What we celebrate in a most profound way through our liturgies over the next few days is the Paschal Mystery lived out by our Savior Jesus and which we all share in through each of our own lives.
With the evening celebration of Eucharist on Holy Thursday, Lent ends and the Triduum begins. In the course of three days we will celebrate the one Paschal Mystery event. The Triduum has us enter into the event of Jesus' life, suffering, death and victorious resurrection. Each of the days help us focus in on the different aspects of that one Paschal Mystery. Holy Thursday, which commemorates the Last Supper, also remembers Jesus' command for us all to lovingly serve one another through the practice of the priest washing the feet of parishioners. Through this liturgical celebration we remember the center of Jesus' life which was His ministry of love and service.
Good Friday directs our attention and meditation to the aspect of Christ's suffering and ultimate death which won for us eternal salvation. To assist us in our prayer on this day, the Church will be open to all parishioners from midnight until the time of morning prayer, as we contemplate more deeply what Christ's death would have meant had He not risen from the dead. How different would your life been had our Savior's life ended with his crucifixion?
During the day on Holy Saturday we continue to focus on Jesus' death as we remember Him buried in the tomb, but, come the time of the Easter Vigil in the evening, our attention dramatically shifts to the aspect of Jesus' resurrection and the new life which enters our lives as a result.
As the Triduum calls us to deeply enter into the Paschal Mystery, we are called to recognize how we experience this Mystery daily in our own lives. The real mystery of it all is how can we experience suffering, quite often as a result of our loving and serving others, and subsequently experience new life? It's important to realize that in all of our sufferings and hardships we are to experience the reality of the Resurrection as well. The Paschal Mystery is one event and it never ends in the Cross, it always ends with the victory of the Resurrection!
Peace,
Deacon Mike