Easter Triduum

Details: 29 March 2013

I am most grateful to my mother and father who insisted my siblings and I attend Holy Thursday Mass, the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil Mass, no matter what, admittance to the ICU excepting.

I’ll always remember one of my sisters complaining to Mom, saying, "Janie’s mother is letting her go out tonight with her friends!" My mother responded, "I’m not Janie’s mother!" I will be forever thankful, for they instilled in us from our earliest years how important it was and always will be to celebrate these sacred mysteries at this most holy time of year.

Frequently during Holy Week, I am asked to talk about what Jesus Christ experienced in His passion from a medical standpoint, starting from his agony in the garden to His death on the cross. Jesus Christ truly sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to His arrest. This has been medically described. Because of extreme stress, tiny capillaries that surround sweat glands may burst after the release of chemicals called catecholamines, after which blood pours into the sweat glands and out onto the surface of the skin which becomes tender and painful to the touch. This increased even further the pain of the scourging.

The instrument used during the scourging at the pillar was a wooden stick with leather straps with attached sharp metal objects and animal bones designed to rip shreds of tissue away from the body. It is known that Jesus was scourged more severely than usual. Because of the excessive loss of blood, he lived only three hours on the cross (‘normal’ crucifixion victims were known to sometimes live up to three days on the cross). He was so mangled he was unrecognizable, "His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance" (Is 52:14).

It was in this weakened state he carried, most likely, the horizontal portion of the cross, which could have weighed upward of 125 lbs. No wonder He fell three times under this weight.

Once at Golgotha, ‘the place of the skull,’ His torn back was thrown onto the rough bark of the cross. He was then nailed to the cross, the nails passing through the wrist bones, median nerves, ankle bones and through branches of the peroneal and planter nerves, causing lightning bolts of pain. His cause of death was asphyxiation and blood loss.

Oh what agony Jesus went through speaking his last seven words to us! Meditating on this during Holy Thursday and Good Friday helps us scratch the surface concerning the love God has for us.

Then came His glorious resurrection from the dead, never to die again. Since we are members of His mystical body, we are to share in this victory and glory. What will glorified bodies look like? They will be brilliant and resplendent as the celestial bodies in the sky (Mt 13:43; Dan 12:3)!

Let us never forget that every time we are at Mass, these same events that cannot be repeated, that happened once, are miraculously made present. That is why the Mass is called the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection are made present on the altar. My prayer is that you, your family and intentions will remain in our prayers this Easter, and Easter season. Happy Easter!