With this Sunday, Passion Sunday, we enter a sacred time in our faith tradition. Holy Week takes us on a journey. It is Jesus’ journey to his death and ultimately to resurrection and new life. It begins with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, but quickly descends into the darkness, despair and death that is the story of the Passion. Passing through the week, we come to Easter and the resurrection. It is a week of darkness, despair and death. It is also a week of light, hope and the possibilities of new life. It might be seen as the week of the marvelous miracle of scrambled eggs – the marvelous movement of Jesus from brokenness and death to new life.
This wonder of Jesus’ resurrection to new life is God’s plan for all humanity, God’s dream. Our lives face darkness and dread and death. Our lives are often the scrambled eggs and we wonder what it is all about. The journey of Jesus that we mark in this week, in so many ways, is our own. The dream of God is that these scrambled eggs will come together in new and risen life. Jesus is God’s promise for each of us and for our world. From brokenness, we will indeed come to wholeness.
This week and the Triduum offer us an opportunity to reflect on this dream that God has for us. We are a people whose faith is founded on the Paschal Mystery, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Each day of the Triduum draws our attention to a significant part of our story.
Holy Thursday – The feast of the Lord’s Supper. As we remember the Passover meal that Jesus had with his disciples, we focus on the role of the meal in our faith community. Jesus called disciples to share his mission. At the Last Supper, he gathered these friends around the Table for a meal. Like all of our family meals, our Eucharist as disciples of Jesus expresses our relationship with one another as well as our relationship with Jesus.
Good Friday – A remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Sacrifice means to offer something of value for the sake of another. We see examples of sacrifice everyday in parents, spouses and friends. We need sacrifice. A sacrifice expresses our commitment to another. Eucharist as sacrifice celebrates those many relationships we hold dear in our community and the love we commit to them.
Good Friday expresses the commitment and love that God has for all the peoples of the earth. As we celebrate this commitment, we do it in retelling the story of Jesus’ passion, in prayer for our world and in sharing at the table of communion. In doing so, we commit ourselves to service in our world. May we be life-giving to all.
Feast of Easter – This is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.It is the ultimate expression that our God is a God of life and of loving, saving care for all humanity.As we recall God’s dream for all peoples and all creation, we acknowledge our call to reflect God’s life-giving love to all with joy and