The short reflections for each of the next three days of Triduum were published as one piece in Spirituality Mar/Apr 2012; No. 101 under the title “The Paschal Mystery.”

Holy Thursday

Triduum (three days) is in no need of any superimposed theme. The theme of these high holy days is the transformational movement of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus as commemorated and concelebrated in the linked liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Sunday. But the paschal mystery, if it is to become our lived mystery, does evoke questions if we but open the ears of our heart and listen.

The Trappist monk Thomas Merton once wrote that the character of persons is evidenced more in the questions they ask than in the convenient answers they are all too ready to offer and that “to make known one’s questions is, no doubt, to come out in the open oneself.” Jewish author and sage Elie Wiesel once wrote that when he was a young boy the town’s holy fool, Moshe the Beadle, taught him “that every question possessed a power that did not lie in the answer.” When young Elie asked his poor barefoot master, “And why do you pray, Moshe?” the wise-fool said, “I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.”

Questions are important. They reveal a lot about who we are and whose we are; about who we are becoming as questing people and about who God is for us.  Triduum is an opportune time to reflect together on what the essential questions are for us as people of faith, as followers of Jesus.  It might be wise to pray to God to help us discover the burning questions of our time. The gospel for the Feast of the Lord’s Supper offers us some clues. Will we let Jesus wash our feet? If like Peter’s first response, we resist, why do we resist Jesus’ gentle yet profound gesture? Do we realize what Jesus has done for us, how Jesus stoops to conquer—self-absorption, greed, indifference toward others, senseless violence, the abuse of power, racism, religion that stays within church walls masquerading as faith, unnecessary poverty and disease, self-loathing, loneliness, and despair– by giving us an example of mercy in action? What will it require of me to be a towel woman or a towel man? What will it cost us to be a community of foot washers? What will it cost us if we are not? Have we lost the meaning of Jesus’ first graceful action as depicted in this evening’s gospel (taking, blessing, breaking and sharing bread) by neglecting the second compassionate action described (washing feet)?

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