Living the Triduum on Easter Monday and Beyond

This post originally appeared on Catholic Lane’s Front Row With Francis Series. The overriding sentiment which prevails at my house and in my heart each Easter Monday is the same.  It is finished.  The long 40 days of Lenten fasting, prayer and penance are completed.  The late nights of the Triduum liturgies are over.  Crumbs of the traditional Italian Easter bread and a handful of neon colored peeps are all that remain from Easter dinner. He is Risen indeed – so why does Easter Monday always get me down?Pope Francis provides the antidote to my Easter Monday blues at his Wednesday audience during Holy Week 2015. The Holy Father highlights the “Easter Triduum of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ” as the “culmination of the Liturgical Year.”  He goes on to describe each of the events of the Triduum, their significance, and the direction they provide for living an authentic Christian life – one lived in imitation of the Paschal Mystery. The Triduum is not merely a once a year reflection on events past.  It does not end on Easter Monday, or even at the conclusion of the Easter season.  Instead the Triduum is a mystery meant to be lived out every day, most perfectly in our participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.In his exposition of the Triduum, the Pope encourages the faithful to live out the virtues exemplified by our Lord Jesus  – different virtues for each event, united under the overarching virtue par excellence – love. Holy ThursdayPope Francis begins by reflecting on the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday saying:“… the Gospel of this celebration expresses the same meaning of the Eucharist under another perspective. Jesus – as a servant – washes the feet of Simon Peter and the other eleven disciples (Cf. John