‘A Biblical Journey Through Holy Week’
LINCOLN (SNR) – The Emmaus Institute for Biblical Studies will offer a spring seminar Saturday morning, April 9, on the theme “A Biblical Journey Through Holy Week: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday.”
The Triduum liturgy – Holy Thursday to Easter – lies at the heart of the Christian faith. According to the USCCB, “The summit of the Liturgical Year is the Easter Triduum… Though chronologically three days, they are liturgically one day unfolding for us the unity of Christ’s Paschal Mystery. The single celebration of the Triduum marks the end of the Lenten season, and leads to the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil.”
The Emmaus spring seminar will aid the faithful in their Triduum participation by reflecting on how Scripture presents the accounts of each of its components and continues to reveal the Lord Jesus. The morning event will feature three talks, one by each of the Emmaus teaching staff.
Emmaus president, Dr. Vern Steiner, will begin the seminar with “From Palm Sunday through Holy Thursday,” in which he will follow the journey of the Lord in the days leading up to and through Jesus’ farewell address and the institution of the Eucharist in the Upper Room.
The talk will focus on how Jesus meets his troubled followers with the assurances, instructions, and even his own intercession– everything they need for life under the new conditions after His earthly departure.
Chad Steiner will investigate what happened between God the Father and God the Son on Good Friday, the answer to which has been a point of division between Catholic and Protestant Christians: What does Jesus mean when he laments that he is ‘forsaken’? How does the Father regard the Son before the Son offers himself on the Cross, and is this different from the way He regards the Son during? How should this shape one’s understanding of personal suffering?
Joshua Burks will conclude by exploring what Christ was doing on Holy Saturday. If not merely taking a long, well-deserved rest, what “work” might He have been about? What light does Scripture shed on the Lord in the hours leading up to His glorious Resurrection, and how might that impact one’s faith?
The seminar will be held at St. Joseph Church in Lincoln, 1940 S. 77th St. Seminar participants are encouraged to attend the 8:15 a.m. daily Mass, and the talks will begin at 9 a.m. and end at noon, with lunch and a question-and-answer session from noon to 1 p.m.
Morning refreshments and coffee, as well as the noon lunch, will be catered by Harbor Coffeehouse.
Registration is required for the event at www.emmausinstitute.net/courses/details/seminar. The deadline to register is Thursday, April 7.
“It is our hope that this seminar will be both richly informing and an opportunity for God’s people to participate in the holy mysteries at the heart of our faith in new and deeper ways,” Dr. Steiner said. “What a gift it is to spend time together listening to our Lord as He speaks to us in the Scriptures, especially in the divine telling of the events that won for us a glorious salvation! We anticipate a blessed morning.”
