Palm Sunday always begins the most sacred time of the church year and the spiritual invitation to enter into Holy Week. I would like to emphasize and challenge us all to ENTER into this, and every Holy Week. We can do this by putting ourselves in the place of Jesus as he ENTERED into Jerusalem instigating the first one. My spiritual invitation/challenge is to enter into Holy Week – ALL of Holy Week.
The Church places particular emphasis on the Triduum, which begins as Wednesday of the coming week gives way to Thursday. The focus is on an experience of the number three, hence the name Tri(3)duum. We should obviously enter into the drama, Passion and purpose of this special time beginning on Thursday, but I don’t think enough emphasis is placed on Monday-Wednesday. The impact of the Triduum often overlooks Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which is another experience of 3 days, most commonly viewed like any other three days, but it can be another triduum, so to speak.
The use of the number three in Holy Week most commonly refers to the components of what we call the Paschal Mystery, the SUFFERING, DEATH and RESURRECTION of Christ. The Paschal Mystery gives us both an experience to pray into, as well as a guide for the suffering, death and resurrection that we experience so frequently in our lives. If we look at suffering and death of our lives like Christ looked at his, through the lens of faith, we will experience new life.
The Triduum includes three liturgical events that are ideally viewed as one with three components. They include the Last Supper, instituting the Eucharist on Thursday; Christ’s suffering and death on Good Friday; and the Vigil on Holy Saturday, which ushers in the Resurrection experience on many levels, including those to be initiated fully into our community.
All of this emphasis on three may invite us to consider several spiritual elements of this special time of year. The Triduum actually includes 4 events: The Eucharist, Suffering, Death and Resurrection. I like to emphasize then that there are three transitions:
From Meal to Suffering – 1
From Suffering to Death – 2
and
From Death to Resurrection – 3
By now, many of you are familiar with my suggestion that the number three has both physical and spiritual realities in the world that we all live in. This can be applied to and draw new life from the liturgical experience of the Triduum.
In the physical of our one world, three can mean 1. A Beginning, 2. The Middle and 3. The End. Viewing Holy Week like this might be helpful for planning family gatherings that conclude with Easter Sunday and end, so to speak, with the passage of seven days.
The spiritual 1, 2, 3 however refers to 1. The Beginning, 2. The Next Step, and 3. The Eternal.
But the spiritual element of these events invite us to pray into the beginning of the week, Palm Sunday, the next steps of the great drama from Thursday to Sunday that gives way to the ultimate thing that lasts, eternal life.
So, I would like to invite/challenge you to use Monday of Holy Week to reflect on the beginning of your faith journey. How did it begin? Who taught you about faith? About God? Then Tuesday can be a reflection on the next steps that you have taken. How did you mature in your faith? How have you grown? This all gives way to a reflection on Wednesday focusing on what lasts about your faith. What do you believe is eternal? What has lasted for you, or perdured for you, in your faith journey?
Let’s have two sets of three this Holy Week, two Triduums, and may it be a very sacred time for us to ENTER into deeper reflection of beginnings, next steps and the eternal nature of our faith that comes through the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.