STORY - "Easter - The Christian Marathon"

Marathon events are common in our contemporary society. Sporting enthusiasts spend several days at a sports ground or in front of a television screen watching every ball of a cricket test. Classical music devotees travel to distant places to attend a performance of Wagner’s Ring Cycle over many evenings. Young people fill theatres for marathon movie shows that last until dawn.

We Christians have but one epic event that we celebrate each Sunday but commemorate in a marathon way every Easter. The epic event that we commemorate is the paschal mystery: the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Our great memorial feast begins with a grand liturgy that we call the Triduum – one ceremony that extends over three days – and ends fifty days later on the feast of Pentecost.

The Triduum begins on Holy Thursday, with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. After forty days of Lenten preparation, Christians gather with the Elect (those soon to be initiated into our community) to commemorate Christ’s final supper with his disciples before his death. The Eucharist begins in a stark way with an empty tabernacle. At this Eucharist, we ritualise John’s account of the supper with a footwashing, and where possible all in the parish gather in one place with their pastor and parish leaders to reflect the unity of our local church.

After the Mass the Blessed Sacrament is processed to the tabernacle, or it is taken to a simple altar of honour, where the faithful gather in private prayer to ponder the events of Christ’s death and resurrection. During this time the prayer of the church may be sung. After some hours the faithful return to their homes for quiet repose.

The following afternoon we gather as assembly, again with our Elect, for a solemn ceremony of the Lord’s passion – not in sadness, but with trust and hope because we are a resurrected people. At this solemn ceremony ancient intercessions are confidently prayed because we know that the One who liberated the world from evil through his suffering and death intercedes on our behalf. If communion is distributed it was consecrated the night before, providing a link with the Lord’s Supper. Again, we return to our homes, leaving a church that is stark and bare of all but the cross.

During Saturday we pray and reflect with our Elect before gathering in the evening or towards dawn to celebrate the vigil of all vigils, with a magnificent ritual of light, word, initiation and Eucharist. At this ceremony we stand in awe of our God, whose Son paid the ultimate price so that we might live. We are caught up in the mystery as our Elect plunge into the water to die to Christ and to rise to new life and later join us in communion at the table of salvation. This ancient festival over three days is the pinnacle of our year, and is for us the ‘solemnity of solemnities’.

In a diocese where there are few pastors and many Eucharistic communities we are challenged to maintain the integrity of the Triduum festival. This is difficult when attendances vary on each day, and ceremonies occur in different churches and often with different leaders. Liturgical leaders make the link through music, church décor, and careful regard for ritual and symbol, and pastors and deacons gather to reflect together and so ensure that their homilies connect. All the effort is focused on the liturgical events that continue with Easter Day Masses and prayer of the church.

The newly anointed, and all of us who are God’s Elect, continue to celebrate this great mystery of our faith for fifty days – the season of Easter - until the celebration of Pentecost. As we enter fully into the Paschal Mystery we witness to others the joy and hope of the resurrection. As we celebrate the great feast of liberation we will spare no effort to liberate others, to assist the refugee, reach out to the homeless, those suffering addictions, the materially poor. Then our colleagues, family and friends will recognise that the Easter event truly continues in all of us who bear the name Christian, and like St Paul, we can truly say that we have run a good race.

Carmel Pilcher rsj
Diocesan Liturgy Consultant

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