Written by Bishop Andrew Gentry   

Beloved Friends,

In Anglo-Saxon usage Maundy Thursday evening and Good Friday along with what was called in my childhood and neck of the woods "rotten Saturday" was known as "the still days". It was so named because the bells and any musical instrument used in the churches were stilled and remained so until Easter Morning when all the bells and brass rang out long and loud Alleluias. So what should we in our stillness think upon during the Triduum or "Still days"?

No one has ever exhausted the mystery of this holy of holy times and the Event that makes it real and eternally relevant nor shall they. Paul was not whistling a sea chanty when he said that "we see in part and know in part but then face to face"! The Meal of Remembrance and Recollection that has no time nor space to contain it, the Sufferings of One who came to teach us how to live and the cost of such a way of life, and the Eternal Thunder of the Stone being rolled away and the Infinite Rush of Air proclaiming and reclaiming Life and the Victory over death and destruction is the Reality and ultimate outcome of these "still days"!

Now in modern times as man has supposedly become so "intelligent and so technologically astute" and the theologians who embrace such an arrogance (like Borg) and others (like Mr. Spong) who rest so comfortably in the very "easily understood "myth" of the Resurrection" the still days" have only metaphoric and allegorical appeal. For them Pascha is no different than any other festival in a multicultural world where everything is relative and Apostolic Teaching and Witness is but a mere "school of religious thought". I would suggest that this attitude is spiritual anorexia and can hope that someday they can see that.

The wisdom of God confounds and contradicts the vain glory and phdlosopy of the world and in Pascha never is that more clear! Thanks be to God.

Christ is Risen and He is Risen Indeed!

Bishop Andrew Gentry
Congregational Catholic Church
Asheville N C