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April 14, 2019, Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Year C

Dear Friends,                              

Today we celebrate the Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord and with this we enter into the Holy Week, the most important of all liturgical seasons. During these 7 intense days of spiritual involvement we celebrate the central mystery of our Christian faith. By the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday we would leave Lent and enter the liturgical season known as “Triduum.”  It is the culmination and high point of the entire liturgical year. It is perhaps the shortest of the liturgical seasons but packed with very heavy dose of penetratingly convincing moments that led Jesus to ultimately prove God’s love for us and to prove God’s power over sin, darkness, evil and death. Yet it is not just a historical reliving but living and celebrating a God who continues to live among us helping us defeat such powers of darkness. 

Triduum comes from Latin roots that mean “the three days” or “period of three days.” It is also called the Sacred Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord.  It “begins with the evening Mass of the Lord’s supper, has its center in the Easter Vigil, and closes with Vespers, (Evening Prayer) on the Sunday of the Resurrection” (Universal Norms, 18-19).  “This time is called ‘the triduum of the crucified, buried and risen’; it is also called the ‘Easter Triduum’ because during it is celebrated the Paschal Mystery, that is, the passing of the Lord from this world to his Father” (38 Paschales Solemnitatis).

To further emphasize the importance of this week, let me invite you to read and reflect Nathan Mitchell’s excellent explanation of The Sacred Paschal Triduum taken from his book: The Three Days of Pascha: “What, really, do the liturgies of the triduum celebrate? Most all of us believe we know the answer. We assume that Thursday commemorates the day Jesus instituted the eucharist; Friday, commemorates the day He was executed on the cross; and the vigil commemorates His emergence from the tomb. We assume, further, that the liturgies of these days are dramatic ‘reenactments’ of events- by turns touching, tragic and triumphant- which happened during Jesus’ last days and culminated in His victory over death. We assume, in other words, that the paschal triduum is simply springtime’s parallel to winter’s Christmas. As it gathers on these days, the liturgical assembly is often thought to be engaged in acts of historical ‘reconstruction’ that recreate scenes in the ‘upper room,’ on Calvary, and at the tomb. People are encouraged to imagine they are ‘actually present’ at these events- comforting Jesus during His fearful watch in Gethsemane, walking with Him along the via crucis, and witnessing His miraculous ‘return to life’ on Easter morning. This view may frequently be reinforced by popular hymns that focus on the ‘historical facts’ of the celebration.

But is ‘history’ the central focus of celebration during the Triduum? Certainly, the early Christian creeds anchored belief in the historical, this-worldly circumstances that accompanied Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion ‘under Pontius Pilate.’  Jesus’ life, career and death were, in other words, attached to a specific time, in a specific place. His proclamation of God’s arrival in the present moment (God’s ‘reign’), His bold challenge to understand God in and as one’s neighbor, His rejection of ‘religion’ as a means of social or political control- all this took place not in some cosmic cloud of unknowing but in a remote province of the later Roman Empire at a time of sociopolitical transition.

Precisely because these faith-anchoring events are historical, however, they cannot be repeated or ‘reenacted.’ That is why the church’s long tradition insists that what happened once in history passes over into the mystery of the assembly’s liturgical/sacramental celebrations. What the paschal triduum actually celebrates is mystery, not history; anamnesis, not mimesis. The liturgies of these days do not ‘take us back’ to the upper room or the path to Calvary. Their ultimate purpose is not to retrace or relive the last hours of Jesus’ life - nor to catch sight of His emerging from the tomb at Easter’s dawning. They celebrate not what once happened to Jesus but what is now happening among us as a people called to conversion, gathered in faith, and gifted with the Spirit of holiness. They celebrate God’s taking possession of our hearts at their deepest core, recreating us as a new human community broken like bread for the world’s life - a community rich in compassion, steadfast in hope, and fearless in the search for justice and peace.”

For this reason I urge you to attend all of these liturgies and experience the love of God dripping over every moment of these celebrations.

During this week the church also celebrates the Chrism Mass. In the Diocese of Orlando the Chrism Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday and this year it is very special to us as it is during this Mass that Fr. John Patrick Riley will be recognized for his 25 years of priesthood. Hence, I request you to consider attending this Mass this year to show our love and gratitude to Fr. John Patrick.

May this most sacred week fill your hearts with Peace knowing that in Christ we find the ultimate answer to all of our searching.

Have a Blessed Holy Week!
With love,
Fr. John