“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

This quote from the Gospel of John is a summary of our lives and explains the meaning of the whole world. It also explains the meaning of Holy Week that we are about to enter.

For the last six weeks, the Church has encouraged us to spend extra effort to review our love for and friendship with Jesus Christ and our brothers and sisters. We have done so by fasting, praying, and confessing our sins. And we have walked with Jesus step by step through his ministry in the daily readings at Mass.

During Holy Week, we are reminded that sin is not just a fanciful myth that perhaps was invented to encourage us to be nicer to each other. Sin has real and destructive consequences. As Jesus approached Jerusalem for the last time, we are left to wonder why the leaders of the Jewish people and the Roman authorities plotted to kill him. Jesus had spoken of and lived only goodness, truth and real love. What provoked such a response?

That question is intensified as Jesus is put through the horrible and needless suffering of his scourging on Holy Thursday night. And on Good Friday, we are left to ask the final question: How could the Son of God have been nailed to the cross to die in agony, and why did he consent to it?

The answer is always the same: sin. Jesus came to free us from sin. Yes, he came to free us from the sin of the world. But our reflections and practices of Lent should remind us that our own personal sins are part of the sin of the world. In short, Jesus didn’t just die for us. He died for me and for my sins.

On Holy Thursday night, Jesus gathered with the Apostles and instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood as he celebrated the first Mass. He did so, as we hear at Mass each Sunday, by giving up his body “for you,” and offering his blood “for the forgiveness of sins.”

On Good Friday, so many people make time to come to the service which somberly reminds us of Jesus’ suffering and of our love for the cross. It is impossible not to be moved as we listen to the reading of the Passion of Jesus, voice the parts of the crowd that call for his crucifixion, kneel for a few moments in silence when he breathes his last, and then advance to kiss the cross itself. Truly, we stand with Mary and John at the foot of the cross on Good Friday.

But the story of our faith is not negative. We do not end in our sinfulness from which there is no escape. The Church immediately turns to the fulfillment of all that was foretold: that after his suffering Jesus would rise victorious over death on the third day.

Good Friday moves quickly to our greatest feast, Easter Sunday. Jesus’ rising from the dead puts our sins behind him and behind us. We are given the promise of our own resurrection after death and glorification for all eternity if only we follow him faithfully. No sin that is repented is too horrible to be forgiven. None of us are left behind in the offer of Christ’s love.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

May you have a blessed Holy Week.