the world - the sureness of justice and the coming of judgment... Night and prayer in the light of the Easter moon on the Mount of Olives...
Wednesday is silent... If anything happened, the holy writers have drawn the veil... Everything that God could say before the Upper Room had been said... It was man's turn now... Perhaps there were quiet words in a corner of the Garden, both to His children who would flee and to His Father who would stay... Wednesday was His... The heart of that mad, crowded Holy Week was quiet... Tomorrow the soliders would come, and Friday there would be God's great signature in the sky... Thursday and Friday would belong to time and eternity, but Wednesday was of heaven alone...
Silent Wednesday... If our Lord needed it, how much more we whose life is the story of the Hosannah and the Crucify... Time for prayer, for adoration... Time to call the soul into the inner court and the Garden... In our crowded world we are lonely because we are never alone... No time to go where prayer is the only sound and God is the only light... We need more silent Wednesdays... In the glory of the Cross above our dust our silence can become purging and peace... God speaks most clearly to the heart that is silent before Him... [The Pilgrim, pp. 27, 28]
5 comments:
Amen! More silent Wednesdays! Hopefully without people scheming behind our back at the same time...
Not so silent perhaps.
"ON GREAT AND HOLY WEDNESDAY the Church commemorates the act of contrition and love of the sinful woman who poured precious myrrh-oil on our Savior's head, and, though she did not know it, "prepared Him for burial." And in contrast we hear of the dark act of Judas, whose greed led him to betray his Master. All the readings and hymns of the day warn us to beware of greed and love of money, which even tempted a disciple of Christ. We too can betray Him, if we let greed and selfishness get hold of us, while every deed of humility and love at once brings us near to Him.
Concerning these incidents recorded in the Holy Gospels, the Synaxarion has the following account:
Two women — say the more discerning interpreters of the Gospel — anointed the Lord with myrrh; the one, a long time before His Passion; the other, a few days before. The one was a harlot and sinner; the other, chaste and virtuous. The Church commemorates this reverent act today. While mentioning herein the person of the harlot, it also mentions Judas' betrayal; for, according to the account in Matthew, both of these deeds took place two days before the Passover, on Wednesday."
http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/2011/04/great-holy-wednesday.html
Since then, Wednesday recalls the betrayal of Christ by Judas and is observed (by Orthodox Christians at least) as one of two weekly fast days (Friday remembers Christ's crucifixion) every week of the year except for one or two exceptions.
Or not. Two days before Passover, in Matthew's chronology, is Tuesday. For in Matthew, the Passover was celebrated on Thursday, not Friday (as in John's Gospel). One can't mix the dating, can one?
Hey guys, c'mon -- everybody knows, or ay least in the world of my younger days, everybody knew, that Wednesday of Holy Week is when Luke is read, and is nicknamed Spy Wednesday from the Judas thing!
The best Biblical evidence is that
Jesus spent a day of rest with his
friends at Bethany on Wednesday.
His rest probably included prayer
and meditation as he focused on
the events of Thursday and Friday.
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