Nation marks Maundy Thursday, Good Friday

Semana Santa or Holy Week nears its conclusion with the celebration of Maundy Thursday today and the feast of Good Friday tomorrow.

Both days will be observed with a succession of solemn ceremonies and rituals reflecting deep Christian piety and reverence as the faithful recall the last hours of Jesus Christ.

Maundy Thursday solemnly commemorates the institution of the Eucharist as it was carried out by Jesus when he presided over the Passover Supper, with the blessing of the wine before the bread.

The night of Holy Thursday is the night when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and gave them the new commandment that they should love one another. It was the night he told Peter that the apostle would deny knowing him thrice before the rooster crowed the next morning, the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Good Friday tomorrow is when the Church keeps the anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is a feast of grief, made more intense by recollections of how Jesus was teased, slapped and beaten by the temple guards; how he was charged with blasphemy as he stood before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, or council of elders; how he was tried by Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate, scourged at the pillar, mocked by the Roman soldiers who made him "king for a day" by crowning him with thorns, and how he walked to Golgotha, where the humiliating and painful death by crucifixion awaited him.

The sacrifice of Calvary will be re-enacted tomorrow in many churches by way of the "Siete Palabras" or the Seven Last Words, with each phrase telling of the suffering, torment, and agony of Jesus nailed on the cross until the "sky turns black and the curtain is torn" for the "hour of none" has come.

Tradition has it that the Mass proper will be omitted tomorrow. The omission marks the deep sorrow of the Church and the faithful on noting the anniversary of the crucifixion. Rather, there is usually a black fast, black vestments, a denuded altar, the slow and solemn chanting of the sufferings of the Christ, and prayers for all those for whom he died. Finally, there will be the unveiling and reverencing of the crucifix.

The hour of none finished, the late afternoon of Good Friday and the whole of Black Saturday will be dedicated to mourning in memory of the entombed Christ.