As of: March 28, 2024, 1:00 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
Man of the church: Pastor Georg Lindl in front of the St. Benedikt church in Gauting. © andrea jaksch
At the meeting of the Catholic Women's Association last week, Pastor Georg Lindl explained the basics of Easter - and showed why the highest Christian festival lasts four days.
Gauting – “Triduum”: This is what the early Christians called the three-day celebration of the life and death of Jesus. Why actually three, after all there are four from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday? “Can’t things happen fast enough for Catholics?” asked Pastor Georg Lindl recently at the meeting of the Catholic Women’s Association. Well, that may not be entirely logical, but Maundy Thursday is one of them, because on this day Christians commemorate the last supper of Jesus with his disciples before his death on the cross and celebrate the “Eucharist” themselves.
On Maundy Thursday today from 7 p.m., the believers celebrate the “Eucharist celebration”: Christ is ready to give himself to his disciples, according to the pastor. He refers to the account of the Gospel of John, where it is reported that Jesus washed the disciples' feet while kneeling. In Gauting, believers celebrate the Last Supper “with bread and rarely with wine” and receive communion. “It will be a celebration of joy with bells ringing and glory because Jesus is omnipresent,” said Lindl. The Olivet devotion follows at 10 p.m., based on the biblical account of Judas betraying his master to the Romans. “In a silent procession we carry the ciborium – a chalice with an offering – from the church to St. Michael’s Room, where a replica of the Mount of Olives is set up,” explains the priest.
Good Friday is marked by the life and death of Jesus. There are no candles burning in the church, the altar has been cleared, there are no flowers or altar decorations, the bells and organ are silent. The liturgy in the afternoon begins in silence: at 3 p.m., the biblical hour of Jesus' death, the priest throws himself to the ground in front of the covered cross and the congregation kneels. Nevertheless, there is no paralyzing sadness because: “Paschal hope breaks through even in the shadow of the cross.” The congregation expresses its concerns in ten major intercessions.
Holy Saturday is treated somewhat neglectfully by Catholics. “The Christian lives in the tension of death and resurrection,” says Georg Lindl.
Easter Vigil follows. “Here we celebrate the holy drama of the resurrection with the liturgical fire,” says Pastor Lindl. Only the “lumen” (light) of Christ from the individual Easter candle is distributed to the believers. Otherwise it stays pitch black. “Only after the reading for the liberation of the people of Israel is the light turned on again for the festive Gloria.” On the organ, church musician Matthias Heid plays the festive Gloria with the praise “Glory to God alone.” The congregation cheers in this way the gift of the Son of God, who overcomes death with his resurrection. Due to the time change, the Easter Vigil celebration begins on Saturday at 9:30 p.m.
The celebrations culminate in High Mass with a church choir and orchestra performing works by Antonio Vivaldi and Joseph Haydn on Sunday, March 31, at 10 a.m. Experience has shown that the church is full at this highest celebration of Christianity. What makes the pastor particularly happy is that two Gautinger boys, Jannik and Felix, eight and nine years old, are being baptized this year and are also friends with each other. The Easter Vigil used to be an outstanding baptismal date because baptism reflects the Easter events. “The person being baptized is essentially buried in the baptismal water in order to be resurrected with Christ to new life.” Will Gautingers who have left the church also be present at the Easter celebration? “Yes,” Lindl knows from experience. “Faith cannot be shaken off like a shirt.”
Lindl also devotes a few explanations to the Easter Bunny and Easter Bunny. “If you ignore food blessings, they only occur outside the church. The egg in particular is an “originally Christian custom,” because new life emerges from the externally dead egg. The hare probably became a symbol of Easter because there was an opinion that he would never sleep and would therefore wait vigilantly for the Last Day.
Christine Cless Wesle