The Triduum gains a new meaning in this year of deprivation

Catholic Herald, 09 April 2020

Entering the church on Good Friday is a stark experience. So much that is familiar is gone. All is bare.

The coronavirus pandemic has deprived Catholics the world over of much of their Lenten liturgical life. During Holy Week that deprivation will be felt all the more acutely, as priests prepare to celebrate the most sacred days of the year in empty churches.

Holy Week during the pandemic will carry a perennial liturgical dynamic to excess. Obviously the liturgy never strips itself away from those who would participate in it, as is happening for lay Catholics now. But there is in Lent, culminating in Holy Week, a liturgical stripping away, a sort of liturgical dying.

As Lent proceeds, many liturgical actions and symbols are set aside. Indeed, after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper there is a formal stripping of the altar, leaving it bare for the commemoration of the Lord’s passion.

That stripping away begins on Ash Wednesday, when the liturgy abandons the “Alleluia” before the Gospel. Even on the solemn feasts of Lent – St. Joseph and the Annunciation – it does not return. The Church’s exultant cry of joy – Alleluia! – is set aside until it returns with the solemn triplex Alleluia of the Easter Vigil. The Easter Alleluia, intoned thrice by the bishop, expresses the ineffable joy of Easter, made “effable” only in that unique and undefinable term.

So great is the return of the Alleluia that the deacon proclaims it with familiar words from the angels at Bethlehem – and the announcement of a new pope: Reverendissime Pater, annuntio vobis gaudium magnum, quod est alleluia – Most Reverend Father, I announce to you a great joy, that is alleluia!

The song of the angels at Bethlehem – the Gloria – is also silenced during Lent, returning only on Holy Thursday.

Continue reading at the Catholic Herald:
https://catholicherald.co.uk/the-triduum-gains-a-new-meaning-in-this-year-of-deprivation/