In the Gospel of John, our Lord Jesus Christ says to his disciples, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” These words, spoken at the Last Supper, are not merely instructions for them, but also a foreshadowing of what He came to do. In less than a day, Jesus mounts the Cross, gives His life for us to free us from sin and death, and rises from the dead on the third day so we may have hope for eternal life. We may be familiar with this story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but may not realize that, as Catholics, this “story” is not another chapter of a history textbook. In the liturgy of the Church (i.e., the Sacraments and sacramentals/blessings/acts of worship), Jesus presents to us anew under sacramental signs and symbols the living reality of His sacrifice on the Cross and life-giving resurrection. This is made exceptionally explicit every year when we celebrate the Sacred Pascal Triduum.
The Paschal Triduum is the name we give the days we as a Church commemorate the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday). These days serve as the high point of the entire liturgical year as we enter the mystery of our salvation–Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the tomb. As a young man, I had the privilege to serve the altar at my home church of St. Joseph in Chauvin for the yearly celebrations of the Triduum. To this day, I can still recall the procession of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday night, people coming forward to venerate the crucifix on Good Friday, and the chanting of the Exsultet, or Easter Proclamation, by my long-time pastor, Msgr. Fred Brunet. Thinking back, these celebrations most impressed on me the gravity of the sacrifice our Lord Jesus offered in His death and the immense joy of knowing He is risen from the tomb.
These themes of gravity and joy are central to the liturgies of the Triduum. The Cross is front and center of the whole of these days, but especially of Holy Thursday night and Good Friday. As we commemorate the Lord’s supper in the evening Mass of Holy Thursday, we are asked to meditate upon the cross. The first words of prayer for this Mass, the Entrance Antiphon, place the Cross as the focal point: “We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection, through whom we are saved and delivered.” (Roman Missal, Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, #6) The Lord’s Supper without reference to the Cross is merely a nice fraternal meal. In this way, the Lord is deepening the Jewish understanding of the Passover, which was both a sacrifice and a meal. Just as the Passover was not complete unless the sacrificed lamb was eaten, so the Lord’s Supper finds its fulfillment in the sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary. In giving Himself, Jesus fulfills the words He said to His disciples the night before, the very words priests pronounce over the sacred host at every Mass: “This is my body, which will be given up for you.”
The Cross is the grand stage of our salvation, and the depth of this reality becomes even more explicit in the liturgy of Good Friday. This is the day of the Lord’s death on the Cross, the day in which He conquered death by death. It is the only day of the year that Mass is not allowed to be celebrated, following ancient tradition and out of reverence for our Lord’s death. The central liturgical action of this day is the solemn veneration of the cross during the Good Friday service. Here, the people present come forward to give a sign of reverence and devotion to a crucifix held by the priest, usually by means of a kiss. But the motivation of this devotion is expressed in the antiphon the priest sings before this procession: “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.” (Roman Missal, Friday of the Passion of the Lord, #15) We honor the Holy Cross because it is the place where Christ conquers death, sin, and the Evil One and saves all humanity from original sin. And so, this day is one of solemn reverence because our Lord has died in the flesh, but also of triumph and joy because through that death Christ frees us from unending death.
But Good Friday is not the final day of the Triduum. Indeed, if all were to end simply in the death of Christ, “your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15:17) Jesus did not just predict He would lay down His life for his friends, but He said, “he will be raised on the third day." (Matt. 20:19) So from within the grave silence and darkness of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, as we liturgically sit in the tomb with our Lord, comes a new light. At the beginning of the Sacred Paschal Vigil on Holy Saturday night, a candle is prepared and lit from a sacred fire. It is carried into the darkened church and placed before the people. Then the deacon or the priest blesses the candle using the ancient words of the Easter Proclamation, or the Exsultet, in which are sung the words, “This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.” (Roman Missal, Sunday of the Resurrection: Easter Vigil, #19) In this sacred night leading into the blessed Easter morning, we celebrate that Christ has not only freed us from sin and death in His own death but has also given us the promise of resurrected and eternal life through His rising from the dead.
In the prayer of the Sacred Triduum, we can experience anew the saving mysteries of our Lord’s death and resurrection. We are also invited to insert ourselves into that saving action of Christ. We too are asked to embrace death to ourselves and our lives of sin in order that we may rise to new life with Christ. Every year the Church invites us in the Sacred Triduum to follow the command of our Lord: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24)