The last three days of the Holy Week: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday are referred to as the Triduum Sacrum. These days are part of the most important week in the history of mankind, because all the creation would be useless if we had not been saved by Christ.
The Holy Week is the week of the Passion of Christ. Passion means the sufferings and death of Christ on the cross. Passion, Redemption, Salvation and eternal life are linked together. Without Christ’s sufferings and death there would be no salvation for us, ungrateful sinners.
Christ became the sacrificial Lamb that bore our sins. Saint Thomas Aquinas states in his Summa Theologica that “God's justice required that Christ should satisfy by the Passion in order that man might be delivered from sin.” (III, 66, 4).
He accepted being tormented to prevent you from suffering eternally; He accepted being scourged to save you from spending an eternity being scourged by demons in Hell.
Would you go on holiday the same day your parents died? Jesus dies on Good Friday, and how do you spend this day? Mourning or having fun?
Christ accepted to experience the terrible thirst of the crucifixion; He accepted the bitter death on the Cross to save you from suffering the eternal thirst of happiness. He accepted dishonor so that you would not be dishonored and ashamed in the Judgment Day.
And you, ungrateful son, how do you spend the Holy Week while your Lord is dying instead of you so you can be saved? What do you do? Where do you go? Why do you profane it?
If your employer gives you those days off due to them being part of the Holy Week, you should already know that they are not for going on holiday, or for dissipation. On the contrary, you should make good use of them by doing penance, praying and weeping.
That precious blood that wipes away your sins is the Blood of your Benefactor: Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is God himself who says to us: “And without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews, 9:22). No man can obtain by himself the forgiveness of his sins. He must seek it elsewhere. Where? In the Blood of the Son of God who died on the Cross on Good Friday. Saint Paul says: “We have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins…” (Ephesians, 1:7).
Above all, do not say that you have not sinned and therefore do not need forgiveness. By saying this, you would only be expressing your blindness and ignorance. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar: and his word is not in us.” (1 John, 1: 8).
Man cannot offer a propitiatory sacrifice for his sins. Our Lord Jesus Christ became the propitiation for our sins. He offers Himself on Good Friday in Propitiatory Sacrifice just for you. Only, through Christ’s Blood can you purify yourself, and be freed from the chains of sin and the tyranny of the devil.
And during these days where Christ is suffering the agonies of the Cross to earn your salvation, you, poor sinner, go to the beach to have fun, perhaps to accumulate even more sins to those you have already committed. Wake up, my brother, wake up from your lethargy! Be grateful to your Savior! Act as a true Catholic!
Go to the church to see and listen to what Christ is suffering instead of you. You should know that ingratitude draws God’s punishment rather than His mercy. So be not ungrateful but thankful.
Christian gratitude devotes the Triduum Sacruum to better know what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us, to do penance, to convert to God, and to amend our lukewarm and mediocre lives.
HOLY THRUSDAY
This is the day where Our Lord, before going to His Passion, left you the memorial of His Death. In order to apply the fruits of His Passion to your soul, He instituted the Sacrament of His love, which is the Holy Eucharist, and also the priesthood to consecrate it. He said: “Do this for a commemoration of me”, to remind us what He suffered out of pure love for us; to communicate holiness to our souls and the remedy against sin through the worthy reception of His Body.
And you are thinking about having fun! Do you not know that Christ said: He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me: and I in him. (John 6, 55:57). If you call yourself a disciple of Christ, why do you deprive yourself of the heavenly bread that heals, purifies and gives peace to your soul and home? If you knowingly do not benefit from the remedy that Christ offers you, why do you complain of the difficulties you experience in your life, family or work?
GOOD FRIDAY (Mandatory fast and abstinence)
This day is for you to cry out for mercy for yourself and the entire human race. On Good Friday you should participate in Christ’s funeral by hearing to the Gospel of the Passion and the Seven Words, which are the last guidelines that Christ, our Redeemer, gave us.
Confess this day all your iniquities, cleanse your soul from the leprosy of sin with the Blood of Christ, participate in the Passion of your Savior, so that one day you may share His Victory.
Christ suffered on Good Friday to set you free from sin, which is the most terrible cancer, and from Hell, the greatest misfortune.
And you are thinking of going on holiday like so many other Neo-Pagans, perhaps to die in the road of ingratitude!
On Good Friday you should follow the Way of the Cross, meditate on what your Lord suffered for you to realize what sin deserves. Read the last chapters of Matthew, Luke or John, or watch the movie The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson, to help you understand the price Christ paid to set you free from the power of sin and the devil in order to make you a son of God.
Good Friday is a day of abstinence, fast and penance; silence and tears; mourning and grief; and not a day to spend it on the beach, surrounded by pleasures and diversions (neither licit nor illicit).
HOLY SATURDAY
Holy Saturday is a day of Mourning. Both men and women should wear mourning clothes to keep company to the Blessed Mother of Sorrows. On this day, we should reflect with horror on what sin deserves. If Jesus, who is holiness itself, was punished in such a way, what will be of the sinner if he dies with his sin?
To sum up, my brother, listen to God Himself who says to each and everyone one of us: “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For his wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy thee.” (Ecclesiasticus 5: 8-9).
Make good use of the Holy Week and convert to God, attend to the Holy Week offices and confess your sins, because honest conversion and true repentance ensure forgiveness of sins; give peace to the soul and, finally, attain eternal life.
Posts
.jpeg)
