|
WHAT IS THE "SACRED TRIDUUM"?
The word "Triduum" comes from the Latin and means "three days." It is commonly pronounced "TRIH-doo-uhm" and refers to the three Most Sacred Days in the Church Year. The Sacred Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. It reaches its highpoint at the Easter Vigil and concludes with Evening Prayer (Vespers) on Easter Sunday evening.
Often there is confusion about how that block of time can be counted as three days. The traditional practice of counting days from sunset to sunset is used. Thus, Holy Thursday evening to Good Friday evening is one day. Good Friday evening to Holy Saturday evening is the second day. And Holy Saturday evening until Easter Sunday evening is the third day. Counting days from 12:00 midnight only began about 350 years ago.
Pope Pius XII in 1955 restored the Triduum Liturgies to "their rightful place as the culmination of the entire Liturgical Year."
Although we speak about three days, our Sacred Triduum, it is best understood as One Liturgy in three inter-locking movements. The death and the resurrection of Our Lord cannot be separated. Nor can the ascension and glorification at the right hand of the Father be separated from the death and resurrection. It is all one Paschal Mystery. The meaning of these three Sacred Days is distorted when we imagine that the Liturgy enacts the final events in the life of Jesus in a sort of a historical review. If we do that, we miss the point in that case. The Mystery of Jesus' death and resurrection, ascension and glorification at the Father's right hand, is one present reality. God invites us into this very act of these Mysteries of faith with Jesus. The boundaries of time, and the boundaries of death, have no power here.
Our past, present and future are irrevocably marked by our own immersion into this Paschal Mystery through our Baptism.
During the Sacred Triduum we wash one another's feet as symbolized by the washing and kissing of the feet of a few members of the Gathered Assembly during the Mass of the Lord's Supper. We reverence the cross upon which hung the Savior of the world during the Good Friday Liturgical Action. We light fires during the darkness of night and proclaim again the stories of our creation and salvation, beginning with the flood and the saving of our Jewish forefathers in faith from Pharaoh. All of this envelops an awed awareness that this is what it means to be baptized. The Easter Vigil then is the premier time to welcome new members into our Community of Faith, through Baptism, Confirmation and First Eucharist.
Ideally no other parish events --- such as confessions, funerals, weddings, etc., --- should be scheduled during these three Most Sacred Days. For "the presence," "the time," and the "the energy" of "every person" in a Local Community of Faith is
|
|
