Photo by Todd Diemer on Unsplash
I find today the strangest day of all. We have celebrated Good Friday, and so the Church is silent, since we have not yet begun the Easter Vigil. But this year the period of time between the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion and the Easter Vigil has united the world.
How? For this short period of time, we are all without Mass. Why is it the Church does not offer Mass on Good Friday?
Saint Thomas Aquinas says this: “The figure ceases on the advent of the reality. But this sacrament is a figure and a representation of our Lord’s Passion, as stated above. And therefore on the day on which our Lord’s Passion is recalled as it was really accomplished, this sacrament is not consecrated.”
This suggests that Mass is not celebrated because we are fully to enter into the celebration of the Lord’s Passion. We are to allow the weight of our sinfulness and that of others to rest fully upon us, to understand more fully the sadness of the day.
And yet, we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, consecrated the night before, because in the midst of this sadness we are never deprived of the hope of our salvation, the great conquering of Jesus over sin and death.
And so, today, we wait. We are given a day of contemplation to prepare ourselves for the great and wonderful celebration of our Lord’s resurrection.
During this time when so many cannot celebrate the Mass in church, perhaps we might ask the Lord to use this time to heighten our awareness in the presence of Jesus among us. Perhaps this is a time when we are being called to focus more completely on the presence of God in our own hearts and souls.
Let us pray.
Dear Jesus, we believe that you are fully present in the Eucharist, body and blood, soul and divinity. Yet we also know that you are always with us, that we are never separated from you. As we prepare for the great celebration of Easter, help us to cling more strongly to your loving presence. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Music: Cheezy Piano Medley by Alexander Nakarada
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/4833-cheezy-piano-medley
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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