What is the Paschal Triduum?It is the three-day event beginning with the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday and ending with the Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday night.
In the reform of the liturgy after Vatican II, it is seen as 'that most solemn of all feasts" (SC 102) and the 'summit of the liturgical year' (SC 110).
The word 'triduum' isn't much used in common parlance, but most people understand a 'three-day event'.
Triduum As A Whole
Before one goes into the 'nuts and bolts' of each celebration within the Easter Triduum, it is good now and then to stand back from it all and look at the triduum as a whole.
It's good to ask questions: Which are the most important celebrations of the triduum? What are the priorities? What is the overall shape of the triduum?
Importance Of The Triduum
In the reform of the liturgy after Vatican II, the Easter Triduum is seen as the 'most solemn of all feasts' and the 'summit of the liturgical year'. It deserves the very best we can give it. People will expect celebrations that are truly uplifting and profound. Generally they are quite happy to take time at things in these holy days.
People don't want authentic celebration to be sacrificed on the latar of 'practicality'. Given the importance of these celebrations, parish liturgy groups might well begin to prepare for them even at the beginning of lent, or earlier.
Unity Of The Triduum
The earliest paschal celebrations among Christians were almost certainly on a single day, coinciding with the date of the Jewish Passover. Fairly soon, this feast was probably preceded by two days of fasting. By the time of St Augustine, the meaning of the three days was articulated as referring to three distinct moments within the Christian Passover: Christ crucified, buried and risen.
With the advantage of pilgrimages to the Holy Land, the desire to relive in situ each moment of the final events leading up to the death of Christ led to a further emphasis on each distinct event.
The traditional Stations of the Cross are a classic example of this. This brief historical sketch shows two values at work within the triduum: first, the (earlier) unity of the celebration, and, second, the (later) diversity of moments. Both approaches are legitimate and are ideally held in tension.
If we err on any side today, it is probably in the direction of splitting up the celebration too much into its distinct moments. And yet there are signs of that fundamental unity everywhere in the liturgical rites: on Good Friday we hear the passion according to John, which interprets the passion very much in the light of the Resurrection as a triumphant moment; on Good Friday, too, our reception of the Eucharist might alert us to the fact that we celebrate the death of one who is now risen and with us; the paschal candle is ritually marked by the wounds of Christ - it is, in a sense, 'bloodstained'; the Easter Vigil is no easy triumph but, like the appearances by the risen Jesus in the upper room, shows the scars of death.
Triduum - Friday, Saturday, Sunday
The interpretation of the triduum as referring to Christ crucified, buried and risen corresponds to the three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We have a tendency to see the triduum as 'Thursday to Saturday'.
This is probably a remnant of the days when all the celebrations were anticipated by many hours, with the Easter Vigil happening on Saturday morning, and coresponding celebrations on Thursday and Friday mornings.
When the timing of the days gets mixed up, the practical outcome is that Holy Saturday as a celebration of Christ buried disappears. There is no 'waiting by the tomb'.
The Vigil
The vigil is the last of the major celebrations of the triduum (the celebrations do, however, continue into the rest of Sunday, with other celebrations of the eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours).
Being the last celebration, it is in danger of getting the least prepartaion, when energies are beginning to run out. It is important then to get the priorities right from the beginning; in the advanced planning, it is the vigil that needs the greatest amount of work and resources.
Let's not forget the triduum fastFrom the earliest times fasting was part of the triduum.
Although Lent, with its various liturgical and ascetical practices, finishes on Holy Thursday, the solemn fast of the triduum then begins.
The Vatical II Constitution on the Liturgy put it this way: 'The Paschal fast must be kept sacred. It should be celebrated everywhere on Good Friday, and where possible should be prolonged throughout Holy Saturday so that the faithful may attain the joys of the Sunday on the resurrection with uplifted and responsive minds' (110).
For those who are working hard to prepare the liturgies, some wise moderation in fasting suggests itself; but one imagines that by and large we are more likely to err in the opposite direction and forget the fast altogether.
Sacramental Dimension of the Triduum is All-Important
The celebrations of the triduum are not just a mental recalling of past events. It's not in the last analysis an attempt to recreate scenes that were lived almost two thousand years ago.
It is above all an action in which we ourselves are marked by the dying and rising of Jesus.
The purpose of the triduum is that the pattern of his paschal mystery is imprinted onto our lives. Through our acceptance in faith of God's word and our participation in the sacraments, we too die and rise with Christ, even now.
This explains the emphasis on Baptism within the Easter vigil. New candidates are plunged into the death and resurrection of christ at the font. Those of us who are already baptised renew our commitment to live fully this journey of life-through-death, and we are even sprinkled with baptismal waters as a tangible reminder.
The Vigil Eucharist crowns our participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus: when we participate in his body and blood given for humanity, we too pledge to give ourselves and to be part of His sacrificial gift.
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