Notes for the Week Holy Week and Easter Sunday April 12, 2020
Dear friends in Christ,
We have almost arrived at the “Great Three Days,” we call The Triduum. Our grand entrance into Holy Week began on Palm Sunday, as we waved our palms to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. Holy Week always seems so far away when we begin our journey through Lent, and that seemed especially true for us this year, coping as we are in our fight against COVID-19. We thought of Lent as “Real Lent,” and we will well remember our experience of finding our way through the wilderness in 2020. We came to Palm Sunday and, even though we are still unsure of the future, we felt a sense of relief to see each other again through the miracle of technology, and to know that we have the ability to continue walking together and worshiping together during the Great Three Days of Holy Week.
Although we think of the Triduum as three different services, beginning with Maundy Thursday, entering Good Friday and culminating in our Easter Vigil, we do not think of these moments as separate events. Rather we view them as a single, whole, interconnected total experience. It is difficult to understand one without the other. Something gets lost, some connection seems broken.
Maundy Thursday gives us clear indications of what loving service to others and humility look like and feel like. We don’t “do unto others” to make ourselves look good to our peers. Jesus teaches us that, as Christians, there is no limit to how we express our love for God and our neighbor. As we wash each other’s feet, and as we strip down the altars of worship this Maundy Thursday, we will put away our candles, our icons and crosses, our beads and our sacred cloths. Our rituals of cleansing and stripping down, leave us feeling vulnerable and empty, but that very vulnerability and feeling of emptiness provide a sacred space for our souls and spirits to be laid bare for us to examine. There are no sacred images or articles for us to lean on. Our truth is all we have left.
We carry our truths to the foot of the cross and there we lay one of them down, or two, or more. Each of us knows the secrets of our hearts that we share with God. We come to lay down those parts of ourselves which only serve to burden us, which only serve to worry us, which serve only to deter us from reaching our potential for God and God’s intention for each of us and our interactions with others. We come to lay down those dark parts of our soul which hinder our opportunities to become more loving, more humble, more worthy to call ourselves disciples. We come in faith, seeking and trusting in the light of life to lead us into a new way of being. How can we seek anything less as we realize the meaning of the Cross and Jesus’ invitation to us to lay our burdens down? His death was his invitation for us to allow our sins to die with Him. For His burdens are light and His yoke is easy. Thanks be to God. How can we ever begin to understand the magnificence of that divine gift to us?
Through the darkness of the Great Vigil of Easter, with hope and anticipation, we emerge from the midst of our seeking for renewal. We hear the ancient stories of deliverance and we are suddenly filled with an awakening anticipation and joy as we move forward into the dawn of a new Easter Light. We remember Jesus’ words as he appeared anew to his disciples. He said, “Peace be with you.” If we listen, we can hear His words to us, “Peace be with you through these uncertain and challenging times.” The Gospel of Matthew reminds us to remember all that Jesus taught us, “Do not be afraid….and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. “
My heart is full of gratitude that we shall be together for these Great Three Days. Peace be with you.
We journey together,
Mother Esme+
“I felt in need of a great pilgrimage, so I sat still for three days, and God came to me.”( Kabir)
