- Moving into great silence, a jouney into the sacred Triduim

- An additional reflection as we sit on the eve if the sacred Triduum.

In the period that marks Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and, Holy Saturday we move into a period filled with great action, but more frequently silence. Periods of silence filled withthoughtfulness (Maundy Thursday), agony and fear (Good Friday), and ultimately loss (Holy Saturday), but also perhaps hope.

First there is the thoughtfulness of Maudy Thursday, but also of the morning of Good Friday. Here we find the silence of Maundy Thursday, a silence marked first by the sleepiness of the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemene, but then the agonising silence of Christ in time he spends in the oubliette cell underneath the High Priest's House. 

- An Oubliette is a type of cell which is shaped like a bottle. Here is found a profound a terrifying darkness filled with horror and despair. The prisoner lowered into the oubliette knows not what lies beneath him as he is lowered. Sharp, jagged stones, other prisoners, rat, animals or insects.

Then comes the silence of Good Friday. Here Christ stands condemned before Pilate. Here Christ is judged by Pilate, but here he also stands in judgement over pilate who sits before him. Where does the power truly lie? With Pilate, who thinks he judges but for a moment before goes off for a peaceful lunch with his wife, away from the baying crowd. Of with Christ? He who he who will stand in judgment over the who of Creation on the great and final day? Quid iudex, imposes iudices. (Who judges those who judge?)

Then there is the awful silence in which sits Judas. Having betrayed his friend, he sits bereft of salvation. Some traditions say he I'd the first Christ will seek out in the very deepest pits of Hell as harrows it. Others that he will sit there for all eternity, devoud of salvation.

Finally we come to Holy Saturday. A fearful day for the disciples who themselves await the knock at the door themselves, and for us who know how the story comes to an end, and tet who still sit in wonder as Christ Harrows Hell and seeks out his betrayer friend...

In each of these silences we meet Christ, sit with Christ, and walk with Christ. We are never alone, he is always beside us, having walked that silence himself.

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