Holy Saturday

For our sake Christ was obedient,

accepting even death, death on a cross.

Therefore God raised him on high

and gave him the name above all other names.

Responsory Antiphon, Morning Prayer, Holy Saturday

"The Disposition " or the Florence Pieta

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1547-1553

This uncompleted piece by the master sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti would seem to be a crude effort on the part of a man most well-known for the Pieta viewed by millions every year in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. That awe-inspiring depiction of Mary holding the death body of her son was a bravura perfomance by the youthful energetic Michelangelo. This much later work was intended for his own tomb. After seven years of work, finding a flaw in the marble, the scuptor smashed it into pieces. The remains were rescued by another sculptor, reassembled and the figure of Mary Magdalen on the left was completed. However, like Michelangelo's other uncompleted sculpture, this one has a mysteriously haunting and moving quality. The looming figure of Nicodemus is said to be a self-portrait of the artist. Nicodemus, the one who came to see Jesus only under the cover of darkness, had the courage to go to Pilate and ask for the body of the crucified criminal. Here is a brave figure, protector for Mary, the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalen. Yet, the tortured sadness in his face seems tinged with regret. Is it a regret similar to that of St. Augustine, "Late have I loved you, O beauty ever ancient and ever new." 

Michelangelo Buornarroti spent the last years of his life working on two Pieta sculptures. One was intended for his own tomb. He used his face as the model for the dominant figure in one of these pieces. That figure was of a man who slowly and maybe too late fully realized who Jesus truly was. We may conclude that this event of the Passion of Jesus haunted Michelangelo in its poignancy and may have touched some of his own feeling of regret at the end of his earthly life. As you gaze upon this image, which character draws you? Is it the lifeless Jesus or his grieving mother? Is it the bereft Magdalen, present to Jesus even in his crucifixion and death? Or is it Nicodemus, once fearful and later brave, who agonizes in regretful grief?

History of Holy Week Liturgy

Peek into an Earlier Time

 

Have you ever wondered how the elaborate and very moving liturgies of Holy Week developed? The National Catholic Reporter publishes Father Richard  McBrien's  fine theological essays and opinion pieces. Here is the link to his latest in which he describes what scholars can tell us about early celebrations of these holy days and how liturgical practices haved developed overtime. http://ncronline.org/blogs/essays-theology/holy-week%E2%80%99s-liturgical-evolution

Giotto

Holy Thursday

Spotlight on

* Love as Service

* Communion in Living
Memory

* Sacramental Priesthood




The Drama of the Holy Triduum Begins

These are very solemn yet very busy days in any monastery. We began a time of recollection with Compline, Tuesday evening. But there is much to prepare especially in the way of liturgy and holy celebration. Our library has been transformed into a fitting place for reposition of the Blessed Sacrament and adoration this evening until midnight. Seating in our chapel has been expanded to accommodate Redemptorist students and other guests. A leg of lamb is roasting in the oven as traditional fare for our Passover Seder with Jesus in community.

One of our guests this evening is a non-Catholic friend who asked for some context and explanation of the liturgy of Holy Thursday. Perhaps others would be interested in my background material. May it enrich your experience of the Sacred Triduum.

As for Holy Thursday... I heard once that the liturgies of these three days were, at one time, one great long liturgy of the Paschal Mystery. Understanding each of the components (the rite for each day) is made easier by that image of a continuing drama being played out in a series of 'acts'. This is particularly true with the transition between tonight's liturgy of Holy Thursday and tomorrow's rite which is not a Eucharistic Liturgy, that is, a Mass with a consecration of the species. The Liturgy of Holy Thursday commemorates three things, not necessarily in this order: Jesus model of service and his last request that we loved one another; the institution of the Eucharist and, therefore, the institution of the sacramental priesthood. At times, this last - the priesthood - has been unduly emphasized in some places by a ritual renewal of vows for priests and religious. Liturgically that is really not in keeping with the most important messages of the liturgy. We try to emphasize the model of service in the foot washing and the institution narrative of the Eucharist. In every Catholic Church the Holy Thursday Liturgy will end with some kind of procession from the church to a place of reposition, a place where the consecrated hosts can be reserved with reverence. Since we commemorate the institution of the Eucharist at this liturgy, the Eucharistic procession and private adoration afterward are in order. This removal of the Eucharist leaves the church empty in readiness for the mood of Good Friday. The door of the chapel tabernacle stands open to remind us of emptiness. There are no linens on the altar, no candles, no flowers, etc.

The Good Friday ritual is really a prayer service consisting of three parts: a reading of the Passion Narrative from one of the Gospels; veneration of the Cross after it is ceremoniously brought into the church in procession and held up for all to see accompanied by the sung antiphon, "Behold, behold the wood of the Cross on which is hung your salvation. Come, let us adore Him." ; and last, a communion service in which the reserved Eucharist, consecrated at the Holy Thursday Mass is brought back into the church and is received by the people. After this the consecrated hosts are once again returned to a place of reposition, the altar is left without any linens and a cross of some kind remains in the church for private veneration. All of this sets the scene and the mood which is held throughout Holy Saturday. The empty tabernacle and bare altar, will speak of the death of Jesus and His three day descent to the realm of the dead. It will also speak of the fear, grief, and sense of abandonment in his followers.

The Easter Vigil on Saturday night will begin with the lighting of the new fire from which the Paschal Candle, symbol of the resurrected Christ, will be lit and carried in procession to the church. The Paschal Candle will be set in a prominent place and a great hymn of praise at what has happened in the new Passover of the Lord will be sung (the Exultet). From this ancient hymn comes the line which calls the first sin of Adam, "Oh, happy fault." In the light of the Resurrection even the sin of Adam is seen as in some way fortuitous, as part of the plan of Redemption. Then, in complete darkness, the congregation will hear the Exodus story (seven readings) which culminate in the sung "Gloria" when all the lights go on and all the bells are rung in announcement of the Lord's victory over death.

Entering Holy Week

Photo by Marion Lunt

Entering Holy Week in Union with the Crucified

and in Hope for the Resurrection

Tomorrow the crescendo will begin; the slow yet painful and certain movement of Jesus to the inevitable. How can we move with the growing momentum, not as if we are just sleepwalking through the all too familiar but with our consciousness fully aware and comprehending?

Each day at the Office of Readings the Church offers us its ancient guidance. Today following a reading from the Letter to the Hebrews speaking of the priesthood of Christ and His creation of a New Covenant, we were offered the words of St. Gregory of Nazianzen, 4th century bishop of Constantinople and great theologian. It was an excerpt from a homily about the sharing of the faithful in the approaching Passover of Holy Week. He wrote:

We must now pass through the first veil and approach the second,

turning our eyes toward the Holy of Holies...

We must sacrifice ourselves to God, each day and in everything

we do, accept all that happens for the sake of the Word,

imitating his passion by our sufferings, and honoring the blood

by shedding our own.

We must be ready to be crucified....

Worship him who is hung on the cross because of you,

even if you are hanging there yourself.

Gregory speaks to his flock and to us today of the realities of the human condition, the realities Jesus entered and shared with us by his Incarnation, participation in our humble humanity. And Gregory says unite it all with him on the cross. He acknowledges the certainty of our human suffering and then invites us to exalt it in union with Jesus hanging on the cross. There is no denial of our suffering, but only the suggestion to exalt it.

The photo above - The Cross and the Laundry - speaks to me of the human condition of suffering and Jesus' union with all of it on the cross. His suffering and that of all humanity are one. It is easy today to think of human suffering in terms of the victims of yesterday's massacre in Binghamton, New York, the suffering of their families and the demented torture of the man who wrecked such havoc on the innocent. It is easy to think of the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe without food, clothing, medicine, and schools. Surely there is great suffering in the violence in the Holy Land, Afghanistan, Iraq and Mexican drug wars. Truly these are great sufferings. But here is a pain, a suffering, a struggle, or an addiction in each of us. Jesus took on himself, and continues to take on, both the universal and particular sufferings. He is united with us in ours and St. Gregory invites us to respond from our own experience and unite it, in turn, with that of Jesus on the cross.

The bishop does not end there. He does not stop and remain at the cross.

If you are a Joseph of Arimathea, go to one who ordered

his crucifixion, and ask for Christ's body. Make your own

the expiation for the sins of the whole world.

If you are a Nicodemus, like the man who worshiped God by night,

bring spices and prepare Christ's body for burial.

If you are one of the Marys, or Salome, or Joanna,

weep in the early morning. Be the first to see the stone rolled back, and even the angels perhaps, and Jesus himself.