Holy Wednesday

Venerating the Column

Holy Wednesday is usually celebrate here with the veneration of the Column of the Flagellation. The daily procession in the Holy Sepulchre takes place in the morning and ends at the Column of the Flagellation ... a red marble column where tradition says Jesus was tied to and whipped before being made to carry the Cross. The column is broken. Part of it is in Malta and here we hold the other piece. It's a unique ritual that takes place nowhere else in the world.

Meanwhile everyone else is busy preparing churches and chapels for tomorrow's Lord's Supper and the Washing of Feet and the removal of the Blessed Sacrament. Florists are making a fortune selling flowers by the kilos.

Procession at the Stone
of the Unction below Calvary

Meantime I'm awed by the coincidences of calendars. Tomorrow we celebrate Christ's Last Supper ... meaning the traditional passover lamb should have been killed in the late afternoon and eaten in the evening. This follows Matthew, Mark and Luke's Gospels. And this year it coincides with the Samaritan Passover as they will kill and eat the passover lambs when we celebrate the Lord's Supper.

On Good Friday when we celebrate Christ's death at 3pm, John's Gospel records that it was the same time as the killing of the passover lambs. According to John, Jesus didn't eat the Passover meal since he died before the lambs were cooked and eaten. This year it coincides with the jewish Passover but since they no longer have a Temple and altar, they do not slaughter the lambs. However when they eat their Passover meal on Friday evening, we celebrate the burying of Jesus.

I'm leaving for our parish in Jaffa this evening as there's a shortage of english-speaking priests to serve the filipino, indian, asian expat communities in the 5 surrounding cities. I was asked to help for the Triduum.