Sacred Triduum and Easter

by Fr. Mark Wojdelski, FSSP

(This is part of a series of articles, and will make little sense without the introductory articles: (1) , (2), (3), and (4).  There are more than four articles in the series, but the first four are very important to understanding the conceptual framework.  Here also is a link to the complete calendar for reference. (“complete” lunar calendar)

In this article I would like to tie together chronologically certain events in the stories of Esther, the Exodus, and the Passion and Death of our Lord, all three of which seem to line up in the last half of Holy Week. This will then be a little journey through the last days of Holy Week and Easter through those three different lenses. Please note that this article is purely for devotional purposes, making no claim to historical accuracy, and the handful of people reading this may wish to skip this one and wait for the next installment. The precise timelines of these events might forever remain a mystery, but a convergence of three different and very important biblical timelines upon the same days demands some sort of analysis, even though this present analysis departs slightly from the “accepted” timeline.

First of all, as a reminder, the days under consideration will be 13 Nisan (Spy Wednesday), 14 Nisan (Holy Thursday/Passover), 15 Nisan (Good Friday/First Day of Unleavened Bread), and 16 Nisan (Holy Saturday/Sabbath within the Feast of Unleavened Bread). Subsequently, we will look at Easter itself (17 Nisan) and also take a look at Easter Monday (18 Nisan), still a very important day in formerly Catholic countries, but a day which never attained any real measure of popular observance in the United States outside of immigrant communities.

To help visualize what we are looking at, consider referring back to this table while you read, and recall that the days begin after sunset, so the end of the day is preceded by a full night and a full day:

14 Nisan (Thurs)	15 Nisan (Friday)	16 Nisan (Saturday)	17 Nisan (Sunday)	18 Nisan (Monday)
Esther fasts.	Esther continues her fast.	Afternoon: Esther concludes her fast, visits king for the first time, first banquet in the evening (Sunday).	Banquet continues into the night, the king cannot sleep. In the morning the gallows is built. Second banquet takes place in the evening. (Monday)	Haman is hanged in the morning.
Pachal Lamb killed at the end of the day.	Lamb eaten, Israelites depart Rameses, arrive at Succoth.	Depart Succoth, arrive at Etham	Depart Etham, backtrack to arrive in front of Pi-hahiroth opposite Baal-Zephon. Cross Red Sea overnight. (Monday)	Egyptians are drowned in the sea in the morning. Canticle of Moses and Miriam is sung.
Judas meets with the chief priests some time during the night. The “old Lamb” is killed at the end of the day.	The first day of Unleavened Bread begins; the Last Supper is eaten when it is dark; . That same afternoon the New Lamb is slain at Calvary.	Christ in the tomb preaching release to the holy fathers.	During the night Christ rises from the dead (no earlier than sunset on Saturday). Other appearances later that day.	After dark on Sunday they walk to Bethany, where our Lord is taken up (perhaps at sunrise?).

First of all on the 13th day of Nisan, we have Esther, a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, receiving word of the decree against the Jews issued by the Persian king under the influence of the wicked Haman, the enemy of the Jews:

Then the king’s secretaries were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and an edict, according to all that Haman commanded, was written to the king’s satraps and to the governors over all the provinces and to the princes of all the peoples, to every province in its own script and every people in its own language; it was written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring. Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. (Esth 3:12–13)

Upon learning of this, Esther asks everyone to fast and pray for three days, after which time she will intercede on their behalf before the king:

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him. (Esth 4:15–17)

Esther fasts for three days: the 14th, 15th, and 16th of the month.

In the time of the Exodus, on the 14th day of the month in the evening the Paschal lamb is slain. The same thing would happen on the 14th day of the month during the week of Christ’s passion. Our Lord would eat of that paschal lamb after sunset, just as the Law required.

On the fifteenth day of that same month (after sunset on the 14th), after finishing the Passover meal, the Israelites begin their departure from Egypt. We are told, “And the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.” (Ex 12:37) At the same time, our Lord begins His great “Exodus” as well, the journey from the Garden of Gethsemane to His kangaroo-court trial and execution. (Lk 9:31)

The Israelites reach Succoth at the end of that day, around the same time of day that our Lord would have been taken down from the cross. This place was somewhere in the northeast Nile delta in Egypt, but scholars dispute its precise location. Nevertheless, various locations that would correspond to a reasonable day’s journey from Rameses are offered as possibilities.¹ We should not concern ourselves with the logistics of moving such a large number of people (as well as children and livestock) so quickly. This journey was being miraculously sped along by the power of God, just as the life of suffering that our Lord had to endure was quickly brought to a close. The new Lamb has been slain, with the old Lamb still within His body (it would not yet have passed through His digestive tract). The New Covenant thus contains the Old Covenant forever, since Christ died having eaten the Old Covenant, represented by the paschal lamb. In like manner, the Old Covenant is a container for the New in the sense that all of the New Covenant is prefigured in the Old within the sacred histories and the words of the prophets.

Over these three days (14–16 Nisan), Esther continues her fast, just as our Blessed Mother almost certainly did during her Son’s passion, death, and burial.

On the next day of the Exodus (16 Nisan): “And they moved on from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night; the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.” (Ex 13:20–22)

We are told that they have made it to “the edge of the wilderness.” The average person might see this as a very good thing, as this would mean they were right at the edge of escaping from Egypt for good. We will soon see that God has other plans.

This would correspond to the afternoon of Holy Saturday (16 Nisan), when our Lord, presumably, is finishing His preaching of the gospel to the holy Fathers of the Old Covenant, “the spirits in prison.” (1 Pet 3:19) Esther concludes her fast and goes to see the king for the first time:

And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.” And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come this day to a dinner that I have prepared for the king.” Then said the king, “Bring Haman quickly, that we may do as Esther desires.” So the king and Haman came to the dinner that Esther had prepared. And as they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”  But Esther said, “My petition and my request is:  If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and fulfil my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the dinner which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.” (Esth 5:3–9)

Haman is regarded as a special enemy, a “spiritual Amalek,” by the Jewish people. It is then very easy to regard him as a type of the devil, the enemy of the entire human race.

Our Lord will rise at some point during the night. Liturgical tradition has this taking place at sunset on Saturday going into Sunday, just as we celebrate the beginning of Easter with the vigil, which originally took place in the later afternoon and concluded with Vespers at sunset. Catholic mystics traditionally have Him visiting His Blessed Mother first, some time in the night. At this time in the book of Esther,

On that night the king could not sleep; and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands upon King Ahasuerus. And the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him.  So the king’s servants told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”  So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?”  And Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set; and let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble princes; let him clothe the man whom the king delights to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’ ” Then the king said to Haman, “Make haste, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai and made him ride through the open square of the city, proclaiming, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.” (Esth 6:1–11)

It would make no sense to parade a man in the city square in the middle of the night, and so it is now Sunday during the day.

Our Lord is raised gloriously from the dead at some point in the night, and so He is alive and well. But more honors need to be bestowed upon Him, and so later that day He appears first to the women at the tomb. Then later that evening, after meeting the disciples on the road to Emmaus (so it is already Monday):

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the Eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.”

At this point, they go for a pleasant late-night stroll towards Bethany (less than 2 miles):

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. (Lk 24:33–53)

Luke’s account of the Resurrection appearances seems to suggest that this is our Lord’s first visit to the apostles, on the day of His resurrection, when He breathed the Holy Spirit on them. (cf. Jn 20:19–23) We are told by St. Luke that they then immediately went out to Bethany (presumably without Thomas) where our Lord was taken up. This “taking up” may have even happened at other times when He appeared to His followers during the forty days before His “Ascension” properly speaking. (Acts 1)

Meanwhile, back at the Exodus,

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the sons of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Piha-hiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp over against it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the sons of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so. (Ex 14:1–4)

Instead of letting them continue on to freedom, God tells Moses to double back and encamp with their backs to the sea. The Egyptians then come in pursuit.

And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.” The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the sons of Israel may go on dry ground through the sea. And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.” (Ex 14:13–18)

The Israelites cross the sea overnight, with the pillar of fire leading them. This could perhaps be the origin of the chanting of Psalm 113 (In exitu) at Vespers on Sunday evening. On the following morning, the waters turn upon the Egyptians. Their chariots are now stuck in the mud and the Egyptians all drown in the sea, and Moses sings his canticle of praise, which is chanted in the Roman Liturgy (in anticipation) at the Easter Vigil. He is accompanied in song by the choir of women, led by his sister Miriam.

Meanwhile, back in the time of Esther:

So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. And on the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, that would presume to do this?” And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was in terror before the king and the queen.  And the king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.  And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was; and the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face. Then said Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, “Moreover, the gallows which Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing in Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.”  And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her;  and the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. (Esth 7:1–8:2)

Haman is hanged by the gallows that he himself made, and remains there for all to see (Monday morning, 18 Nisan). Haman, representing the devil, is stripped of his dominion (and indeed, his life) and humiliated while Esther (Mary) takes his possessions from him, having finally struck the head of the serpent. (Gen 3:15)

There is one last matter to attend to. Even though Haman is dead, recall that he had convinced the king to allow the Jews to be destroyed, which was supposed to happen on the thirteenth day of Adar. However, the following happens the next month:

Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet and besought him with tears to avert the evil design of Haman the Agagite and the plot which he had devised against the Jews.  And the king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king. For how can I endure to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he would lay hands on the Jews. And you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.”

The king’s secretaries were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day; and an edict was written according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews to the satraps and the governors and the princes of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language. The writing was in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s ring, and letters were sent by mounted couriers riding on swift horses that were used in the king’s service, bred from the royal stud. By these the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives, to destroy, to slay, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, with their children and women, and to plunder their goods, upon one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. (Esth 8:3–12)

Our Lord won for us the victory over sin and death by His passion and death and resurrection. This was acceptable to His heavenly Father. Christ vanquished the devil but his terrible legacy (the genocidal order of Haman) remained. Only through the further intercession of Esther did we win a reprieve, but not a quick victory. All we received in that decree of the king was the permission to fight. Applying this to the Christian life, we were given the permission (and indeed the obligation) not necessarily to defend our property or our goods, but our souls. Protecting the lesser (temporal goods) is not forbidden as long as our priorities are properly arranged. It is not an easy fight, but it is winnable with the grace of God, especially those graces gained through baptism. Through baptism, we are meant to participate in the benefits gained from new life in Christ: the devil (Haman) is destroyed, the Egyptians (our past lives) are put behind us, and we are made adopted sons of God (symbolized by Christ being taken up into heaven). All these events seem to have taken place on what we now call “Easter Monday.”

We know that Vespers, the evening prayer of the church, is supposed to begin at sunset, and sunset marks the start of a new day, liturgically speaking. So Sunday Vespers marks the beginning of the second day of the week. Dom Gueranger describes a peculiar ancient custom at Vespers on Easter Sunday evening, the previous evening being that in which the catechumens were baptized. The custom involved the newly baptized going to “visit” the baptismal font in which they were baptized the day before, while Psalms 112 (“Praise the Lord, ye children”) and 113 (“When Israel went out of Egypt”) were being chanted.² In the current day, near the end of every Sunday Vespers in the classical Roman rite, Psalm 113 is always recited, perhaps to remind us of this event. We wake up every Monday morning to another week of toil after the celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection, but it is really a week of celebration, since we have risen to new life through baptism, and nothing can take that away from us. Sunday evening is meant to remind us of that, and thus it was not uncommon for people in large populated areas to attend Sunday Vespers at their parish after morning Mass and their leisurely Sunday dinner.

The importance of Easter Monday must not be neglected. At my home parish in one of the adjacent suburbs of Chicago, there are at least five Masses that day, all well attended. There are many customs in Catholic Europe that were traditionally observed on Easter Monday, but those from Central Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) all involve throwing water on people in various ways, sometimes completely symbolic. This has traditionally been interpreted as a reminder of our baptism, but there could be more at work. My mother told me that her father met her mother (my grandparents) while the water was being hurled to and fro on Easter Monday. However, given what we have just seen, the connection with water might perhaps better be meant to remind us of the destruction of Pharaoh’s forces in the sea. The waters drown the wicked, but give life to the pure of heart.

It is not difficult to imagine that the feast of the Resurrection has always been a two-day feast, starting on Holy Saturday at sunset, when the Israelites positioned themselves against the sea, opposite the forces of Pharaoh, and ending on Easter Monday at sunset, the day when the apostles were rejoicing in the temple after seeing our risen Lord, Moses and Miriam were leading the people in song after crossing the Red Sea and seeing Pharaoh’s destroyed, and the devil Haman was hanging from a gallows that he himself had made.

1 Jo Ann H. Seely, “Succoth (Place),” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 217.

2 Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Vol. 7