How difficult it is to feel, remember and receive the message of Christ on the cross in these times! My childhood memories give me the impression that it was easier to live Holy Week in its profound meaning of life.
In other times, the week was kept with deep respect, with certain fear and attachment to traditions of centuries that I think we should never lose. Annually a cycle was fulfilled, and at least at one time of the year, we were able to keep a few days to focus on the life of Jesus, his death on the cross and the resurrection that completed his mission of salvation for all.
With the traditions of Holy Week, every procession, every movie with Bible stories and every walk through the streets empty of cars in respect for tradition was awe-inspiring. The diet was changed and tuna, cod and seafood were stocked, while the arrival of Good Friday evening was charged with sorrow, feelings and pain. Sunday morning brought the good news of the resurrection of Jesus, in his death life was born and with the message of eternal life, we went into the rest of the year spiritually filled and sensitive to his presence, after having almost touched what we cannot see.
I think that Holy Week, in the style of the sixties that I experienced as a child, provided us with an environment conducive to connecting with God in a different way than the rest of the year. After all, we can do little or nothing to convince anyone of anything, while we can create environments that facilitate an experience of spiritual connection. That Holy Week did its thing and today, as a lost tradition and wonderful memory of the past, although some of us regret it, it must be reinvented.
The competition to bring the message of salvation to the world is enormous. It ceased to be a competition between the Catholic and Baptist, Methodist or modern Christian churches, and became a competition with 3D movies, store promotions of all kinds, the beach with discounts, screens at all hours, video games and so much more. All the entertainment, fun, pastimes, such as interactivity, audiovisual resources and technology, absolutely everything has evolved and to such a degree, that the traditional church has all the chips bought to continue losing people and suffer the same fate of Easter, unless it evolves and reinvents itself as well.
Just as the Holy Week of our times, at the beginning of the second decade of the third millennium of the Christian era, the church that carries the most important message of all times has today its new challenge: to be relevant in a world as it has never been known before, which means that it must be outstanding, outstanding, important and significant. This is the great challenge of the mainstream church, in the same world that has all but obliterated the traditions of Holy Week.
To achieve relevance in a time like the present, where Avatar took entertainment to an indescribable level and Alice in Wonderland arrived as we had never imagined possible, I believe is a challenge like few others. To achieve a relevant church in the world of the Internet, creativity and innovation at the highest level in history, is simply an almost impossible mission, unless we decide to adapt it, to reinvent it and stop sustaining the unsustainable. I also believe that the ancients who made the church did not have an exclusive right, and that today it is up to us to make our contribution, to bring the only message that can bring true love, eternal life and legitimate peace.
In the world I know several models of relevant churches. I mention Willow Creek, Mars Hill, Saddle Back, just to mention three among those that have impressed me the most in my limited knowledge of the subject. However, North Point Community Church, in my opinion, is the most important of all the successful models of the 21st century, if we think of a possible adoption, adaptation and recreation in our countries. In closing, I note that these are biblical churches, in the context of formidable organizations carefully designed to protect the message and its mission. In Costa Rica, take a look at Unidos and The Openhouse Project.
Relevance is the great challenge of Holy Week and the mainstream church. Achieving it forces new routes and paths to those traveled in the past, under Biblical authority and focused on Jesus. Happy Holy Week to all, and may so much competition not allow you to stop remembering the unimaginable sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross. His message was rescued in four gospels and several other books in the New Testament, wonderfully compiled centuries ago, along with other ancient books that today are known as the Old Testament, to form the perfect manual of life that we find in the Bible.
And I leave you with one thought: be the church.
