A Week Called Holy

"Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

      --The Book of Common Prayer, Prayer for Monday in Holy Week

One of my favorite films is “Grand Canyon”. Danny Glover plays this black guy who lives in the worst section of town, has a hard time making ends meet and just getting by. Life is just exhausting. And sitting on a stoop talking to a new-white friend he tells him about how he get through all he has to face. I go to the Grand Canyon, he says, and just sit there on the ledge—I look out over that great chasm. I look at the colors and the depth and the wonder of it all. And just sitting there in the silence letting my eyes sweep over that vast and wondrous place—I get my bearings and I go back to my life ready to try again. At the end of the film he takes this new buddy and several other people and the movie ends as they just stand there on the edge of that wonder just looking, looking. I’ve paraphrased what Glover said deliberately. But it is the way I remember his words.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. In our church palm branches were everywhere. The kids marched down the aisle following the choir’s procession dangerously waving those palm branches as the children must have done that day outside Jerusalem. But that was yesterday and this is Holy Monday.

I want this week to do for me what Danny Glover’s visit to the Grand Canyon did for him. I want to stop and look and listen until somehow wonder washes over me and inside me—until I am a better person, better able to tackle whatever comes my way. Even dealing in my own way with all the craziness of this age.

Holy Week. Holy means sacred or something more. It is a sense of the numinous the theologians say. Holy is really mystery. It is something you cannot quite describe. It’s like the emotion of falling in love—which also cannot be put into words. It’s like Moses standing there, open-mouthed, before the burning bush. Taking off his shoes in reverence because he felt he was standing on holy ground. Holy means to say “Ahhhhhh” way down deep until it moves us beyond ourselves. Like Danny Glover I will try to stand at the edge of this week called holy and ponder the mystery of it all.