Roma, 2 April, 2015
Holy Thursday – Paschal Triduum
Prot. Nº 0000 116/2015
Dear Confreres, Sisters, Lay Associates and Friends,
This evening with the celebration of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we begin the Sacred Paschal Triduum of the Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Each year, we are invited to enter into this mystery through prayer and contemplation, liturgical celebration and service to those in need. “As helpers, companions and ministers” (c. 2), of the Redeemer, he “continues to fulfil the will of his Father by carrying on the redemption through us” (c. 52). What a wonderful and privileged vocation is ours! With joy and hope, let us say “yes” to this invitation with heartfelt gratitude.
As we approach these feasts, it is important for us to celebrate the deeper meaning of the Resurrection. As Pope Francis teaches in Evangelii Gaudium (#275-276), when we are tempted to think that nothing will change in this world of ours, we need to recall that Jesus Christ has triumphed over sin and death, and that not only is change possible, it is promised and guaranteed! “Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up”. As our Constitutions remind us, we must “become signs and witnesses before people of the power of his resurrection, proclaiming the new and eternal life” (c. 51).
To celebrate Easter in this Year of the Consecrated Life reminds us that we walk the same path as Jesus who gave himself up to death and ascended victorious through his resurrection: this path is the “way of virginity, poverty and obedience, the way of service and sacrifice of self unto death” (c. 50). This is the call to leave the upper room, to open the doors locked out of fear, and to enter the markets and the peripheries, the byways and the cities with a message of joy!
