When I was young, Easter meant very little to us. The really big thing was Lent. The great time was at noon on Holy Saturday when we could eat candy and indulge in whatever else we gave up for Lent. This, this like too many religious practices over history, was an incredible distortion of the Church’s message.
Today, we have another caricature of Easter. The big day is Good Friday. For many, if not most, Easter is an afterthought in much of our popular religious practice. The point we need to understand is that we are an Easter People!!
The Church’s teaching is very clear. The Death and Resurrection are one event! We take thirteen and a half weeks to celebrate, in the most solemn and beautiful way, the central reality of our faith, the Pascal Mystery. The goal of Lent is a time of penitential preparation to enter as profoundly as possible into the mystery of the Crucified and Risen Christ. This one event includes the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. This is the event of the Triduum, the three most holy days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil/Easter. This is followed by seven weeks of the Easter Season to further ponder this great Mystery. This same event is celebrated and experienced in every Mass.
These thirteen and half weeks are a meaningful portion of the entire Church year. The goal is much more than to recall this story. It goes far beyond a history lesson. We do not repeat history. We celebrate the Mystery and in the celebration we are present to the Mystery, the one and singular and historical event. The power of the Spirit in the Church makes us present to the saving event, the Pascal Mystery.
Here is the bottom line of all this material. The Church understands the Triduum, and the liturgy in general, in this way. It is not a reenactment. It is not simply a telling of the story no matter how solemn.
The celebration is the power and presence of God’s saving grace coming into our lives here and now. This one saving event is not broken into parts. It is the Mystery of the saving action of God in Jesus Christ. We are entering into the deepest reality of our life. We are experiencing. here and now in our worship, the presence of the saving love. It is calling us to eternal life right in this present moment. When we receive communion the minister does not say this is a remembrance of the Body of Christ. The words state the reality. This is the Body of Christ!
In the three holy days of the Triduum, we have the pinnacle of all the most sacred events in our liturgy. This is the most hallowed time to celebrate, and in the celebration not only recall, but be present to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what liturgy does. It brings us into the presence of the Pascal Mystery that we celebrate. We do not repeat it. We enter into the one most singular event. This is why we are Easter People! We long to encounter not only the crucified Christ but the glorious Alleluia of the Easter victory of good over evil, of life over death! It is our invitation to life eternal.
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