April 1, 2021
At this writing, we find ourselves on the precipice of the second most unusual Pascal Triduum, the great three days marking of our Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering, passion, death, and ultimate resurrection. For this is the second time that we are making this journey together, and yet apart. You would think that we would be old hands at this now, doing both liturgy, and zoom, together; and yet, all the anxieties that precede each and every Holy Week, each and every year, those same anxieties and fears find their way into this one as well. This year refuses to be exceptional.
In all of my years of church work, I have yet to see Easter preparation that does not involve some necessary amount of anxiety, like the birth pangs of labor. Will the liturgies all be planned and executed correctly? Will the music be right? Will the flowers look just so? Has all of the brass been polished and prepared and readied? Are there adequate service leaflets for all those who will come? Now all those things are important, and in the name of radical, welcoming hospitality, we want to offer our very best worship to God.
But I find myself wondering, after all these years, if that anxiety has something more to say about each of us, and our approach to the Pascal mystery, and God’s unrelenting, abiding love for us, because of us AND in spite of us, within that mystery. For this journey of Lent, and now the final descent into the three days’ Triduum is indeed a journey into self – self-reflection and self-discovery, and the resulting “so-what” of what does that mean, what do I mean, what do we mean together, as St. Thomas the Apostle, in light of this journey?
Fr. Andy McCarthy penned a wonderful meditation for Holy Saturday, that day when we stand between death and life, not knowing, and yet knowing:
“For me (Fr. Andy), the suffering, fear, and anger are something we deal with daily, but death is a shock to the whole routine of our life – our expectation – and it is a non-negotiable. Saturday is about we disciples hiding, fearful, running away, and using terms such as “he passed away.” Yet death can be (AND IS) a powerful reality for growth, recommitment to life, and possible changes to what we choose to do with the lives with which we are gifted. Of course we should grieve, for we choose to love; but once we have healed the pain we may be able to see how God’s choice to allow for death can profoundly deepen our hope in life and our knowledge of God’s love for us.”
One of the great gifts of the Pascal Triduum is that the “life-death-life” process is slowed down and marked in the most deliberate and punctual of ways so that we can plumb the depths and scale the heights of God’s love, absorbing the meaning and (yes) the beauty of each and every step of the journey.
I bid each one the services from Maundy Thursday through Easter to you. Let’s “Triduum” together. We will be so much the richer because of it!
Yours in the mystery,
Fr. Christopher+
