To prepare for what Saint Augustine already called the «sacratissimum triduum crucifixi, sepulti, suscitati», we cross the door of one of the greatest Romanesque monuments in Europe, the Modena Cathedral, begun on June 9, 1099. The architect was Lanfranco, celebrated in an internal plaque as a magister «famous for his ingenuity, prepared and competent, director of the works, and ruler». Next to him we find a sculptor of the stature of Wiligelmo, to whom we owe the extraordinary Stories of Genesis now inserted in the facade of the cathedral. Lanfranco and Wiligelmo created an extraordinary synthesis between ancient culture and Lombard art. From the end of 1100 to 1300 the Campionesi or Comacini Masters, architects and sculptors, took over. We owe them the bridge that divides the interior of the cathedral into two sections. It closes the elevated presbytery area, delimited by very slender paired columns, which support an entablature almost to form an iconostasis. The balustrade of the pier, towards the naves, is formed by the ambo, where we find scenes of the Passion with a wonderful and very original Last Supper at the centre.

We will now focus only on some scenes of the work.

Holy Thursday: John 13:1-15

To introduce ourselves to the Mass In coena Domini we go to the balustrade, and in particular to the scene of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. The biblical backdrop, clearly, is John 13:4-5. The gesture of Christ, in addition to the cenacle, also refers to the rite of the washing of the feet that the bishop, on Holy Thursday, performs in his cathedral. The liturgical books call this rite mandatum or de mandato seu lotione pedum. Note, in addition to the gesture of Jesus, central in the panel, the three apostles who each hold a Gospel in their hands, to signify that the new law of love, manifested by Jesus through the washing, is the synthesis of revelation. The love of Jesus – the apostle John tells us when introducing the story of the washing – is a love “until the end, eis télos” (Jn 13:1). Eis télos has an intensive value first of all, to express the totality of love, and a temporal value, to indicate faithfulness over time. It then refers us to the fulfilment, to the fullness of a donation that has its culmination on the cross; there Jesus, before delivering the Spirit, will say: “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30). The expression, finally, also has an initiatory character: télos, in mysterious language, is in fact used in the sense of introduction to the arcane. Jesus, through his words and the gestures he makes, wants to introduce all men into the mystery of God, into the knowledge of the Father. If we now go to the Last Supper, we immediately find a rather bizarre element: Jesus does not simply offer the morsel to Judas, as John tells us, but puts it in his mouth. Most likely, there are apologetic intents here. We are in a historical climate that sees the spread of the heresy of Waldo, condemned by Lucius III in 1184, the year of the consecration of the Modena cathedral. Waldo and the Waldensians contested the validity of the sacrament when the priest who administered it was an unworthy person. To counter this erroneous thesis, we remember that Jesus had even given communion to the traitor, Judas (which is not true, of course).

If Judas, as the evangelists unanimously narrate, at the Last Supper is in the full darkness, and therefore moved by Satan, this darkness does not overcome the light and the Master, with the offer of the morsel, still invites him to return to Him. But Judas remains impervious. Furthermore, he leaves the cenacle, excluding himself from the delivery of the new commandment given by Jesus to his disciples shortly after (cf. Jn 13:34-35). But John himself reminds us of a very important thing: if it is true that Judas excludes himself from the delivery of the commandment of love, the Master has not excluded him from the original foundation of this love, signified by the washing.

Good Friday: John 18:1-19:42

We now move to the scene of the capture, where, in addition to Judas’ kiss (depicted, compared to the scene of the Last Supper, without a halo), the scene of Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus, servant of the High Priest, is immortalized (cf. John 18). Why did the evangelist focus on this detail, taken up by our sculptors? In John, nothing is by chance, not even the fact that it is specified that Peter cuts off his right ear. In the rite of consecration of the high priest, the blood of a ram was taken and the various parts of the body of the newly consecrated person were touched, including the lobe of the right ear (cf. Exodus 29:20). That Peter cuts off Malchus’ right ear means, in its symbolic significance, that the high priesthood has fallen. Already according to Levi’s testament, the Messiah would have brought a new priesthood. And in fact, Jesus inaugurates a new priesthood where goats and calves are no longer offered, but one’s obedience to God, in the offering of oneself. The Supper and the Passion are closely linked, also to remind us how the Eucharist sacramentally re-enacts the sacrifice of the cross. Jesus, rejecting the logic of Peter who takes up the sword and cuts off Malchus’ ear, refers him to the will of the Father and interprets his imminent Passion: «Put your sword back into its sheath: must I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?» (Jn 18:11). It is a bitter cup, given by the Father and at the same time accepted by the Son, to be then returned by the Son to the Father, in an extreme act of love. The chalice represents God’s love for the world, his passion of love for humanity.

Holy Saturday

After Good Friday, which is an incredible opening onto the mystery of God, the Church remains in silent prayer at the tomb of the Lord, awaiting in hope the dawn of resurrection. The Fathers often compared Holy Saturday, when Christ rests in the heart of the earth, to the seventh day of creation, when God rested from all his works. “Today you have sanctified the seventh day *
that you once blessed with rest from works: *
because you change and renew the universe, *
celebrating the Sabbath rest in the tomb, *
and you revive everything, O my Savior”,
sings the Byzantine liturgy.

The East knows a suggestive symbolism that introduces the great day of the resurrection. Still in the silence of the great Saturday, at Matins on Easter night, the priest and the faithful leave the church and stop outside in front of the closed door, which symbolizes the tomb of the Lord and death. The priest traces the sign of the cross on the door and it swings open – just like the gates of hell at the descent of Christ – and everyone enters singing into the church finally flooded with light. The Easter night, in which Christ passes from darkness to light, is at the heart of the entire liturgical year. The mystery of redemption – which we relive in every Eucharist – is the nuptial act with which Christ unites himself to humanity, making it pass with Him from death to life. His resurrection has a meaning and a power that are valid for all humanity and for the entire cosmos. The announcement of the shocking and completely unexpected fact that Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified on Golgotha, is risen – ēghérthē (Mt 28,6; cf. Lk 24,6; Mk 16,6) is the primordial formula of our faith – gives rise to the Christian adventure. Christianity is the adventure of those who place themselves in a state of “madness” (1 Cor 2:14) in the eyes of non-believers, and who from the resurrection of their Lord draw a new dimension and modality of being human.

Resurrection Sunday: John 20:1-9

We can then finally contemplate, on the slab of the ambo, the blessing Christ seated on the throne, full of majesty and glory. He is characterized by the crossed halo, the right hand in blessing, the two letters alpha and omega of the Greek alphabet and the Gospel he holds in his left hand. At the top we read this inscription in Latin: Non luce(m) cernis tam(en) hic lux me(n)te refulget, or: «You do not see a light, yet from here (from the Gospel of Christ) the Light shines in your mind».

That the slab is part of the ambo is no coincidence: is it not from the empty tomb of Christ, of which the ambo is a symbol, that the angel announces the event of the resurrection (cf. Mt 28:2)? The Church, proclaiming the Gospel, especially in the Eucharistic celebration, relives the grace of its origins and announces salvation to the entire world. He who died and rose again is «the First and the Last, and the Living One» (Rev 1:17-18). He possesses all the fullness of divine life and now communicates it to his faithful.

The Risen One who appears to his followers gives peace and blessing in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 20:19-22). We are now in the new creation inaugurated by the resurrection. We have entered the Eighth day, the day of fulfilment and new beginning, the day of eternity, the “today” in which the image of Christ returns to shine in man and humanity enters Paradise with Christ.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey