TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
As soon as Christmas ends, people begin planning for Easter! Originally, the source of our Paschal Triduum was but a single liturgy extending from Saturday sundown to sun-rise on Easter Sunday. The two days leading up to the liturgy were days of fast, not only for the elect, but for the church preparing to baptize them. A fifth-century pope explained that the church imitated the apostles, who were in hiding with their grief from the arrest of Jesus, and therefore sacraments, even penance, were forbidden.
Inevitably, though, people wanted to come together, and so eventually a Liturgy of the Word developed for Good Friday. This was the first step toward today’s shape of the Triduum, and gradually new ideas were embraced, including the veneration of the cross and a simple Communion service. Interestingly, the Word remained central, since we know that in those days the pope did not receive Communion at this liturgy, even though the faithful had that option. In the other churches of Rome, priests and people received Communion under both species. Although the custom of Communion on Good Friday took hold, it did not endure past the Middle Ages. The central liturgies of the year slowly unraveled and disappeared from parish life. Remember that there were no seminaries in those days, and books were a rare luxury. Most priests could only manage to celebrate a simple “low” Mass, and few parishes could afford the ritual books that would guide a priest through the complex forms. Holy Week remained important in private devotion, but for a time the liturgies virtually disappeared.—Rev. James Field, Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co.
TRADICIONES DE NUESTRA FE
Al escribir Tradiciones de nuestra fe me he encontrado con mu-chas fiestas patronales en España, Latinoamérica y Estados Unidos de América. Muchas de ellas mantienen su carácter religioso mientras que otras son simplemente una excusa para festejar, mejorar la economía local o hacer política, pero no por estas razones deben ser descartadas.
Tomemos, por ejemplo, la fiesta de san Sebastián de las Ovejas en la frontera entre Ar-gentina y Chile. Esta fiesta es más vieja que am-bas naciones y su peregrinación pisa los dos sue-los. A lo largo del tiempo, esta fiesta ha sufrido por razones políticas entre ambas naciones, pero a partir de 1980 las autoridades eclesiásticas, civiles y gubernamentales han intentado revitalizar esta fiesta por varios motivos.
Las autoridades eclesiásticas la usan para renovar el cristianismo añadiendo las enseñanzas y prácticas del Concilio Vaticano II a las tradicio-nes antiguas. Las autoridades civiles la utilizan para incrementar el comercio y el turismo en la región. Los gobiernos de Chile y Argenti-na la ven como un enlace benéfico entre ambas naciones.
Las fiestas patronales buscan integrar todos los aspectos del ser humano, su política, economía, cultura, celebración y religión. —Fray Gilberto Cavazos-Glz, OFM, Copyright © J. S. Paluch Co., Inc.