Triduum Pattern

These are my favorite days of the whole faith year: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, or, as they are more properly known, Feast of the Lord's Supper, Celebration of the Passion and Death of the Lord, and the Easter Vigil. In actuality, they are three parts of one reality, and are called the Triduum, or the Three Days.

When I was a child, Lent would end for us at noon on Holy Saturday. We would have been doing our Lenten penance for six weeks, that is, giving up candy. All those sweets would be piled up in a box. Then at noon on Holy Saturday, we would pig out, making up for all the "suffering" we had endured during the previous month and a half. It was at that point that the true suffering would begin as we over-indulged in the mountain of sugar we had denied ourselves.

Now, Lent ends with the beginning of the celebration of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. At that point we focus on the re-presentation of the Suffering, Dying and Rising of Jesus by moving through the three day faith celebration, culminating in the hope, joy and triumph of Easter.

I guess the reason these days are so special for me is that they illustrate so powerfully and graphically the CYCLE of LIFE. This is the paradigm for interpreting my own experience, my own Sacred History. As I look back, I see the pattern repeated: suffering, dying, rising, suffering, dying, rising, over and over again. New life, new hope, new beginnings only come about out of the ashes and agony of the dying process.

With that realization, and the opportunity to celebrate in the midst of a faith community, I feel more hopeful, more joyful, more positive about whatever the future may bring. After all, if God could raise up Jesus after his suffering and death, God can surely bring me through my death experience to a new life. What an awesome God we have!