The summit of the Liturgical Year is the Easter Triduum—from the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Easter Sunday. Though chronologically three days, they are liturgically one day unfolding for us the unity of Christ’s Paschal Mystery. The single celebration of the Triduum marks the end of the Lenten season, and leads to the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil. (USCCB)
On the precipice of Holy Week 2022, The Emmaus Institute for Biblical Studies presented a morning seminar on Saturday, April 9 at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. The seminar featured three talks, one by each of the Emmaus teaching staff, on these mysteries that lie at the heart of a Christian understanding of Eastertide:
Emmaus president, Dr. Vern Steiner, will begin the seminar with a talk entitled “Jesus’ Farewell: Thursday Evening with Our Lord in the Upper Room” in which he will explore how Jesus meets his troubled followers on Holy Thursday with the assurances, instructions, and even his own intercession; everything they need for life under the new conditions after his departure, when they no longer have him with them.
Chad Steiner will investigate what actually happened between God the Father and God the Son on Good Friday, the answer to which has been a point of division between Catholic and Protestant Christians. What does Jesus mean when he laments that he is ‘forsaken’? How does the Father regard the Son before the Son offers himself on the cross, and is this different from the way He regards the Son during? And how should this shape our own understanding of the suffering we ourselves endure for the sake of Christ’s Kingdom?
Joshua Burks will conclude the seminar by exploring what exactly Christ was doing on Holy Saturday. Was He merely taking a long–though well-deserved–rest? Or if not, what other “work” might He have been about?
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