Entering the Darkness and Chaos of the Triduum

Entering the Darkness and Chaos of the Triduum Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday

With thanks to Diana Butler Bass, who has been our guide through Lent this year
and to Rev. Kerri Parker, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches.
Their words are the inspiration for this final Lenten reflection of 2025.

We have come to the last day of Lent: Maundy Thursday. After tonight, we enter the horror of Good Friday. Then walk on through the awful empty silence of Holy Saturday. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan describe this Holy Week progression: “Darkness is coming on, a darkness that will deepen as the week continues to unfold.”
 
It’s also an apt description for the dispiriting descent our country is experiencing this Holy Week—it is hard to watch — and harder to experience — one’s country falling into an abyss of mocking the law and inhumane evil. Holy Week fits the mood of so many millions of us right now.
 
Holy Week is a hard, traumatic story of an innocent man — who preached love and justice — being abused and used by a violent authoritarian power for its own purposes. And this week it’s more difficult than ever to hear it. To bear witness to it.
 
2,000 years ago, and now, the Powers-That-Be seek compliance. Someone(s) comply, because they believe it will save others from still greater harm. Or perhaps because they believe it will save themselves or their loved ones. Or give them a place from which to do good, for a while, a seat at the table. They will come to realize what it has cost them.
 
Then (and now), loved ones will be turned over to the authorities; good people will not know what to do. Some will fight, some will weep, some will run away. Terrible things will happen in the dark of night. Chosen family will disappear, to be glimpsed again from a distance, in pain, through tears.
 
It will seem that The Powers-That-Be have won, that Death and Evil reign supreme.
 
And yet, their dominion is so much smaller and more temporary than they think.
 
Holy Week calls us to live through and stretch beyond the most difficult parts of the story. We may not be able to see Easter quite yet, but maybe—just maybe—we can imagine being surprised once again.
 
Jesus challenged the powers of domination and injustice, pulled back the veil on the folly and fury of empire, and preached the Kingdom of God. He showed them all, shows us all— the ones rooting for him and the ones scheming to kill him — another way to live. He showed them, and shows us, that we can be different, forgiven and free. A better world is possible. One of faith, hope, and love.
 
That’s Holy Week. That’s the story. And we need this story.   This week. We need it.
 
And we need each other. Be with someone. Find a friend. Reach out. Don’t walk to Calvary alone.
 
Walking together, we can help each other live in ways that remind us and the world that it doesn’t end here in the growing darkness, as tyrants rage and people suffer. It does not end here.  A better world is possible. We can be different, forgiven, and free. 
 
May it be so.