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What is Paschal Time?

SPRING 2021

PASCHAL TIME (ALSO CALLED EASTER TIME) MARKS THE HIGH POINT of the Church’s year and therefore has profound significance for our identity as Catholic Christians. Technically, it is a seven-week season that begins at Easter Sunday and ends with Pentecost Sunday. To better appreciate its meaning, however, we need to understand Paschal Time within the context of the full liturgical calendar, and especially in light of the Paschal Triduum, which immediately precedes and leads into it.

A YEAR IN THE LIFE

Each year, the Catholic liturgy not only tells the Christian story, but makes it active and present in our lives. Through the feasts and seasons of the liturgical calendar, we remember the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, beginning with Advent and culminating in the Easter season (after which we are in Ordinary Time until the next Advent). The period from Advent through Pentecost brings us from darkness to light and from death to new life.

Following Lent, a 40-day period of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the Church gathers to celebrate the Paschal Triduum. Triduum, Latin for “three days,” is a term coined by St. Augustine in the fourth century. These three days, from Holy Thursday night through Evening Prayer on Easter Sunday, are the Christian Passover and commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During this sacred time, one event – the Paschal Mystery – takes place through what we might call movements, beginning with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday night, continuing on Good Friday with the Passion of Our Lord and on Holy Saturday with the Easter Vigil, and reaching its glorious conclusion on Easter Sunday.

EXTENDING THE JOY

The Paschal Triduum leads us into Paschal Time. This season doesn’t prepare us for something in the way Advent prepares us for Christmas and Lent for Easter. Paschal Time is 50 days of prolonging the joy of Easter Sunday. Accordingly, following Easter Sunday, we refer to Sundays of Easter, not Sundays after Easter. In the words of St. Athanasius, we can refer to Paschal Time as one “Great Sunday.”

The readings for the Sundays of Easter are all from the New Testament, and the first reading for each Sunday is from the Acts of the Apostles, an account of the early Christian community’s experience and the development of the Church, animated by the work of the Holy Spirit. The continuous reading of the gospel according to John takes us from the empty tomb to Jesus’ hope-filled appearances to his disciples. Each week Jesus stands in their midst and offers peace, mercy and most of all, his abiding love.

The season is highlighted with the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. The feast’s readings give an account of Jesus’ command “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). In addition, Jesus assures his disciples of the presence of the Holy Spirit, who will guide their missionary work.

THE PATTERN FOR OUR HOPE

Pentecost Sunday marks the end of Paschal Time. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1076), “The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the ‘dispensation of the mystery’ –  the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy.”

Through the Sacred Paschal Triduum and Easter Time, the Church celebrates the Paschal Mystery in a way that reflects its deep significance for us as a community of believers. Paschal Time affirms that for us, as the baptized, the Paschal Mystery becomes the pattern for our hope and therefore gives new meaning to living and dying. Through baptism, we enter into Christ’s death and his Resurrection, which shows us how to live in a world that is unstable yet filled with grace.