April 21, 2011
Holy Thursday – Beginning of Triduum
Exodus 12:1-14 First Corinthians 11:23-26 John 13:1-15
In the same way that many Americans can easily share their remembrances of where they were and what they did on 9-11, the people of Japan have now added another story to their historical remembrances. Grandchildren will be told about how their family members survived or perished in the earthquake and tsunami or nuclear leaks.
These events will be woven into their literature, their artistic renderings and even their cultural sense of who they are as a people…just as we have woven the events of 9-11 into our own culture. With Holy Thursday we enter into a time of profound ‘story-telling’ during which we remember our roots within the Jewish Covenant with God, when God did powerful signs and wonders on our ancestors behalf.
Tonight we also hear how that Passover and Exodus story took on a new meaning for the disciples of Jesus. Interestingly the Gospel focus tonight is not so much on the bread and wine given by Jesus as his body and blood…but on his washing of his disciple’s feet…and admonition for us to do the same. It is within the selfless service to one another that we most ‘shine like the sun’ in imitation of Jesus (at his Transfiguration.) This is an evening where we are invited to consider our OWN story. Who have been the people who have stooped to do the equivalent of washing our feet, soothing our souls, calming our anxiety, pulling us back from despair?
Who are those who have sacrificed for us, who have given in ways big or small so that we could survive and grow? What have been the turning points within our own lives when paths were chosen and futures determined? How have we participated in the choices of others, how have we helped to feed and nourish those who look to us for guidance and service? With Holy Thursday we enter into an unusual period called TRIDUUM. We are no longer within Lent but we are not yet arrived at Easter’s empty tomb.
Triduum speaks to the importance of the stories we retell in these days…it is a single liturgy, beginning tonight, which concludes on Saturday evening at the Vigil. Essentially the stories we tell are too important to try to squeeze into a single event or day…so we spend THREE DAYS remembering and considering them. So, what are your exodus stories? What are your stories of selfless service, both from others to you and you to others? Tomorrow we will be invited to consider our cross-filled lives and the stories that are embedded within the wood of that instrument of both death and hope. But tonight…it is a time to settle in, get comfortable and start to remember how we have become the people we are….and who are those who have gotten us to where we are.
Thank you for sharing this Holy Thursday evening with our Corpus Christi family as we initiate Triduum. You are invited to take some of the ‘blessed bread’ (not consecrated, but blessed) that is in the baskets near the altar and share it with your family on Easter Sunday as a part of your Easter Celebration grace….a way of tying the whole story together and linking tonight with your personal Easter celebrations.
Also, the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle will be available in Meeting Rooms 3&4 for personal adoration and devotion until midnight, reminiscent of Jesus’ time in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. You are of course invited to return tomorrow, Good Friday, once again at 7:00 p.m. for our Good Friday component of Triduum.
These are powerful days and nights filled with much portent and grace…as you remember and share your own stories, also remember that you are loved. FKB
