I have reason for a jubilant mood at this time, because as of this week Wednesday, April 25, we've reached the midpoint of Easter Season 2018. At the end of this week, on Saturday, April 28, I mark 27 years since the Sunday my parents took me to St. Cornelius Parish in Chicago, and accompanied by my family, I died to myself and rose to new Life in Christ in the waters of baptism. I recognize that the Paschal Mystery of Christ's Death and Resurrection is at the heart of my identity because it is the reason for the faith I hold dear.
That is why it means so much for me to participate in the special liturgies of the Triduum each year, being at Church from Maundy Thursday through Resurrection Sunday. And it's not just something I observe as a spectator: These liturgies bring alive anew the Paschal Mystery within me.
As I told my RE students at the beginning of Lent, the purpose of our Lenten journey is leading us toward the Triduum. That came to mind on Palm Sunday, when, during the opening procession at Mass, the celebrant spoke words about how we've spent Lent engaging in acts of penance and charity, with its culmination of entering with Jesus into Jerusalem, where He experienced His Passion.
With Palm Sunday, my anticipation grew as the time drew onward toward the Triduum. I went to Maundy Thursday Mass fully aware of momentous occasions at hand. This day connects with the Jewish celebration of Passover, and there's a custom at a Seder meal for a child to ask an adult why this night is different from all others. Truly on that Thursday, I had this sense of how this night is different from all others as we began the annual celebration of the Paschal Mystery, which was even reason for me to change my usual work schedule on that Holy Week.
The opening hymn at Maundy Thursday Mass, "Glory in the Cross", for me always captures so richly the meaning behind our Triduum observance, and so it serves as a fitting way to commence the Triduum as we acclaim Christ, Who alone is our Salvation.
A major theme of Maundy Thursday is the idea that Jesus Christ instituted the New Covenant, which we experience on a regular basis in the Eucharist at Mass, in the context of demonstrating to us the Father's Love. It is love in action, as we give of ourselves to others. Time and again during that Mass, I couldn't help but think about how I've poured out myself to my RE students, serving them as I help them grow in their own faith.
It is so special to attend Maundy Thursday Mass as a way of commemorating the anniversary of the institution of the Eucharist, which is the heart of the Mass, as a way to remember what Christ did for us, similar to how the Jewish people celebrate Passover to remember what God did in delivering their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.
One of the major highlights of that Mass for me is the end when the leftover consecrated Body of Christ is carried in solemn procession to the side tabernacle at Mary's altar, accompanied by the wondrous song of "Pange Lingua". The lyrics of this ancient hymn speak so powerfully to acclaiming and hailing Christ Who offered Himself for us, and it's so powerful to hear those words that it often makes me emotional. After the end of the procession, the stillness of the Church allows us to continue to behold the real Presence of Christ offered to us time after time in the Blessed Sacrament.
The next day, on Cross Friday, even while I was at work, I sought to keep aware of the solemn nature of the occasion. I attended the evening liturgy at Ascension, which carried a sense of heaviness. But we can't experience the joys of the Resurrection, celebrating Christ's rising from the dead, if He didn't die first. And there is much reason to honor Christ's death because it is the reason that we are freed from sin.
I had the opportunity to serve as a lector at the Cross Friday liturgy: I read the first portion of the Passion Narrative according to the Gospel of St. John. This Gospel's account emphasizes the idea that Christ was fully in control of what happened to Him during His sufferings and death. Furthermore, He was fully aware that in suffering and dying, He was fulfilling the purpose for which God sent Him into the world. That is why there is no mention of His agony in the Garden. And when Judas arrives with a band of soldiers to arrest Jesus, He goes out to meet them, and when they say they seek Jesus of Nazareth, He declared, "I AM." Later, when Pilate questioned Him, Jesus continues to demonstrate His control of what is happening, and declares His purpose for being born, to be a King, and to testify to the Truth.
The somber nature of this liturgy is especially evident in the solemn intercessions offered after the homily.
And another Triduum highlight is the Veneration of the Cross, which is a way to embrace the essential symbol of our faith and by reverencing it, to honor and acknowledge the death of Jesus.
The next morning, on Holy Saturday, I went to Church for Morning Prayer. Toward the end, we gathered around the altar to offer our intercessions, and then to lay hands in blessing on the Elect and those making ready to receive the Sacraments of Initiation. It was so wondrous to process in a circle around the altar in the quiet stillness awaiting our turn to bless them.
Once Morning Prayer ended, it was time to make the church beautiful for the Feast of all Feasts, the Bride bedecked for the Groom.
It was a rich action when I took the wooden Cross, positioned on the altar the evening before, and carried it to the back of the Church--with someone remarking that I was carrying my cross--where I then adorned it with Easter beauty, which included a wreath with brightly colored ribbons along with flowers and brightly-colored cloths at its base. I also helped with banners and moved flowers into position on the various altars. And the Pastoral Associate, Mary Catherine, also recruited my help in setting up the changing stations for the five individuals who would be baptized that night, so they would have a private space to change from their baptismal gowns to their gowns of the newly initiated. I was glad to help get something ready that would be part of their experience that night.
As the time drew near for me to eventually return home, Mary Catherine and I got into a conversation about the richness of the Triduum liturgies, and how many incredible, and emotional, moments included in them.
After going home and doing many and various things, I was back at Church for the great and wondrous Holy Saturday Easter Vigil. As I went into Church, I thought that although I had just been there earlier that day, it felt like a totally different day, as the time I was there in the morning seemed so removed from being there in the evening, with the mood of anticipation for celebrating the most significant moment of human history and of our faith.
The vigil contains quite an array of sensory symbols, starting with the fire out in front of Church, from which is lit the Paschal Candle. The words the celebrant prays at the fire already anticipates the glory of Christ Who triumphed. We continue in that spirit as the Paschal Candle is processed into Church and the candlelight is distributed, burning ever more brightly even though spread out.
And how wondrous it is to hear the Exultet, with so many incredible images in the lyrics that speak to how God sought to deliver His people, which gives us reason to celebrate.
That theme continues into the Liturgy of the Word. Even as that part of the Mass progresses toward the Gospel account of the Resurrection, as I sat there listening to the other readings, I realized that God was already at work as history progressed toward the Resurrection. God created people to be a special part of His creation, and that's why He went to such great lengths to make a way for us to be saved. It makes me think about the RE class early on in March when I told my students that while sin has wrecked our relationship with God, He looks at each one of us and says that we are worth fixing.
The Epistle Reading from Romans 6 emphasizes so marvelously the idea of how we participate in the Paschal Mystery: As God's people, we join with Christ in dying to ourselves in baptism, and then rising to newness of Life in Him, living His glorious new Life--something I shared with my students a week and a half later when we were at the baptismal font while touring the Church. And the scene is set so well with the turning on of many lights in the Church right before the Epistle reading, as the Gloria starts.
And how glorious it is when the silent pause after the reading from Romans is broken by the ringing of the church bells, followed by the illuminating of the remainder of the Church's lights, and David Anderson leads us in a stepped Alleluia, giving way to an incredibly joyful singing of the Alleluia acclamation with the words of Psalm 118 while the Gospel book goes in procession all throughout the Church. The glorious singing of that Alleluia, suppressed for the Lenten period, truly befits the great news heralded in the Gospel account of the women encountering the reality of the Resurrection at the Empty Tomb.
Father Hurlbert masterfully emphasized what the Paschal Mystery is about when he mentioned that the death of Jesus saves us from sin and saves us for a relationship with God that lasts into Eternity. There's a sense in that idea that we have a purpose that is realized by being brought into a relationship with God, just as we die with Christ to our sins, and then rise into His New Life. And it's not a Life we wait to experience after death: It's a newness of Life that brings us fully alive even now in this life on Earth.
That's what makes it so special to celebrate baptisms and the initiation sacraments at the Easter Vigil, to see individuals experiencing the Paschal Mystery for themselves for the first time. This year, we had quite a number of individuals be baptized, along with some others completing their initiation into the Church. And we who are already initiated are not just left to be spectators, as we process to the font to renew our own baptismal promises, as part of the process of constantly growing and being renewed in our relationship with God.
And then there's the Eucharist, which is always a special moment after having recalled the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by which His living, real presence is manifest to us in a special way, in the Sacrament of the Altar. During communion, the hymn "Joyous Cup" is sung, with lyrics based on the Exultet. It includes the words, "O happy fault, O needful sin", as we recalled the wondrous redemption God won for us by giving to us so great a Savior and Redeemer to free us from sin.
After that song finished, we sang, "Be not afraid". I was a Eucharistic minister of the plate, and in my position, I was facing the choir. I saw exuberant smiles break out on the faces of some of those in the choir, smiles that genuinely spoke to the joyful reality that Chris is truly Risen. What a moment it was to share that feeling of joy with those gathered to celebrate the victory of the Resurrection on this night. (I also had a "front row seat" to the new initiates as they received First Holy Communion, to see them embrace and take in Christ's presence.)
We covered much ground in a rather quick time frame, finishing in about 2 1/2 hours, which is really something given the numerous baptisms. As has happened in the past, we finished with "Christ the Lord is Risen", set to an African rhythm, a great spirited song to send us out into the night in jubilation.
And that spirit of jubilation was certainly present the next day on Resurrection Sunday, as we celebrated the great triumph of Christ over death--and that is no joke. The mood on this Sunday certainly evokes a strong sense of turnaround from the serious nature of Lent and the heaviness of Cross Friday just two days before when we honored the salvific death of Jesus Christ.
Mass was pretty glorious that morning, with an immense throng gathered in Church, and plenty of standees in the back, near where I was. Even though it was a day with winter-like temperatures, the beautiful decorations of bright-colored ribbons and colorful flowers helped set the tone for a spring-like occasion. And in the opening hymn, "Jesus Christ is Risen Today", there are lyrics, "Who did once upon the Cross...Suffer to redeem our loss..." As I muse over those words, it's incredible to think that we can sing of the Cross, once regarded as hideous, now as something glorious because it was the precursor for the triumph of the Resurrection.
In the readings, I noticed a couple of important themes that focus us beyond the celebration at hand on this glorious day: Because Christ lives, we do, too, and we look upward toward Heaven, which is our destiny now because of the Resurrection. And as people bound for Heaven, we are called now, as witnesses specially chosen by God, to proclaim this new reality.
I sat there in Church during Mass basking in the glow of this Day Above all other Days. It was amazing to think we had finally come to this pinnacle, the Feast that gives us reason for having life, faith, and the Church community of God's people, the Body of Christ. But the celebration of the Resurrection is so great, and I sensed that it's too great to contain within a single day, even the most important day of the liturgical year, which is part of the point: The celebration we have this day is meant to flow forth into, and give meaning to, all the other days of the year, as we continue to rejoice in the reality of Jesus Christ, Who rose from the dead and lives forever.
I was reading the reflection in the Little Black Book on Holy Saturday, which talked about how we live in the newness of Life now, because, as I see it, we have the hope that motivates us to live anew because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So I go forth from the High Holy Days of the Paschal Triduum into these 50 Days of Easter Season and beyond in celebration by living the newness of Life which is mine to live right now.
Note: Here are links to my Triduum reflections for 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014. The 2014 reflection includes a full list of my Triduum highlights.
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