So, here we are at the end of Lent. We have arrived at the Triduum, the Three Sacred Days, observed by some communities with a worship service which spans well, three days. Worship starts Maundy Thursday with foot washing and Holy Communion, continues on Good Friday with Christ’s Passion and crucifixion, and ends Saturday (in some congregations) with the Great Vigil of Easter and Holy Communion. I have heard that some congregations enjoy fellowship post the long vigil and that champagne is the drink of choice.
Friday and Saturday, have a sense of liminality, of in-between time. It’s a time of waiting before the final portion of the worship service in the evening. Maybe people finishing prepping for Sunday’s Easter dinner. Or maybe Saturday is spent observing the Sabbath to the extent possible. Having attended many Triduum services over the years, Saturday does have a sort of “now what?” feel to it. It’s almost as if we are back in the wilderness of the early days of Lent, especially if one tries to make it a reflective day and not fill the day with errands and other to-do items.
Waiting is not something we are good at as a society. Our technology is all about going faster. We do a lot of shopping online with next day delivery. Complex problems are often tackled with quick-fix solutions…which typically don’t work. Or, we implement a plan and the change is slow coming, it doesn’t happen overnight so we give up on it before allowing enough time to really assess how things are going. When we lived in Philadelphia, if we had rented a car for the weekend, we learned that if our foot was not off the breaks when the cross traffic gets the red light, people start honking. We don’t like to wait.
Long gone, for many people, is the discipline of waiting for photos to be developed, the next episode of a series as series often have all the episodes released at once, letters of acceptance/invitation to arrive in the mail, waiting for the time block when long-distance calls are cheaper (what?), or for an item to be restocked at the store.
Today, there are people waiting for the arrival of a baby, for a transplant surgery, to receive a positive phone call after a job interview, for an insurance claim after a natural disaster, for bread dough to rise, or any one of thousands of possibilities. It’s often more common than not that the waiting is active waiting involving preparations or moving on with life as best as possible. It’s rare that we simple sit and wait.
So, what are we waiting for in these three days of the Triduum? What were the women who had stayed at the foot of the cross on that Friday 2000 years ago, or the other disciples, waiting for after the crucifixion? There would have been Passover preparations to get to for the next day. The women waited to tend to the body on Sunday morning. The disciples gathered together, likely in the same room where they had shared supper on Thursday. They were probably in shock. Now what?
Christians know the rest of the story, we know how it ends. Even people of other faith are familiar with the story. So what are we waiting for? What are we doing as we wait at different times during these three days? Are we finding time to be still, to take a contemplative posture, or to spend time engaging in a spiritual or prayer practice? Maybe as we wait for the joy and celebration of Easter morning we pause to remember that Thursday night as part of the worship, in the Gospel of John, the disciples (and us) are given the commandment to love one another. And given the example to serve one another.
Blessings on these three days and Easter if you celebrate. May your waiting be holy.
If you have been reading along every week, thank you. Hopefully it was worth your while, maybe it brought an occasional giggle.
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