In recent days, God has granted an abundance of clarity in my mind and heart so that I have been able to notice and understand a key difference in my life. Specifically, I have been focused on the differences between my experience of Holy Week and Easter as a non-Catholic and, for the last four years, as a Catholic. The differences are tremendous!
As a non-Catholic for all of my young life (and as a practical agnostic for my latter adolescence and young adulthood), I was never presented with the concept of Holy Week. I knew what Good Friday was, and I heard the term “Maundy” Thursday. Never was the term Holy Saturday mentioned. Moreover, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were never presented as special days, during which special church services were held. Every day from Monday after Palm Sunday until Easter Sunday seemed ordinary days to me.
Easter Sunday was celebrated with new, bright-colored clothes, a morning church service, and (sometimes) lunch at a restaurant afterward. The fact that we had no extended family in the local area prevented a larger family celebration. Then, on the Monday after Easter, it was back to “business as usual.” There was absolutely no extended celebration of the most miraculous and substantial event of the Christian faith.
My experience as a Catholic has been much different, and much more complete. The final week of Lent, Holy Week, is a very special week (hence the name) during which a spirit of penance, prayer, and preparation for the Paschal Triduum pervades. Only the most significant of extra-liturgical activities are scheduled, thereby reminding the faithful to focus forward to the blessed feast.
Thus, the liturgy Paschal Triduum begins. Holy Thursday is marked by a single, concelebrated Mass that recalls Christ’s institution of the Eucharist on the night before he suffered and died. Indeed, we all get to participate as though we were seated in that Upper Room with Him. The singular act of our salvation continues on Good Friday with a call to fasting and abstinence from meat, to engage in works of mercy, and to recall the sacrifice that is expiation for our sins. Many Catholics also attend a Good Friday communion service and Veneration of the Cross, which are other reminders of this penultimate act. Finally, Holy Saturday provides the faithful with a solemn day during which we are supposed to gather our thoughts and prayers from the entire season of Lent; to make them ready for the Easter celebration.
The Resurrection Day is most holy! It is the first time we hear the word “Alleluia” in six weeks. It is filled with imagery of light and new life, marked specifically by the liturgical colors of white and gold (in stark contrast to purple during Lent). It is filled with joy and hope unlike any other time of the liturgical (or calendar) year. Family celebrations aside, the celebration continues into the evening; the day continues to require a sense of awe, prayer, and Christian witness.
Alas, the celebration is not complete on Easter Sunday night. We celebrate the victory that Christ won for us over a period of eight days! For eight days, faithful worshipers are encouraged to keep in the front of their minds the triumph of light over darkness, life over death. Monday is no longer back to “business as usual.”
He is risen! Please continue to celebrate with me!
God bless!
