I often have that idea in my mind when I go to Church on Sundays, or even other days during the week, as I am presenting myself before the Lord to honor Him for the occasion at hand. That sense of my presence before God speaks to my attendance at Triduum liturgies for 2021, which ties so closely into the Jewish Feast of Passover.
Starting when I walked into Church for Palm Sunday Mass on March 28, it felt so good to be back inside Church for these high holy days of the liturgical year, gathering again after such large gatherings for the Triduum were unavailable in 2020. As I look back at what was unavailable to us then, I realize that the meaning of these days is so deep that it still stood even in the midst of those challenging circumstances. I also take comfort in how these holy days are observed yearly so that we have the chance to come back to them, and we find new meaning year after year.
There is something very exuberant about the start of Palm Sunday Mass, as we hold our palms and recall the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, with the grand music to set the tone. As the liturgy continued into the Passion narrative, I recognized that throughout it all, Jesus continued to assert His Kingship, although it would happen in the midst of great suffering, culminating in His death, which caused the centurion to declare He was the Son of God.
Indeed, these Holy Week and Triduum days are all about embracing the reality that Jesus Christ alone is the Source of our Salvation. That idea was embedded well in the entrance song at Maundy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper, that we praise and adore Christ forever because of how He gave Himself for us, as part of a New Covenant that He established in the midst of the Passover celebration of God's deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt.
And in pouring Himself out for our salvation, we are called to pour out ourselves for others in the same way. During the time we had in the midst of Mass to reflect when, at the altar, select congregants poured water into basins, I thought about how I've answered the call to give of myself in Religious Education class for my students.
I felt the power of the immensity of Christ's sacrifice when Mass concluded with the hymn "Pange Lingua". It's a soul-stirring scene as the lyrics draw us into rendering high praise to our Savior Who gave Himself totally for us. That feeling lingered after Mass, and I felt the urge to linger at Church, even if the usual nightly adoration wasn't happening at Ascension.
The next day, on Passion Friday, I sought to draw myself into the Passion of Christ by attending Stations of the Cross prayer at St. Bernardine Parish. There's an intensity to this prayer as so much is packed into each of the Stations as we recall what Christ did for us, and how it compels a response from us. I had participated in Stations of the Cross a week prior, right before Holy Week, at St. Odilo, and the prayers there, based on the writings of St. Alphonsus, captured that same sense of intensity in many words giving us much to ponder regarding Christ's Passion. The Stations we prayed at St. Bernardine were driven by lots of Scripture passages.
Later that day, I attended the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion at Ascension. I proclaimed the opening part of the Passion Narrative according to St. John. This Gospel emphasizes how Christ was fully aware of His purpose in obedience to the Father's will and accepted it fully. So the opening scene doesn't mention His agony in Gethsemane, but says Christ went out to meet those seeking to arrest Him, and they even fall back at one point.
Later in the liturgy, even with the modification, the Veneration of the Cross was very profound, as we processed to the altar to acknowledge, with gestures, that upon the Cross, Christ became the Source of our Salvation.
Signs of lovely spring weather were taking hold the next morning as I walked to Church, and there, I assisted with the Easter Season decorations. I couldn't help but think about Jim Wojcik, former Ascension Parish staff member, who dearly loved being at Church, and did so much good work overseeing the decorations. As we collaborated in a sense of community in the decorations, we made the Church look splendid for the Great Feast of Feasts.
Even with all I had going on throughout the rest of the day, I still was in a sort of reflective mood about what I had experienced during Lent, and how it would culminate in the night to come.
The scene was set as I walked into a darkened Church that evening, which magnified the splendor of the Paschal Candle as it was processed forth to the front of church. Then came the magnificent Exultet. It's notable that we would recall how God has been at work throughout history to save His people as we celebrate the most important event of His work of salvation. Notably, at Ascension, parts of the Exultet involve the audience participation with chants that break in the flow of the Exultet, like "This is our Passover Feast!" Indeed, the celebration of Passover was made new in Christ our Savior, an idea that is very much part of the Triduum.
And then we went in-depth with some of those stories, like the Creation account in Genesis, and God's deliverance of the Hebrews through the waters of the Red Sea, followed by the exuberant psalm hymn, "I Will Sing".
The reading from Romans started me thinking about what the Triduum means, going back to something I heard years ago: We don't just stand on the sidelines as Christ goes through the events of His Passion and Resurrection. We join with Him in them, as we live His Risen Life. Indeed, we are tied into the Paschal Mystery, which transforms us.
Following the epistle reading from Romans, David Anderson led the stepped Alleluia, which set the tone for another truly soul-stirring scene. In singing the Alleluia, I came to recognize anew that Christ has truly risen. His Resurrection is better than a fairy tale, because He has truly triumphed, and demonstrates God has power over all that is wrong in the world. Even as we await the final defeat of it all, we have hope that He has secured the victory. It's a meaningful gesture that the Gospel reader, Father Bob, carried the Gospel book open through an extended procession, emphasizing this event as central to our faith. During the procession, we sang the Alleluia with the words of Psalm 118, proclaiming how God's love endures forever, demonstrated so powerfully in the Resurrection.
The exuberant feel continued for the rest of Mass, especially with the chant "Be Not Afraid, Sing out for Joy!" and then the concluding hymn "Jesus Christ is Risen Today". I swelled with the celebratory spirit as I chatted with people following the end of Mass and then headed home, eating a few treats before bedding down for the night.
The splendor of the Resurrection was very much present the next morning when I attended 10 AM Mass, upheld even more palpably by the lovely spring weather, which became quite warm later in the day. The church looked marvelous in the morning light. One part of the prayers on Resurrection Sunday and throughout the Easter Season that stands out is in the Eucharistic Prayer, when the priest says this season is a time to be filled with great joy and laud God even more gloriously because Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed. We truly rejoice because Christ, once dead, is now alive forever and ever, in a more glorious way. And we know that His new Life is in us who have joined Him in baptism.
Notably, later in the day, I gathered with family, and we had quite a feast at my Uncle Bernie's house, which included lamb. Besides the meal, it was a great joy to have a larger family gathering, with both my grandmas present, another sign of hope that we're moving closer to the end of this pandemic. Indeed, hope springs eternal deep within us, as we yearn for an end of all that is wrong in the world, and the triumph of all that is good.
I sat in the north transept of Church, from my seat, I was in full view of the Paschal Candle. Right behind it, from my perspective, I saw a stained glass window image of the victorious Lamb of God. And I thought about how what I saw speaks to a major theme of this occasion: Christ is truly victorious, and we can rejoice in that victory. By the Resurrection of Christ, He demonstrated that He is more powerful than death, sin, and evil, because none of that could hold Him down. Furthermore, He took the Cross, once considered an ignominious symbol, and transformed it into a powerful symbol of redemption. When we weren't able to overcome our defeats, God came in and did it so gloriously.
As people of faith, we live in this victory day by day. Even as we tread the path to Eternity that God has won for us by the Resurrection, we have the deep joy of this victory even now.
Alleluia!
P.S. You can read my previous Triduum reflections for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. The 2014 reflection has a list of my favorite moments during the Triduum liturgies.
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