Renew Your Faith- Experience Holy Week, Part I: Holy Thursday

In our family, birthdays are never "one" day. Rather, they tend to stretch over two or more days for various reasons: work schedules, out-of-town children, and/or the general busy-ness of 21st century life. Just this weekend, we celebrated GG's 94th birthday on Saturday...and Sunday. You just can't get too much of a good thing.

Our Catholic faith gives us a good example of this. Christmas lasts for three weeks (or longer, depending on the way the days fall). The first Sunday after Christmas is the feast of the Holy Family. The second Sunday after Christmas is the Epiphany, and the third Sunday after Christmas is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, formally ending the Christmas Season. Advent- the four Sundays prior to Christmas - are not part of Christmas, despite what society tells us with all the decor appearing around the middle of October. (Click HERE for my blog post about Advent!)

Our celebration of Easter is the same way. Despite all the bunnies and eggs and pastel-colored Peeps surrounding us in retail outlets, we are not in the Easter season, it is still Lent. And today begins the end of our Lenten season: the Triduum. Latin for "three days," it marks our remembrance of Jesus Christ's passion and death...leading up to his glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

The final week of Lent is a time for the most amazing liturgical celebrations of the entire year ( at least they should be!). Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, ( if you are lucky, you'll get a Tenebrae service) Holy Saturday....all leading up to the holiest season for Christians: Easter. And- since it is so holy- we can't have Easter be just ONE day, or one week. Nope. We get FIFTY days of Easter!!! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Log on to your local parish's web page. If the parish staff is worth their salt, they should have the homepage-(not the link for the bulletin, the actual HOME PAGE) updated with all the Holy Week Liturgies. The Facebook page and Twitter should be sending out the info every day this week. 

This is what you have to look forward to!

Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord's Supper.... Probably my favorite Mass of the entire year, because it celebrates the institution of not ONE, but TWO sacraments. That in itself is pretty cool. One of the most moving parts of the Mass is when the priest removes his chasuble and stole and washes the feet of twelve MEN ( YES, only MEN are supposed to take part in this. The ritual specifies VIROS, which is Latin for "men"). If you see women and children up there, it is because the person who made the phone calls deliberately overlooks the sign value of the 12 being men, or simply does not know any better. Anymore, it's probably a little of both- that and the ridiculous press for so-called inclusivity. But the fact is: Jesus washed the feet of twelve MEN, and in doing so instituted the sacramental priesthood by demonstrating the servant nature of the priesthood.

By the way- if you are a man and get a phone call asking you to be one of those twelve, the proper answer is, "I would be honored. Thank you for asking me." NOT, "Oh, I could never do that!"  Remember- Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet!

As an aside, Pope Francis going to the juvenile prison for the Holy Thursday Mass is so beautiful. His servant heart will be denounced by many.... we are already hearing it.... and others will use his compassion and humility to pass judgment on the Church as a whole and the papacy in particular.... but keep watching him. I have a feeling Pope Francis will set our hearts on fire!

The second sacrament whose institution we celebrate on Holy Thursday is the Eucharist. In this Mass, we recall the first Mass. Imagine, shortly after the multiplication of the loaves and fish, shortly after the Bread of Life discourse in  John 6... being present as Jesus Christ reaches 18 hours into the future and makes clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that the bread and wine become his Body and Blood. It happens at every Mass, and Holy Thursday, we celebrate it in a special way. After Communion should be a Eucharistic procession, taking the remaining hosts to an altar of repose outside the sanctuary. The altar is then stripped of all linens and all plants/flowers should be removed from the sanctuary. Adoration at the altar of repose for at least part of the night should be available. The tabernacle doors are left open to show that it is empty.

Why is it empty?

As a stark reminder of the events that have now been set in place... the last Supper is over. Jesus has gone out to pray- and will soon be arrested- and worse. 

So... open a new window and go to your parish website ( unless your parish actually sent out Holy Week info, ours didn't this year :-(   )   and get that schedule for the rest of Holy Week.

And BOOKMARK this blog or sign up below for updates for the rest of Holy Week and into the East Season!

Enter into the Paschal Mystery, experience the events of this Triduum in a way new to you.