Holy Week, and the Stories We Cannot Rush

We are inside Holy Week now, and it is the hardest stretch of the year to teach well, because it resists being made tidy. The instinct, especially with young students and especially in a busy school, is to hurry past the difficult days and get to Easter. Palm Sunday, then straight to the empty tomb, with the suffering in between treated as something to skip.

But the Church does not let us skip it, and I think there is wisdom in that. The Triduum asks us to stay in the hard part, to sit with the betrayal, the trial, the cross, before any light arrives. As someone who works with story for a living, I understand why. A resurrection means nothing if you have rushed past the death. The weight of Friday is what gives Sunday its meaning.

I am not staging the Passion with my students, which I think can become awkward and overwrought. What I am trying to do is give them permission to slow down. We talk about why we keep these days every year rather than letting them blur together. Some of them are carrying real heaviness of their own, things at home I only catch the edges of. A faith that knows how to sit in the dark before it speaks of light is a faith that has something to offer them.