Reflection on the Paschal Triduum
[on the holiest days of the Catholic liturgical year]
Today is Holy Thursday. This evening, as the Mass of the Lord’s Supper begins, Lent ends and the great Paschal Triduum or Easter Triduum begins.
The three days of the Holy Triduum—from the start of Mass on Holy Thursday evening to Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday—tower over the whole liturgical year. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side of this source [the Triduum], the year is transfigured by the liturgy. . . . The economy of salvation is at work within the framework of time, but since its fulfillment in the Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is anticipated “as a foretaste,” and the kingdom of God enters into our time.
Jesus’ death and resurrection transforms everything.
Before, death was final. Now it has an expiration date, known to God alone.
Before, God’s people worshiped on the seventh day, the Sabbath, in honor of the completion of God’s work of creation. Now every week we worship on the first day, the Lord’s Day, celebrating the beginning of God’s new creation. Every Sunday is a mini-Easter. Every Sunday, week in and week out, we celebrate the greatest wonder ever to occur in material terms, the ultimate triumph of the human body over death.
The Easter Triduum is the climax to a story that is told in the liturgy throughout the entire liturgical year: a story with God as its author, the story of salvation—of salvation history, beginning with the creation of the universe, the creation of man in God’s image, the tragedy of sin and death, and the glory of God’s plan to redeem the world, to set the world free from sin and death.
That’s the story we retell every year, from Advent to Christmas season, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week and the great climax, the Easter Triduum, and on into Easter season, and finally from Pentecost to the finale, the Solemnity of Christ the King.
It’s a story, but isn’t just a story. I don’t mean only that it’s true! I mean that the telling of this story in our worship, throughout the year, is more than just a telling or acting out of past events. Pope Paul VI, who reorganized and reformed the liturgical year in 1969, said in that document that
the unfolding of the liturgical year is not just a commemoration of the actions by which Jesus Christ…has brought about our salvation. Nor…is this unfolding merely a commemoration of past events so that the faithful, even the more simple, might be instructed and nourished by meditating on them. …the celebration of the liturgical year “enjoys a sacramental force and a particular efficaciousness to nourish the Christian life.”
Again, Pope Pius XII writes that the liturgical year
is not a cold and lifeless representation of the events of the past, or a simple and bare record of a former age. It is rather Christ himself who is ever living in his Church. Here he continues that journey of immense mercy which he lovingly began in his mortal life, going about doing good, with the design of bringing men to know his mysteries and in a way live by them. These mysteries are ever present and active not in a vague and uncertain way as some modern writers hold, but in the way that Catholic doctrine teaches us. According to the Doctors of the Church, they are shining examples of Christian perfection, as well as sources of divine grace, due to the merit and prayers of Christ; they still influence us because each mystery brings its own special grace for our salvation..
Tonight, on Holy Thursday, at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood. Tomorrow, on Good Friday, we commemorate our Lord’s Passion, crucifixion, death and burial. On Holy Saturday, we watch and wait and finally, in the Easter Vigil and in the Easter Sunday liturgy, we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection.
These three events in our Lord’s life—the Last Supper, the crucifixion and the resurrection—form a single redemptive act, which we call the Paschal Mystery. In just the same way, “Though chronologically three days,” the three days of the Paschal Triduum “are liturgically one day unfolding for us the unity of Christ’s Paschal Mystery.” Likewise, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil Mass form in a way a single, extended liturgical celebration, not three different liturgies.
Notably, this threefold celebration begins and ends with a single set of introductory rites (on Holy Thursday) and concluding rites (on Easter Saturday, or, if the Mass goes long enough, very early Easter Sunday morning). That is, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday opens with the usual introductory rites (the sign of the cross, “The Lord be with you,” etc.), but ends without concluding rites (no “The Lord be with you,” no “The Mass is ended,” no “Thanks be to God”). The Blessed Sacrament is reposed, and the ministers and the people leave in absolute silence, without even a recessional hymn. We are left in a state of anticipation, of waiting and watching.
On Good Friday, the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion begins and ends, as it were, in medias res, in silence, with no introductory or concluding rites. All day Saturday we are left in that waiting and watching state. Finally, the Easter Vigil Mass begins in medias res, without the introductory rites. Only at the end of the Easter Vigil are the concluding rites completed.
Catholic readers, if you can possibly participate in all three—that is, in the entire liturgical celebration of the Paschal Mystery—it is a great blessing do to so. Above all, participate in the Easter Vigil. Going to Mass on Easter morning is good too, but the Easter Vigil is the “greatest and most noble of all solemnities,” according to the Roman Missal. Each of these celebrations is unique, and each adds something unique to the celebration of the Paschal Mystery.
Only on Holy Thursday will we celebrate that one non-sacramental sign given by the Lord for us to imitate, the washing of feet, the pattern of service and charity that is to mark the whole of Christian life. (This mandate, or mandatum, is probably the origin of the traditional term “Maundy Thursday.”)
Only on Holy Thursday will we hear institution narrative recalled, so to speak, in the present tense: “On the day before he was to suffer for our salvation and the salvation of all—that is, today—he took bread in his holy and venerable hands…”
Only on Good Friday will we adore the Holy Cross, not just in word or thought, but touching and kissing it.
Only on Good Friday will we offer the great Solemn Intercessions — for the Church, for the pope; for all the faithful; for catechumens (i.e., those who are not yet Catholic but about to be); for non-Catholic Christians; for the Jewish people; for “those who do not believe in Christ” (i.e., most notably Muslims); for “those who do not believe in God” (atheists and agnostics); for those in public office; and for those in tribulation. (I can’t help thinking of this as a kind of downward spiral, although I suspect “those in public office” should be at the very end, not next to last.)
The Service of Light, with the procession of fire and installation of the Easter Candle, is unique to the Easter Vigil.
The Service of Light also includes the blessing of the baptismal waters. Ideally there will later be baptisms celebrated and/or non-Catholic Christians received into full communion.
Only in the Easter Vigil will you hear the Easter Proclamation, the Exsultet (ideally chanted by a deacon).
Only in the Easter Vigil will you hear the sweep of salvation history surveyed in readings from Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Baruch, Ezekiel, Romans, the Gospel, and of course the Psalms. (There should be at least three Old Testament readings, ideally seven, and two New Testament readings, with psalms interspersed. It takes a long time because it’s important!)
In the liturgical celebrations of this week, we don’t simply recall the great events at the founding of our faith. The risen Jesus meets us in our celebration of his Paschal Mystery — if we open ourselves to him. I leave you with a thought from Pope Francis from his General Audience for Holy Week of 2015:
Dear brothers and sisters, during these days of the Holy Triduum let us not limit ourselves to commemorating the passion of the Lord, but let us enter into the mystery, making his feelings and thoughts our own, as the Apostle Paul invites us to do: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5). Then ours will be a ‘Happy Easter’.”