Living Holy Week from the Inside

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knows that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father
- John 13.1

In March we saw Jesus set his face resolutely towards Jerusalem. Now, in April, he arrives. He arrives at what John calls his “hour.”

Periods of time. We come this month to the period of time known as the Easter Triduum. This rather strange title refers to the period from the Last Supper on Holy Thursday till the Easter celebration of the Resurrection. And it is this period, which, in the liturgical sense, constitutes one event, one day. It is the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, the suffering, death and resurrection of Our Lord; these cannot be separated.

And what are we to do? Most of us have lived through many Aprils, many Holy Weeks. How can we make this one different, better?

Perhaps by living it from the inside. I have often participated in the liturgies yet remained watching from the outside, as it were. This year I will try to move inside, to remember, “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” —Galatians 2.20 This time it will not be Jesus “over there” but the Christ who lives in me who will suffer, die and rise again. I will live the day of the Easter Triduum from the inside.

As Thomas Merton says (in He is Risen) “The risen life is not easy; it is also a dying life…We do not rise with Christ unless we die with him.”

Written by Mary Buckley CSJ