With this evening being the celebration of the Last Supper Mass, it’s worthwhile taking a brief step back to remind ourselves about the importance of the “Sacred Triduum” that we are entering into.
The simple note to begin with is that the Sacred Triduum is that collection of liturgical celebrations encompassing the Passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, beginning with the Last Supper celebration on the evening of Holy Thursday, followed by the crucifixion on Good Friday, and then on to the resurrection of Christ, first celebrated at the Easter Vigil the night of Holy Saturday. That is what the “Sacred Triduum” is. But why is it so important?
The Church, in making present to us God’s saving acts in the liturgy, does not do so haphazardly, or randomly, or sporadically, but rather deliberately. So we have what we call a “liturgical calendar”, which posits a sacred order of time. Time was changed by the Incarnation – the Eternal Word, Who is outside of time, became Incarnate in time, thereby making all time sacred. And the Church presents to us a sacred cycle of time called the liturgical calendar, wherein time is structured, organized, not according to the secular calendar, but according to the flow of the life of Christ, wherein every year the events in the life of Christ are made present to us today in the liturgy. Advent, for example, celebrates that Jesus is coming; Christmas that He has come; the Epiphany to the Magi His revelation as God; Lent is Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness; Palm Sunday Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem; and so on and so forth. Then we repeat it all again with each passing year. Every single year, we “re-live” the Gospel, from Christ’s Incarnation and birth to His Ascension and Heavenly reign, following this “timeline” that draws us into intimate union with Jesus Christ.
While the start of the Liturgical Year is, of course, the First Sunday of Advent, nonetheless within this liturgical calendar, the Sacred Triduum is so important because it the climax. The Sacred Triduum is the conclusion to Lent, the heart of the liturgical year, the heart of God’s savings acts made present for us today in the liturgy. Precisely because the Passion, death, and resurrection are the savings acts of God par excellence. So with Lent, we’re in the heart of the Church’s liturgical year, certainly the most solemn time in the Church’s liturgical year, precisely because this is that time of the year, moreso than any other, when we are very particularly preparing ourselves, in cooperation with God’s benevolent grace, for salvation in the Passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord. So the Sacred Triduum is that collection of liturgical celebrations encompassing the Passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, beginning with the Last Supper celebration on the evening of Holy Thursday, followed by the crucifixion on Good Friday, and then on to the resurrection of Christ, first celebrated at the Easter Vigil the night of Holy Saturday. And it’s so important because since the liturgy makes present God’s saving acts, then nothing is more important than the liturgical commemoration of the greatest of God’s saving acts with the Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
