All things…Episcopal

All Things Episcopal welcomes back Father James Yazel for Holy Week podcast

>> Clare: Hello, everyone. Welcome to All Things Episcopal, where we talk about anything and everything related to the Episcopal Church. This podcast was designed with young people in mind and as a space to learn more about the Christian faith with the Episcopal lens. So, in traditionally Episcopalian greeting fashion, the Lord be with you. Hey, friends. Welcome back to All Things Episcopal. And also welcome to Holy Week. And it dawned on me and several other listeners that we have actually never done a full episode on Holy Week and the importance of it and why we observe, um, observe these days. So I am joined with Father or by. With. I don't know. It's in the afternoon, y'all. I'm joined today with Father James Yazel, who's the associate at the Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. Welcome back.

>> Father James Yazel: Thank you. Glad to be back.

>> Clare: Awesome.

Tridium is a really weird word, and I don't know how to pronounce it

So we are going to talk about Holy Week and this really weird word, and I don't know if I can even pronounce it. I feel like I should know how to pronounce it at this point. Tridium.

>> Father James Yazel: That's good.

>> Clare: Triduum.

>> Father James Yazel: Tridium is usually what I know if you want to, like, get really precious and have fun with it, you can do the tridgium or. So there's all sorts of fun ways to pronounce it, but tridium, um, is a pretty safe one.

>> Clare: We're getting fancy. Okay. So however you so choose to pronounce said word, there's grace about. Like, grace abounds here. So I'm going to try and pronounce this as best I can, and we'll just roll with it.

Holy Week is often described as the three holy days

So first I want to talk about what is the tritium triduum. I'm going to stop and say that every single time, y'all, so just bear with me. It's often described as the three holy days. Can you tell us a little bit more about what each day represents and why they're so central to the Christian faith?

>> Father James Yazel: Sure. Yeah. So, so the. The tritium is literally in Latin, three days. So that's why we call it the three Holy Days. Um, and it's. It's really the, um. It's the. The crux of Holy Week as a whole. Right? So Holy Week is really this. This walking alongside Jesus in his last week. So we start. We really start Holy Week right with Palm Sunday, which is Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. Then we get kind of this, like, preview of what's to come by reading one of the Passion, one of the Passion narratives, and the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, or Luke. And then. And then that takes us to the tritium which is the Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the end of that week, which is that Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and uh, the Easter vigil on really what we would call Saturday evening, those services of the Tritium should really be thought of as one continuous liturgical service. Observing it in that way is really one of the most ancient customs in the Church. So um, thinking about what each of those days represents.

Maundy Thursday commemorates Jesus's Last Supper with his disciples

Um, right, so we're again we're walking um, through Jesus's last week here. So we start with, with Maundy, ah, Thursday there, which is a commemoration of um, Jesus's last meal with his disciples. Um, it's a, and it's a particularly special celebration of that Last Supper, right. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we're commemorating the Last Supper. But this is like a really like particularly commemorative version of that. So that word Maundy in Maundy Thursday is again Latin and it means commandment. So really what we're celebrating on Maundy Thursday is Jesus's sort of final commandment to the disciples. So there's, there's two things that happen on Maundy Thursday, right? There's the, the Last Supper celebration of the Eucharist and then there's the washing of the disciples feet. So the, the Holy Eucharist part that comes from again the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke where they really focus on that meal that the disciples and Jesus all have together. And that's where Jesus um, commands the disciples to share the bread and the wine with one another and to do it in remembrance of him. So that's, that's one of Christ's commandments to uh, the disciples in John, right. As we talked about last time I was on here, John always has to be different. And so John actually doesn't focus on that meal part at all. Uh, but rather he focuses on this um, washing of the disciples feet. And so here it's still though the emphasis is on a commandment of Jesus because Jesus is commanding the disciples to serve one another just as he is serving them. So either way we're focusing on commandments uh, from Jesus. So Monte Thursday ends with uh, the altar being shrimps. We take it, take everything down to bare bones because we're not going to be celebrating the Eucharist again until the Easter vigil. And then everyone leaves in silence. Right. So again, right, there's not a recessional out, there's not a proclamation that the service is over. We're going to leave quietly until the next day, Good Friday, when we're going to then quietly come back, uh, together. Right. Because we're continuing this one liturgical event over the course of these days. So Good Friday is all about Jesus's passion, this, um, this narrative of his death. And on Good Friday, we do the Gospel of John instead of, uh, one of the other gospels that we did on Palm Sunday. After. After we read that, we get a sermon. And then again, a very ancient custom of reading collect these ancient prayers. And then we get two options, two optional things that we can do, one of which is the veneration of the cross. So this is. Oftentimes a church will. Will bring out a cross of some form, and time is given to sort of reflect on it, to reflect on this instrument of torture and death that has now sort of paradoxically become our symbol of salvation. And then the other option that may be observed is the distribution of the reserve sacrament. So again, we're not gonna celebrate the Eucharist on Good Friday, but many times churches will hold over consecrated bread and wine from the Maundy Thursday service and then distribute it to be eaten, uh, on Good Friday. And all of it needs to be eaten at that service. We don't hold anything over after that. Right. This is symbolizing Christ, death. He's. He's no longer physically present with us anymore. So we're not going to have this physical reminder of his presence in the bread and the wine. If you have a presence candle that's going to be, you know, snuffed out.

>> Clare: So that. That is separate from, um, like communion in the absence of a priest or, um, taking communion to someone who might not be able to come into the church building. That is separate.

>> Father James Yazel: Yes. So there are. Right. There's. There's all kinds of reasons why we might reserve the sacrament to. To then be consumed later. Um, and so there is a. There is a connection there. I mean, it's. It's. It's the same sort of thing happening. It's just being done very solemnly, very seriously. Yeah, because we're not going to be celebrating the Eucharist.

>> Clare: Yeah, makes sense.

Holy Saturday is a brief, little quiet service that reflects Jesus' tomb

>> Father James Yazel: So that brings us to Holy Saturday then. Right. So again, we're going to leave in silence because it. Cause this is all one thing that we're doing. And Holy Saturday, um, isn't not always observed in churches, largely because it's such a brief, little quiet service. It's literally a collect, a few readings and then some anthems from the burial office. And that's the whole thing. And it's. I mean, it's meant to be that it's this quiet little service meant to reflect this quiet time in which Jesus is laying in the tomb. And so that's, that's about all we, we get with it. That will then end with the setting of the sun. Right. So in, in Jewish timekeeping, it's the, the setting of the sun and the rising of the appearance of the stars that sort of marks a new day. So with the setting of the sun, Holy Saturday ends and Easter begins. We begin with the great vigil. Um, and that's really, um, I mean, that's our fullest expression of the Christian life and joy that you can experience is, is that great vigil. So it starts in darkness. We read various stories of God's salvation that, uh, have been handed down to us. And then we experience Christ's resurrection with, uh, the return of the alleluias with the gospel, and of course then with the celebration of the Eucharist returned to us.

>> Clare: Yeah, thank God for that. We need nourishment for the journey. Yay, cupcakes again. Well, thank you for that.

Maundy Thursday is one of our most holy days

That quick summary, uh, of our most holy days. I want to backtrack a little bit, starting with Maundy Thursday in particular, sorry, Palm Sunday, you aren't getting your, your due here. But, um, Maundy Thursday in particular. So as, as you mentioned, it is about sharing a meal. It is about the act of foot washing, but it's more than that. It's. It's the commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us. And it's about service, humility, and communion. And because this podcast is designed for young people, mostly young adults, I want to specifically ask you, how can the act of foot washing on this particular day challenge young adults in particular to live more selflessly in today's world? Because sometimes it feels like we're just trying to keep our heads above water, like student loans are a thing and so we're always at work or, you know, what is something that we can do in our, our day to day practice, but also more specifically to be reverent on this day around the act of foot washing.

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah. Yeah. So the, you know, the, the, the foot washing part itself I think is it's almost like notorious. Like everyone has big feelings, I think, about, about folks, am I gonna do it? Am I not like, uh, it feels kind of weird.

>> Clare: Do I need to get a pedicure?

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah. And so I think the first thing to do when thinking about the foot washing on Monty Thursday is actually take a step back and think about the historical context. Right. So for Us, we do not regularly have people wash our feet. It's an unusual ceremony in the context of first century Palestine. That part is not weird, right? So everyone's walking around in sandals on like unpaved roads with no modern sewage systems, right? You're getting a lot of road grime right, on your feet. So whenever you enter a home, right, there's, you don't want to track all that into the house, right? So you take your sandals off and uh, the servant of the house washes your feet. And then you, and then you enter the house barefoot and sharing a meal with the host or you know, whatever you're going to do. So that, that part to them is all normal. When the disciples go to the Last Supper, like that part does not stand out to them. What throws the disciples off is that Jesus is the one doing it. That's the part that's like, that's shocking to them, right? It's this role reversal. It's because it's a servant who should be washing your feet, not the master, right? So the master's taking on this dirty job and that's what the disciples push back against. This flipping of this normal custom on its head. And what Jesus says in response to that. I mean, Jesus insists that the only way to know him is to know him as a servant and the only way to follow him is to emulate him in this and to be servants. So what we're really embodying on Maundy Thursday is not the like the socially, the social, washing strangers feet. Um, it's, it's embodying this role of, of this servant, of serving one another. That, that's what Christian discipleship is all about, is serving one another.

>> Clare: Mhm.

>> Father James Yazel: So you know the, the call then, right, is not in the busyness of life to like go up to your co workers and insist on washing their feet. Right? That's, that's not the, the custom or culture of most of us, but the, but the message there I think is just as applicable. In what ways in your everyday life at work, with your family, with your friends, can you embody that servanthood, right? And it's something you're called to do in that, in the very ordinary ways of our, of our way of life as Americans or Western Christians.

>> Clare: Mhm.

>> Father James Yazel: What are those, what are, what are those systems that are in place in your life that you can turn on their head by serving instead of being served?

>> Clare: Because I love our baptism covenant liturgy. It um, reminds me of. Was it the second to last question, Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself. So that should be part of our rhythms already, just by that statement alone from our baptismal covenant.

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah, yeah. And you certainly would not be the first person to make this connection between the washing of ah, feet happening at Maundy Thursday and the washing that happens in baptism. Right there is, we've got long tradition of people making that connection. I think it's very rich, very rich vein to mine there, that connection.

>> Clare: Yeah, definitely.

Good Friday can feel somber and uncomfortable for young people

So moving forward to Good Friday, um, Father James knows this, but for our listeners they might not know this. I was originally born on Good Friday and I used to think that it was like this super special, like awesome, joyous day. And once I figured out, oh, that's so not the case. I mean it is in the grand scheme of things in our Christian life. But like as a five year old that's, that's not exactly the truth on Good Friday. So what I'm getting at is Good Friday can feel somber and uncomfortable. What is it like? Why is it important for young adults to engage the passion narrative and reflect on the cross in a modern context?

>> Father James Yazel: I mean, so, so yes, Good Friday is somber. Um, I mean we are, you know, quite literally remembering our darkest day of history. I mean at the, at the, at fundamental level, right. What we're, what we're remembering is that God incarnate came to us to preach love and compassion and our response to that was to torture him and kill him on a cross. Um, it's, it's not a great day for uh, humanity that does, that does, you know, sort of leave one to reflect on, well, what's so good about Good Friday?

>> Clare: God so loved us.

>> Father James Yazel: You know, there's various ideas about that. There's various ideas about that and we don't really have a, a clear answer. Right. So the good and Good Friday could connect to uh, like holiness. So it's, it's Holy Friday. It could connect to uh, good to God, like a sort of linguistic connection there. So it could be God Friday or, or we can interpret it as, as good in the, in the sense that we tend to mean it in the, in the sense that, you know, while it, it's such a dark day for humanity, it is also the day in which God exercises God's plan for our salvation through it. What we intended for evil, God intended for good. And that's a theme we see throughout the Bible. So you can really kind of reflect on it, uh, in any of those, those ways, um, in terms of, uh, sort of engaging with With Good Friday, I, um, think that the main thing is, is the posture we take towards that, that reading of the Passion narrative. So this time it's John's Gospel. And what it, what it really, it's not a, it's not a play that we're observing. It's. It's this holy drama that we are being invited to enter into. It's really all about taking the time to ponder its meaning. What is this? What does it mean that not only that we as humanity did this, but what does it mean that God went through this? Why, why is this the route God took? Um, I guess I could plug our previous episode on death as a, uh, good, good place to begin on that.

>> Clare: Do it, do it.

>> Father James Yazel: And it's, and it's an opportunity for us to ponder our own place in that story. I think it's very tempting to look at historical events and go, oh, those terrible people who didn't know any better. Thank God we're so enlightened now. Thank God. I would never do that. And the way that the Passion narrative is liturgically recited invites us to go a little deeper than that, to really self examine and say, where am I in this story? Mhm. In what ways am I shouting, crucify him. Because I don't like this message of love and compassion as much as I might say I do, really, in the, you know, those darker parts of my heart. Along with that, I think it also invites us to face up to the reality of vehement suffering in this world. The suffering that we experience and the suffering that is out there. And particularly in the praying of the solemn collects that we pray in that service, we're taking up our role, our mission as the church, to pray for all those who are suffering, um, and joining our suffering and the suffering in the world with Christ's suffering.

>> Clare: I also wonder what our role is in acknowledging our contribution to another's suffering, like how we might have caused another person to suffer. So you were talking about how we could. How some people would say, oh, I would never say, like, you know, crucify him or something along that context. What our role is in reflecting on how we have caused suffering for someone else, knowingly, or unknowingly.

>> Father James Yazel: Absolutely, yeah. So that, I mean, that's at the heart of the Good Friday liturgy.

>> Clare: Yeah.

>> Father James Yazel: As. Right. We're. I mean, this is repentance. That's really what this is. Right. We're facing up to our own role and participation in sin in those ways that we choose to break down those bonds of love. And compassion in the things we say or don't say, in the things we do and in the things that we don't do.

>> Clare: Absolutely. Yeah, definitely.

Holy Saturday is traditionally a day of silence and waiting for Easter

So, moving to Holy Saturday. So we've just received the Eucharist for the last time. We've had people that we may or may not know touch our feet. We, we've now gone through the very solemn, somber, penitential day of Good Friday, thought about, you know, suffering our own suffering, others suffering, all of that. And now there's just this day, this first half of the day, where we're kind of like, okay, what now? We're just waiting. Um, so why do we observe a day of silence and waiting on Holy Saturday? And how does this serve the larger story of Easter? Like, what is its point?

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah, so traditionally, Holy Saturday was a day for silence. Like you were silent all day. Um, um. And I think, I think a lot of that has to do with not giving easy answers in the face of Good Friday, uh, in the face of death, right? It, it can be really easy to give kind of glib answers, particularly when we're feeling uncomfortable about the reality of death. And so instead, we're just gonna sit with it on Saturday. We're gonna sit with, with the reality of the grave. And in many ways, I think that that reflects our experience of death. Right. On this side of the grave, how do we experience death? But there's a stillness, a silence to it. Oftentimes it feels like our loved ones who have gone to the other side are no longer present to us. Right. I certainly cannot call them up and have a chat anymore. There is a profound silence at the grave. And so we're experiencing that on, uh, on Holy Saturday. On the other hand, our faith also teaches us that there's actually a whole lot going on behind the scenes. There's a lot of action happening on Holy Saturday, right? So the, the Apostles Creed, we announce, right, that Jesus descends to the dead, that he goes to the underworld, to hell. That's what he's. That's what he's doing on Holy Saturday. And one of my, uh, my all time favorite icon is one that actually depicts this descent into hell. Got a picture of it hanging up in my office. And so in it, Jesus is shown in the center, and he's in these radiant white robes, right, which depicts his divinity as he's entered into hell. And at his. At his feet, you can see in this, like, this very, like, charmingly literal way, the gates of hell are like, knocked down, like he's standing on them, right? He's knocked down the gates of hell and stands over them now. And what he's doing in this icon is he' actually, he's grabbing Adam and Eve by the wrist. Right? So Adam and Eve are like, are proto humans, right? They're the ones who introduce death and sin into the world in the first place. And so we have this depiction of Jesus grabbing them and like, pulling them up out of the grave. Um, and that, that's what our faith tells us is happening on Holy Saturday. That Christ is like invading hell. He's conquering hell. Yeah, Right. The devil's been defeated on Holy Saturday. Like, he's. He's getting his butt kicked. Right. Um, and Adam and Eve, humanity's being pulled out of the grave, being rescued from this faith. All that's happening, like, behind the scenes. M. And so, like, we're. We're sort of just sitting there and waiting on hm. Holy Saturday and in life, right? This is the whole of our, our experience in life. Our. We know how the story ends, but we're not there yet. Right. We're waiting for Easter morning to be revealed to us in the resurrection.

>> Clare: Yeah. I think a lot of, A lot of young adults can. Can relate to that. Well, all of humanity can relate to that. The waiting for the, the levity to happen, the not so hard parts of life to happen. I mean, just hearing you talk about all this behind the scenes stuff about Holy Saturday, I'm like, we have definitely done a disservice to Holy Saturday for sure, because there, there's so much goodness to be learned from just sitting and contemplating. Um, and we don't do a good job of that most of the time because we want instant gratification on things. Okay.

The Easter vigil is often called the most ancient and powerful liturgy

So now that we've sat in silence and we've waited for Jesus to do all the things that we aren't supposed to know, but we do know. Ish. We get to the Easter vigil. It's now sundown. It's. The Easter vigil is often called the most ancient and powerful liturgy of the church. What makes this liturgy so unique and how can young adults in particular connect with it in today's culture since it is so ancient?

>> Father James Yazel: So that, as I, as I said before, right. The vigil really does encompass the very. The very center, the heart of the Christian faith and life. Right. The Christian faith is all about our participation in the dying and the rising, our participation in the dying and rising again of Jesus. And so we. The visual is. Is this liturgical enactment of that, that passing over. Um, right. So we start. We start the service in the darkness of the tomb. And then, just as God proclaimed, let there be light on the first day of creation, on the new day of creation, we kindle a new light, this light of Christ that shines in the darkness. And the darkness does not win. Right. It looked like the darkness won. It was totally dark. But here. Here's the light anew. And it's by that light that we. We read about God's promises of salvation. By that light that we invite the baptized into this new life in Christ. And it's by that light that we celebrate the gift of Christ's body and blood and a new celebration of the Eucharist, which is only made possible by Christ's resurrection. Right. So it's. It all comes back to that. And so each element, right. It's the fire, the light, the water, the words, the bread, the wine. By seeing the symbolism of them, by seeing what they're pointing to in Christ, we can embrace them and experience in this symbolically literal way Christ's death and resurrection in our lives.

>> Clare: I also am thinking of how young adults can connect with the power of the liturgy and the ancient traditions in that. This is. From what I can recall off the top of my head, this is the one service where you hear the entirety of our story as Christians, like, from the start of creation all the way until, like, New Testament, like Jesus. Life, death, and resurrection.

>> Father James Yazel: Um, absolutely. Yes. This. This is the story of God's salvation of humanity. And we're hearing it, like, the whole thing. Yeah.

>> Clare: And I think for young adults in particular who are either curious about church or haven't had a good experience in church, this would be, like, the ideal time to visit a, uh, church, because you can see at the heart of what we really believe. Um, if you.

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah. If you want to know what this is about, like, why we're bothering with any of this. Yeah, That's. That's it right there. That's. This is why.

>> Clare: Yeah. Um, so if you're listening and you're like, uh, I don't know if I want to go to church on a Saturday. You should go. You should go to see an experience. Whereas, uh, I think Jesus says in one of the gospels, one of the synoptic ones, he says, come and see. You know, that's your invitation, folks. Come and see. Okay.

Lent was meant for preparation for baptism confirmations, things like that

So we've gotten to the vigil.

>> Father James Yazel: We.

>> Clare: We actually skipped over a really important part of the vigil. So we've gone through 40 days of Lent, and Lent in the Episcopal church leads m Or uh, lends itself more towards penitential nature. But it was also meant for a time of preparation for baptism confirmations, things like that. So you'll also see, most of the time, some baptisms happening. If you want to see cute little babies be, you know, baptized into the body of Christ. And then you'll see a slew of, um, young adults. Youth. Adults, um, be confirmed, received, reaffirm. Thank you. I was like, what. What's the other one I'm forgetting? Um, reaffirm their faith, uh, in. In the church, which I think is pretty cool. Uh, we also do baptize adults, I should say that not. Not to be exclusionary to adults who wish to receive the sacrament of baptism.

>> Father James Yazel: But, um, even if there aren't any baptisms for that service, we still recite the Baptism of Covenant at that service. Right. Because. Because it is so closely tied with baptism.

>> Clare: So that is your preview to the entirety of what it means to be an Episcopalian. Come to the Easter vigil.

How does the celebration of the Eucharist shape our understanding of community

Okay. I want to focus a little bit more on the celebration of the Eucharist. How does the celebration of the Eucharist during the Tritium shape our understanding of community and the presence of Christ in our lives? We touched on this a little bit earlier, but I'm wondering if you can kind of expand a little bit more.

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah, so. So the Eucharist really bookends the Tritium, Right. So we start the Tritium with the Eucharist on modern Thursday, um, which. Ah, right. As we talked about, it's all about this commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, which, you know, the way it's. It's described in the Synoptic Gospels, reflects very accurately the way Paul describes it being practiced, which reflects the way that, uh, early church pilgrims, when they, you know, when they would go to, like, Jerusalem for. For the Holy Week services, like, it's the same. The same form. The service takes on the same form. And so it. It's really this joining we're joining in on. On the Last Supper. Right? It's like. Like coming into the room and sitting down with the disciples at the table and breaking bread and. And drinking wine with Jesus and with the disciples. We're reliving that moment. M. Um. And then we end the Tritium again with the Eucharist. This time it's like the First Eucharist. Right. So we had the Last Supper, and now we've got, like, the First Eucharist sort of as our two bookends, because we're experiencing the Presence of the risen Christ anew in our midst on Easter.

How do we experience the risen Christ through scripture and breaking of bread

And how do we experience the risen Christ? We experience the risen Christ through the opening of scripture and through the breaking of bread. And if you look at all of the encounters that the disciples have with the risen Jesus, they don't know it's Jesus until those two things happen. The most, uh, like the most famous example of this, right, it's the disciples are, are walking with Jesus all day and he's like talking to them and they're just totally clueless.

>> Clare: The we had hoped.

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah, yeah. They were just like, you know, you know, then we thought this was going to go one way and it didn't, it didn't work out. Um, and until finally they, they get to the end and Jesus sits down at dinner with them and breaks the bread and then suddenly their eyes are open and they realize that Jesus has been opening the scripture to them all day and they realize it was, it was he who's with them, um, the whole time. What was accessible to the disciples in first century Palestine is exactly what is still accessible to us today. There's no advantage to having been born 2000 years ago and knowing Christ, it's the same means to know Christ then as now, which is what we do every Sunday, but especially at the vigil. We open scripture and we break bread together.

>> Clare: So good. So good.

Holy Week starts with death on Good Friday and ends with resurrection on Easter

So for many young adults, life can feel overwhelming or full of uncertainty. How can the journey through the Triduum. One of these days I'm gonna get it. Yeah. Uh, starting with death on Good Friday and ending in the resurrection on Easter bring hope to those who are struggling?

>> Father James Yazel: Yeah. So this is, um, I think this is something to keep in mind if you're gonna go through Holy Week. It can be very emot. Emotionally intense. Um, you're. There are highs and there are lows and, and that's just something to be prepared for. I don't think it's something to be scared of, but it is something to be prepared for because it's, it's God being with us through everything. Mhm. Um, and we're so, we're experiencing it in a very acute way throughout the course of that week. But it's, it's the, the truth of what we experience throughout life really. God is with us in our, in our high moments and in our, our lowest of lows. Jesus experienced the lowest of lows that we can experience. Right. He's, he has this last meal with his friends. Right. He knows what's coming next when he's having that meal, he has it this lonely night in the garden. No one to keep, no one to manages to stay up and keep him company as he's awaiting this terrible fate. He's betrayed by a friend. He's tortured, he's killed. Whatever we face in this life, Jesus is there with us. That's what we see in this narrative. And by returning to the story of Easter morning every year, we are also reminded that that's not where the story ends, because the devil is already lost. The game's not over. But we, we already know, like, who's gonna win. The gates of hell have already been torn down. They can't hold us in. So even if we are in the turmoil of Good Friday, even if we're in that, that somber place of Holy Saturday, we're reminded in Holy Week that Christ is at work in the grave, that resurrection is at hand.

>> Clare: Yeah, Jesus, the ultimate waymaker.

Father James sees Holy Week as a period of time travel

What's one thing about the Tridium that young adults might not know, but could significantly be impacted by, um, and how they experience this part of the church year?

>> Father James Yazel: So I think that the key to unlocking Holy Week as a whole, and the Tritium more specifically, is to begin to see this week as a period of time travel. Like, this is, this is like Doctor who stuff. So Easter is the Christian Passover. So in many languages, Easter is known as Pascha, which is just the Greek version of the Hebrew word for Passover. And the Passover itself was originally instituted as this means for the Hebrew people to connect with their ancestors. Right, so, so the Passover is commemorating the Hebrew people escaping slavery in Egypt. So what they're called on to do going forward generations is to actually reenact that night of the Passover to make the store their own, to actually experience God's salvation, um, of this past event in their present. So this is where the, like, time travel, right? So God is not bound by time. So, like, God can do fun time travel stuff. Um, and that's kind of what's happening in the Passover is this, this past event is being experienced in the present. And so we are doing the same thing. We are reenacting Christ's last week. We're walking with him into Jerusalem. We're standing beside him on the cross. We're waiting outside his tomb, and we're encountering him risen from the grave. Right? So this, this act of God's salvation that happened 2,000 years ago is being brought into our presence. We're experiencing it today. It's becoming our story by moving through it in this way. And that's also why it's so important to see the tritium, um, as this continuous service. Not to just sort of like drop in on one part and like, knock over the rest of the time or whatever. Right. You want to, you want to go through the whole thing, the lows and the highs.

>> Clare: Yeah.

>> Father James Yazel: So that through God's grace, you too can experience Christ's whole ministry.

>> Clare: Mhm.

>> Father James Yazel: And you can experience it as one of his disciples with him.

>> Clare: Yeah. I think the first time I went through Holy Week and attended all of the services was, I think, two years ago. And I was like, whoa, this is so much more meaningful than I had initially connected with. And then last year, um, it really hit home for me. And I imagine it'll hit home even more this year, um, because last year I was one of the readers for Stations at the Cross. Like at the parish that I attend. Sometimes we'll read each of the narratives for each of the stations. If I remember correctly, I think I got the one where, um, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus have their last encounter together. And just thinking how profound the strength of a mom and just faith that she had to say, like, you need to do this. Um, and also knowing to some level that the redemption of the world was on Jesus heart already was pretty profound to reflect on throughout that entire week, but mostly on Good Friday. So I guess that is the good part. That is the good news on that day. Well, thank you, Father James, for joining All Things Episcopal again.

>> Father James Yazel: Always happy to.

>> Clare: Yeah. Um, because we are a people of prayer, I, um, am going to find one of our colleagues for Holy, um Week, and I'm actually going to use the one for Maundy Thursday. So the Lord be with you. And also with you, Almighty Father, whose dear son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully, in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. All right, friends, till next time. Hey, friends, thanks for listening. Please like and subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. To learn more about All Things Episcopal on the Diocese of of West Missouri's communication pages, Please visit dio westmo.org backslash podcasts backslash and in the Diocese of Kansas, Please visit edok formation.WordPress.com backslash all things Episcopal Podcast All Things Episcopal Podcast is a production of the Diocese of West Missouri and the Diocese of Kansas in association with Resonant Media.