Christ Episcopal Church
	Riverton, New Jersey
	Approaching the Big Three April 2006 The Big Three? Is that after one game with one to go during the final four of March Madness? Or, given this is a church publication, the Holy Trinity? Actually, in this context, neither. Rather, the Big Three at this time of the year is the Triduum (trio) of Holy Days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Day. The gateway to the Big Three is Palm Sunday. In that moving liturgy we experience the elation of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and then quickly move towards the sorrow of his Passion, this year told in St. Mark’s version. The powerful drama enacted this day gives us an abstract of the solemnities to follow, from which we extract and experience anew the specific events of these final days of our Lord’s life. Maundy Thursday is the day when the church commemorates Jesus’ institution of the Holy Eucharist, known as the Last Supper. This feast is also known as Holy Thursday. The word Maundy comes from the Latin word, mandatum, meaning order, command, or commission; for it is on this night that Jesus gives a new commandment (mandatum novum), that his followers love one another as he has loved them. It is in the sacred meal, the celebrating of which he also commands (Do this in remembrance of me), that we are given the action -- the Lord’s Supper, that helps us to remember what that love means: that the Son of God sacrificed his life to give us life. After this Liturgy, the altar is stripped in order that there be no adornment in the church in preparation for what is to come. Good Friday is the day we commemorate Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross and is the most solemn day of the Christian year. No one is entirely sure why it is called ‘Good’ in English, since in the romance Languages it is Holy Friday, in German, Sorrowing Friday. Perhaps it comes from the term “God’s Friday”. But this day is actually for all of fallen humanity, for, as the hymn states, We may not know, we cannot tell, what pains he had to bear, but we believe it was for us he hung and suffered there. The proper liturgy for the day is in three parts: the lessons and solemn prayers and collects, the veneration of the cross and communion from the reserved sacrament, the bread and wine consecrated on Maundy Thursday, as celebrations of the Eucharist are forbidden on Good Friday. We will follow Jesus’ steps figuratively as we read the Passion according to St. John at the afternoon service, and more literally in the evening as we move around the church pausing and praying at the 14 stations along the Way of the Cross. When I consider the worship on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, one incident in scripture comes to mind, a small vignette played out during the dark hours between those two days. Jesus invites his inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John to come with him while he prayed prior to his arrest. While our Lord struggled with what he was to undergo, the disciples, instead of supporting him, fell asleep. When Jesus sees them, he asks, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” I encourage everyone to spend at least one hour in worship with him during this time to contemplate these mighty acts. As dark as the first two of the Big Three are, so the final day, Easter is light. After the fasting of Lent and the solemnity of Holy Week it is as if a switch were thrown. Jesus who was dead, is raised, the first to move from death to resurrection. By virtue of our baptisms, we will, when the time comes, play follow the leader to his triumphant journey, as we believe our departed loved ones have already. And that is why Easter is the most important holy day on the calendar, the ‘Prince of Feasts’. This is the day to come with your brightest smiles and most joyful emotions, for death has been swallowed up by life forever. So this Big Three is the annual yet eternal three and the most important of the ‘be there’ days of the Christian year. For Christ has suffered, Christ has died, and finally, Christ has been raised! Alleluia! Therefore, keep the feast! Amen!