Holy Thursday

This evening, with the Mass commemorating Our Lord's Supper and the Institution of the Eucharist, the Easter Triduum officially started.

I wish I could explain the feeling the Triduum has for me, from this Mass until I go to bed after the Easter Vigil (somehow, it doesn't seem to be there for the final day, Sunday... possibly because it's all denouément after the Vigil). But I don't seem capable of it. I tried in the post below, with the idea that the Triddum is the only few days in the year when, consistently, I feel in a prayerful mood the whole time.

The Triduum rides the whole roller coaster of emotions. We start with the cosy, sentimental memories of the Last Supper. There was no mention in tonight's Mass of the pain and sorrow of Good Friday... but you know it's coming. The Blessed Sacrament is not reposed after Mass in the main tabernacle, but that is left empty. Here at the Seminary, the Blessed Sacrament is reposed in another, smaller, tabernable in the community room, where we've got a prayer vigil going on until midnight (I'm signed up for 11:00 to midnight, so I'll be off there in just over an hour). Meanwhile, once that's done, the sacristans and servers are back to the chapel to strip the altar of all decorations. It must be barren from now until partway through the Good Friday service.

The unique thing, of course, about the Holy Thursday Mass is the washing of the feet. In John's account of the Last Supper, he doesn't mention the institution of the Eucharist (unnecessary by then, with Paul's account and the three synoptic gospels floating around), but focuses on Jesus's washing of the apostles' feet. The important words to remember here are "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you." (John 13:14-15)

It's a rather dramatic gesture, the re-enactment of Jesus's footwashing of the apostles, and it an especially powerful reminder for the priest of the nature of his mission. Indeed, focussed as it is on this service and the institution of the Eucharist, which the the centre of a priest's ministry, Holy Thursday a day very close to a priest's mission.

It's incredibly sad, therefore, a fact that I heard a priest mention a couple years ago, about other priests. Apparently, there are a number of priests who like to skip this part of the liturgy, for whatever reason. I forget what reasons Fr. Rich offered (he passed on since, God bless him), but I seem to recall them being associated with the idea that these priests found it demeaning or pointless. The sadness is that the whole point of this gesture is that it is demeaning. Footwashing is NOT a glamourous task. It is the task of a servant. And that is what a priest needs to remember. This is a ceremony intended ESPECIALLY for the spiritual benefit of the priest involved, and it's heartbreaking that some completely miss that.

On a related note... I remember last year's Holy Thursday as being a day I was intensely in love with the notion of priesthood... and partly because of the foot-washing. The whole aspect of being the servant of the people of God is not something that repels me... but is a huge part of what attracts me to the priesthood. This year, the magnetism wasn't so noticeable, but there was an interesting moment of crystal clarity when I realised that I REALLY want to be a parish priest.

I've toyed with the idea lately of what it would be like to be a professor, or a seminary formator, or a priest in some other, non-parochial mission... and I realised that it's ALWAYS been the community events that I've found most attractive about the priesthood. I want to have a parish. I want to have PEOPLE around me. (I still like the idea of teaching... but I also want a parish... try and reconcile that!).

And to end things on a final, awesome note: I went to Confession after Mass! I've tried to explain it before, and my explanation is always inadequate, about what a totally amazing thing Confession is! You Protestants who've rejected it as a Sacrament (which is most of you) have no idea what you're missing! (Not, of course, that those of you who confess it have it legitimately, but you understand where I'm coming from.)

~For our sake, Christ was obedient, accepting even death, death on a cross~