On Good Friday afternoon, the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land conduct a celebration in the Basilica of the Resurrection, known as the Funeral Procession of Christ. This celebration is not as well known as the other Easter celebrations, but it is a very moving and touching ceremony, in which the participants cannot remain indifferent to what they witness.
In effect, few persons have the possibility of watching this celebration closely, since the Holy Sepulchre Basilica is packed on Good Friday. Besides the local Christians and pilgrims, nearly all the one hundred Franciscans resident in the Holy City of Jerusalem take part in the procession.
The web-site of the Custody is therefore the most appropriate means of witnessing this celebration which permit our viewers to take a close look at the proceedings of this particular celebration (see the photo album).
The procession takes the form of the representations of the Middle Ages, inspired by the Passion of Christ, and known by the name of Mystery plays. In the same period, according to tradition, Saint Francis of Assisi had re-enacted the Nativity scene in the crib of Greccio. But if the Child Jesus in the manger arouses tenderness but no polemic feelings, Christ on the cross raises many questions to whoever witnesses the scene of Calvary.
This office or procession is, in fact, a «mimesis». It is a representation of the deposition of Jesus from the Cross, of his anointing and of his deposition in the Tomb. The «mimesis» unfolds in the very same places of the Passion in which these events took place, namely from the summit of Calvary to the edicule of the Holy Sepulchre.
The risk of this representation of these moments of the Passion is that of venerating death rather than the memorial of the death of Christ, which cannot exist without the resurrection.
The representation is not really a correct image of the Passion, but it does provide us with an image which helps us to actualise, according to what we need for our human experience, what Christ, the Son of the living God, has experienced in his own flesh during his death. In this lies all the revolutionary aspect of the Passion and all the trust which flows from faith. In his Son, God has known death in order to triumph over death. «If Christ was not risen from the dead, our faith would have been in vain» (1Cor 15,17).
During the period of the Second Council of Nicea (787), in the very midst of the iconoclast crisis, Pope Hadrian (772-795) wrote: «By means of a visible face, our spirit will be carried by a spiritual attraction towards the invisible majesty of the divinity through the contemplation of the image where is represented the flesh that the Son of God deigned to take for our salvation.
May we thus adore and praise him together while glorifying in spirit this same Redeemer for, as it is written, ‘God is Spirit’, and that is why we spiritually adore his divinity» (Letter of Hadrian I to the Emperors, in: Mansi XII, 1062AB).
In this Holy Land, in which Judaism and Islam prohibit the representations of God, the Procession of the Funeral of Christ does not mean a make-believe celebration in which we assist as though we were present in the burial of Christ, but it rather means making a memorial of the event. During this representation, we listen to the voice of Christ who whispers in our ears: «Man of no intelligence, and hard of heart in believing all that the prophets have foretold! Did you not know that the Christ had to suffer in order to enter into his glory?»
In this way, like the pilgrims of Emmaus who recognised Jesus in the breaking of bread, we also contemplate the image of Christ in the tomb, in such a way that our hearts already murmur, in the expectation of the holy day of the Resurrection: «O death, where is your victory?»
MAB
In effect, few persons have the possibility of watching this celebration closely, since the Holy Sepulchre Basilica is packed on Good Friday. Besides the local Christians and pilgrims, nearly all the one hundred Franciscans resident in the Holy City of Jerusalem take part in the procession.
The web-site of the Custody is therefore the most appropriate means of witnessing this celebration which permit our viewers to take a close look at the proceedings of this particular celebration (see the photo album).
The procession takes the form of the representations of the Middle Ages, inspired by the Passion of Christ, and known by the name of Mystery plays. In the same period, according to tradition, Saint Francis of Assisi had re-enacted the Nativity scene in the crib of Greccio. But if the Child Jesus in the manger arouses tenderness but no polemic feelings, Christ on the cross raises many questions to whoever witnesses the scene of Calvary.
This office or procession is, in fact, a «mimesis». It is a representation of the deposition of Jesus from the Cross, of his anointing and of his deposition in the Tomb. The «mimesis» unfolds in the very same places of the Passion in which these events took place, namely from the summit of Calvary to the edicule of the Holy Sepulchre.
The risk of this representation of these moments of the Passion is that of venerating death rather than the memorial of the death of Christ, which cannot exist without the resurrection.
The representation is not really a correct image of the Passion, but it does provide us with an image which helps us to actualise, according to what we need for our human experience, what Christ, the Son of the living God, has experienced in his own flesh during his death. In this lies all the revolutionary aspect of the Passion and all the trust which flows from faith. In his Son, God has known death in order to triumph over death. «If Christ was not risen from the dead, our faith would have been in vain» (1Cor 15,17).
During the period of the Second Council of Nicea (787), in the very midst of the iconoclast crisis, Pope Hadrian (772-795) wrote: «By means of a visible face, our spirit will be carried by a spiritual attraction towards the invisible majesty of the divinity through the contemplation of the image where is represented the flesh that the Son of God deigned to take for our salvation.
May we thus adore and praise him together while glorifying in spirit this same Redeemer for, as it is written, ‘God is Spirit’, and that is why we spiritually adore his divinity» (Letter of Hadrian I to the Emperors, in: Mansi XII, 1062AB).
In this Holy Land, in which Judaism and Islam prohibit the representations of God, the Procession of the Funeral of Christ does not mean a make-believe celebration in which we assist as though we were present in the burial of Christ, but it rather means making a memorial of the event. During this representation, we listen to the voice of Christ who whispers in our ears: «Man of no intelligence, and hard of heart in believing all that the prophets have foretold! Did you not know that the Christ had to suffer in order to enter into his glory?»
In this way, like the pilgrims of Emmaus who recognised Jesus in the breaking of bread, we also contemplate the image of Christ in the tomb, in such a way that our hearts already murmur, in the expectation of the holy day of the Resurrection: «O death, where is your victory?»
MAB