Year Faith

of
2012-2013
24 March 2013

THE HOLY TRIDUUM: THREE DAYS/ONE CELEBRATION

Who wants to learn some Latin? Do you know what the word Triduum means? Tri means three, like tricycle or triangle, and duum means days. So, Triduum means three days! And, not just any three days, but three specific days Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, leading us into Easter Sunday and the Resurrection. All three days together make up the one celebration of the Triduum, but we celebrate something different on each day something historical and something spiritual. Holy Thursday We celebrate the Last Supper, a meal that actually occurred. The meal Jesus shared with his Apostles the night before He died for us. This was not just any meal. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted two things the Eucharist and the Priesthood. At the Holy Thursday Mass we all remember the first time Christ gave us His Body and Blood to receive, and the priests, in a special way, remember their own call to the priesthood, thanking God for the past year and asking for blessings for the year to come. Good Friday We remember Christs passion and death. These are events that happened, not simply stories. It is important to remember and know that Christ was really whipped for our sins, really carried His cross for you and for me, and was truly nailed to a cross and died so that we could receive the Fathers mercy and one day be with Him in glory. Many parishes will have their service a 3:00pm, the time which Jesus died on the cross, which we call the hour of mercy. Holy Saturday We celebrate Christs burial and descent into Hell. Jesus united Himself so fully to our human nature and was in such a complete state of solidarity with all of humanity, that He did not die for humanity as a whole, but for each individual. Although he was without sin, He became sin and experienced all of the effects of sin pain, abandonment, death and the descent into hell. In this way, He has taken all sin into Himself and redeemed each of us, providing and witnessing to the path of life, the Way to the Father.
We have reached the eve of the Easter triduum. The next three days are commonly known as 'holy' because they allow us to relive the event central to our Redemption. They lead us to the nucleus of Christian faith: the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These three days could be considered one single day. They make up the heart and are the key to both the liturgical year and the life of the Church. At the end of Lent we also enter that climate which Christ himself experienced back then in Jerusalem. Pope Benedict XVI
The cup of the New Covenant , which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Fathers hands in his agony in the Garden of Geth semani, making himself obedient unto death. CCC 612

CHALLENGE
This weeks challenge is to go to celebrate the whole Triduum at your parish, all three days! This may mean that you will have to cancel or postpone a meeting, or leave work early, or change your schedule in some way. This is where you see what matters most to you in life. What are you willing or unwilling to sacrifice for Christ?