Catholic Life

Prepare, Experience, and Celebrate: The Culmination of the Liturgical Year

by Brandon Jubar

The season of Lent has always been important in the Catholic Church -- beginning with ashes on our foreheads, marking us as God's people, and ending with palms that remind us of the people's love for Jesus. The prayer, fasting, abstinence and almsgiving throughout Lent remind us that we are preparing for something bigger -- the Easter Triduum.

The Easter Triduum is the three-day celebration of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. It consists of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, Lent sometimes overshadows the Triduum in the minds of many Catholics, but the documents from Vatican Council II tell us that "the Easter Triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the entire liturgical year." (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, # 18)

The purpose of Lent is for us to prepare ourselves for these three days.

by Brandon Jubar

The season of Lent has always been important in the Catholic Church -- beginning with ashes on our foreheads, marking us as God's people, and ending with palms that remind us of the people's love for Jesus. The prayer, fasting, abstinence and almsgiving throughout Lent remind us that we are preparing for something bigger -- the Easter Triduum.

The Easter Triduum is the three-day celebration of the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. It consists of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, Lent sometimes overshadows the Triduum in the minds of many Catholics, but the documents from Vatican Council II tell us that "the Easter Triduum of the passion and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the entire liturgical year." (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, # 18)

The purpose of Lent is for us to prepare ourselves for these three days.

The Easter Triduum

The Triduum commemorates the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; what we call the Paschal Mystery. Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected, so death is not the end of life for us, but the beginning of a new life in Christ. The term Triduum means "three days" and we count them as the Hebrews did -- from dusk to dusk. The Easter Triduum is from dusk on Holy Thursday to dusk on Good Friday; from dusk on Good Friday to dusk on Holy Saturday; and from dusk on Holy Saturday to dusk on Easter Sunday. It is a single celebration that lasts for three days.

On Holy Thursday we commemorate the Last Supper, when Jesus gave us the Eucharist and told us to "Do this in memory of me."

On Good Friday we remember the first two parts of the Paschal Mystery -- the passion and the death of Jesus.

We then celebrate the resurrection of Christ at either the Easter Vigil (Saturday night) or on Easter Sunday morning.

Holy Thursday

Most people think that Lent ends with Easter Sunday, but it really ends at dusk on Holy Thursday (which is when the Easter Triduum begins). The forty days of preparation ends and the parish is allowed to have only one mass -- the mass of the Last Supper on Thursday evening -- which begins the Triduum celebration.

The procession of Holy Thursday is for the three-day celebration and one part of it is the procession of the holy oils, which will be used in the parish throughout the year. (The Chrism Mass, held once a year at the cathedral and presided over by the bishop, is where all the oil used in the entire diocese is blessed.)

The Scripture on Holy Thursday reminds us of the first Passover meal of the Israelites. Next, we hear the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus and his command to "Do this, in remembrance of me." And finally we hear the incredible example of service when Jesus, who is Lord and master, washes the feet of his apostles saying, "I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." (Mt 13:15) To show the importance of this teaching, the presider then washes the feet of members of the parish.

After we receive the Eucharist and the final blessing, the Blessed Sacrament is taken to the chapel and we are invited to keep vigil until midnight. There is no procession to end the mass because the three-day celebration has only just begun.

Good Friday

Although Lent ended at dusk on Holy Thursday, Good Friday is still a day of fasting and abstinence. But unlike Lent, it is not a fast of discipline and repentance, but one of excitement and anticipation.

Because it is a continuation of the Holy Thursday celebration, there is no need to process when we begin our service. During the Liturgy of the Word, the Passion of Christ is proclaimed so that we remember how Jesus suffered and died for our sins. Because of our role as priestly people there is a longer and more elaborate General Intercessions before a cross, the symbol of our salvation, is brought forward for us to venerate. This veneration of the cross is unique to Good Friday and is our chance to humble ourselves before the salvific act of Christ.

To conclude, there is a simple reception of the Eucharist and we again leave church in silence to continue our prayer and fasting at home, returning on Saturday evening for the Easter Vigil.

Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil)

The Easter Triduum reaches its climax at the Easter Vigil, celebrated on Saturday night. This celebration is long, as we proclaim with fire and song that Christ is risen. We begin by building a fire outside, which reminds us that Jesus is our light in the darkness. We light the new Easter candle from this first fire and the congregation processes into the darkened church. Through the course of the vigil, we hear Scripture stories beginning with creation and concluding with the resurrection; and what began in darkness ends in light.

Some people think of the celebration of the Easter Vigil as just a long mass, which is certainly not true. For instance, on this night we baptize those desiring to be Catholic and confirm and give Eucharist to those who seek full membership into the Church. They have been learning about our Catholic faith for a year, and the Easter Vigil is when we welcome these new members into our Church and our parish.

A vigil is to keep watch for a long period of time, usually when we would otherwise be sleeping. In our daily lives, we would not rush a vigil, and the same is true of the Easter Vigil. As masses go, it is considerably longer than a Sunday mass. As vigils go, it is relatively short.

Easter Triduum and Beyond

The Easter Triduum is a single celebration that lasts for three days, and there are things we do during the Triduum that are not done at other times of the year: washing of the feet, veneration of the cross, the service of light, the baptism of the elect, and the reception of the candidates into full membership in the Catholic Church. These three days are the culmination of the church year because they celebrate the Paschal Mystery, which is the basis of our faith.

Dying, Christ destroys our death and rising, he restores our life. And what happened on those three days is so important that we spend the fifty days afterwards -- from the end of Easter Sunday until Pentecost -- celebrating it!

We take forty days to prepare for it, three days to experience it, and fifty days to celebrate it -- the Paschal Mystery that is the reason for our Christian faith.