Maundy Thursday

Today we reach the time on the Christian calendar known as Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday. This is a very significant day for several reasons. Many churches hold special services on this evening. Some include footwashing (as a remembrance of Jesus' washing of the disciple's feet at the Last Supper), some observe Holy Communion (since Jesus instutitued this sacrament at the Last Supper with the sharing of the bread and wine and his instructions to the disciples) and some with a very moving service that includes removing items from the sanctuary (called "stripping the altar), such as candles, Communion elements, etc., draping the cross in black or gray fabric, and gradually lowering the lights until darkness is achieved, as a remembrance of the suffering of Jesus in his arrest and death on the cross, with everyone leaving the church in silence. The altar remains barren until Easter morning. It's a powerful service.

For me, Maundy Thursday is a day for somber reflection. I often think of the ways I have failed to honor the sacrifice of Jesus. How have I failed to love myself? How have I failed to love others? When have I missed an opportunity to serve those less fortunate? How have a squandered the earth's resources? It sounds gloomy, doesn't it? But, it's not really. I don't beat myself up, but I do offer up an honest apology to God for those times that I have failed to be the person God created me to be. I do think about the fact that God became a human being, and lived on this earth to teach us more about God's own nature, and gave us lessons on how to live, and yet we still don't get it right. We still put Jesus on the cross because that message of radical love and service was so threatening that we couldn't hear it then and we have trouble with it now because it flies in the face of everything else that the world promotes. And I let my heart break for Jesus' suffering, and for the ongoing suffering of the world, and hope that this will be the year that I get it right....or more right. Today I let myself feel grief - grief for the death of Jesus and grief for our human failures. I can't get to Easter and the forgiveness and hope of the resurrection until I honor what has gotten us to that day. Too often we skip right from Christmas and the birth of Jesus right to Easter and the promise of new life without stopping to think about all that happened in between. Then, to me, it's a "false spring."

So, today, allow yourself to feel pain and loss and sadness as you remember what we did to Jesus, who only came to us in total love. And remember that on Sunday, we will gather to celebrate the fact that no matter how dark the day, God gives us the gift of forgiveness and love and hope.

Teresa