Stripping the Altar - Triduum Journal (Maundy Thursday, 38/40)

I'm finding it especially difficult to write about the Triduum this year.

My initial instinct on Maundy Thursday would be to talk about the importance of spending time with Jesus in the garden, honoring him for the agony he endured alone and promising to never leave him that way again. I do intend to spend a Holy Hour this evening in prayer in front of the church - as near as I can get to what I want this night to be - but it won't be the same. It feels like that has been stripped away.

Following that, I want to write about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples - the importance of his example of servant leadership. The need for humility and vulnerability when all we have been taught is the importance of standing on our own. But for so many of us at the moment, servanthood means being at home. So it feels a bit like that, too, has been stripped away.

Obviously we could also talk about the Eucharist - the importance of Jesus instituting it at Passover, and seeing Jesus as the true sacrificial Lamb of God, whose flesh we must eat and whose blood washes us clean. The Church still has the Eucharist, but most of us can't receive at the moment. Yet another aspect of tonight that has been stripped away.

We could talk about how today we also celebrated the institution of the ordained priesthood. There are so many beautiful examples right now of shepherds putting their lives on the line for the sake of their flocks, and we could emphasize just how wonderful it is that we have these men who trust Our Lord so much. But the primary purpose of the priesthood is the sacraments, and while that hasn't strictly been stripped away, our access to the sacramental life of the Church has been greatly limited.

So I guess that leaves the stripping of the altar and the removing of the Blessed Sacrament, two of the most somber moments from the Maundy Thursday liturgy. There is something so stark about seeing the Church emptied of all color and stripped down to its bare wood and stone, and I think this year especially the image is so poignant.

Frankly, we're already living that.

We've been living with a stripped-down Church and a stripped-down life the past few weeks, and I know just how hard it is to see one thing after another taken away. We have entered into the Maundy Thursday liturgy, and we're just ready to move on to Easter Sunday - the renewal of color, and warmth, and life.

This stripping-down is something to embrace, because it will lead to resurrection. The Church strips the altar as the soldiers stripped Our Lord. In the same way, we can strip the altars of our hearts - removing all the stuff and leaving behind the bare basics.

Here is our opportunity. Tonight, we can dim the lights. We can turn off the computer and the music and empty ourselves the way our Churches are empty. In place, we can let Our Lord fill us with His presence the way He fills the tabernacle. We can become an Altar of Repose ourselves, where Jesus rests this night.

Tonight, we may not have much that we want. But we still have all that we need.