Triduum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Triduum

I have always loved Holy Week. When I was a small child we would spend it with the Commie Priests of D'Andreas in Lemont, IL. The magesty of the Three Days. The wholeness of the washing of the feet, the horror of the Passion and the relief of the first Alleluja.

I have written about this before but the most moving Holy Thursday for me was in 1995

when I was a volunteer in the Men's Prison of San Sebastian in Cochabamba, Bolivia. On that day Fr Benoit the pastor of the jail invited the inmates, many of whom hated each other to wash each other's feet- it was a moment of grace.

Last year Traudi and I were in Istanbul and we went to Mass in a mostly Muslim city with Mass in Italian. There is something that grounds me in Holy Week. I can do without Christmas but Easter is something again. Easter means rebirth and spring and the fact that God who became human chose to banish fear. So often religious people forget that Jesus banished fear. We wollow in fear and this is many times our greatest sin. Fear has lead to so many evils.

"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.

24:2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

"Why do you seek the living among the dead?

24:6 He isn't here, but is risen.

Gospel of Luke