Dear Friends,
Well, just like that, Holy Week is with us and the great mysteries of the Easter Triduum lie before us.
Thanks be to God, this year in our part of the world, most of us can hopefully celebrate the Easter liturgies with our faith communities (despite a fresh COVID cluster in Brisbane), unlike last year when the churches were closed due to the pandemic. Easter is always special, but this year, its celebration will seem even more precious.
Our prayerful solidarity goes out to all those around the world who face another Easter in COVID lockdown, or indeed, those who for other reasons, cannot worship together at this time.
The Easter Triduum is a three-day entering into the Paschal Mystery – the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those events happened more than 2000 years ago, but their impact lives on.
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus was such a cataclysmic historical event that it changed everything. Even our calendar finds its roots in the life of Jesus Christ as this year we mark 2021 years since the birth of Christ.
The Triduum invites us not only to remember the events of Calvary and the empty tomb, but to truly enter into them. The liturgy makes present for us Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary and, equally present, His resurrection. Although many of us take part in these liturgies every year, through the action and grace of God, they still have the power to change our hearts.
This Holy Week, let us go quietly and prayerfully. Let us engage with God’s Word and let it enter into us as we hear the familiar readings. Let us imagine how it must have been for Jesus, his mother, and his friends and disciples and let that experience open our hearts to receive the great love Jesus has for us. And as we receive that Easter love, let it overflow from us and embrace those around us.
Loving others and reaching out to care for those in need is a natural response to the great love we have been given, the love that took our sins to the cross on Good Friday and broke the chains of death on Easter Sunday.
May this Holy Week rekindle that great love in us and refresh our missionary impulse so that come Easter we can proclaim through our words and in our lives: “He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed.”
Yours in the Word,
Fr Asaeli Rass SVD
Provincial.