Three Days that Changed the World

The Sacred Triduum and a Pandemic

I sit at my desk in the middle of the Sacred Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter) as well as the beginning of Passover and in the middle of humanity’s fight against forces of nature (Covid-19 Virus) we have not been able to control. Recently I have spent a great deal of time reflecting about life, including death, about family, friends and even enemies and about what is truly important. A lot of this time has been spent outdoors, either “playing in the dirt” around my home or hiking and kayaking alone (or at least six feet away from my outdoor friends.)

Passover for the Jews, like the Easter Triduum for Christians, celebrates deliverance from death into life. At Passover, the angel of death passed over the homes of the Jewish slaves in Egypt saving the lives of the oldest children. Likewise, the betrayed and executed Jesus, whom Mary Magdalene thought was the gardener, was found alive on Easter Day, bringing light and life back into the world.

Truly this is a strange Holy Week, a strange Passover and a confusing time to be alive: a time of anxiety, frustration, anger, blame and fear.  This is a time of proclaiming, my side is better than your side, my leaders are better than your leaders, I’m right and you are wrong. We cannot control all that is happening, our feelings a raw and on the surface and it takes very little to push us, all of us, over the edge.

The good news of Passover, the good news of the Holy three days which climax with Easter is that they too were times when human beings had no control of the events which were changing their lives forever, and yet, and yet, good news came from bad, freedom came out of slavery and life came out of death. These changes did not happen at once, they did not happen when those involved wanted them to, but the people found that even in the midst of sorrow, loss and death, God was faithful. The found that God walked with them and that God’s people were there for each other. Sometimes God had to drag them kicking and screaming to be there and, no question, God is dragging us kicking and screaming to be there as well.

As we journey deeper into death during this Pandemic may the Passover life and the Easter light guide us to open our hearts, minds and spirits to one another and may the words Jesus borrowed from the Hebrew Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy change our lives:

“This is the first and Great Commandment, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. The second is like it; love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Mark 12:29-31)

Soon and very soon, we will join together and proclaim, “Alleluia Christ is Risen, the Lord is Risen indeed!”