Q & A – Part II of a Holy Week Preview:
Good Friday is the one day of the year in which celebrating Mass is “forbidden” by the Church. That’s because the Holy Thursday Mass never really ended and Good Friday’s “Celebration of the Lord’s Passion” will in a sense pick up where we left off Thursday Night. There will be no “Gathering Hymn”. The service begins with silence, and usually everyone is asked to kneel, while the priests will lie “prostrate” (meaning they will lie down on their stomachs) a signal of the seriousness of today’s prayer, the grief and sorrow of the Church at what Jesus endured for our sake – but always with the reality of our true hope that joined with Jesus in his death, we will experience life anew. After the proclamation of the Passion (from the Gospel of John) there’s the “General Intercessions.” We have these at every Mass, but today’s are special. They come down to us in a form derived from the ancient tradition and as you listen to them, they reflect the full range of intentions recalling how the salvation of Jesus won for us on the Cross was for the whole world.
At this point is another very moving tradition that takes place on Good Friday. We “venerate” the cross – the symbol of Christ’s suffering and death. We recall that “dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life…” And so we come forward to the Cross, we are invited to kiss, touch, kneel before the Cross. After the entire congregation has had an opportunity to venerate the Cross, we receive the Body of Christ, which was consecrated at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper the evening before. Again, this is not a Mass, so you will notice how simple the entire communion rite is on Good Friday. After communion, the service ends simply and silently. Again, there’s no blessing, no “dismissal” – because the mystery of Jesus’ Passion and Death isn’t ended – We will not be “dismissed” until we celebrate the great conclusion, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
Which leads us to the Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil is the most important Eucharistic Celebration of the Year. It celebrates our faith in the resurrection, the cornerstone of our belief. It is considered the highest celebration of the liturgical year. We start in darkness – recalling the darkness that covered the earth at the death of Jesus. The Vigil begins with the fire rite, which shatters the darkness. We enter the darkened Church proclaiming “Christ our Light” and hear the Proclamation of Easter chanted.
The Liturgy of the Word is of greater length than usual. It is here that we hear and respond to God’s love story with us, his creation – how the Lord has saved and continues to save us. The salvation Jesus won for us is demonstrated in the new life offered in Baptism to those candidates who have heard God’s word and responded to it through the Rite of Christian Initiation. The final part of the Vigil, we celebrate the Eucharist together as a community renewed by the Lenten Experience and the celebration of the Triduum with our “neophytes” (newly baptized) members for the first time.
