We had a wonderful time kicking off Holy Week this past Sunday with our Procession of Palms at the High Mass. I want to thank the ushers, choir, worship guilds, and servers for their hard work and planning. We chose a simple route along Kapahulu Avenue in order to avoid some of the narrow sidewalks within the neighborhood. When the city removed the crosswalks on Kapahulu, it also made crossing the road practically impossible with a procession. Nevertheless, all had a good time, and we made our presence known in the neighborhood.
When I was a child, Palm Sunday was an extremely popular day. Churches were packed with adults and children, and on the evening news there would be coverage of Christians waving their palms, commencing the most holy week of the Christian year. We live in a different age now. Every person who was offered a palm on Kapahulu Avenue this past Sunday had no idea why we were waving palms. Secularism is increasing rapidly. Before the pandemic when we had an outdoor Palm Procession along Kapahulu, every bystander wanted a palm, and cars honked their horns while waving shakas.
Holy Week has begun, and we are called to worship and celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. To be a Christian is to possess a heart that seeks to worship and adore Jesus the Christ. Since the very first Easter, Christian worship has been singularly defined by celebrating Jesus' death and resurrection with the bread and the wine of the Eucharist. We now live in a world with a multitude of misaligned Christian innovations, such as the heretical prosperity Gospel, as well as evangelical worship that devalues the Sacraments, but such innovations lack the heart of the Gospel, failing to proclaim the Resurrected Christ being made known in the Eucharist.
When coming to St. Mark's for the Holy Triduum, we will not have Easter eggs falling from the sky by a helicopter or other such gimmicks, for our purpose is not to entertain. If one wants entertainment, one can go to brunch or the movies or some other spectacle. Rather we will experience silence, incense, chant, ritual, Scripture, and the Sacraments, pointing us to the living God. Worship with us and discover authentic and historic Christianity, as we seek to be faithful to what the Church has been from the beginning.
The death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ straightforwardly defines who we are as Christians, and we must be ready to offer everything we are to God in the coming days. At St. Mark’s this does not mean the stagecraft and gloss of Hollywood productions in arenas and amphitheaters. It means the people of God sharing the faith with one another in the ancient rites of this life-changing week. As we gather for Holy Week again, I wish you and your loved ones a blessed celebration of our Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
Father Paul Lillie +
