Pope Francis explains what the Easter Triduum is

The Easter Triduum is the last three holy days of Holy Week and was originally geared toward catechumens, those who were initiated into the faith on Holy Saturday night. This three-day period recalls the Passion, death, burial and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as described in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In a word of reflection, Pope Francis spoke to us about the Easter Triduum and its importance for all Christians.

We know that night is more night and has more darkness before the day begins. But, precisely, in that darkness is Christ who conquers and who lights the fire of love.

The Easter Triduum.

In the evening, with the Holy Mass in the Lord´s Supper, the Paschal Triduum of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ will begin, which is the culmination of the whole liturgical year and also the culmination of our Christian life.

What is Holy Thursday.

The Easter Triduum opens with the commemoration of the Last Supper. Jesus, on the eve of his passion, offered his Body and Blood to the Father in the form of bread and wine and, giving them as food to the apostles, he ordered them to perpetuate the offering in his memory.

The Gospel of this celebration, recalling the washing of the feet, expresses the same meaning of the Eucharist under another perspective. Jesus, like a servant, washes the feet of Simon Peter and the other eleven disciples (cf. Jn 13:4-5).

With this prophetic gesture, he expresses the meaning of his life and passion, as a service to God and to his brothers and sisters:

"For the Son of Man himself did not come to be served but to serve" (Mark 10:45)

This happened also at our Baptism, when God´s grace has washed us from sin and clothed us with Christ (cf. Col 3:10).

This happens every time we make the Lord´s memorial in the Eucharist: we make communion with Christ the Servant in order to obey his command, that of loving us as he has loved us (cf. Jn 13:34; 15:12).

If we approach Holy Communion without being sincerely willing to wash each other´s feet, we do not recognize the Lord´s Body. It is the service of Jesus giving Himself, totally.

What is Good Friday.

Then, the day after tomorrow, in the liturgy of Good Friday, we meditate on the mystery of Christ´s death and adore the Cross, a very significant part of the Easter Triduum.

In the last moments of life, before giving up the spirit to the Father, Jesus said

"All is accomplished" (John 19:30).

What does this word mean, that Jesus says: "All is fulfilled"? It means that the work of salvation is fulfilled, that all the Scriptures find their full fulfillment in the love of Christ, the Lamb who was slain. Jesus, with his Sacrifice, has transformed the greatest iniquity into the greatest love.

Throughout the centuries we find men and women who, with the testimony of their existence, reflect a ray of this perfect, full, uncontaminated love.

I like to recall a heroic witness of our times, Don Andrea Santoro, a priest of the diocese of Rome and a missionary in Turkey. A few days before he was killed in Trebizond, he wrote:

"I am here to dwell among these people and allow Jesus to do so, lending him my flesh. We become capable of salvation only by offering our own flesh. The evil of the world must be borne and the pain must be shared, absorbing it in one´s own flesh until the end, as Jesus did". (A. Polselli, Don Andrea Santoro, The Inheritance, Città Nuova, Rome 2008, p. 31)

May this example of a man of our times, and many others, sustain us in offering our life as a gift of love to our brothers, in imitation of Jesus.

And today too there are so many men and women, true martyrs who offer their lives with Jesus to confess the faith, for that reason alone. It is a service, a service of Christian witness to the point of blood, a service that Christ has done to us: he has redeemed us to the end. And this is the meaning of that phrase "All is accomplished"!

How beautiful it will be if all of us, at the end of our lives, with our mistakes, our sins, also with our good works, with our love for our neighbor, can say to the Father as Jesus did: "All is fulfilled!" But not with the perfection with which Jesus said it but to say: "Lord, I have done all I could do". Everything has been fulfilled!

Adoring the Cross, looking at Jesus, let us think about love, service, our life, the Christian martyrs.

And it will also do us good to think about the end of our life. None of us knows when this will happen, but we can ask for the grace to be able to say: "Father, I have done everything I could do". Everything has been fulfilled!

What is Holy Saturday.

Holy Saturday is the day of the Easter Triduum in which the Church contemplates the "rest" of Christ in the tomb after the victorious battle on the Cross.

On Holy Saturday, the Church, once again, identifies with Mary: all her faith is contained in her, the first and perfect disciple, the first and perfect believer.

In the darkness that envelops creation, she remains alone to keep the flame of faith burning, waiting against all hope (cf. Rom 4:18) for the Resurrection of Jesus.

And in the great Easter Vigil, in which the Alleluia once again resounds, we celebrate the Risen Christ, the centre and end of the cosmos and of history; we keep watch in full hope as we await his return, when Easter will have its full manifestation.

At times, the darkness of the night seems to penetrate the soul; at times we think: "there is nothing more to do", and the heart no longer finds the strength to love But it is precisely in that darkness that Christ lights the fire of God´s love: a radiance breaks the darkness and announces a new beginning, something begins in the deepest darkness.

We know that the night is more night and has more darkness before the day begins. But in that darkness there is Christ who wins and who lights the fire of love.

The stone of pain has been turned over, leaving room for hope. Here is the great mystery of Easter! On this holy night, the Church gives us the light of the Risen One, so that in us there may not be the lament of those who say "now", but the hope of those who open themselves up to a present full of future: Christ has conquered death and we with him.

Our life does not end before the stone of a Sepulchre, our life goes beyond it, with the hope of the Christ who has risen from that very Sepulchre.

As Christians we are called to be morning watchmen who know how to notice the signs of the Risen One, as did the women and the disciples who went to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week.

Dear brothers and sisters, in these days of the Holy Easter Triduum let us not limit ourselves to commemorating the Lord´s passion but let us enter into the mystery, let us make his feelings, his attitudes our own, as the Apostle Paul invites us to do: "Have in you the same mind that is in Christ Jesus". (Philippians 2:5) Then ours will be a good Easter