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is an obvious development of this, the manner of wor- shipping the true Cross on Good Friday observed at Jerusalem. A veiled image of the Crucifix is gradually exposed to view, while the celebrant, accompanied by his assistants, sings three times the " Ecce lignum Crucis", etc. (Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the salvation of the world), to which the choir answers, each time, " Venite adoremus " (Come let us adore). During the singing of this response the whole assembly (except the celebrant) kneel in adoration. When the Cross is completely unveiled the celebrant carries it to the foot of the altar, and places it in a cushion prepared for it. He then takes off his shoes and approaches the Cross (genuflecting three times on the way) and kisses it. The deacon and subdeacon also divest themselves of their shoes (the deacon and subdeacon may take off their shoes, if that be the cus- tom of the place, S.C.R., n. 2769, ad X, q. 5), and act in like manner. For an account of the peculiarly im- pressive ceremony known as the "Creeping to the Cross", which was once observed in England, see arti- cle Cross (vol. IV, p. 537). The clergy two and two follow, while one or two priests vested in surplice and black stole take other crosses and present them to the faithful present to be kissed. During this ceremony the choir sings what are called the Iniproperia, the Trisagion (in Greek as well as Latin), if time permits the hymn Crux fidelis. . . (Oh,Cro.ss, our hope ...). The Improperia are a series of reproaches supposed to be addressed by Christ to the Jews. They are not found in the old Roman Ordines. Duchesne (249) detects, he thinks, a Galilean ring in them; while Mar- tene (III, 136) has found some of them alternating with the Trisagion in ninth century Gallican docu- ments. They appear in a Roman Ordo, for the first time, in the fourteenth century, but the retention of the Trisagion in Greek goes to show that it had found a place in the Roman Ciood Friday service before the Photian schism (ninth century). A non-Catholic may say that this is all very dramatic and interesting, but allege a grave deordination in the act of adoration of the Cross on bended knees. Is not atloration due to God alone? The answer may be found in our smallest catechism. The act in question is not intended as an expression of absolute supreme worship (Xarpela) which, of course, is due to God alone. The essential note of the ceremony is reverence (Tpoa-Kivqais) which has a relative character, and which may be best ex- plained in the words of the Pseudo-Alcuin: " Proster- nimur corpore ante crucem, mente ante Dominum. Veneramur crucem, per quam redemti sumus, et ilium deprecamur, qui redemit" (While we bend down in body before the cross we bend down in spirit before God. While we reverence the cross as the instrument of our redemption, we pray to Him who redeemed us). It may be urged: why sing " Behold the wood of the Cross", in unveiling the image of the Cross? The reason is obvious. The ceremony originally had im- mediate connexion with the True Cross, which was found by St. Helena in Jerusalem about the year A. D. 326 (see ( liliiiartin's " History of the Church", I, 157). Churches which procured a relic of the True Cross might imitate this ceremony to the letter, but other churches had to be content with an image, which in this particular ceremony represents the wood of the True Cross.

As might be expected, the ceremony of the unveil- ing and adoration of the Cross gave rise to peculiar usages in particular Churches. After describing the adoration and kissing of the Cross in the Anglo-Saxon Church, Rock (The Church of Our Fathers, IV, 103) goes on to say: "Though not insisted on for general observance, there was a rubric that allowed a rite, at this part of the office, to be followed, which may be called The Burial of the Rood. At the hind part of the altar . . . there was made a kind of sepulchre, hung all about with a curtain. Inside this recess, , , the

cross, after the cereniony of kissing it had been done, was carried by its two deacons, who had, however, first wrapped it up in a linen cloth or winding-sheet. As they bore their burden along, they sang certain anthems till they reached this spot, and there they left the cross; and it lay thus entombed tUl Easter morn, watched all that while by two, three, or more monks, who chanted psalms through day and night. When the Burial was completed the deacon and sub- deacon came from the sacristy with the reserved host. Then followed The Mass of the Prc-sanctified." A some- what similar ceremony (called the 'ATroKaff^Xwiris) is still observed in the Greek Church. An image of Christ, laid on a bier, is carried through the streets with a kind of funeral pomp, and is offered to those present to be worshipped and kissed (sec Nilles, II, 242). To re- turn to the Roman Rite, when the ceremony of ador- ing and kissing the Cross is concluded, the Cross is placed aloft on the altar between lighted candles, a procession is formed which proceeds to the chapel of repose, where the second sacred host consecrated in yesterday's Mass has since lain entomljed in a gor- geously decorated urn and surrounded by lights and flowers. This urn represents the sepulchre of Christ (decree of S.C.R., n. 3933, ad I). The Most Holy Sacrament is now carried back to the altar in solemn procession, during which is sung the hymn " Vexilla Regis prodeunt" (The standards of the King ad- vance). Arrived in the sanctuary the clergy go to their places retaining lighted candles, while the cele- brant and his ministers ascend the altar and celebrate what is called the Mass of the Presanctified. This is not a Mass in the strict sense of the word, as there is no consecration of the sacred species. The host which was consecrated in yesterday's Mass (hence the word prcsanetified) is placed on the altar, incensed, elevated (" that it may be seen by the people "), and consumed by the celebrant. It is substantially the Communion part of the Mass, beginning with the "Pater noster" which marks the end of the Canon. From the very earliest times it was the custom not to celebrate the Mass proper on Good Friday (see Nilles, II, 252, note iii). Speaking about this ceremony Duchesne (249) says, " It is merely the Communion separated from the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist properly so called. 'The details of the ceremony are not found earlier than in books of the eighth or ninth century, but the service must belong to a much earlier period. At the time w-hen synaxes without liturgy were fre- quent, the ' Mass of the Presanctified ' must have been frequent also. In the Greek Church it was celebrated every day in Lent except on Saturdays and Sundays, but in the Latin Church it was confined to Good Fri- day." At present the celebrant alone communicates, but it appears from the old Roman Ordines that for- merly all present communicated (Martene, III, 367). The omission of the Mass proper marks in the mind of the Church the deep sorrow with which she keeps the anniversary of the Sacrifice of Calvary. Good Friday is a feast of grief. A black fast, black vestments, a denuded altar, the slow and solemn chanting of the sufferings of Clirist, prayers for all those for whom He died, the unveiling and reverencing of the Crucifix, these take the place of the usual festal liturgy; while the lights in the chapel of repose and the Mass of the Presanctified remind her children that Christ is with them behind this veil of mourning. The Mass of the Presanctified is followed by the recital of vespers, and the removal of the linen cloth from the altar (" Vespers are recited without chant and the altar is denuded ").

The rubrics of the Roman Missal prescribe no further ceremonial for this day, l)ut there are laudable customs in different churches which are allowed. For exam- ple, the custom (where it exists) of carrying in proces- sion a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows is expressly permitted by decrees of the S. Cong, of Rites (n. 2375, and n. 2fi.S2); also the custom (where it exists) of