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     Writing decades after the events of Holy Week, St. Paul offers a broad theological interpretation of what happened.  We can keep this in mind during Holy Week, but this should not stop us from joining in the events themselves.  Each Sunday of the year, we gather to celebrate the Eucharist - the Passover of the Lord.  Palm Sunday and Holy Week invite us to celebrate this step by step so that the remaining Sundays of the year can take on greater meaning in keeping with St. Paul's interpretation. That interpretation is like the narrator who comes out before the curtain rises to tell us what the drama is about.  Isaiah's "Songs of the Suffering Servant", which provide the first scripture for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, provide a profound "musical" background. Palm Sunday is the curtain-raiser with the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem from the account in the Gospel According to Mark and continues with the Passion account in that same gospel.  The gospel scriptures for the first three days of the week, from the Gospels According to John and Matthew take us through the events building up to the Last Supper on Thursday, the Crucifixion on Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil on Saturday.

     Good drama draws the audience into the experience of the action.  We can become less as spectators and more as participants.  We can become a face in the fickle crowd that goes from "Hosanna!" on Palm Sunday to "Crucify him!" on Good Friday.  We can become bewildered disciples trying to understand Jesus' words about betrayal and then panic in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We can become the denying Peter in the high priest's courtyard or Mary and Mary Magdalen at the foot of the cross or any other witness to all these events.  Holy Week offers us the opportunity to be more than passive observers.  Jesus is giving his life for us in real time and not just in history.  AMEN