Vatican City, Mar 19, 2008 / 07:47 am
Today is known as Spy Wednesday, which, according to the tradition of the Church, commemorates Judas' betrayal of Jesus on the eve of the last supper. Greeting thousands of young pilgrims in Rome for Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI gave a catechesis on the Easter Triduum, three days that are celebrated as a single event that form the heart to the Church and of the liturgical year.
"We have arrived at the eve of the Easter Triduum," he said. "The next three days are commonly called holy because we are reliving a central event of our redemption that leads us back to the core fact of the Christian faith: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ."
Lent, the Pope said, prepares us to enter these days in the same spirit that Jesus entered Jerusalem. In that spirit, he said we awaken the memory of the suffering that Christ bore for our sake so that we might celebrate with joy next Sunday, "the real Easter, which the Blood of Christ covered with glory, Easter when the Church celebrates the true origin of all feasts."
Speaking first of Holy Thursday, the Holy Father said the Church recalls the Last Supper during which, on the eve of his passion and death, established the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood. On that same night, he said, "Jesus left us the new commandment, the commandment of fraternal love."
Before entering the Holy Triduum, every diocese celebrates the Chrism Mass, during which the bishop and priests renew their promises, the promises they made at ordination. During that Mass, oils are also blessed for the celebration of the sacraments: oil of catechumens, the oil of the sick and holy chrism.