The Paschal Triduum: The Three Great Days of Christ crucified, died, and risen

The Paschal Triduum:  2014

The Three Great Days of Christ crucified, died, and risen

Maundy Thursday

April 17, 7:00 p.m. 

Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum, otherwise known as the Three Great Days of Jesus crucified, buried, and risen.  The of “Maundy” comes from the word Mandatum which means commandment.  According to the Gospel of John, at the Last Supper, Jesus, after washing the disciples’ feet gives them the “new commandment” that they should love one another as he has loved them. 

 Maundy Thursday commemorates the last meal Jesus had with his disciples prior to his arrest, trial, and crucifixion.  The Gospels differ on whether the meal was a celebration of the Jewish Passover, which is what the synoptic Gospels hold, or was a special ceremonial meal prior to the Passover as held by the Gospel of John.  In either event, at the end of the meal, Jesus does something completely new.  He bestows upon his disciples a means whereby he will always remain present to them.  Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks, blesses it, and distributes it to them and says, “This is my Body.”  Afterward he takes the cup of wine and distributes it to them and says, “This is my Blood.”  He tells them to “do this in remembrance of me.” 

 In this context, the word “remember” does not mean to recall an event that is simply in the past and is no more.  The biblical sense of remember means to make present.  When the Jewish Seder is done, it is not that the participants think of something that happened a long time ago.  Instead, the event that liberated them from slavery and made them God’s own people is a present and contemporary reality.  It is not then, but now.  The same is true in the Eucharist.  You might say with both the Passover and the Last Supper, the events themselves and what they accomplish are simply too big for the chronological time they occurred.  You might say that both the Passover and the Eucharist, tear the events from their place in chronological time and bring them into ours. 

 Our former Bishop, Fred Borsch once gave a most wonderful homily on Jesus words to “Do this is remembrance of me.”  He said, “Of all the things that God every told people to do, this is the one thing we’ve carried out most faithfully.”  He then went on to describe all the times and places, and events in which we celebrate the Eucharist, “doing this in remembrance of me.”  It happens every Sunday of course, but also at baptisms, weddings, and funerals.  It happens in grand cathedrals and humble shanty chapels.  It happens on ships, it happens on battlefields, it happened in Dachau and the Gulag.  It happened on the slab which was all that was left of an Episcopal Church after Hurricane Katrina hit Gulfport Mississippi.  Bishop Borsch asked, “Has any commandment of Christ been as faithfully carried out as ‘Do this in remembrance of me?’”

 So Maundy Thursday commemorates the institution of the Eucharist.  A corollary of that is that Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the Christian priesthood. 

 There is also something else.  Jesus washes the disciples feet.  St. Peter is scandalized.  But Jesus says to him that unless you let me love you in this way, you have no part in me. 

 As part of the liturgy, I remove the vestments and wash the feet of those parishioners who are willing.  It is a profound moment for me and I’m sure for them. 

 Finally, after Communion, we begin the process of stripping the altar as Jesus and his disciples leave the upper room and go the Garden of Gethsemane.  The choir chants Psalm 22 and as the members of the Altar Guild empty out the Sanctuary, the lights in the Church grow dimmer and dimmer.  The Sacrament has been placed on the site altar which is surrounded with flowers.  This is called the Altar of Repose.  The Sacrament will remain there until it is consumed on Good Friday. 

 The last thing that happens is that the Altar Cross is draped in black.  The light on the Resurrection window is turned off.  The choir leaves their robes behind and walks out of the Church in silence. 

 Maundy Thursday is an incredibly powerful liturgy.  It really is not to be missed. 

Good Friday

April 18, 12:00 noon

 Good Friday is the day that Jesus died on the Cross.  That being the case, some wonder why the day is called “good.”  The name really derived from God as in “God’s Friday.”  As is to be expected the liturgy for this day is very somber. 

 One might also ask, why are we revisiting this a second time?  Didn’t we hear about Christ’s Passion on Palm Sunday?  We did indeed.  But while both days mark the same event, each day presents the Passion in a very different way.  On Palm Sunday we hear the Passion of Christ from one of the three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) in a order that rotates every three years.  On Good Friday the we always hear the Passion of Christ from the Gospel of John.

 The Passion as depicted in the synoptic Gospels portrays Jesus as the victim of the events.  This is most graphic in the Gospel of St. Mark, and less so in the Gospel of St. Luke.  However in St. John’s Passion, Jesus is not the victim, but rather directs the whole action from beginning to end.  That is because for St. John, Jesus crucifixion is his glorification, his exaltation.  In the 12^th Chapter of his Gospel, St. John quotes Jesus as saying, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all to myself.” 

 As the Passion unfolds, Jesus is master of the action.  When they come to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asks who they seek.  When they say, “Jesus of Nazareth,” they are thrown off their feet.  Jesus makes sure that his disciples are released.  Later in the interrogation, it is Jesus who takes charge calling first the High Priest, then most powerfully, Pontius Pilate to account, exposing their falsehood for all to see.  In his crucifixion, Jesus commends his mother to the care of the Beloved Disciple, and his last words are, “It is accomplished.”  His side is pierced by the spear and out flows blood and water.  The Gospel writer is firm that this is the truth.  The early Church theologians saw this outflow of blood and water as the setting forth of the Spirit and the baptism of the whole world, in fact the whole cosmos.  For St. John, the moment of Jesus’ death is the moment of his ultimate triumph. 

 Good Friday services are done in many ways.  In some places it has been a long practice to have a service from 12 to 3 to mark the time Jesus was on the cross.  Often the service has a meditations on Jesus’ last seven words.  At Church of the Angels we follow the liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer.  Out liturgy begins at 12:00 and usually ends by 1:45 p.m

 The liturgy is in several parts.  The first part is the Liturgy of the Word.  This involves the reading of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah, a long passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, and the Passion of St. John.  This is followed by the homily.  The homily is followed by a period of silence, then as set of prayers called The Solemn Collects.  On Good Friday we make a special effort to concentrate our prayer on the needs of the world for which Christ died.  The Solemn Collects are quite profound.  There may be a traditional choir anthem called The Reproaches.  The Reproaches are a dialogue between God and his people where God enumerates all that he has done for us in Salvation History only to be met by our response of the different acts that make up the Passion.  There are other musical anthems that are also used instead of The Reproaches.  A concern among some people is the anti-Semitic tone of both the Gospel and The Reproaches.  However, anyone paying attention to the Liturgy will soon discover that the cause of Christ’s death is not just the Jews, but all of humankind. 

 After this comes the Veneration of the Cross where the black veil is removed, and then we conclude with the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified.  We move the Sacrament from the Altar of Repose to the main Altar.  We recite the Confession, hear the Absolution, recite the Lord’s Prayer and make our Communion from the bread and wine consecrated at the Liturgy on Maundy Thursday. 

 When the Sacrament has been consumed, all the candles are extinguished.  The Tabernacle door is opened because it is now empty.  There is no longer the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament anywhere.  On those times when in the Eastern Orthodox and Western Church calendars, Easter falls on the same day, this means that after Good Friday there is no Eucharist celebrated anywhere in the whole world.   I lay down the candles sticks and turn over all the communion vessels leaving them in a wreaked pile on the Altar.  It recalls that hymn “In the Cross of Christ I glory, towering over the wreaks of time.”  There is a final prayer and we go out. 

 We are left with the wreckage on the Altar and the Cross in shining splendor over it.  It is the radical paradox of the death that brings life to the whole world.  The sacrifice that unites God and all things always and forever. 

 You might say that it is accomplished, but not finished.  It will be from here that at the Great Vigil of Easter we begin the journey back from darkness to light, from death to life with no death at all.

The Great Vigil of Easter

April 20, 5:15 a.m.

 The climax of the Paschal Triduum, or the Three Great Days, is the Great Vigil of Easter.  In this liturgy we begin from where we left off on Good Friday with the darkness and desolation of Christ’s death.  Then out of nowhere comes the New Fire, then an ancient chant going back to earliest days of the Church, then a recapitulation of the entire story of salvation, to the cry Christ is Risen!  We share in that Risen life through the Sacrament of Baptism and the First Eucharist of Easter.  It is a challenge to begin in the darkness before dawn.  One can really understand the sentiment, “Wake me when it’s over.”  That’s in a sense what happens when after the Good Friday Liturgy we come to the Eucharist on Easter Day at 10:15.  What happens in the Easter Vigil is that we move through the Paschal Mystery to it’s triumph.  We participate in the actual journey from darkness to light, from death to Risen Life.  That is what makes the liturgy so wonderful and so powerful.

 The Great Vigil of Easter was restored to the Book of Common Prayer in 1979.  It had fallen out of use in most of the Western Church.  The Eastern Church never lost it.  The Great Vigil of Easter is the center of the Christian Year.  Everything leads to it and flows from it.  It is the most complete telling of the Christian story. 

 At Church of the Angles, we have done the Vigil in such a way that it is the center rather than just one more service in Holy Week.  We are blessed to have a building that lends itself to the profound drama the Liturgy enacts.  We are blessed to usually have good weather for Easter. 

 We will begin the Liturgy at 5:15 a.m. Easter Morning.  People will gather and find their places in the Church under conditions of very low light.  When everyone is in place the remaining light will go out and we will sit together in pitch darkness.  That is after all the state of being bereft of God.  I will give the collect and proclaim the Passover of the Lord, whereby hearing his word and celebrating his Sacraments we share in his victory over death.

 A young person will come with me and begin the arduous task of lighting the fire.  They use a flint and steel, the sparks flying and trying to land and catch.  It raises the question for us, will the light come?  Or is darkness all there will be?  It rests on the shoulders of the youngest one.  For you in the congregation you see the sparks come out of nowhere.  Easter is new creation.  We witness the ignition of a new Big Bang.  Then the fire comes. 

 A hymn called The Exultet, is chanted.  This is one of the most ancient hymns of the Church and it sings the praise of the light as the sign of the Risen Christ.  “This is the night when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell and Man is reconciled to God.” 

 Once the Exsultet is sung we begin a long period of readings from the Old Testament.  There are nine readings in all and between them there are either choir anthems or congregational hymns.  It is in the Easter Vigil that we all learn how to read the Scripture.  The Bible is about what God does for humankind in Christ.  We see everything that leads to that.  We “hear the record of God’s might acts in history, how he saved his people in ages past and we pray that he will bring all of us to the fullness of redemption.”

 As we go through this long section of the Vigil, the window over the altar begins to be visible as daylight increases.  You might say that it is dawning on us that the Resurrection which theme of the window is real.  Scripture tells us that it took a long time for it to dawn on the disciples that Jesus was not dead. 

 If we are really lucky and the weather is good, by the time of the Great Alleluia, the sun will have come over the hill behind the Church and its light will flood in through the back windows. 

 Once again we will have baptisms.  We’ve never been without one at the Easter Vigil.  It fulfills what we will have heard in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.  “Do you not know that those of you where baptized were baptized into his death?”  We were buried with him in baptism so that as Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will be united with him in a Resurrection like his. 

 Finally we celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter.  At the end we place the Sacrament in the Tabernacle and once again light the Sanctuary lamp which tells us that he is always here with us. 

 We come out to the Easter Egg hunt for all the children and have our wonderful Easter Breakfast on the patio behind the Parish Hall.  How long is the service?  Some people say, “it’s two and a half hours!”  No, it’s only two hours and twenty five minutes.  It is time well spent. 

 The Great Vigil of Easter

The Role of the Child in the Celebration of Easter

 Some years ago, an older parishioner, working on the planning of a parish social event said, “We can have the children pour the tea.”  At Church of the Angels, we don’t do that.  At Church of the Angels, our children do not wait on us, clean up after us, or entertain us.  Our children do collaborate with us in the most important things that make up the life of Christian Faith.

 One event where that comes most prominently into focus is at the Great Vigil of Easter.  It is given to one of our young people to get the New Fire going that launches the Easter Vigil.  This is not an easy task.  We gather in the dark church and with all the lights out, the young person and I make our way to the place where the fire will be started.  The young person uses a flint and steel and the sparks fly.  But will they land on the right place?  Will the fire start?  Or are we to live in darkness forever?  The most important task is given to the youngest one.  They struggle because the sparks in the dark room destroy their night vision, so they have difficulty seeing where they need to strike.  But they keep at it.  For those of us in the Church, all we can see are sparks out of nowhere and then, the fire and the cry, “The Light of Christ. 

 James Woolery will light the fire this year.  Once the fire is going, the Paschal Candle will be lit, and then the candles in the aisles.  Jim Stanley will chant the Exsultet.  Then the children will gather in the front of the Church.  A light from the Paschal Candle will be placed in a special lantern and then

the catechists will lead the children to the atriums for their own Liturgy of the Light.  Once again, all the Sanctuaries of the Church will be joined together in the new light of the Risen Lord.  It will be our children who make that possible. 

 What this says is that at COA we have a profound respect for the youngest among us, the young child as having Religious Potential for the greatest things.  And so indeed our children do not wait on us, do not clean up after us, or entertain us.  They do proclaim the risen Lord with us.

Easter Sunday

Atrium I & II

 Christ is risen!  Alleluia! 

 After the lighting of the Paschal candle in the main sanctuary, the children of Level I and II atria are excused to their sanctuary for the presentation of the Liturgy of the Light.   It is a presentation for our young parishioners to celebrate at their pace, the death and resurrection of Christ through the Church’s service of light.

During the presentation, they hear Jesus, the light of the world and whose coming into the world was foretold by the prophet Isaiah (Is 9:6), was crucified, died and is risen to Risen Life and Risen Light that can never be extinguished.  All humanity and history are transformed through him who is its beginning and end; a mystery imaged in the lighting of our candles from the Paschal flame.

 The Paschal candle is important to us because it tells the story of who Jesus is through the symbols.

We begin with the white candle, upon which we place the vertical and horizontal line of the cross first with the following words:  “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End.”  Next are the Greek letters: alpha and omega: “The Alpha and the Omega.” The year is split into four numbers, one each in the quadrant made by the cross with the following words:  “All time belongs to him, and all the ages, to him be glory and power, through every age and forever.  Amen.” Lastly, are placed five nails in the cross and in the sequence of making the sign of the cross with the following words: 

“By his holy and glorious wounds, May Christ the Lord, Guard us, and protect us. Amen.”

 The Paschal candle is prepared.   We light our Paschal candle with the flame taken from the one in the main sanctuary.   Each child receives a lit candle.  The once dark atrium begins to fill with light, one candle at a time. We process through our atrium, raising our light three times and each time call:  “Christ our Light.  Thanks be to God.”   We have some time in the atrium to reflect on this moment in our Christian life, but for the most part we are anxious to get back to our parents to tell them the good news:  Christ is risen!  Alleluia!  Then, go find the eggs.

 May the joy of the Risen Light fill your heart today, and forever.  

Atrium III

 The children of the Level III atrium participate in the service held at the main sanctuary.   It is a marvelous time to experience the passages they have been studying for such a long time. 

Easter Day

April 20, 10:15 a.m.

 The stained glass window in the Sanctuary says it all.  “He is not here.  He is Risen.”  Our window depicts the women at the tomb on Easter morning having come to finish what was left undone at Jesus’ burial.  They wonder who will move the heavy stone that covers the entrance so they can enter the tomb and anoint Jesus’ body following the customs of that time for a proper internment.  But the tomb is empty and he is not there.  It will take a while to understand what “He is Risen” really means both for him and for them, and finally for all of us. 

 In a real sense Easter is not the end of the story but only the beginning.  Easter Day itself commences the long period of time when the Risen Jesus appears to the disciples in various times and places, then the ending of the resurrection appearances in the event we call the Ascension, and finally the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost which the disciples then and now are empowered with gifts to tell the whole world, what the window says to us each time we enter the church:  “He is Risen.” 

 Easter Day is in a sense after the fact.  No one sees the Resurrection take place.  That’s true of the Easter Vigil as well.  We go through that liturgy, but at what point the Resurrection actually happens the liturgy does not say. 

 So Easter Day sets the clock running on the great 50 days.  In the Bible the number 40 means “a long time.”  So the time it takes for us to grasped and transformed by the Christ’s resurrection is a long time, and even longer.