The Triduum is a sacred time.  We spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday in a solemn ritual following the Lord as he undergoes his life-giving passion death and resurrection.  We begin with the Tenebrae which is a special prayer on Wednesday evening.  This service sets the tone for these days with the theme of alternating darkness and light.  

Today, Holy Thursday, which opens the Triduum, gives us two important rituals that reflect the heart and meaning of these holy days, these final days building towards Jesus’ death and resurrection.  These rituals are Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and Jesus offering his body and blood using the symbols of bread and wine.  Whatever angle one looks at these ‘sacraments’, clearly, they are an encounter of love, an encounter of mercy, an encounter of forgiveness, an encounter of a most complete self-gift that embodies God’s unconditional love.

How does the Word of God speak?  In what way or ways do we hear the Word of God speaking to us?  Is God’s word a silent word, silent though still speaking?  What happens if we separate out silence from the word?  Do silence and the Word belong together?  Clearly, they do.

There is no Christianity without love and forgiveness!  There is no true Christian love that does not include mercy and forgiveness.  In the gospel parable of the so called ‘Prodigal Son’, Jesus reveals the nature of God as unconditional love and compassion.  And this revelation is what he incarnated in his life, death, and resurrection…He continues to incarnate this love now, within our hearts as they are converted, meaning changed, to being opened wider than wide!

“Without communion there is no mission”…Communion communicates mission….“Communion is the substance of mission”.  What are these words of Dom Mauro Giuseppe saying to us?  Is not the core of our mission as monastics communion, communion of heart and mind with God and one another?  There is a creative tension between the ‘I’ that has said ‘yes’ to God and this same ‘I’ that surrenders in the process of creating a ‘we’, a communion of persons who together are giving their lives to God and to building up a world where God’s love always has the final word.