Richness of the Triduum

Catholics are called to drop out of day-to-day preoccupations during the Triduum to experience the richness of the sacred Paschal Mystery, according to Father Tom Ranzino, vicar general of the Diocese of Baton Rouge and pastor of St. Jean Vianney Church in Baton Rouge.

Father Ranzino noted that the liturgical year itself is catechetical.

“It’s where we talk about time being sacred with the presence of God. Lent is a season that centers on fasting, prayer and almsgiving and sacrifice,” said Father Ranzino. “And while it may feel different, life goes on in the midst of Lent.”

During Holy Week, the first four days are Palm Sunday through Wednesday, said Father Ranzino.

“When we get to Holy Thursday, that evening we move out of Lent into the shortest liturgical season of the year, called the Triduum, three days (Thursday night through Easter Sunday), and it’s deliberately intended to be kept at church and the home.”

The Triduum is one big liturgy that is punctuated in three places, according to Father Ranzino.

On Holy Thursday, there is the commemoration of the Last Supper, the washing of the feet and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

“Then we go home and pick up again on Good Friday,” Father Ranzino said. “There’s no what we usually call introductory rites except that we start kneeling, the priest starts prostrated.”

The Good Friday service will include the reading of the Passion from the Gospel of St. John, the solemn intercession, veneration of the cross and holy Communion.

“And then we stop and the vigil (prayer) goes until Saturday night Vigil,” he said. “And when we pick up outside around the fire (at Easter Vigil Mass), there’s no normal introductory rites. And we do the most important things we believe in. We baptize, we confirm, we share Eucharist. The church gives birth to the neophytes (those entering the Catholic Church at the vigil). Baptized Roman Catholics do what we do every Sunday, remember the great Easter.”

None of that makes a lot of sense unless we keep the Triduum at home and “drop out” in a number of ways, Father Ranzino said.

“We enter into a deep fast, not necessarily from food but a different kind of fast where we are fasting from what normally would distract us,” said Father Ranzino. “Fasting from the radio, fasting from the video games, fasting from Netflix, entertainment that pulls us out of this sense of vigil. That’s really hard to do because we have to deal with ‘spring break,’ a culture of celebrating joy.

“The deep fast enables us to keep our minds and heart focused on what the church is doing to which we are invited to participate in on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.”

Something else that helps to understand what the church is doing is to keep a vigil on Holy Thursday before the Blessed Sacrament. And as is the case at St. Jean Vianney, a vigil is kept before the cross on Good Friday night. And the church is open so people can also come and pray before the crucifix on Holy Saturday. People are invited into deeper prayer.

The fasting during the Triduum is different than the fasting of Lent, Father Ranzino emphasized.

“When I tell people their Lenten penance is over Holy Thursday night, I get a reaction of ‘Oh great. Now I can eat candy or I can do this …’ That’s where a bigger fasting comes in,” he said.

The fasting of the Triduum is a fast due to excitement, emphasized Father Ranzino. He compared it to when someone has a speech to give, concert to perform or an important life event coming up.

“You’re too excited to eat because of what’s coming,” said Father Ranzino.

In our culture, Christianity can be reduced to a name or an emblem, Father Ranzino pointed out.

“It’s good to remember what Holy Week and the Triduum are about, what God is doing, it’s about our identity, it’s about our faith, what we believe in,” he said. “When we let the Triduum pass by either without taking part in it or without much thought we lose the opportunity, I think, to deepen some of the wellsprings of who we are as Catholic people.”

He encouraged families to bring the children to the Triduum liturgies so they can understand it as the holiest days of the year for the Catholic Church. The children may not understand everything, but they remember the washing of the feet, the kissing of the cross, the lighting of the paschal candle and lighting of candles in a darkened church, the baptisms.

People can find the rituals “off putting” according to Father Ranzino, because they can’t get past the confusion or mystery of them.

“There is something that comes with acceptance that the ritual is a language that communicates to us about God in ways that words can’t always communicate. When we surrender to these liturgies, it’s not that we figure them out, but that they can take us away, bring us closer to the Lord as possible while we are still here on earth. A little bit of heaven,” said Father Ranzino.

The Triduum is not a call to become a hermit, it’s a call to not forget who you are, Father Ranzino said.

“We live a lot of our life swimming in our day-to-day activities. The Triduum invites us to stick our head above water, to take a deep breath. So that we can go back under and live the rest of the year remembering what eternal life means – what is the light we need to see more clearly? And is there life beyond death?”

There’s some things people cannot get out of a book but only out of experience, Father Ranzino said.

“I think the Triduum is one of those. Whether you’re a priest, layperson, deacon or nun. All of us just have to just do it the best way we can,” Father Ranzino said.