The Easter Triduum consists of three holy days in which the universal Church celebrates the mystery of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. It is the apogee of the Church’s entire liturgical year.

It starts on Holy Thursday when the Church commemorates the institution of the sacraments of the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood. In his encyclical on the Eucharist and its rapport to the Church, Ecclesia De Eucharistia, Blessed John Paul II stated: “The Eucharist builds the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist. [Thus] it follows that there is a profound relationship between the two” (§ 26).

The Church’s liturgy first concentrates on the fact that it is sheer who makes the Eucharist, particularly through its sacred ministers, bishops and priests. In the same encyclical, the Polish Pontiff explains: “The Eucharist too has its foundation in the Apostles, not in the sense that it did not originate in Christ himself, but because it was entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles and has been handed down to us by them and by their successors. It is in continuity with the practice of the Apostles, in obedience to the Lord’s command, that the Church has celebrated the Eucharist down the centuries” (§ 27). We, the ordained priests, act in the person of Christ, make the Eucharistic sacrifice and offer it to God in the people’s name. Do our ministerial and personal lives espouse Christ’s unending values of generosity, wisdom, self-control, discernment, and courage? Is our priestly existence deeply soaked in the ethos of self-giving love?

As the Holy Father rightly said, the Eucharist makes the Church. The Eucharist gathers, unites and strengthens the parish community. Since, as the ‘The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community’, succinctly asserts, “Christ is present in the Church in an eminent way in the Eucharist, the source and summit of ecclesial life” (§ 3), it is of paramount importance that the parish community rediscovers its Eucharistic heart! The washing of the feet, which portrays Jesus as the authentic teacher of communion and service, is a powerful reminder to us, his followers, to treat one another in the same way. Are we considering ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ? Or have we grown lukewarm in showing solidarity and loving care to each other?

Holy Thursday concludes with the adoration of the Eucharistic in remembrance of Jesus’ terrible agony in the Gethsemane Garden. In those desolate moments of the most excruciating anguish and suffering that impelled Jesus to sweat blood (see Matt 26, 38), the Son of God incarnate felt crushed by his forthcoming passion and death on the cross. He desperately craved for human and spiritual support. He said to his three most trusted disciples: “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matt 26, 38). At the time of temptation how do I respond? Do I give in to spiritual somnolence by harbouring an insensitive response to the power of evil? Do I comply with the Father’s will as Jesus did?

Nocturnal adoration gently introduces the ecclesial community to the Passion and death of the Lord on Good Friday. The Church purposely selects John’s account of Jesus’ Passion. The idiosyncratic nature of this account shows Jesus’ dignity and majesty during his trial and execution. Before Pilate he emerges as the King and the Truth. The way of the cross is a triumphal march. “Jesus… went out, bearing his own cross” (John 19, 17). The dying Jesus gifts humanity with two extraordinary gifts: his Mother and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Do I believe in Jesus’ unfailing presence, the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Mary’s intercession during my suffering and hour of trial?

Finally, the Easter Triduum ends with the celebration of the Easter Vigil, Christ’s definite victory over sin and death. The stone that had been taken away, the empty tomb, “the linen cloths lying” (John 20, 6), and the rolled napkin all point to Christ’s resurrection.

“Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15, 54). Am I convinced that death is conquered by resurrection?

Much lessons to be learnt from the Easter Triduum!

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap

SAN GWANN