Exodus 12.1-8, 11-14 Ordinances for the Passover meal
1 Corinthians 11.23-26
‘For often as you eat and drink, you proclaim the Lord’s death
John 13.1-15
He loved them to the end
‘Christ
loved them to the end’
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One of my most formative memories as a young
Christian is from when I was about 14 years old.
I had sung in my parish church choir for a beautiful
Mass, in which I was profoundly aware of the beauty of holiness.
I had with others had my feet washed by our parish
priest, whom I looked up to and admired.
I had witnessed the stripping of the altars at the
conclusion of the Mass of the Last Supper.
And now I knelt in the presence of the Blessed
Sacrament, following Jesus’ instruction to his disciples in Gethsemane: watch
and pray.
It was, of course, Maundy Thursday.
It was the Watch of the Passion.
The Watch of the Passion, what our Maundy Thursday
liturgy concludes with, is an integral a part of tonight as the washing of
feet, the breaking of bread and the stripping of the altars.
It is a time of prayer and stillness, something many
of us are not all good at.
The Watch gives us an opportunity not to hurry away,
but in the words of the psalm:
Wait for the Lord;
be strong
and he shall comfort your heart;
wait patiently for the
Lord. (Psalm 27.17)
Watching and praying in stillness is alien to many
of us: but it is the most natural thing in the world.
Things that are natural – of our nature – aren’t
always easy. Take walking for instance; or talk to new mothers about
breastfeeding; and what about dying: all are natural but not easy for us.
These natural, but difficult, things – the foremost
of which is union with God - touch our deepest needs and desires.
In the Watch we can connect with our deepest self,
come to realise who we really are, yes, and, who Jesus Christ is: the One
obedient to the Father’s will.
The thing is with the Watch, and the thing we
perhaps find most difficult, is that it confronts us with the darkness – the
darkness of betrayal, arrest and condemnation.
How can the disciples betray with sleep or with a kiss,
in the case of Judas, the One who has taught them, washed their feet and
offered them his whole life in his body and blood?
It’s this that you and I must confront too.
All this takes place in Gethsemane: a garden
Gethsemane evokes another Biblical garden – Eden where
the perfect union with God unravels.
In that Garden the man entrusted with priestly care
of creation violates that which is of his nature and ours, a perfect
relationship with God; in Gethsemane that violation is reversed; and in our
garden of repose in this church we are invited to join our ‘yes’ to God with that
of the New Adam, the true and faithful high priest, Jesus Christ.
In Gethsemane the disciples are the archetype of you
and me, Jesus tells them to stay awake, but they fall asleep.
They are us - either literally or figuratively -
when we switch off from the ways of Jesus.
In the Watch we are given space to do some wonderful
things and reflect on key questions:
· I
have seen the servant priest and king, Jesus Christ, wash the feet of his disciples:
how does he serve me and how do I serve him?
· I
have seen, and heard, Christ offering himself as the sacrifice ‘for us and our
salvation’, as victim and as priest as the true Lamb of God: how do I receive
him, and how do I offer myself as a holy and living sacrifice to him?
These points for reflection will be in the St
Nicholas Chapel and in the pews outside it for you to ponder.
This captivated my young heart and sustains me to
this day: and as the Crucified One says to his disciples after his
Resurrection, ‘as the Father sends me, so I send you’ (John 20.21).
We are drawn in to the mystery tonight, ready to go
out live the mystery and invite others into it.
So do come to the Watch, to watch and pray. Give
yourself just that little bit longer than you might.
Come to be with the presence of Christ in his body
and blood that he offered once for all, in time and in eternity.
When the moment comes, after the altars are stripped
and all is desolate, make your way to the St Nicholas Chapel where the altar of
repose is to be found.
There, enthroned on the
altar, will be Christ, in his sacramental presence: may we watch and pray with
him the Bread of Life and Lamb of God.
For reflection:
· I
have seen the servant priest and king, Jesus Christ, wash the feet of his
disciples:
o
how does he serve me?
o
how do I serve him?
· I
have seen, and heard, Christ offering himself as the sacrifice ‘for us and our
salvation’, as victim and as priest as the true Lamb of God:
o
how do I receive him?
o
how do I offer myself as a holy, and
living, sacrifice to him?
· I
have been drawn into the Mystery of God’s love tonight:
o
Am I ready to go out live the Mystery
o
Am I ready to invite others into the
Mystery?
o
If not I am not ready to do one or both
of those things, why not – and what can I need to be able to do so?
