Why is this night different from all other nights? Because this night begins the Sacred Triduum. During these three days the work of our salvation is accomplished by Jesus the Christ. The celebration of these sacred mysteries are not meant to entertain us but to transform us. Our celebration of the Paschal Mysteries reminds us that there is really only one thing that really matters in this life: salvation. As Jesus tells his disciples: “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?” (Mt 16,26) Salvation is not something that we can do for ourselves, it is not a self-improvement program. Salvation is won for us by Jesus the Christ through his humility, obedience, and self-sacrifice. Jesus dies to save us. Salvation is a gift that is given to us, a seal placed upon us, when we give ourselves wholly to Jesus as his disciples and become configured to Jesus.
As we live the Paschal Mysteries of this Sacred Triduum, we move from night into a new day. Our journey through these sacred days takes us from the night of Jesus’ passion and death into the light of the new day of resurrection and new life. Once we were darkness, disfigured by sin, children of the night but now, through the grace of our salvation in Jesus, we are light and children of the day. St. Paul tells the Thessalonians: “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him.” (Thes 5,8ff) Our salvation depends on our living together with Jesus and being configured to him.
God created us for himself. He created us in his divine image and likeness. God created us to be a holy people. God created us as his children to have life and have it in abundance, being heirs to eternal life. We are meant to “watch our figure” for our figure is the image and likeness of God, his holiness and divine life. However, because of sin and the fall from grace, we had become disfigured by sin, we lost our figure. Sin disfigures us and alienates us from God. Our hope for salvation lies in our being configured to Christ once again. To be configured to Christ means to “put on Christ”, “to have the mind of Christ”, to “suffer with Christ” and to “live together with Christ”. If we are to fill ourselves with Christ through the Spirit that he places in our hearts, then we must first empty ourselves of our selfish nature. Our old self, disfigured by sin, is selfish and self-serving. Our new self in Christ must be selfless, self-emptying, self-sacrificing and self-giving. The Sacred Triduum, takes us through the process of being configured to Christ so that we might be transfigured in his glory.
Holy Thursday sets the foundation for our spiritual life in Christ. Holy Thursday begins with humility, with self-emptying service to others. After washing the disciples feet, Jesus says to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (Jn 13,12-15) On the road to Jerusalem, Jesus tells his disciples, “Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20,28) To be configured to Christ we must become servants to one another and humbly lay down our lives for one another. Jesus has given us a model to follow. What he has done for us, we must do for one another. How can we fulfill the call to service in our lives? As members of the Body of Christ, the Church, we are not called to be served but to serve and to give ourselves to one another in humble, kind, generous service. We are not called to be self-serving and looking out only for our own good but we are called to serve the common good of all people. As St. Paul tells the Philippians: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others. Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus who…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance he humbled himself.” (Phil 2,3f.7f) We must be configured to Christ in humility.
On Holy Thursday we bring the holy oils of the Church because we are the anointed ones. The word “Christ” means anointed one, and we are configured to Christ through being anointed and living fully the sacramental life of the Church. On Holy Thursday we remember how Jesus has loved us to the end and has given himself to us in the Holy Eucharist so that his True Presence will be with us always. Jesus institutes the Holy Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith and life in Christ. He gives us his Body and Blood as heavenly food that prepares us for eternal life and configures us as a priestly people to Jesus Christ the High Priest to offer through prayer a continuous sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” (Heb 4,15)
On the road the disciples ask Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” (Mt 19,25) That is the question that should concern all of us. Jesus answers his disciples, “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” (Mt 19,26) The Sacred Triduum leads us on the way to salvation. We cannot save ourselves but God has provided for our salvation in Christ Jesus. He will lead us through the night of sin, betrayal and death into the light of the new day of eternal life and future glory. Created in the figure of God, disfigured by sin, prefigured in the ancient prophesies, configured to Christ Jesus and transfigured in glory - such is the path to salvation. We begin our being configured to Christ in humility and service on Holy Thursday with a bowl and a towel, we are configured to Christ in sacrificial love on Good Friday by laying down our lives and taking up the cross and following him, and we are configured to Christ in newness of life by carrying the light of Christ into the new day of Easter.
Why is this night different from all other nights? Because this night the mystery of our salvation in Christ is revealed, as St. Paul tells the Colossians, “It is Christ in you, the hope for glory.” (Col 1,27) What has been given in Christ Jesus, God’s “Yes” to our hope for salvation, must be received freely into our hearts, our “Amen”, so that we might be perfected by grace of our being configured to Christ through the celebration of the sacred mysteries of our salvation. The grace received in the Holy Eucharist, instituted by Christ this holy night, configures us to Christ. We become what we receive. For as St. Paul tells the Corinthians, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.” (1Cor 11,26)
So, get up, let us go into the night of Christ Jesus’ suffering and death so that, walking together with Jesus, we may follow him along the Way through the dark of night and into the light of the dawning of the new day of our salvation!