Holy Week speaks to culture in its most profound roots, says Spanish archbishop

Apr 6, 2006 / 22:00 pm

In his weekly pastoral letter, Archbishop Agustin Garcia-Gasco of Valencia, Spain, said that “what we relive in Holy Week always speaks to our culture in its most profound roots,” adding that it has special meaning in today’s world because of growing individualism present throughout modern culture.

In his letter the archbishop notes that the different celebrations and re-enactments of Holy Week in churches and on the streets provide people the opportunity to recall the overwhelming gesture of love of Jesus, the Son of God, “who gave his life for us,” and to affirm that “the total manifestation of God always puts forth a message of truth and love, which is none other than the way to laying down one’s life for others.”

“Do you want to see human fullness? Look upon him who loves to the point of giving up his entire person.  Do you want to find authentic greatness? Contemplate him who chooses to humble himself to the extreme.  Do want to grasp the truth?  Follow him who does not hold anything back for himself.  Do you want the highest freedom?  Imitate him who was not intimidated by aggressions or threats,” the archbishop writes.

Archbishop Garcia-Gasco also underscores in his letter that “showing the human person his true dignity and his profound value is the central task of the evangelizing action of the Church,” adding that this can be achieved if people are challenged to live in such a way that conforms to the desire of the human heart to love.

“To love is not a heroic ideal just for the few, but rather the proper consequence of discovering the truth and being transformed.  One of the places where we discover our most intimate identity, as men and women, is the family,” he writes.

In concluding his letter, the archbishop recalls that it was “the Son of God himself who desired to have a family and experience upbringing and obedience to show that all human reality, even from its most fragile and hidden biological origins, is steeped in the wisdom and love of God.”