I love holy week and it's one of my favorite times of the
year in the Catholic Church. I’ve always gone to Holy Thursday mass and the
Good Friday service too. This holy week
has exceeded all other holy weeks in the amount of services and time spent in
church. I’ll begin with Palm Sunday. In
the community that I live in there is one sister who does not speak the local
native language of Igbo. At the local
parish all masses are in Igbo, which I obviously do not speak. On Palm Sunday this sister decided to drive
further into the city, so that we could go to the one parish where mass is done
in English. I was very grateful for this, as it’s hard to fully participate in
mass when you don’t always know what’s going on. The Palm Sunday service at this parish was
almost identical to the one I am used to attending at home. We began in the
parking lot and did the procession into the church where mass continued as
normal.
Holy week continued on Monday with a special mass at the
cathedral. The mass was to honor the bishop in the Enugu diocese. It was in Igbo, so other than the occasional
translation from one of the sisters I didn’t understand what was being
said. The mass was done outside in a
very large area probably the size of a football field. It was filled with
people and probably a hundred priests. The mass was pretty long. There was lots
of singing and the homily (when the bishop speaks) lasted for much longer than
the average American homily. After mass people from different parts of the
diocese and different organizations within the various churches presented the
bishop with gifts. He was presented with gifts ranging from cases of water, to
yams, to rice, to large live animals. I’ve never seen anything like it. We got to leave at the beginning of the gift
presentation for a while to visit one of the nearby markets, which I’ll talk
about in a different post. It was a nice
little break from all the sitting. In total I think we were there about five
hours. There was a lunch served to all the people at the end and Kaitlin and I
were introduced to the bishop. Do we
have a celebration for the bishop like this in the states? If we do I’ve never
heard of it.
We continued Holy Week on Wednesday with a morning of quiet
reflection. We drove to a church compound I had not yet been to and sat outside
in silence reading and reflecting for the morning. I enjoyed this. It was nice
to go somewhere new and enjoy some time resting and reflecting under a nice
shady tree. There were a few more bugs than I would like, but that’s a story
for a different post.
Holy Thursday began with mass at the cathedral again. This
mass is known as the Chrism Mass. Like
Monday there were hundreds of people from all over the diocese and several
hundred priests. The priests were there to renew their vows. It was also in Igbo, but the sisters did have
a missal so I could read and follow along.
This mass ended with lunch for all the sisters and priests present. Holy Thursday continued in the evening with
the traditional Holy Thursday mass. They did the traditional washing of the
disciples’ feet. Unlike my church at home, all of the people chosen to have
their feet washed were men. After the service there was 24-hour adoration. The
sisters and about a hundred other people had the first hour, which was good for
me because I don’t think I would have been able to participate in the middle of
the night.
Good Friday began in the afternoon with the Stations of the
Cross. The church acted out the Stations.
It was pretty impressive. We began in
the church with Jesus in the garden right before he is handed over by
Judas. It was the most realistic
production of the passion I have ever seen in person. There was fake blood and
the guards very believably beat the man playing Jesus. The stations actually
started outside and continued around the block. Unfortunately there were so
many people that I couldn’t see many of the stations and since it wasn’t in
English I couldn’t understand anything being said. When we returned to the compound they put the
man playing Jesus on the cross and had two other men on crosses to each side.
At this point Jesus was covered in the fake blood and looked as exhausted as I
would imagine Jesus would have been. Kaitlin and I had been warned by the U.S.
Embassy in an email that we should be extra cautious during Holy Week, because
it could be a potential time for terrorists against Christianity to attack.
Well, after Jesus was hung on the cross there was a small explosion sound and
smoke coming from right behind the compound wall. I jumped and thought for a
split second we were being attacked. A little ridiculous I know, but no one had
warned us that gunfire would be used to make the sound of thunder. So if you’re
ever in Nigeria for the acting out of the Stations of the Cross, don’t panic
when you here a small explosion. However I think in the future a drum might be
more appropriate. Good Friday continued
with the typical service and veneration of the cross.
On Saturday I attended the vigil mass, which for those of
you that know me well you will understand that is quite an accomplishment for
me to stay up past a 11p.m. The vigil started at 10p.m. with the lighting of
the candles. It continued with what I think was a pretty traditional Easter
vigil. I have actually never been to an Easter vigil service that I can
remember, so I don’t have much to compare it to. The one thing I’m pretty
certain does not occur at home is dancing. There was so much dancing! People
were dancing in the aisles, in the pews, and on the stage. The singing and
dancing ended around 2 a.m. and to my surprise I managed to make it through the
entire service without falling asleep. It was definitely a celebration and
something I will not forget.
Happy Easter!
