The Eucharist and the Triduum

We now are approaching the very heart of the Church’s liturgical year, the Paschal Triduum. The Roman Missal explains, “In the Sacred Triduum, the Church solemnly celebrates the greatest mysteries of our redemption, keeping by means of special celebrations the memorial of her Lord, crucified, buried and risen.”

During the three holiest days in the annual life of the Church, the Eucharist remains central in these special liturgical celebrations. 

On Holy Thursday, communities of believers around the world celebrate the institution of the Holy Eucharist in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. As the collect prayer for the Mass articulates, Jesus instituted “a sacrifice new for all eternity, the banquet of his love” at the Last Supper. The banquet takes the form of the Passover meal, itself a sacrificial action recalling the deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

This “sacrificial banquet,” which God already had commanded his people to enact as a memorial of the Exodus, was given new meaning when Jesus celebrated it with his disciples. Jesus’ essential words that we hear in every Mass, “this is my body,” “this is my blood,” give the banquet a new reference point. No longer is it the saving sacrifice of the many lambs that we are to remember. Now, we remember the saving sacrifice of the one true Lamb. 

If we believe the Eucharist is the banquet of his love as we pray, then we have a duty to live in his love. If we are to partake of the sacrifice, then we must be ready to share in his sacrifice. We must humble ourselves to live charity in the radical way Jesus shows.

This charity is symbolized in Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet. We are called to wash one another’s feet in serving one another each day. “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (Jn 13:34). 

The Eucharist is the love of Jesus, the “sign of supreme charity,” as Saint Thomas Aquinas defines it. In a special way, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday renews in us that desire to be a conduit of the love of Jesus in our world.

There is no Mass on Good Friday. On Good Friday, the Mass is never celebrated because the sacrificial banquet, which our Lord instituted the day before, must be completed on the cross. 

Thus, Good Friday is marked with a memorial of the central event of our eternal salvation. We read Saint John’s account of the Passion of Jesus Christ, and we adore the instrument of our redemption: the cross. This is arguably the most emotionally charged moment of the entire liturgy of the Catholic Church.

The hymn prescribed to accompany the veneration of the cross, “Crux Fidelis” (Faithful Cross), describes its significance so poignantly, “Sweet the timber, sweet the iron, sweet the burden that they bear.”

Even though the Mass is not offered, the Eucharist remains essential to the celebration of the Lord’s Passion. Enough hosts must be consecrated the day before for all to partake on Good Friday. The Eucharist thus becomes viaticum for the Triduum. It embodies hope in the victory over death that Jesus himself proclaims. 

This Eucharistic hope is instilled in us on Good Friday and points to the day when we receive the Eucharist as viaticum to pass over death to eternal life.

On Holy Saturday, the story of salvation is announced in word and lived in sacrament at the Easter Vigil. God’s saving work is proclaimed through the reading of the essential texts of the Judeo-Christian salvation history. This is the Good News on paper. But, this Good News comes to life sacramentally when catechumens are caught up in this story of salvation as they go down into the waters of baptism and rise with Christ to eternal life.

All the faithful renew their baptismal promises and those who are prepared are fully initiated by confirmation. The Eucharist is celebrated and received by the whole community of Catholic believers. God’s labor of reconciliation and redemption is sacramentally realized in a powerful way in that reception of Holy Communion.

The final communion we receive during the Triduum invites us to a deeper faith. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). The Eucharist always points to the glory of the resurrection: Jesus’ resurrection, which we did not see, and our own resurrection, which is the substance of our hope. Our faith in the resurrection is renewed as we receive the risen Jesus in the Eucharist.

Our Lenten journey leads us to the cross and prepares us to receive an outpouring of his grace as we celebrate the Sacred Triduum. The Church especially invites us to receive the Eucharist on these days to deepen our faith, hope and charity. Therefore, may the Lord continue to guide us as we prepare to celebrate these holiest days of our Catholic faith.