Today we begin the Triduum, the “three days,” leading up to Easter. The liturgies during these days are designed to help us enter fully into the Pascal mystery. They can be quite a workout: the up and down foot-washing, Eucharistic procession, reading the passion, long series of prayers, veneration of the cross, lighting the Easter fire, following the Pascal Candle from darkness into light, the long series of Bible readings, the baptismal water, the glistening oil, all punctuated by hymns and songs. These liturgies involve all of our senses as a reminder that the events of loving sacrifice we commemorate are meant to transform us. We lift high the cross not for our admiration but for our imitation. How fitting, then, that in the gospel which inaugurates the Triduum Jesus tells us “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
