Strife over

I used to think there were Triduum people and Easter Sunday people (long one of the latter, I only dedicated to the former when I moved to NYC) and felt a little sorry for the clergy and others who had to be there for all of them. But this year choir duty makes me one of those people, so I was there bright and early today for the fifth leg of the Holy Week pentathlon. Glad I went! Yes, it it sort of a victory lap, the strife over and the battle won already at last night's vigil. And yes, today's church was full of unfamiliar faces - but also full, as we never usually are. (Why don't they join us more often? We have room!) Do they know we turned the church inside-out, clergy washing lay feet, the altar stripped, lights extinguished, and then celebrated the return  of the light with candles? I didn't, before I became a Triduumite. But somehow none of this mattered, or maybe it even contributed to the giddy joy of the morning. The work was done, we'd been there for it, we were there together, the world has no idea. The point of Easter is just to say "Alleluia" as many times and ways as you can anyway, isn't it? The musical selections helped, too, including old chestnuts like "Jeusus Christ is Ris'n Today," "Good Christians All, Rejoice and Sing" and, yes, "The Strife is Over" and the Easter hat of the organ repertory, the toccata from Widor's 5th symphony for organ but also some Bach and the spiraling euphoria of some modern gospel - with probably the first guest saxophonist in our church's history. What a nifty place! Maybe some of the fair-weather Christians got the vibe?