By Kathy Berken
On Deck
How do Lent’s 40 days of penance and charity, culminating in the Triduum — Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil — become the foundation of a powerful spiritual understanding of the Paschal Mystery?
We ponder the unfathomable mystery of this liturgical period central to Christian teaching by experiencing the whole six weeks of Lent — from Ash Wednesday to the Last Supper — before proceeding to Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection at Easter.
The depth and constancy of our Lenten practices supply our spirits with the ingredients necessary for truly experiencing the Paschal Mystery. When we view the 40 days of Lent as merely a lead-up to Easter, we do ourselves a spiritual disservice.
If we sit at the Last Supper table without first becoming familiar with the stories of miracles, heartbreak, celebration and wisdom of Jesus and the disciples, it would be like attending an exclusive dinner party without having any connection with the others gathered.
If we stand beneath the cross without first walking the hill with Jesus, accompanying Mary as she talks with her Son, helping Simon carry the cross, wiping Jesus’ face with Veronica’s towel, or weeping with the women of Jerusalem, it would be like standing at the bedside of a stranger dying in agony.
If we go to the Tomb without first knowing what had happened in the preceding days, it would be like wandering into a cemetery and encountering a mysterious person who says a man just left this empty grave but, seriously, don’t be afraid. You would probably tell everybody about this experience, not because it is necessarily good news, but because you think you have just entered the Twilight Zone!
When we consciously emphasize all the days of Lent and all the Gospel stories leading to the ultimate miracle of Easter, we more easily allow the truth of the Paschal Mystery to enter our lives. How, then, can we make Lent and the Triduum more relatable to our lives?
We can study the Gospel stories about Jesus and the disciples to enrich the deeper meaning of the Last Supper, Good Friday and Easter so we can comprehend the profound significance of these events. We can integrate our life stories with those of the Gospel, in the way that the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius engage us in those events, making them more real. By doing so, we can more fully identify with the lives of Jesus and his disciples, making the Paschal Mystery more authentic in our hearts. We do this through our imagination and our willingness to suffer, die and rise again.
Suffering is inevitable but it does not need to consume us. When our suffering becomes our personal crucifixion on the cross of our burdens, we dare to face the reality of that pain, grieve our losses and accept our situation, moment to moment. That is when we pray for the grace of transformation, the spirit of rebirth and the means for a spiritual resurrection. For as long as it takes, we recognize as Jesus did that we die to our old selves so that new life can emerge.
This is the truth of the Paschal Mystery, in the life of Jesus and in ours.
(Kathy Berken is a spiritual director and retreat leader in St. Paul, Minnesota. She lived and worked at L’Arche in Clinton — The Arch from 1999-2009.)
