Triduum and Easter Message 2006
John Michael Talbot

Peace and Good in Christ!

Today we begin the journey of our Lord Jesus from the Upper Room to Calvary, and from Calvary to the Empty Tomb. We make this journey year after year, but each time the Lord has something new and personal for each of us, as well as for the entire Church.

For me it is a journey that reminds me of the opening words of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity Scripture Rule which we recite every Sunday, the day of our Lord's resurrection. "The rule of the brothers and sisters is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We should be troubled about nothing except this all encompassing rule. All that matters is that one be created anew."

These words take us into, through, and past all of the ups and downs of life in the world, the Church, and our families and communities of the Church, and cut right to the heart of what is really the core of the Christian faith, and of every major religious mystical tradition in the world: dying and rising, though different faiths call it by different names. It is a walk through dying to our illusory self preoccupations and habit patterns, and allowing our real being to be awakened, or born again.

This happens in a most profound way for followers of Jesus. Jesus complements this aspect of all major religions and philosophies of the world, and we have a profound respect and reverence for every religious tradition. All that is good, true, and holy in each is retained. But Jesus also completes them, not out of a religious triumphalism or fanaticism, but simply by BEING this dying and rising. Buddhists say that it is not so much hearing or even teaching the Dharma, or the teaching, that matters. We must actually BE the Dharma. In a most unique way Jesus simply IS the dying and the rising that is at the heart of all good mystical traditions. He does not just teach it. He IS it in His dying and rising. So Jesus complements and completes every mystical tradition that teaches or points to this mystical dying and rising. It is realized for us in our own spiritual journey from the slavery to our illusory and delusional selves to the freedom of who we really are as adopted sons and daughters of God.

This dying and rising is the heart of the Triduum, and the liturgical pinnacle of the Catholic Christian Faith. The Triduum includes the celebration of Holy Thursday with the Mass of the Lord's Supper and remembering His arrest. Good Friday remembers His crucifixion with the veneration of the Cross, and often the additional devotion of the Stations of the Cross. The Easter Vigil is the highest of holy celebrations as we solemnly celebrate His glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ with the lighting of the Easter fire, the lighting of the Paschal Candle, the singing of the Exultet, the expanding readings that take us through salvation history in the Old Testament and into the New, and the celebration of the Mass with a newfound joy and zeal. The Triduum takes us to the very heart and soul of our faith.

These celebrations speak to every faculty of our human person. Our senses are ministered to as we come together to reenact the drama of the Passion of Jesus in a physical time and place. We use our senses of sight, hearing, smell, and taste as the story is sung, told and dramatized once more, and the sacraments are celebrated. Our emotions are stirred, and are minds are guided and directed. These effect our human energies. Finally the deepest part of who we are, our very spirit, is reborn as we break through to the most essential and powerful, yet so often forgotten, of human faculties: Spiritual intuition. This spiritual intuition builds on the senses, emotions, and mind, but surpasses and perfects them all. For Catholic Christians this happens most profoundly through the Mysteries, or the Sacraments that are celebrated with such holy solemnity on these most holy of liturgical days.

Another most powerful aspect of these celebrations is that they are truly universal, or Catholic. Some parishes will celebrate with all that wealthy mega churches can muster. Some will do so with the humility of a third world, inner city, or simple rural parish in the farmlands. But we will all celebrate the same Liturgy and receive the same sacraments. Rich or poor, big or small, professional or amateur, it doesn't matter. We will all celebrate the basic essentials of the same Faith, the same Lord, and the same Sacraments in this Holy Triduum. This is actually the case on any given Sunday, and at every Mass, Communion Service, or Monastic Office every day for those who choose to participate.

This year I encourage all my brothers and sisters to refocus on the real essentials of our Faith: The dying and the rising of Jesus. This simple focus will help us to really let go, to die to our old selves and ways that are so often trapped in the net of transitory things, even when they appear to be religious in nature. If we really "let go and let God" we are reborn into a life of the self emptying of Jesus we might really begin to love as Jesus loved; without there being any trace of self preoccupation, self indulgence, or ego.

Perhaps most especially when garbed in the religious clothing of various ancillary ideas and agendas. IT is so easy to let theology become a false god. The theology is often not at fault. It is that we attach our self to these ideas about our faith and morality in God, and end up missing God in the long run. This tragic pattern is notorious among seriously religious people. It takes the things that are intended to set us free, and entraps us in slavery to self once again. The dying and rising of Jesus sets us free.

This can be a rugged and narrow road, and the journey can take a lifetime. But it leads to an expansion of heart, mind, and spirit in the Spirit of Jesus that is well worth the effort, both in Eternity, and even right here on earth. If we stay faithful it will change us, and change us for the better.

I pray that your Triduum be a most blessed experience for you and all your loved ones this year. You are all in our prayers from here at the Hermitage. Please keep us in yours as well.

In Jesus,
John Michael Talbot
Founder, Spiritual Father and General Minister
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage