What is "the Triduum"?
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The three days that end our Holy Week (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday) are called "The Triduum."
It opens with Holy Thursday—table fellowship between Christ and his apostles as they celebrate the Passover. He washes their feet, calling them to servant leadership and to continue this Eucharist through the ages: "Do this in memory of me" (Luke 22:19).
But betrayed, tortured, and sentenced to death, we mourn the death of our Lord as he offers himself up on the Cross. Friday is "Good" because Jesus completes his mission, atoning for the sin of the world and, in doing so, reforming our capacity for relationship with the Father.
The earth sits in silence on Saturday for the King is dead. "He descended into hell," we recite in the Creed. It is a day of mystery and fascination and unnerving stillness, for God is dead and we killed him.
But, as we know the end of the story, even death will not have the final say.
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