Lent, Holy Week and the Easter Triduum
BY FR. NICHOLAS ONYAIT MCCJ
It is not a surprise that the Church started the season of Lent reflecting upon the temptations of Jesus Christ in the desert as in the gospel on the first Sunday of the season of Lent. The desert, symbolically, a place that exposes one to the experiences of infinite desire to relate with othersband to satisfy the basic needs of food and water, is where Jesus is lead by the Spirit before he began his public ministry.
The desert in Church history is the place of searching for God by detaching from the world and its allurements. With the physical risks it exposes one to, the desert becomes a spiritual place of learning how to conquer the passions of the body which, may lead to sin if not tamed. No wonder most desert fathers applauded mortification of the body for the good of the soul. He who is not controlled by bodily passions can conquer evil. This is where the journey to empowerment, the voyage towards conversion starts. The season of lent has been our desert in which we fight and conquer evil with its temptations.
Therefore, Lent, the Holy Week and the Easter Triduum are the three steps towards the glorification of Jesus and towards our own glorification and our own resurrection. In other words, the three steps can be our own phases towards glorification. After the temptations in the desert and having resisted all the allurements of food (bodily needs), power, wealth/possessions from the devil, Jesus returns empowered to begin his ministry, still filled with the Holy Spirit. Lent has been for us the journey into the desert for empowerment by the spirit of the Lord such that we may master our passion through fasting, alms giving and prayer and thus conquer the evil that often entangles us.
What we live in these aspects that I have called the three steps to glorification, is a typical journey that evokes remorse for our sins, an exposure of God’s self-giving love for us and His eventual resurrection, which is the climax of all this events. The period of lent has also given us guidelines to our sanctification through repentance in the story of the prodigal son and the merciful father (Luke 15:cf), through the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1- 9), through the Samaritan woman who turns to Jesus for living water, (John 4:5- 42), through the restoration of the sight of the man born blind (John 9:1-41) and through the raising of Lazarus. (John 11:1- 45). All these five gospel passages contain something about who God is to us; that God is our power, mercy, healing and life.
Having understood this, we are then led to a deeper and most stunning and dreadful manifestation of the mysteries of the Holy week. Jesus enters Jerusalem and is welcomed exuberantly by the Jews. He comes riding on a donkey. A humble king, a shepherd who lays down his life for his flock. It fills us with joy to welcome Jesus as our king. However, for him, it is a joy that lasts only an instance.
As he offers himself up in the last supper, his body for bread and his blood for drink, he only meets betrayal, condemnation and denial from his beloved ones. His love is betrayed with hatred, torture and derision despite his innocence. We are in the second step towards glorification which entails that we treat others with love despite their fowls against us. Christ breaks himself as bread for our nourishment, we must break ourselves for others.
WE MUST DIE TO SIN IN ORDER TO RISE WITH HIM
The Holy week unites us with the person of Christ in his suffering and pain. We walk with Christ to calvary and I believe that walking with Christ in this way of love will lead us to change and conversion. We shall not be left empty. His love for us challenges us in such a provocative way that it makes us yearn to love him and not to betray him. It challenges us to detest our sins that continue to crucify him. Walking with him puts us in remorse for the sins we have committed and implants in us a desire for repentance.
We should be ashamed of the evil that we have caused to others, especially by stealing from the poor and or exploiting them. We should be ashamed of our decisions that compromise his plan for us while applauding “our rights and freedom” at the expense of the same plan, we should be remorseful of many other sins that are known to each one of us as individuals. As we follow Jesus, let us ask him to forgive us our sins.
Let us beseech him to have mercy on us. Our hope is in the resurrection. However, in order to rise with him, we must die to sin. We must take on the spiritual and physical fruits that the season of lent brought to us. One of the lines of the Exultet, the Easter proclamations says “the sanctifying power of this night dispels wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.” It is in this transformation from darkness to light, sinfulness to holiness, guilt to innocence, sorrow to joy and hatred to love that the Easter proclamation and celebration has meaning and leads us to glorification.
The true glorification then is when we have made the move from darkness to light, from sorrow to joy, from sinfulness to forgiveness and holiness. The risen Lord glorifies us and helps us conquer evil,
Alleluia! Happy Easter!
