My first experience of Holy Week (nearly 20 years ago now) was an experience of service and commitment. Along the way, I had to learn… not only how to live it myself, but how to accompany others through it.
From the very beginning, I had nothing but questions: What are we truly celebrating? What does Easter mean to me, or to others? … and at the same time I wondered: How can I understand the faith of others? How can I accompany without imposing what I believe? How can I embrace my own experience while also embracing the story of another?
I still remember it with the nostalgia of the teenager I was back then.
Today, with many more years behind me, I see it more clearly: Faith cannot be lived without action. A faith that is not shared does not grow. It does not flourish.
At the time, it was a true challenge, filled with great uncertainty and insecurity.
But with each year that I chose to leave the comfort of my city and venture out to a distant community, I understood it a little better. With each small sacrifice came lessons that would stay with me for life. With each new experience came friends in faith who, to this day, still walk alongside me.
Over time, the celebration of Easter gradually became part of my spirituality.
With time, Holy Week ceased to be merely a mystery. It ceased to be days of penance, reflection, and sacrifice, and became instead the greatest reason for celebration: the Risen Christ.
The joy of the Resurrection became encounter, reflection… introspection and an opportunity for renewal. Each year, every time I recalled it… I looked forward to it again with great hope.
The Assumptionist community became the vehicle that accompanied me in that process of discovering and giving meaning to the Resurrection.
With them, I stopped seeing it merely as a sacrifice… and began to see it as a moment of joy worthy of celebration. A celebration that binds you to the other, an invitation to transform one's inner life and, by extension (with luck and grace), the lives of others.
Today, nearly 20 years after my first Holy Week experience, I see how that first adventure shaped my spirituality. That is where I understood that true happiness is the kind that invites us to share it. Without ego, without selfishness, without pride. In keeping with our Faith and the love of the Risen Jesus.
Gino D. Chiang