Easter Triduum

Due to worldwide social distancing orders on March 2020, the Pope established directives through the Vatican Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope on how “to celebrate Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday in line with these government guidelines” (Miller, 2020). Millions of people without the physical presence of the faithful will join the Pope through multi-media: radio, television, and the internet. The Crucifix of St. Marcellus and the Salus Populi Romani icon will be present during all the liturgical celebrations or the Easter Triduum, “the three days in which the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus are commemorated” (Vatican News, 2019).

Some bishops suspended the custom of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent(Dein et al, 2020).

Holy Thursday

April 9, 2020. Holy Thursday signifies the end of Lent. The Pope did not preside over the Chrism Mass. However, he celebrated The Mass in Coena Domini (of the Lord’s Supper) at 6 pm on the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s Basilica. The liturgy commemorates the institution of the Eucharist. The traditional washing of the feet ritual was omitted. The procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose was also canceled.

Good Friday

April 10, 2020. The Catholic Church celebrated the Liturgy of the Passion of Christ with the Adoration of the Cross commemorating the Lord’s crucifixion and death at 6 pm in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Crucifix of St. Marcellus was covered. Father Raniero Cantalamessa, The Preacher of the Papal Household conducted a meditation, then the Crucifix was revealed. Adoration followed without the traditional kissing of the Cross. At 9 pm in St Peter’s Square, The Stations of the Cross or Via Crucis took place where The Cross was carried by two groups: prisoners from Padua, who wrote some of the meditations, and doctors and nurses from the Vatican Healthcare Department representing the front liners amidst pandemic. They made stops “around Bernini’s colonnade and the obelisk at the center of the Square.”

Black Saturday

April 11, 2020. At 9 pm, Easter Vigil begins in St. Peter’s Basilica.

After the blessing of the fire behind the Altar of the Confession and the processional entrance with the lights of the Basilica instead of the lighting candles accompanied the three “Lumen Christi” invocations, the Pope presided the Liturgy of the Word and Celebrations of the Eucharist. No baptisms were performed during the liturgy. To announce the Resurrection, the bells of the Basilica rang at the moment of the “Gloria.”(Vatican News, 2020).Pope Francis presided a Vigil Mass and preached a riveting message of hope to humanity in an empty St Peter’s Basilica under a terrifying coronavirus outbreak where two-thirds of the world’s population was under quarantine or restrictions. Pope Francis told shared his global audience the implication of the resurrection of Jesus, “tonight we acquire a fundamental right that can never be taken away from us: the right to hope.”(America Magazine, 2020). A theological error and ethically hazardous that some scholars claim is the certainty of Christian hope… To say “I hope” already acknowledges that one may not get what one wants… understanding hope as a disciplined persistence (rather than an affect or conviction) enables hope to continue even when satisfaction is unforeseeable (Alimi et al, 2020). 

Easter Sunday

At 11 am, the Pope celebrated Easter Sunday Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica and proclaimed the Gospel in Greek and Latin. At the end of Mass, he went to the Sacristy to remove his vestments, before returning to the Altar of the Confession. From there, he delivered his Urbi et orbi message and give his Easter blessing(Vatican News, 2020). He ended his message by banning “indifference, self-centeredness, division and forgetfulness.”(Vatican, 2020)

In celebrating Easter, people reminisce the Resurrection with masses, colorful flowers, family activities, festive dinners, and games for children. But amidst COVID-19, people celebrate it without extended family and friends. No gigantic community Easter Egg hunting. Many families created their own–“in a yard, or a living room or a studio apartment. And while egg prices skyrocketed due to coronavirus panic buying, some communities invented a paper egg hunt ritual, taping colorful paper eggs on the outside of houses for children, walking with their parents, to discover.” There is still sharing of food with extended family and friends but went virtual (Imber-Black, 2020).

References

1. Miller, A., Castro Bigalli, A., & Sumanam, P. (2020, April 1). The coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, social distancing, and observance of religious holidays: Perspectives from Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. International Journal of Critical Illness and Injury Science. Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. https://doi.org/10.4103/IJCIIS.IJCIIS_60_20

2. Holy Thursday and the Easter Triduum – Vatican News. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2021, from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2019-04/holy-thursday-and-the-easter-triduum.html

3.Dein, S., Loewenthal, K., Lewis, C. A., & Pargament, K. I. (2020, January 2). COVID-19, mental health and religion: an agenda for future research. Mental Health, Religion and Culture. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2020.1768725

4.Celebrating a unique Easter with Pope Francis during Covid-19 – Vatican News. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2021, from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-04/celebrating-a-unique-easter-with-pope-francis-during-covid-19.html

5.Pope Francis delivers stirring message of hope to humanity in its “darkest hour” at Easter Vigil | America Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2021, from https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/04/11/pope-francis-delivers-stirring-message-hope-humanity-its-darkest-hour-easter-vigil

6.Alimi, T., Antus, E. L., Balthrop-Lewis, A., Childress, J. F., Dunn, S., Green, R. M., … Stalnaker, A. (2020, September 1). COVID-19 and Religious Ethics. Journal of Religious Ethics. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1111/jore.12328

7.Celebrating a unique Easter with Pope Francis during Covid-19 – Vatican News. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2021, from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-04/celebrating-a-unique-easter-with-pope-francis-during-covid-19.html

8.Imber-Black, E. (2020). Rituals in the Time of COVID-19: Imagination, Responsiveness, and the Human Spirit. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12581