This Holy Week commences with the Procession of Palms on Passion Sunday.

By this procession we profess our faith. We proclaim that by going to his death, Jesus inaugurated his return to the Father in glory. We keep the whole Paschal journey before our eyes as each step is celebrated. (St. Andrew Bible Missal. p. 256 )

As sun sets on Holy Thursday we begin the celebration of the Christian Passover, the Easter Triduum. It is the high point of the liturgical year.

Easter is three days. This celebration of the Passover of the Lord is not some sort of historical re-enactment which finds us on Thursday evening in the Upper Room, on Friday afternoon at the foot of the cross and Saturday at the tomb. If it is not the Risen Lord who calls us together on Good Friday, then our celebration is not truly Christian.  We do not celebrate Christ’s death on Friday and his rising on Sunday. From the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday until and including Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday we celebrate one Christ, once dead and now alive in glory for ever.

(Ibid, p. 309).

For me, this statement is a challenge. In my own personal prayer and meditation I focus on being with Jesus in the various stages of his passion, death and resurrection. In this way I seek to deepen my personal  relationship with Christ and my gratitude to Jesus who has given everything for me. In my heart of hearts I believe that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”  (Hebrews 13:8)

In a wonderful book, Musings from the Monastery, Abbot Jerome Kodell has written a powerful essay, “The Gift of the Resurrection”. He explains that Jesus was not just brought back to life by the Father, rather as the Risen Lord he has broken through death by his divine power to a new and permanent form of life. In this victory Jesus “won salvation for us. His body became glorified, the Spirit bursting its limitations, and from that moment the Spirit was and is poured out everywhere in full measure.” (p. 65)

At this Easter Vigil the catechumens and candidates for full communion in the Church will experience first hand, as we already do, the power of Christ’s resurrection, the full gift of the Spirit, and the awesome reality of the new creation, our always living for God!

Christian life for us is always lived in the permanent moment of the resurrection. What excitement, what joy the Risen Christ and the Holy Spirit bring to our world, to the Church, and to us! So let us celebrate this Easter Triduum with joy and gladness in our hearts. God is working great marvels for our salvation.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3).

+John F. Kinney

Bishop of Saint Cloud