Maundy Thursday

My Journal - Agatha Nolen

This Thursday of Holy Week is known as Maundy Thursday where we commemorate the Last Supper where Jesus celebrated his final meal with his disciples. After washing His disciples’ feet as a sign of humility, Jesus gave them a new commandment, “"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34).

In Nashville this past week, we have experienced unspeakable grief with a school shooting at The Covenant School where three children, three adults, and the assailant perished within just a few minutes. We have unanswerable questions that keep swirling as to why a young person wants to take their life as well as the lives of others. It is as if the crucifixion was moved up on the calendar one week so we hear Pilate’s words to Jesus, “What is truth?”

But Jesus knew that Thursday that the end was near; less than 24 hours remained in our Lord’s earthly life. Events moved rapidly that evening: there was prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, betrayal by Judas, the arrest, mock trial, painful beating, the long walk to Golgotha and execution. In the Maundy Thursday service is the ancient custom of the Church in stripping the altar where all signs of comfort and life are removed to symbolize His suffering and death. Everything is removed, the altar cloths, the chair cushions, the candles, the prayer books. There is a silence that hovers as we watch in horror when we recognize that all our creaturely comforts are being removed from our lives, too. Tears begin to flow with small sobs as we realize the injustice that still exists in the world when an innocent people are killed.

The church lights are lowered, almost extinguished. There is just enough light for people to trudge their way out in silence, contemplating what it would be like if it were us going to our death in 24 hours instead of Him.

This year we gather again at 7:30PM Thursday to be reminded of our finitude and our fallenness as human beings. We have failed and we will fail again as evidenced by the condemning of an innocent man. This year we will also remember the other souls taken too soon who now rest in peace and rise in glory.

Please join me at our Maundy Thursday service at 7:30PM, St. George’s Episcopal Church, Nashville, TN.

Blessings, my friend,

Agatha