On Holy Wednesday, on the eve of the Easter Triduum, the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land make a stop at Gethsemane and the Holy Sepulchre to meditate on the Passion of Christ, who spilled his blood to save the world.
On Wednesday 16 April, a Solemn Mass – presided over by the Custodial Vicar, Fra Ibrahim Faltas – was celebrated with the singing of the “Passion according to Luke.” It is the only Gospel in which the episode of sweating blood is told.
After that, the friars reached the Holy Sepulchre in a procession, to venerate the Column of Flagellation.
The Basilica of the Agony (or of the Nations) at Gethsemane is the place par excellence linked to the memory of the Blood of Christ. It was here that he lived through his agony in prayer before being handed over to the guards and start his Passion.
The spur of rock which today is incorporated inside the basilica commemorates the episode told in the Gospel according to Luke: “He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground” (Luke 22,44).
In the second half of the morning, friars and faithful venerated the Column of the Flagellation in the Holy Sepulchre. It is a relic because the blood spilt by Jesus as he was being scourged stained it.
At the heart of the celebration at Gethsemane was the singing of the “Passion according to Luke.” After reading the verse of the sweating of the blood, the cantor-chronicler kissed the rock of the Agony, at the foot of the altar.
One characteristic of the liturgy in Jerusalem is that of proclaiming all the Gospels of the Passion during Holy Week, through different peregrinations, in particular at the Holy Sepulchre, the Flagellation and Gethsemane.
After the celebration at Gethsemane, the friars and the faithful went to the Holy Sepulchre for the veneration of the Column of the Flagellation, in the Chapel of the Apparition (until the 14th century it was at the Cenacle and veneration took place at dawn on Good Friday).
After the singing of “Salve, columna nobilis” everyone present went up, one by one, to kiss the column.
Marinella Bandini
