PASCHAL TRIDUUM

On Maundy Thursday, we Catholics enter a brief but most significant period in our liturgical calendar: the Paschal Triduum. From the celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday, through the Passion of Christ on Good Friday, to the Easter Vigil held on the nightfall of Black Saturday, up to the celebration of the evening prayer on Easter Sunday, we celebrate the Paschal Mystery -- the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. Through this mystery, Christ accomplished the redemption of man from sin and death, and the glorification of God. By dying, he destroyed death, and by rising he restored life. The Paschal or Easter Triduum, celebrating this Paschal mystery, is the highest point of the liturgical calendar.

The Triduum celebrates one mystery pertaining to the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. This is noticeable in the open-ended character of the celebrations. From the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday to the Easter Vigil on the midnight of Holy Thursday, there is no dismissal given between the celebrations, indicating that they are part of one great liturgy, commemorating the one great mystery.   

The Paschal Mystery with its pain and sorrows, joys and newness of life, has to be taken in its totality. Many of us Filipino Catholics think Holy Week ends on Good Friday. After the many celebrations, the visita iglesia, participation in a very long procession, the Holy Week is over. Consequently, the celebration of the Paschal Mystery ends with the death of Christ. We remain in pain and sorrow, outside the tomb of the dead Christ, crying over the loss of our loved one. We fail to celebrate the core of our Christian faith, the resurrection of Christ. We disconnect pain, death and sorrow from hope and renewed life brought forth by the resurrection. We are stuck on Good Friday, on pain and sorrow and seeming hopelessness. But the Lord is good. He does not want us to remain in pain and sorrow for our sins. He would like us to rise from our fall, together with him as he rose from the darkness of the tomb, as he rose from death.

The Paschal Mystery culminates with the resurrection of Christ, bringing hope and renewal in our lives. Let us not stop celebrating this great mystery on Good Friday. Let us proceed to the joy of Easter, to the new life Christ offers us with his resurrection.