Explaining the Faith - The Triduum: Explained

hmm hi i'm father chris aylar from the national shrine of the divine mercy here in stockbridge mass and we are grateful that you are with us for this most holy time sacred time of the entire year and god bless you for joining us as you saw on the slide for the most holy sacrifice of the mass throughout this well not till later on for the vigil tonight but the truth and this is what we're going to be talking about today explaining it what does this whole holy week mean uh holy thursday good friday holy saturday easter sunday we're going to hopefully make it all make sense to you so let us begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we give you thanks and all praise for the gift of your son who has redeemed us by his passion death and resurrection which we celebrate now during the triduum and we ask all these graces from this sacrifice that he gave for us through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen it's awesome that you are with us everything culminates in what we are experiencing in the next 10 days from now all the way actually nine days all the way from now to divine mercy sunday and this is so powerful all right what people don't realize is is that we have lent as a season and we have easter as a season but most people think it goes just from lent right into easter actually we have a season in between called the tritium it's its own liturgical season this is powerful it's short right it's it's very very short it's a single celebration of only three days right that marks the end of lent and leads us to easter now it holds a special place in our liturgical year because it marks the culmination of everything of the whole year in proclaiming the passion death and resurrection of jesus all right now tritium is latin which refers to any period of three days that gives a preparation or an observance that prepares for a great feast through the liturgy prayer fasting but we think of it mainly in preparation for the greatest feast of easter alright so this is what people i think don't always realize just as sunday is the high point of the week easter is the high point of the year and so lent here's what i think is okay we're going to get you into a little bit what might be confusing but i think it'll shed some light on you lent technically ends with the evening mass of the lord's supper on holy thursday okay so two days ago now this begins the holy triduum a liturgical season as i said by itself now we usually though although lent ends on holy thursday we keep our lenten observances all the way through tonight through the easter vigil so our giving up of soda or chocolate we continue those all the way through the easter vigil now these penances why if lent ends then father on holy thursday do i continue and am i a sinning if i don't do i need to confess it no these lenten penances or giving things up for example are voluntary all right their personal devotions what you have to do is fast and abstain from meat on good friday but anything in addition to that is up to you it's not sinning if you if you give up chocolate and then have it after you know holy thursday all right now but not meat on fridays you have to fast and do meat on fridays all right now that being said our sunday's part of lent a lot of people are confused by this sundays are part of le meaning they're within the lenten season but they're not part of the 40 days proper known as lent if you add the sundays you have 46 days of lent so let's take a look at our next slide or our i should say first slide now the triduum if you look at the first slide consists of holy thursday good friday and holy saturday including the easter vigil this is how it is sometimes depicted but let's look at our next slide this is the easter tridous as the general norms of the church say now notice this difference here easter triduum the general norms teach begin with the evening mass on the lord's supper right on holy thursday then it's good friday then it has the high point on easter the vigil but it closes on evening prayer of easter so you notice there's a difference here this one is saying the first slide i showed said it's holy thursday good friday and holy saturday this slide shows it as holy thursday good friday and easter sunday why because easter occurs on saturday night so either are correct it might be a little confusing now the usccb throws in their part to this and they say though it's chronologically three days i'm going to show you a slide in a minute thursday night through sunday night so thursday friday saturday sunday so basically three days they are liturgically one day showing the unity of christ paschal mystery now let's look at our next slide this is how you see it depicted in the churches so the church shows many stained glass windows with the washing of the feet that's holy thursday christ on the cross that's good friday and christ resurrected which either could be saturday night or sunday morning and you're gonna be like wait a minute father it's sunday morning well sunday for the jews starts on saturday night so don't worry we'll get to this but the point is the meaning not so much which day is which but the meaning okay we're going to get into some good stuff here through the liturgy and the sacraments and the symbols of our church which will written veil all our symbols tonight we'll remove the veil for the easter liturgy vigil we come to know the main events of the life of christ it all culminates right now everything jesus was working towards in healing of the sick or or you know working miracles he did for this this is what we're leading up to so i think you know those first two versions of the triduum that i showed you holy thursday holy satur uh good friday and holy saturday and then the other one showed easter here's the one i like let's look at this one if i was to do it this would be my version there's actually four things on there i think this is the most accurate the reason why it's not used all the time is it confuses people because there's four things on there not three true to a meets three all right we have holy thursday on the left we have good friday in the red we have holy saturday with a blank circle meaning the tomb is empty and then the mass on easter vigil or easter sunday this is where i think is the best description of the triduum now here's the point these great events all happened at this one time so we need to celebrate all of them not just part of the twitter one well i think i'll just celebrate good friday no good friday without easter sunday doesn't make any sense easter sunday is only because of good friday so celebrating easter without good friday doesn't make sense and so these are the things all of this is basically culminated if you want to know what the truth is if you really want to boil it all down it's the last supper the trial and the crucifixion his time in the tomb and his resurrection from the dead that's why i showed those four uh brother mark if you can put that back up again that last slide so again his last supper that's the holy thursday his trial and crucifixion that's good friday his time in the tomb that's holy saturday and his resurrection from the dead that starts tonight on the easter vigil and is easter sunday you get all that all right these great events are what our faith is all about all right so it is three days now people say wait a minute father it's four thursday friday saturday sunday it's actually three thursday night to friday night is one to saturday night is two to sunday night is three again we'll talk about this so it's three days of contemplation anticipation we enter into our own passion by fasting penances but we hope for eternal life okay we hope for eternal life you know there's another good way of showing it and let me show one more slide before we show the video this is another way to look at the easter trudeau and this is if the white one brother mark that has uh the four symbols um if we still have it back up there yeah so there on the left is just a symbol now of what's that breaking of the bread that's easter thursday uh holy thursday then we have christ carrying the cross that's good friday now notice the two last images one has the tomb closed that's the beginning of holy saturday where he's dead in the tomb but resurrected i'm sorry but visiting the descent into the dead and then the last one the open tomb which is easter sunday all right now all of that hopefully will make more sense when you watch this short video this just about two two and a half minutes so let's take a look at this video that will explain the tritone [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so that's a good little clip that will explain it again we got past that part now we get into the good stuff what does all this mean um and the power of the grace now the liturgical services that are offered by the church on the tr in the triduum are this let's take a look at our next slide the next slide shows the mass of the lord's supper that was holy thursday night all right then we had good friday of the lord's passion that was yesterday where we did have communion veneration of the cross and reading from scripture but no mass because there was no consecration and then last we have the biggie tonight the vigil or the mass of the resurrection of the lord and that then is easter all right now our big parts of this season is what we're going to go into right now so let's back up and start from the beginning and walk you through this okay so bear with us it's not that hard i think you'll enjoy this let's begin with our next slide which is holy thursday basically what do we see there the last supper now earlier in holy thursday this was prior to the mass of the lord's supper we had the chrism mass that's where the bishop blesses all the oils that will be used for anointings and baptisms and confirmations but the focus is going to be that evening on the lord's supper all right this is powerful because it commemorates the eucharist and the priesthood which were both instituted by jesus at the last supper if somebody asked you non-catholics we get them all the time the eucharist that's not real the priesthood only jesus is the priest yes jesus is the high priest but he instituted the eucharist and the priesthood at the last supper he instituted these now this event that we call holy thursday is in commemoration of the last supper now one of the things we call it and let's look at our next slide is maundy thursday so this is the washing of the feet what is monday thursday mean it comes from the latin phrase mandatum novum which means a new command or a mandate which comes from god's command to love you see that written on the slide so this is a powerful thing of what jesus said i command you to love now the priest being in persona christi we have in our services the priest washes the feet now there are people whose feet he washes usually they're parishioners all right and they are catechumens who will be entering into the church usually tonight on the easter vigil all right so washing of the feet is not required we did not do it last night we've always done it before and it doesn't necessarily have to be men but that's the tradition because it's the 12 apostles right but anyway the detail is this let's look at our next slide here we see the washing of the feet is an act of servitude and it was commonly done by slaves or servants in humility here you see the pope what's his official title the servant of the servants of god and so this is this is a powerful symbolic gesture now this is what's interesting to me let's look at our next slide do you know that washing of the feet was done at the ordination of the priests in the old testament the aaronic priesthood the priests of aaron and that is what was done when they were ordained so jesus by washing the feet of the apostles has kept that tradition and he's ordaining these apostles as our first priests and then they ordain the next priest powerful so there is a connection between all of this now thursday has now become a day of the eucharist because this is when jesus instituted it that's why many times in the church you'll hear wednesday is a day of fast not just friday because wednesday is the day of preparing for the eucharistic day of thursday all right now here's what i think is very very powerful the whole symbolism here and the whole symbolism is the sacrificial nature of the eucharist which we see in the old testament with the paschal lamb the lamb that was to be sacrificed now jesus is that lamb all right and the lamb had to be eaten or the sacrifice was invalid the lamb had to be eaten where the sacrifice was invalid now jesus is the lamb that is to be eaten so that night holy thursday which is the last supper holy mother church enters into the upper room all right and the lord serves now what's going on holy thursday after we finished the mass we had a procession and we processed out of the church this is a distinct movement that symbolizes leaving the upper room where the feast happened to the garden and so this is where the church places the host in another tabernacle ours is on the second floor and it's called a place of repose and so the blessed sacrament remains in this place of repose it's like the garden and then people adored until midnight because it was like keep watch the lord said so we keep watch then what happens next let's look at our next slide what happens next is good friday and so here we have the cross with the body of christ on it this is good friday now what's good about our lord being whipped and and beaten and scourged and speared and crowned with thorns what's good about that what's good about all the blood that was shed our redemption but how is it good if we don't have mass on this day remember yesterday we didn't have mass why because we have a liturgy yes we actually had communion but we didn't consecrate so we didn't have a mass now why not okay the mass is a representation of the sacrifice do you remember i've always told you that in the mass we're at calvary where there is christ is sacrificing himself on the cross paying our debt for sin the the wage of sin is death when you sin or i sin we deserve to die that's why jesus died on the cross because when we sin somebody's got to die die is the death is the penalty for sin now jesus paid that on the cross so when you are at mass you are there at the cross as christ is paying that debt but guess what every other day 364 days of the year it's a re-presentation on good friday it's actually happening so we don't need to consecrate we don't need the mass because we have the the real we're there at good friday it's there it's it's a reality so that one day of the year good friday we don't need to consecrate because christ we are living the reality it's incredible so it's not a representation on that day so we don't consecrate the sacrament because it actually is happening it's a fascinating so in this way we have the reality of jesus passion without celebrating the representation of it all right the good friday celebration is actually a continuation of holy thursday all right now good friday continues this easter trudeau as i've been talking about the passion death and resurrection of jesus it's a strict day of fasting and penance now traditionally in the church people think oh we'll be just fast friday so then after last night they splurged this morning ate a ton had a big meal ate whatever you know they wanted but traditionally the fast continues all the way through the easter vigil tonight it's called the paschal fast so if you really want to fast it's not a requirement of the church what's required is that we fasted yesterday good friday but if you really want to keep a tradition you'll continue that fast through tonight through the easter vigil that's why after the easter vigil when i went to franciscan university we'd have a big pizza party afterwards at like one in the morning it was a big celebration all right now this is what's interesting why do we fast on friday and saturday because the bridegroom has been taken away remember jesus says they're not fasting now the the pharisees asked jesus why don't your disciples fast and they see he said they don't fast when the bridegroom's with them but when he's taken away they will fast now jesus has been taken away he's been crucified he's been taken away so we fast this is why the tabernacle remains empty on good friday and the first part of today holy saturday because the bridegroom has been taken away from us but only temporarily the liturgy of the lord's passion which we celebrate on good friday let's stick with good friday he had the liturgy of the word we read from the bible we venerated the cross and we did receive holy communion but again no consecration now hosts were consecrated the night before so that's what they were that's what they were how we got consecrated hosts now on good on good friday the readings talk about the suffering messiah who defeated satan's last tool death satan's greatest tool is death and christ just defeated it because he's going to die and then resurrect and so in venerating the cross we acknowledge the instrument of christ's death and we publicly demonstrate our willingness to take up that cross to be his follower remember jesus said to be my disciple you must deny yourself pick up your cross and follow him this is what we're doing when we venerate the cross now good friday celebrations of the lord's passion are usually at 3 pm that's when we did ours last night they could be later if they needed but usually around 3 and it can only be done by a priest not a deacon then later we had tenebrae last night at eight which stands for the latin word darkness which is a very dramatic celebration we usually read the last seven words of jesus christ that is reflecting on the readings of his passion all right now what about jesus on the cross when he said my god my god why have you forsaken me did god the father forsake jesus here he is on good friday reading psalm 22 all right that describes the agony of the suffering servant that's why jesus said it he quoted that psalm because that psalm talked about the agony of the suffering servant it was written way before jesus so he's fulfilling it so when he cries out my god my god why have you forsaken me does that mean the father abandoned the son no he allowed him in his humanity to experience the sense of divine abandonment which usually is something that we feel during times of need but especially when we're in sin we feel this abandonment so just as often as we feel that god has abandoned us when we are suffering even though he never does all right so the son of god jesus in his humanity experienced that aspect of human suffering as well god the father let him experience that so basically he's dying for our sins the penalty for sin is death and the weight of those sins and that feeling of abandonment must have weighed heavy heavy on him at this point and that's why we meditate on the passion thinking about that so by quoting this psalm jesus shows that suffering is united with humanity but remember that psalm has a happy ending it ends in glory and triumph and so will jesus on easter so anyway you know saint faustina said that jesus told her that there is no way except the cross this is good friday there's no way to glory except through the passion the cross so we will all share in it all right but there's hope the resurrection's coming that's the hope of good friday it will be with him in glory just not yet good friday involves some sacrifice penance to sheer in the cross of christ one of the big things is fasting and abstinence now what you might not know is there are only two days left that requires us to fast and abstain in the church and that is ash wednesday the beginning of lent and good friday now these are days of fast for healthy latin catholics that's us right the western church under the pope now from age 18 to 59 that is the age that we must fast older than 59 you're not required but you still can so this what does it mean to fast one normal reasonable meal not a gourmet and two small meals maybe like snacks that don't equal a meal now ash wednesday and good friday are also days of abstinence i always thought abstinence meant no sexual relations it means no meat well can mean that too all right but that is for 14 and up no matter how old you are no matter how old you could be 80 there's still a requirement for no meat on fridays of ash wednesday or sorry all fridays of lent and ash wednesday and good friday are also fasting but no meat is every friday during lent all right now do you know this you might not know this but do you know actually we're supposed to give up meat every friday the entire year people like what only during lent father yes only during lent is required but every other friday is a still a day of penance and if you don't give up meat you have to give up something else like maybe a tv program or a dessert or something else every friday the whole year is a day of penance now we are required to give up meat not just on fridays in lent but every single friday but again you can switch out and give up something else besides meat not in lent though i'm talking about outside a lot in lent it must be no meat all right so the fast on good fridays they mentioned may be continued through the easter vigil that's when we really celebrate so this paschal fast that goes friday and saturday is a big tradition why because by fasting we control the passions of the body to free up our souls our spirits the flesh is not to control the spirit the spirit is to control the flesh so to get the flesh under the control of the spirit fasting is one way to do that one of the best ways all right so refraining from food can tell help bring our body under control of the spirit now it's also a way of doing a penance for past sins you can offer fasting you know you ever hear that you must do atonement for your sin one of the great ways is to fast that that wipes away the punishment for old sins remember food is not bad we're not giving up something bad food is good we need it but giving up good things helps us focus on things that are even better like god now the gospel is all about self-denial there's fasting talked about it detachments of things that can consume us there are two i think very important ways to look at this the body and the spirit we have to quell the body because if we let the passions of the flesh control us we'll live enslaved to sin we can't let the flesh control the spirit or the soul but at the same time we can also be guilty of things not related to the body like pride ego anger you know things that do not relate to the body in the body you have gluttony lust you know sloth but we can sin in the spirit by things like i said pride ego wanting to get recognized instead of other people this is the two ways that lent helps detach so if our spirit is seeking praise we can detach from that this is the goal this is concupiscence can be body or the spirit all right concupiscence can be in those as well all right now we can even become attached to the world you know good things of the world the beauty of the outdoors i know for me but anyway here's the thing i think is ironic when you fast you're hungry you don't feel satisfied it's only when you eat you feel satisfied right yes in a fleshly manner but true ironically listen to this fasting abstinence can actually help you become fully satisfied what are you talking about father because god alone not the things of the world can satisfy the deepest hunger of our souls so when we empty ourselves out of things of the world then god can fill us and that filling is the most satisfying the soul that's why we shouldn't worry about just feeding the body but feed the soul you know the pope says it helps us to recognize the needs of the homeless the hungry the suffering it helps us to join in them and unite with them you know because a lot of times we look past their sufferings you know many times we don't see their pleading we just walk on by and we become indifferent now what he is saying pope francis is that fasting can build solidarity and you know fasting is so powerful but you know don't let it don't become a pharisee um you know fasting can become something that we make a spectacle out of i'll give you an example if you are fasting except maybe outside of friday's inlet which we do have to stick to but let's suppose you voluntarily fast on a wednesday in july and that's your thing and all of a sudden you go over to somebody houses for dinner and they made you a nice big steak now some people like the pharisees would make a big deal and say oh i can't eat that i can't eat that and the host just went through all this trouble to make you a steak actually you're required to eat it out of charity and you know what the church even says if it was an honest mistake and this even happened on a friday in lent that if it was an honest mistake and somebody went through all the trouble to prepare you meal i'm not saying you go make your steak but a woman went through where a man went through all this trouble to prepare you a beautiful meal and you say no i'm not going to touch that that's actually against charity and so we actually would want to accept in those cases of honest mistake but don't lose the purpose of fasting i know i used to wait up till midnight you know i would it was friday in line and i would be starving and i'd look at the clock i'd be waiting for the clock and waiting and waiting and waiting as soon as it hit midnight bam i'd grab a big pizza with pepperoni and ham and and and sausage on it and so that's kind of that's kind of defeating the purpose all right you know there's a lot of ways we can fast you know we could do intermittent fasting which is you know you fast for like eight hours of the day uh or excuse me you eat only during eight hours a day but you fast all the other 16 hours there's a lot of ways to do it but the message is have the right heart when you're doing it for the glory of god and to put the body under the soul all right now who killed jesus we're still on good friday now we're still on good friday a lot of people see the jews kill jesus other people say the romans killed jesus all right the personal sins of the participants the soldiers herod a pilot the sanhedrin even judas we don't know those personal sins are known to god alone so you can't point fingers all right we can't say that the responsibility for the trial of jesus laid on all the jews as a whole no nor can we blame just the romans as a whole they wouldn't have done the crucifixion if if it was just up to them pilate felt persuaded doesn't mean he's totally guilt-free but we have to be careful here our sins are responsible for his death i think you know that paul said the wage of sin is death so catechism 598 says all sinners were the authors of christ's passion all sinners were the authors of christ's passion now it can be seen that this is what's interesting we are actually more guilty than the jews for crucifying christ you know why listen to saint paul none of them understood this he was talking about the jews the rulers he said for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the lord of glory they didn't know what they were doing we however profess to know jesus all right and when we deny him by our deeds we crucify him actually we are more guilty i remember when i was a kid i used to be i can't believe the jews did that because i would go out on the playground and have a fight with one of my classmates all right or do something i shouldn't have been doing we are guilty and we know better than the jews did at the time you know i praise god every day that i'm alive now that i have the fullness of the truth because i got to be honest if i was a faithful jew and some guy came out of nowhere in a robe and sandals and started preaching something contrary to my jewish faith i honestly don't know if i would have followed him i would have been like paul in the beginning thinking exterminate this guy he's hurting our jewish faith so my goodness i could have been in a real mess if i was born back then praise be to god that we are living now that we have the fullness of the truth this is powerful all right so now the demons crucified him no it is we who have crucified him and still crucify him when we delight and choose sin all right let's keep going now did god die can we say god died on the cross we're still again talking about good friday yes the nicean creed the apostles crazy for our sake he was crucified under pontius pilate suffered death and was buried in accordance with the scriptures now let's take a look at our next slide all right because here what is this this is a death now the divine nature didn't die but the person jesus of nazareth did die look at him there that's the person jesus of nazareth nazareth he died the divine nature did not die god in spirit did not die but jesus of nazareth the son of god who can say was truly god died in his humanity this is why we say god died in that sense not meaning god in his divine nature no in his human nature all right so that's good friday now we're getting into the good stuff what's next on our slide holy saturday in silence we await it's anticipation this is a vigil that's what a vigil means that's why you can go to mass saturday night even though sunday is our lord's dates in anticipation that's why it's actually correct to call it the mass of anticipation because we are anticipating now here's what's interesting the church is always celebrated all right holy saturday with strict fasting in preparation for easter as i talked about before now after sundown the christians hold an all-night vigil let's look at our next slide this is the easter vigil all right easter vigil christians hold this used to be all night it's the high point of the trideum all right it concluded with baptism and holy communion and even confirmation before the break of dawn all right being a vigil this time of anticipation and preparation it takes place at night it started at night after nightfall and finish before daybreak so it's celebrated always in darkness now though that doesn't mean we are living in the dark because let's look at our next slide it consists of four parts and the very first part is the service of light this is the easter fire the blessing of the candle we light the easter candle in that fire and that light is the light of christ the light of the world and the liturgy of the word comes next we read from the bible then we have christian initiation we welcome the new people into the church and then we have the liturgy of the eucharist very powerful so why the light because in in the times of the bible this is the light that was to the world all right in biblical themes we are light removing darkness and life overcoming death so the light comes into the dark life of the resurrection overcomes the death of the crucifixion our days of darkness in this world will be enlightened with eternal life and our death to sin will be overcome by the life of eternity amazing so the greatest of all the hymns is sung at this time the exultant it is sung by a deacon or the priest or cantor and it's an ancient hymn to praise god for the light of the paschal candle so we're thanking god for this candle which we'll show tonight in our easter vigil so now the liturgy of the word comes next uh with seven readings from the old testament and two readings from the new testament now these readings are an overview of all of salvation history so this is important and how god works in man all right so it begins with creation you'll hear tonight at the easter vigil the readings from creation and they will end with an angel telling mary magdalene that jesus is no longer dead that's all the salvation history from creation to telling mary magdalene the angel that jesus is no longer dead that is everything that we celebrate tonight so then it prepares us for baptism and then communion all right so the easter vigil is a time when adult converts come back to the faith if they've left or i should say come to the faith all right they enter the church this is the season of baptism or what we call christian initiation that's why baptism is a sacrament of initiation now those who lived in darkness and death were buried that's why we dive them under the water or pour the water on their head and now they are baptized emerged from that with light and life it's the candle of light and the life of the resurrection powerful stuff all right so after the reading of the bible tonight the catechumens at your parish will come forward now there's catechumens and there's candidates what's the difference all right if somebody entering the church tonight is a catechumen that means those who have never been baptized so if they're going to be baptized tonight and they've never been baptized they're called a catechumen now there's candidates who enter in the church as well but they've been baptized maybe in another religion we do accept catholic church does accept baptism from other faiths christian as long as it was done in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit so if you were baptized lutheran or let's say anglican that suffices and then when you come into the church you're a candidate you don't need to be re-baptized now if you've never been baptized you're a catechumen meaning you have to be baptized all right this is important now all right so these candidates here they're initiating the church and then if needed they have confirmation then the priest sprinkles the rest of the people present as a sign with holy water of the renewal of baptismal vows and then the easter vigil concludes with receiving the eucharist can't beat that so all of this is happening in the liturgy why it symbolizes what was happening to jesus on holy saturday after he was buried the apostle creed said he descended into hell everybody always thinks that means he got the souls out of hell this is not the hell of the damned all right we'll talk about this during the time his soul separated from his body all right this is jesus now enjoin the holy souls awaiting a savior now scripture calls this place the place of this dead hell now that is the word sheol in hebrew or hades in greek you probably heard this term those who are deprived of the vision of god because they died before jesus opened the door to heaven which adam and eve closed so adam and eve closed the door to heaven and jesus now comes to open it all those people who died between adam and eve and jesus were waiting they weren't in the hell of the damned they were in shoal or hades awaiting heaven to be opened including adam and eve you know adam and eve are two of the ones released to enter into heaven can you imagine adam he's probably down there as everybody's waiting gee guys i'm sorry about this you know eve is probably like oh man our bad you know but once they got to heaven that's all forgotten so let's look at our next slide this is jesus freeing those souls see what he's doing he's resurrected he's got the flag and his souls are waiting to be freed he went to free the just that had gone before him so our lord offered the perfect sacrifice for all sin by dying on the cross and then that opened the door to heaven whether you were past present or future all right such was why we call this the place of the dead or the righteous but the word used is hell not the hell of the damn he did not go to gehenna jesus did not go to gehenna that's the place of the damned once a soul is in hell it cannot get out cannot get out so jesus spoke that this is a real place too the fires of gehenna are serious sins in matthew he says anger or hatred or adultery or a purity the fire for those sins is eternal so if you're guilty of that get to confession clean it up all right now we're going to get into some interesting stuff here why do we celebrate the easter vigil which we're talking about right now we already talked about holy thursday and good friday now i'm talking about the vigil easter vigil why do we celebrate it on saturday night jesus resurrected on sunday i always wondered that as a kid nobody was ever able to explain it to me in fact even into my 20s i still didn't understand it wasn't until i got to seminary and thank god all of you are here with me we're going back to seminary this is one of the important classes i learned why we can celebrate it on saturday night after dark that's the key why all right just why then do we celebrate easter when christ hasn't resurrected yet all right just as the jews started saturday's sabbath because you know saturday for the jews was the sabbath but when did they start it friday night after sundown that began the sabbath it's the same thing with us christians easter is on sunday but it begins in the tradition on saturday night that's why you can go to mass for a sunday obligation on saturday night so the church does this that's why a vigil starts the day of worship the night before that's what we call a vigil so this is why going to mass on saturday fulfills the sunday obligation but why is this all right let's talk about easter let's look at our next slide this is the resurrected jesus praise be to god right now the day jesus redeemed all of mankind okay that was one of my questions on my seminary exam explain the difference between redemption and salvation all right did jesus redeem all mankind no father not the souls in hell yes he did all of mankind is redeemed jesus with his blood redeemed every soul every human that ever has lived is living now or will live that's why i believe when he felt the pain of the nail going in his wrist which by the way people say was it in the in the palm or was it in the wrist because in some images you see the wound in his wrist and some in his palm brother mark found a very interesting scientific thing and it talked about what they believe happened all right is that jesus was nailed okay in the palm but it went through and actually exited out the wrist to be able to hold him on the cross all right so this is why you see if he was nailed in the palm but it angled up through the wrist both are correct jesus was nailed maybe in the palm but it went through and exited out the wrist to hold him on the cross so if you look at the front you'll see it on the palm but if you look at the back you'll see it on the wrist and so this is why the image of divine mercy has it in the palm of people saying it's supposed to be in the wrist but the shroud has it on the wrist because in the shroud we see this side of his hand and that's where we see the wound but on the um on the other uh apparitions we see him nailed through the uh palm it's because the nail they believe went through the palm and exited out the back of the wrist that held him on the cross now i believe when he felt that pain he felt that pain for every human being who ever lived you know they say that 110 billion people have lived since the beginning of time if the world ended tonight i believe that jesus didn't feel the pain of that crucifixion of that nail just for himself like if they nailed me to a cross i'd only feel my pain if they put brother mark and brother ken and me as the three crosses and they nailed me as much as that hurt i wouldn't feel brother ken's pain and i wouldn't feel brother mark's pain but i believe this is not church teaching please don't write the bishop on me this is just my own personal belief please let me underscore that this is my own personal belief it's not in a church document it's not in scripture my own personal belief is that when jesus was nailed he felt that nail 110 billion times greater than i would feel it because i only feel that for my own pain he would feel it for every human being who's ever lived so if the world ends and 200 billion people have lived by the time the world ends i believe he felt that for 200 billion times greater can you even fathom how much pain he must have been through if that's true incredible again this is not church dogmatic teaching or revelation it's just my own personal belief but it's important now here's the thing when we look at the power of this all right here's what we have to understand jesus redeemed all mankind but will all mankind be saved no because some choose not to be united with him all right some choose that he defeated death the last and great tool of satan by dying on good friday and resurrecting now on easter he defeated satan's last great tool this is why the images of divine mercy are so powerful the pale ray the waters wash away his first tool of sin and satan's other great tool of death is wiped away by the red ray what is death death is the end of everything but what overcomes death life and what was life to the jews blood that's why we see the blood on the image of divine mercy and we have the precious blood in the mass to give us life all right now easter originated as the first sunday following passover when jesus was crucified it is not based on a pagan holiday oh my goodness i'm sorry i just i get so tired of people telling me that it was based on a pagan holiday like christmas i have videos out there that explain all that no it's not it's based on a jewish one called passover all right now in most languages the word easter is derived from the jewish word pessac which means passover in greek and latin it's pasca p-a-s-c-h-a which is where we get the paschal mystery the passion death and resurrection so easter is when jesus resurrected resurrected now when was easter okay we talk about this easter we know was on sunday but when does sunday start for the jews saturday night this is why we can celebrate the vigil on saturday night because it's still easter or it's the beginning of easter all right to the jews the day began at sunset the night before that's why the saturday sabbath began friday evening at sundown now this is why we read the phrase in the bible evening and morning rather than what we say day and night when we today in our world talk about a day we say day and night i've been slaving day and night night and day to the jews in the bible it says evening and morning because the evening of saturday is the first part of the day and the morning of sunday is the next part of the day same day as the bells tell me all right now in the bible scripture it indicates that jesus rose on the first day of the week all right so that means he rose on that what's the first day of the week sunday but that means the day that began on sunset of the night before on saturday and lasted until sunset on sunday so he could have risen at any point during that time few people realize this but if you don't why then do we have the easter vigil on saturday night if he only could have risen after dawn on sunday then we would have no reason to celebrate a saturday night vigil no catholics or few catholics understand this this is why i love you guys joining in with me that we understand our faith we only can know god better if we can love him or we can only love him better if we can know him better and we have to know our faith all right let's look at our next slide all right he is risen this is the empty tomb and since we are told the tomb was found empty quote in the bible this is matthew 28 1 after the sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week this is when the bible matthew 28 verse 1 tells us that tomb was found empty after the sabbath toward the dawn okay so when did the sabbath end saturday night so the tomb was found empty after the sabbath toward the dawn of the first day of the week he must have risen then between sunset saturday and dawn on sunday because it says here toward dawn well wait a minute father you said sunday wednesday sunday evening no the scripture says after the sabbath which means saturday evening toward the dawn of the first day which is sunday so jesus must have risen between sunset on saturday and dawn on sunday whether or not it whether or not it was before or after midnight scripture doesn't tell us it just says that it was after dawn on saturday i'm sorry i'm sorry after dusk on saturday and dawn on sunday i hope i haven't been saying dawn when i really meant dusk oh my if i did please forgive me after dusk on saturday oh my gosh i think i've been saying dawn meaning dust the whole time oh boy i hope i didn't mess that up so this is the thing whether or not he rose saturday night or early sunday morning before dawn doesn't matter he was still crucified on friday and in the bible we have an answer why this is so in the bible parts of time units were counted as holes what do i mean by that all right a day or a night to the jews a full day did not mean 24 hours but any portion of a day was counted as a day any part of a night was counted as a night so what do i mean by this all right in the bible it says three days and three nights he was in the tomb it could really mean part part of three days and that means the nights just come with it that was a jewish expression whenever you said three days you also said three nights even if it was only two nights so the part of three days that jesus was dead was friday saturday and possibly sunday which could have been saturday night now the biblical scholar rt france says quote three days and three nights was a jewish idiom for a period covering maybe only two nights but parts of three days so he was in the tomb try to stay with me now for only a few hours on friday not 24 hours just a few hours on friday that's how we talk think about it today but the jews would count that as a whole day that's day one even if it was only for a few hours on friday night he was on there the whole time on saturday morning right and into saturday afternoon and less than six hours on sunday that we know of because that was before dawn sometime in that period he rose this was way less than the 72 hours of three full days and nights is there a contradiction no the jews counted as a whole a whole day any part of a day so three days and three nights could actually mean as little as 24 hours with a few minutes before that day and a few minutes after that day so to us if i had 10 minutes of work before an entire day and it went to 10 minutes of work the next day the jews would count that as three days even though to us it would just be one full day and a few minutes extra you see the difference there all right in our way of counting things i'll give you an example from lunch today to lunch tomorrow is one day from lunch today saturday to lunch tomorrow sunday is one day to me and to you how many was it to the jews two days because it counted part of saturday and part of sunday so the ancient jews would counted it as two days because included parts of two distinct days all right now why am i saying all this here it comes if you if none of that made any sense this i think will clarify so if jesus was crucified and died on friday afternoon that would be the first day friday afternoon up until sundown now at sundown on friday would begin the second day because the day started the dusk the night before then at sundown on saturday would be the third day and jesus resurrected sometime after sundown on saturday that is the third day so jesus was raised on the third day matthew 20 verse 19. scripture repeatedly tells us that jesus was crucified on the day of preparation which to the jews meant friday why the day of preparation for the sabbath on saturday they did the night before friday this is why the women were not able to anoint the body before it was buried why i don't understand that father because jesus was quickly buried late on friday afternoon before sundown because that would begin the sabbath and once the sabbath began they could not anoint the body so they hurried to get jesus down from the cross and all the bodies down this is why they broke their legs the reason they broke the legs is because if somebody was on the cross and they were crucified you actually died first from a fixation not from the wounds in the hands and the feet you actually died because you were being filled with with blood and phlegm and you couldn't breathe so the person on the cross would try and i can't do this on my knee i used my good knee i got my right knee leg up would push up to be able to take a breath but if you had a broken leg you couldn't even do that and when your leg was broke you couldn't push up and you would die quicker so they wanted these men before the sabbath began at sundown now jesus is on the cross right three o'clock in the afternoon but they wanted him off the cross before the sabbath so they came to break the legs and broke the legs of all those but when they got to jesus they saw he was already dead so they didn't break his legs part of the reason is because the lamb in prophecy must be unblemished and to have a broken bone would mean he was not unblemished so jesus fulfilled this prophecy now let's take a look at our next slide here we see jesus at the tomb and this is why the women had to wait until after the sabbath was over because he had to be taken down and ushered quickly into the tomb now the women await and what do they receive for their waiting the glory of god all right this is powerful stuff now this lamb this unblemished lamb is what we celebrate in mass the wedding feast of the lamb powerful powerful stuff now easter once they broke his leg of the other criminals not jesus they didn't have to break his leg as he was already dead but they speared him and when they speared him the blood and the water flowed out now well that is the image of divine mercy and i'll talk about that here towards the end i just got a few minutes left but that's what i want to talk about towards the end but i'm going to finish with how is easter determined we get a lot of questions father how's palm sunday determined ash wednesday how has easter sunday determined it changes every year all right it's based on the date of passover which is complicated all right now here's the thing i'm not going to get into tons of detail but early christians decided that easter would be celebrated on the first sunday after not on the paschal full moon all right now we use the gregorian calendar not the julian calendar not the solar the you know that we use the gregorian calendar there's a lunar and the sonar the julian and the gregorian we use a gregorian and this is based on the lunar because the full moon is on or after march 21st with ties to the start of spring now this is important easter always then falls between march 22nd and april 25th because it has to be the sunday after march 21st which ties to the equine spring equinox i know that's confusing but trust me there's a reason it's based on the jewish tradition that our roots come from now what about palm sunday that is always the sixth sunday of lent so it's the sunday right before easter so we determine easter first then the sunday right before is always palm sunday now to find ash wednesday you start with easter sunday as we just did and you back up six weeks that gives you the first sunday of lent and then four more days for ash wednesday so ash wednesday is obviously the wednesday before the first sunday of lent all right i got a lot more to do but they got to get the cleaning crew in here to clean for our vigil feast tonight but i will finish by saying to get the most out of holy week may seem daunting it may seem um you know a challenge but take heart all right even our smallest efforts made in love will draw us closer to god and to this paschal mystery which culminates in the resurrection passion death and resurrection now these three days that i've been talking about all day today holy thursday mass good friday with no mass and holy saturday leading to the vigil of easter sunday is what our faith is all about this sunday is easter sunday and it'll be celebrated in another great way over eight days now here's the interesting thing saint augustine says those eight days of easter starting on easter sunday easter sunday day one monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday divine mercy sunday the eighth day saint augustine said that eighth day is the greatest of all days father how can you say that easter sunday is the greatest of all days they're connected so our final slide on this presentation i do have a little announcement afterwards is the image of divine mercy this sets the stage easter being sets the stage for something incredible called divine mercy sunday and it's all connected i said earlier that when jesus they didn't break his bones they speared him and when they speared him in the side he went all the way through his chest cavity punctured the heart and the blood in the water that came out of jesus's side actually came from the sacred heart of jesus we know that on the shroud is actually blood and water that came from the heart on the shroud and on this the cross it says blood and water flowed out of his side they speared him and that spear went all the way through his chest cavity punctured the heart that is why in the image we see the blood and the water coming from the heart it flowed out the side but it came from the heart this is why next week stay with us because we have an incredible incredible feast coming not only tomorrow and easter sunday but culminating in divine mercy sunday the high point of everything and it's connected with easter they're the same eight day octave so don't say that i didn't say easter is important it's connected and so god bless all of you and we want to make sure that you join us next saturday at 11 as we talk about divine mercy sunday now we do have a couple things here that i wanted to show you let's put up our next slide all of this i explained in a brand new book god bless you i hope you can get it shopmercy.org or call us at 800-462-7400 this is a copy of my new book and it explains everything you need to know to get the graces of divine mercy and you know what else those graces are so powerful and if you can't afford the book send me an email let me know and i'll send you one for free if you can't afford it god bless you that helps support our ministry but if you can't let me know okay and i'll send you one what's important is that i get it in your hands this is why being a mirian helper is so important we pray for you the graces of divine mercy will be shared with you as a marian helper you get to share in all the graces of our prayers rosaries masses penances like you were a miriam priest so the next slide is just a way to invite you no charge at mic prayers dot org you can join our association be a marian helper god bless you these are such great graces you don't want to waste and um finally i know this is timed but and you might be watching the video after this date but there's two great pilgrimages that i'm going on that i would love to invite you with you being our marian family would love to meet you spend time with you have dinner with you and yes you can come on in now we have a cleaning crew coming in so um but anyway this is a beautiful grace stephen ray does some of the best pilgrimages in the business on october 14th through the 24th of 2021 the footsteps of saint paul will be going to the uh the mediterranean following in the footsteps of paul i'll be the chaplain would love to meet you his pilgrimages are the best bar none all inclusive everything's paid for if you can't let's look at our next slide if you want to go on a cheaper route but a fun trip we're going to france on june 20th to july 2nd of 2022 notice the years here and these are the shrines of france and we are very grateful that you would be able to join us as god said sharing his joy and we want to share that with you as well so god bless all of you thank you for coming being with us we hope you can join us on these pilgrimages but most importantly join us for divine mercy i will also on april the 5th through april the 9th of 2021 be doing a series on ewtn called understanding divine mercy this is a series that'll teach you all about it it'll air at 5 30 eastern time on in 2021 this year coming up april 5th through april the 9th so may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen and thank you hi i'm father chris aylor and i'm excited to tell you about the completion of my newest project it's been a long time in the making it's called understanding divine mercy my new book from marion press that finally in one place i feel gives you the all the answers of everything you need to know about god's divine mercy in fact it answers what is divine mercy who is saint faustina and what message did god give her for the world how about the feast of divine mercy and what do you have to do to receive the graces that jesus promises on this one day of the year we talk about the meaning of the image and how to pray the novena and how to understand the chaplet and what to do in the hour of mercy and much much more answering questions like why would a merciful god allow such suffering so please we hope that you'll pick up a copy of this book for you and your loved ones because if you get the understanding of what god's mercy is you will understand why jesus said it's mankind's last hope of salvation so please visit us at shopmercy.org or give us a call at 800-462-7426 thank you and may almighty god bless you you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 56,011

Rating: 4.922204 out of 5

Keywords: Divine Mercy, Mercy, Jesus, Christ, Marian, priest, catholic teaching, spiritual, spirituality, grace, pray, prays, praying, chris alar, alar, fr. Chris, fr. alar, Catholic, Church, God, spiritual Communion, confession, fr. chris alar, divine mercy, mary, Holy Spirit, sacraments, service, salvation, Triduum, easter triduum, faith, holy Thursday, Easter, Easter vigil, good Friday, Lord's Supper, passion, Lord's passion

Id: LwgYrzLZPf4

Length: 79min 58sec (4798 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 03 2021