Holy Week

Pastor’s Epistle—April, A.D. 2017 A

Easter is the season of light triumphing over darkness, mercy over condemnation, and life over death. It is God’s definitive conquest of sin, death, and hell, a triumph so cataclysmic for the forces of darkness that Christ is said to have “hallowed Heaven” in His victory, with all the liberated souls of hades resplendent in His train. There’s nowhere left for the shadows to escape God’s Light, nowhere for death to hide from the Life of the Risen Christ. Hell itself is broken upon the wood of the Cross and the rock of His tomb.

Holy Week is the climax of the Christian faith, our “Sunday for the year.” We read of Christ’s raising of Lazarus from the dead, an act so defiantly public that all of Jerusalem went into an uproar. On Palm Sunday we rejoice with the Holy City as she welcomes her true Lord home, the King of Kings riding in upon a donkey as a sign of His peace.

Holy Week continues with the Triduum, the Great Three Days, beginning on Maundy Thursday. Here Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, gives to us the New Commandment that we love each other as He has first loved us, and reinterprets the ancient Passover festival to inaugurate the long-awaited New Covenant of God’s mercy for all of humankind. This is the institution of the Eucharist, and we will be welcoming a new brother and sister to the Lord’s Supper for the first time on Maundy Thursday.

Come Good Friday we reverence the Holy Cross before the bare-stripped altar, on the only day of the Triduum on which we do not celebrate Communion. We read of our Lord’s trial, His Passion and Crucifixion, His descent into hell. From the Holy Cross He pronounces forgiveness upon us even as we are murdering Him. The sky grows black, the earth quakes, and the curtain of the Temple separating God from Man is rent asunder.

At the Holy Sabbath all is quiet, as God rests within the earth. Then in the night—at the Easter Vigil—new light shines forth! The Risen Christ returns from the dead, His tomb bursts open, and the graves all about Him give up their dead as well! In the darkness before the dawn we celebrate the very first Easter Eucharist, rejoicing that Christ is Risen even before the women make it to His tomb to anoint His body. The Easter Vigil is the traditional time for the Church to bring new souls to Holy Baptism (the catechumenate having prepared throughout the 40 days of Lent) and we will indeed be baptizing a new brother into Christ at the Vigil. It shall be a joyous occasion for all!

Our celebrations continue into Easter Morning with a sunrise service at 7:00 a.m. and further worship at 9:00. And we shall continue to rejoice for the full 50 days leading up to Pentecost! Christ has died; Christ is Risen; Christ shall come again!

I know that with our busy schedules it can be difficult to make it to Holy Week services, but I warmly invite (and strongly encourage) all who can to come. Never have I spoken to a parishioner who attended the full Triduum without them affirming that it has deepened their joy and understanding of our Lord’s Easter Resurrection. Each Triduum service is unique, celebrated but once a year; together they join us to the death and Resurrection that is our Christian faith. The Table is set, the banquet prepared, and the Host ready. Come let us join in a foretaste of the Feast to come!

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.