The Triduum isn’t a dramatic reenactment

๏ปฟEach Tuesday for the next several weeks, Pray Tell blog will share insight
by Diana Macalintal on preparing for Triduum.
Each of these posts come from Liturgy.life
and originally appeared in GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.

As part of your preparation for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, be sure to read or reread the โ€œCircular Letter Concerning the Preparation and Celebration of the Easter Feastsโ€ (Paschale Solemnitatis), issued by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship in 1988.

In that letter, the three days is called โ€œthe triduum of the crucified, buried, and risenโ€ (#38) and the โ€œEaster Triduumโ€ (#27). This is important because the celebration of Holy Thursday and Good Friday are already Easter celebrations! On any day of the Triduum, we do not pretend that Christ has not died or that Christ is not risen. The Triduum is not a historical drama or a โ€œleap back into time.โ€ Rather, we remember what Christ has done for us and still continues to do for us now, which leads us always to the future hope promised in the kingdom.

This is especially important on Holy Thursday at the foot washing. Although it may be quite moving, do not perform the foot washing during the Gospel reading. Doing so makes it too much of a re-enactment instead of a ritual that signifies our participation in Christโ€™s mission. Also do not assign 12 persons to be those whose feet are washed. Nowhere do the rubrics say to use exactly 12 people, as though they are the 12 apostles. In addition, historical costumes of any kind are not appropriate.

Diana Macalintal

Diana Macalintal is the Director of Worship for the Diocese of San Jose in California and holds a Master of Arts in Theology, cum laude, from Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota. She has served as a liturgist, music, and catechumenate director in campus, parish, and diocesan ministries for over 25 years and has authored numerous articles on liturgy, music, and the catechumenate. She was a contributing author for <em>The Catholic Connections Handbook for Middle Schoolers</em> and wrote <em>The Eucharist Catechist's Guide</em> (both Saint Mary's Press, 2009). She is an adjunct faculty member of the Institute in Pastoral Ministries of Saint Mary's University of Minnesota (Winona) and serves as a team member of the North American Forum on the Catechumenate. She founded and maintains a blog for the Diocese of San Jose called "Work of the People" and is a co-founder of TeamRCIA.com.

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5 responses to “The Triduum isn’t a dramatic reenactment”

  1. Rita Ferrone Avatar
    Rita Ferrone

    This essay raises a really good point.

    Kenneth Stevenson identified the dramatic reenactment impulse in the liturgies of Holy Week as the expression of a “rememorative piety” which was brought to the Triduum during the middle ages. It’s still with us.

    The reform, of course, was aiming to reach a more ancient synthesis: a celebration of the enduring realities set in motion by Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection. The liturgy is the vehicle of engagement with the eternal “now” of the paschal event, which does not stay in the past, but lives in us today. To celebrate this does require us to remember the events of the Passion, but the accent is not on watching the drama of the past, but on living its meaning in the present.

    Thank you for calling our attention to the difference, Diana.

    Reply
  2. Karl Liam Saur

    If I may add that, in addition to the dimensions of re-presentation/re-memorative piety, there’s also the eschatological dimension of foretaste, by the Body of Christ on whom the Holy Spirit has been outpoured, of the wedding banquet of the Lamb in the consummation/perfection of all things. Another reason why our liturgies are not intended to reenact or replicate one of these things alone: not just the Last Supper, not just Calvary, not just Emmaus, et cet.

    Reply
    1. Rita Ferrone Avatar
      Rita Ferrone

      Thanks for this helpful addition, Karl. That’s exactly right. They are eschatological celebrations as well as celebrations of the action of God in the present time.

      Reply
  3. John Kohanski

    Reading the 1988 circular letter was quite enlightening.

    Reply
  4. John Corbyn

    Someone (sorry I forget who) summed it up, ‘anamnesis not mimesis’.

    Reply

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