Each year, from Holy Thursday through the Great Vigil of Easter, the whole Catholic Church of the Roman Rite undergoes an amazing and instructive disruption of her usual experience of the Holy Mass. This disruption is not at all a harmful one, but an edifying opportunity to reflect on the Mass—its nature, its effects, and its celebration.
This annual novelty takes place because the Church in these days wants us to focus our attention on the original events, historical and concrete, from which the saving power of the Mass flows day in and day out in every place, throughout Christian history “until he comes in glory.”
Now, the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church is never an historical re-enactment. It is not a kind of play, even though some parts of the Church’s worship have parallels in the dramatic arts. Because the worship of the Church is sacramental, it is in a very real sense much more powerful than simply a commemoration or an acting out of past events, and also in a certain sense just as powerful as the original events themselves. What do I mean? The Mass is the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood under the signs of bread and wine. The Mass contains and offers up and gives as food this body and blood using those mere appearances, which are supported no longer by bread or wine, but by the power of God in the mystery of transubstantiation, so that wherever those signs, appearances, visible and able to be tasted, are present, so too are the body and blood of the Lord, and wherever the body and blood of the Lord are now, so too is his all-holy soul, and his eternal Godhead.
This is the sacrament of the Eucharist in its deepest essence: the offering up of the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood under the signs of bread and wine as truly as he offered them on the cross, as truly as he offered them in changing bread and wine into those same most holy things at the Last Supper. So even as the Mass takes its origins in these events and is identical to them in content, it is still something of its own, of a new, sacramental order that sums up the whole of the work of redemption under the sacred signs. Each day’s Mass is for that day; each day’s communion is for that day; in each Mass, there is a new offering of the same gifts of infinite value. This is why the Church revels in the frequent and repeated celebration of the Holy Mass for every day, at any hour, and every occasion and every intention, for the living and the dead, for the glory of the saints, and for the honor of the Blessed Trinity.
But on Holy Thursday all this is interrupted. It ceases almost completely on Good Friday, and then it completely ceases on Holy Saturday. On Holy Thursday, there is only one Mass in parishes, on Good Friday no Mass properly so called, but simply Holy Communion from the previous day, and then on Holy Saturday not even Holy Communion (unless for private viaticum for the dying).
Now, the Mass is the source of the Church’s life, so only something very solemn and of great import for our spiritual life could justify even a temporary cessation of the offering of the sacrifice.
Up to this point, we have focused only on what is most essential to the Mass. But for the Mass to be celebrated well and fruitfully, the minds and hearts of the faithful must be prepared and disposed by prayer and the other sacraments. Thus, the Church uses this time to point out the great things that surround the Mass and flow from it so as to fit us to share in its inexhaustible riches.
In other words, each year we renew and refresh the sacramental life of the Church in the Sacred Triduum of the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection. We start over again liturgically, so as to celebrate with power.
On Holy Thursday, the Church directs that the holy oils used in the administration of the holy sacraments be consecrated by each bishop in his diocese for the coming year: the oil of the catechumens for those to be baptized; the oil of the sick for those to be given unction; and the fragrant sacred chrism for confirmation and for the anointing of sacred persons and things by whom and wherein the sacraments are celebrated: priests and bishops, altars, and the walls of churches. The holy chrism will be used at the Great Vigil for the confirmation of the baptized, and then throughout the year, flowing from this Holy Thursday consecration.
This renewal of sacramental signs is placed on this day so that the fact that all the sacraments point to the Holy Mass is underlined, since Holy Thursday is the day of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, the first Mass of all. Unlike at other Masses, where hosts consecrated prior may be given for Communion, on Holy Thursday, only hosts consecrated at the Mass for the day may be given to the faithful—again, to show the renewal of the sacramental sacrifice. Then the sacred host is adored in a vigil of prayer to renew the sweet practice of adoring the continuing presence of the Lord in the sacred signs even outside of Mass.
This sequence of Communion and adoration follows the order of the historical Last Supper and the vigil of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane with his apostles. It shows us the fruit for ourselves of the Lord’s agony and sweat of blood. How great is his love for us under the sacramental veils! Let us stay awake for him.
On Good Friday, there have been many different customs regarding Communion. In our time as in Christian Roman antiquity, the priest and people communicate from the hosts of the Mass of the preceding day, but in any age or epoch, there is no sacrifice offered. Only its fruits are shared.
Instead of the Mass, there is the adoration of the cross to bring to mind not the sacrament, but the historical event of Calvary. But this adoration is still real, even if the presence of the crucifix is not the real presence of the sacrament of the altar. We Catholics actually do adore the crucifix. How is this? Because it is impossible not to. In showing honor to the image, we show honor to the person, and the honor due the person of Christ is adoration. We do not merely venerate him as a holy person, but we adore him as a divine Person, even in his representations. This is not at all idolatry. Idolatry is adoration of a false God, and Jesus is True God. St. Thomas teaches this clearly in his Summa. So let us adore the cross, for Jesus is God!
After the liturgy of Good Friday, there is a great liturgical quiet in the Church universal. There is no Communion, not even any public adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as the Church awaits the vigil. This vigil sees the sacramental resurrection of the catechumens in the newly blessed water and the renewal of the interrupted celebration of the Holy Mass. All is restored for another year, and we sing, “Alleluia!”
The message is clear: from the Triduum, in which in the sacramental life of the Church is both paused and renewed, comes a new zeal for sharing in the sacramental gifts in the rest of the year. Let us participate with living faith in our crucified and glorious Lord in the daily sacrifice of his body and blood.