Who Moved?

 

Entering more deeply into ourselves this Holy Week

03/30/2026

John 12:1-11 Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.

Here we are at the beginning of Holy Week again. Or, as I like to say, the Christian Super Bowl week, what we have been preparing for and planning for not just for 40 days of Lent but for the whole year. How many Holy Weeks is this for you? This will be my 56th Holy Week. For the 56th time I will carry palms branches on Palm Sunday, watch (or wash) feet on Holy Thursday, kiss the cross on Good Friday, hear a hundred readings on Holy Saturday, and dress up in my Sunday best on Easter Sunday.

Do you ever wonder why we have to go through Holy Week year after year? I mean we know the story by heart, we know every plot twist, who are the heroes and the villains, and the climactic conclusion. So why go through it again? Well, why play the Super Bowl every year? Simple: because the teams are different. In other words, even though we know the outcome of the Super Bowl – one team wins and the other loses – we don’t know which team hoists the Lombardy trophy and which one cries in their beer.

So what is different for me this 56th Holy Week? I am different. And I don’t just mean that I am different than I was 10, 15, or 20 years ago, but I am a different man and even a different priest than I was just a year ago, the last time the world celebrated Holy Week. And if you are honest with yourself, you will admit you are a different person this Holy Week than you were on Holy Week of 2025.

Holy Week is a lot like that bumper sticker I saw many years ago. It asked: “Do you feel far from God?” And then it answered the question: “Well, who moved?” In other words, the essence of Holy Week has remained the same since the first Holy Week when the Super Bowl teams were Jesus versus the Devil. That is, Jesus and his apparent loss on Good Friday, and his come from behind victory on Sunday are the very heart of Holy Week.

That first Holy Week is in the books, and by “in the books” I mean in the four book called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And in a sense, that original story furnishes our playbook for our personal Holy Weeks each year. How so? We too will at times feel crushed and defeated by our only true opponent, the Devil. But if we stay the course, and put our faith and trust in Jesus, and in his game plan, we will be assured of final victory over sin and death, the devil’s two great weapons, indeed, his only weapons.

Now, the great challenge for us this week consists in overcoming the illusion that we stay the same while everyone else changes. Yesterday, at Mass I was amazed to see a beautiful little girl who is excited to make her first Holy Communion and whom I baptized 8 years ago. It’s amazing how much she has grown while I haven’t aged a bit! In other words, when we feel far from God we naturally assume it was God who moved away, because of course I never change and have always been the same old steady Eddie.

One way Holy Week helps us see how much we change over the course of life is by presenting different characters with whom we can relate. Perhaps this year I am more like Peter who denied knowing the Lord in public and hide my faith. Or maybe I am like Judas and money means more to me than my friendship with Jesus, like we heard in the gospel this morning. Or maybe we are like Mary and want to weep for our sins and simply sit close to the Lord. Or maybe we feel like Lazarus and deeply grateful for a miracle when it seemed the Lord brought us back to life.

In other words, the best way to enter another Holy Week is to humbly acknowledge that even though this may be my 56th Holy Week, I am a profoundly different man who enters it. I have sharper eyes to see and keener ears to hear what Jesus has to say this year. He has always said the same things and it was I who could not see, or hear, or comprehend. Maybe this Holy Week I will catch a little more, or maybe I will catch a little less. Because after all, who moved?

Praised be Jesus Christ!