Text from “The Liturgical Year”,
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 6.
Passion-Tide & Holy Week.
Today, we begin, as does the Holy Gospel, to number the days which precede the death, the sacrifice, of the Lamb of God. Saint John, in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel, tells us that this is the sixth day before the Pasch.
Jesus is in Bethania, where a Feast is being given in His honour. Lazarus, whom Jesus has restored to life, is present at this repast, which is given in the house of Simon the Leper. Martha is busy looking after the various arrangements; her sister, Mary Magdalene, has a Heavenly presentiment that the death and burial of her beloved Master are soon to be, and she has poured upon Him a precious perfume.
The Holy Gospel, which ever preserves such a mysterious reserve with regard to the Mother of Jesus, does not tells us that Mary was at Bethania on this occasion, but there can be no doubt of her being present. The Apostles were also there and partook of the repast.
Whilst the friends of our Saviour are thus grouped around Him, in this village, which is about two thousand paces from Jerusalem, the aspect of the faithless City becomes more and more threatening; and, yet, though His Disciples are not aware of it, Jesus is to enter the City, tomorrow, and in a most public manner.
The heart of Mary is a prey to sadness; Magdalene is absorbed in grief; everything announces that the fatal day is near.
The Church has reserved for Monday next the Gospel which relates the history of this Saturday. The reason is that, formerly, and up to the 12th-Century, there was no Station held on this day in Rome: It was left free, in order that the Pope might rest before the great fatigues of Holy Week, whose long and solemn Services were to begin on the morrow.
But, although he did not preside over the assembly of the Faithful, he had to observe two usages, which had been handed down by Tradition, and had almost become of Liturgical importance in The Church in Rome.
During the whole year, the Pope used, every Sunday, to send a portion of the Sacred Species Consecrated by him, to each of the Priests of the Presbyterial “Titles”, or Parochial Churches, of the City.
But it was today that this distribution was made for the whole of Holy Week, perhaps on account of tomorrow’s long Service. We know from the ancient books of Rome, that it was in the Lateran consistory that today’s Sacred distribution was made, and it is probable (as the Blessed Cardinal Tommasi and Benedict XIV tell us) that the Bishops of the Sub-Urbicarian Churches were of the number of those who received it.
We have several instances proving that, formerly, Bishops occasionally sent to one another the Blessed Sacrament, as a sign of the union that existed between them. With regard to the Priests of the City Parochial Churches, to whom a Particle was sent by the Pope, they put a portion of it in a Chalice before receiving the Precious Blood.
The other custom, peculiar to this day, consisted in giving alms to all the Poor. The Liturgists of the Middle-Ages allude to the beautiful appropriateness of the Roman Pontiff’s distributing alms with his own hands to the Poor, on this day, the same on which Mary Magdalene embalmed with her perfumes the feet of Jesus.
Since the 12th-Century, a Station has been assigned to this Saturday; it takes place in the Church of Saint John Before The Latin Gate. This ancient Basilica is built near the spot where the Beloved Disciple was, by Domitian’s order, plunged into the cauldron of boiling oil.
Let us tremble and Pray: Let us implore the Divine Mercy in favour of those many obstinately blind and hardened sinners, who are hastening to destruction. Oh !, that by the fervour of our supplications addressed to the Merciful Heart of our common Redeemer, we could obtain a reversion of their sentence, and secure them a pardon !
