Today is the beginning of what is known as the Easter Triduum, the most sacred days in the Catholic world. During these days we re-live, more than just remember, the last days on earth of Jesus Christ. Our remembrance is an active one. We do not just remember something that happened in the past. We re-discover these events as our life programme for today and the foundation for a better world for future generations. We have to discover, as Pope Francis recently said a "present that is full of the future".
The Easter Triduum is, therefore, not only the climax of our liturgical year but also the apex of our lives as Christians.
This evening we meet for the celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders are commemorated. The celebration is popularly characterized by the washing of “the Apostles’ feet.”
This evening Archbishop Scicluna will renovate the symbolic act by meeting and washing the feet of twelve families coming from different walks of life. Pope Francis, since he became pope, started celebrating the ceremony in different institutions associated with vulnerable persons. This year he will wash the feet of prisoners.
The expressive ceremony highlights the concept of authority and brotherly love preached and practiced by Christ. We are expected to copy his example. If we take Communion without being sincerely ready to wash each other’s feet – Pope Francis said this Wednesday – we do not acknowledge the Lord’s Body: “Jesus’ service is to give of himself, totally”.
On Good Friday we Christians look at the cross through Jesus' cri de coeur before he died: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Many times we feel this cry to be our 'own' in difficult situations of life, which can cause very profound desolation, create worry and uncertainties. In moments of loneliness and distress, which are frequent in our life, the exclamation, 'The Lord has abandoned me!' might surge from our hearts to our mouths.
In such situations, Christ's Passion offers a new key to understanding. In his Passion, Death and Resurrection, Jesus reveals to us that the final word on human existence is not death, but God's victory over death. It was so in the experience of Jesus and it can be so in the experience of each and every believer.
On Holy Saturday we will meditate Jesus’ lying in the tomb, and with Mary, the Church will keep alive the flame of faith, hoping against every hope in Christ’s resurrection. Our wait will not be too long. In the evening we meet to celebrate the Resurrections. The shouts of the Alleluia resounds again.
So much has been written about the meaning of Easter. I would like to share with you some of the thoughts expressed by Pope Benedict XVI during his Installation Mass in April, 2005.
“During those sad days of the pope's (John Paul II) illness and death, it became wonderfully evident to us that the church is alive. And the church is young. She holds within herself the future of the world and therefore shows each of us the way toward the future. The church is alive and we are seeing it: We are experiencing the joy that the risen Lord promised his followers. The church is alive -- she is alive because Christ is alive, because he is truly risen. In the suffering that we saw on the Holy Father's face in those days of Easter, we contemplated the mystery of Christ's passion, and we touched his wounds. But throughout these days we have also been able, in a profound sense, to touch the Risen One. We have been able to experience the joy that he promised, after a brief period of darkness, as the fruit of his Resurrection.”
I wish a Happy Easter to all my readers.