(Vatican Radio) In a series of reflections, the Secretary of the Vatican Congregation
for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Archbishop Arthur Roche, walks
Vatican Radio through the Holy Week liturgies, explaining their significance, symbolism
and place within the history of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection.
The
Missa in Coena Domini, or Mass of Our Lord’s Supper, the second of Holy Thursday’s
liturgies, with which the universal Church enters the Holy Triduum.
Listen:
“The
Holy Triduum are those final days when we follow Our Lord from the celebration of
the Passover meal and the institution of the Eucharist in the Upper Room, in Jerusalem,
towards his death the following day on Good Friday. Then we rest with him in the
tomb on Holy Saturday until we celebrate we great joy looking back through all the
scriptures, the wonderful workings of God to this moment when the Resurrection takes
place. Three days but effectively one celebration.
“It begins on Holy Thursday
night with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper…when we celebrate the first Eucharist, when
we commemorate Our Lord’s ordination of his first priests, the Apostles, and when
we remember that coupled with the Eucharist, when we receive the Eucharist we are
receiving nourishment not only for ourselves but we are receiving something that makes
us like Christ. And for that we recall the washing of the feet of others, because
this is the act of charity, this is the act that makes us Christians different in
everything we do. We take our worship into the streets by converting it into a revelation
in action, a revelation of God’s love for the whole world”.