I was lucky enough to attend a special showing of Mary of Nazareth last year.  What stayed with me for the next few days of thinking about that movie was how they portrayed evil.  Embodied by a red-haired woman who constantly was after Mary, evil was given a chilling human face.  This character was in the temple as Jesus Christ was dying on the cross.  She thought it was her greatest triumph.  She was filled with that glee that comes with finally accomplishing her diabolical life’s work.  But as the ground began to tremble and the world reacted to the death of its’ Lord her face slowly turned.  She began to realize that what she thought was her final victory wasn’t final at all.  It wasn’t even a victory at all.  It was an utter defeat for evil, right as evil thought it had struck its final blow.

This mystery, that our victory as Christians comes from the death of Jesus Christ, goes against the perceived notion so much that until it happened not even Satan could see it coming.  The greatest angel created did not see it coming.  So we can be forgiven if we sometimes forget to remember this.  It is only through the total, self-giving, death of Jesus Christ that evil was defeated and our own sin conquered.  Then, the victory over death was further confirmed three days later as Jesus Christ completely overcomes death by rising from the dead.  Without these three days our faith means nothing.  With these three days our faith means everything.  It is not hyperbole to claim that these three days are the three most important days in history.  Everything in this world hinges on these three days.

The Triduum: A Reflection

Hence, these three days are given a truly special place every year in our Catholic calendar.  We call these three days the Triduum.  Beginning with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday and lasting until Evening Prayer of Easter Sunday, these three days become our Holy of Holies in the liturgical cycle.  And the opportunities for deepening our relationship with Our Lord are present in a special way during this time. 

As we read the Gospels of the Passion of Our Lord we must remember that in addition to being historical accounts of events that happened to real people the scriptures are God’s revelation to us as human beings.  There is another layer to reading the scriptures than simply learning the story.  We are invited to use these stories as ways to pray and enter into the life of Jesus Christ. We are invited to identify where we might be in the story as we read about the various people involved in this event.

Are we like Peter?  So eager to declare our allegiance, even to death, and then when the moment comes, we back down?

Or perhaps are we like Judas?  We follow the Lord for years and see his power but yet won’t give up our ideas of what God is supposed to do and be and so decide that God’s way is wrong and turn our back on God for the goods of this world?

Or maybe we are more like Pilate, we see what we should do, but because of love of power and stature we allow the innocent to suffer.

Or are we Simon of Cyrene; not wanting to get involved but sometimes pushed into service and given the task of carrying a cross in our lives?

Or are we the thieves crucified with our Lord?  Suffering for what we have done but given the chance to choose Christ or reject Him in our own suffering?

Or maybe we are Joseph of Arimathea, held in esteem in the eyes of the world, but also a right and just man who sacrifices our own time and possessions for the glory of the Lord?

Or maybe we are Mary Magdalene, we keep our love alive despite seemingly losing everything but still need a second look to recognize the Risen Christ?

At times we may one of these people, or a combination of these people.  Just as they were present during the Passion of our Lord, we are also present during this time for Our Lord’s Passion with our imperfections, our weakness, and our sin.  For St. Thomas Aquinas writes that the reason there is no Mass on Good Friday is that “the figure ceases on the advent of the reality.”[1]  What he is saying is that we don’t have Mass on Good Friday because the reality of the Passion is exactly that, a reality on that day.  Thus we are able to enter into this Passion in a very real way during the Triduum.

These three days go by very quickly.  It seems as if there is no time between the Last Supper in which we accompany the Lord from instituting the Eucharist and when the Lights come on during the Gloria at the Easter Vigil and the rays of light pierce the darkness signaling the completion of this great victory of ours.  By taking some time to focus on what is going on during the Triduum by seeing how we relate to the historical characters we encounter in reading the scriptures we can escape the trap of letting these three days blow by us, and rather we can use these days of the Triduum to unite ourselves to the dying and rising of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

[1] St. Thomas Aquinas- Summa III, Q. 83, A.2