INTO THE DARKNESS

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MAUNDY THURSDAY

MARCH 20th, 2008

                                                  

 

There is no night quite like tonight, as we begin what is called the "Easter Triduum" - the three sacred days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Each day has its Liturgy, and each time we will say there is no night quite like this.   The service is slightly different, the Church is slightly different, and each theme is slightly different.

 

The name Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin "Maundatum", meaning "Commandment". This night has always been called Maundy Thursday because on this night there are three commandments that the Lord has left us.  

 

To quote the Gospel: "A new commandment I give unto you". The commandment to love one another. Not just a new commandment, but the greatest of commandments. Also, of course, the one commandment which under-girds everything, the commandment to love.

 

It is love that under-girds everything Jesus did and taught. Tonight he showed, as Saint John says, how deep was his love. Now he makes what is behind everything he did a commandment - the commandment to love.

 

And to show what sort of love - because there are different sorts of love - he washes the feet of the twelve, including the traitor and the one who would deny him.   He washes their feet to show what he means by his love. As he humbled himself to do this act of service, Jesus not only gives an image of the love he talks about, it becomes another commandment - the second commandment tonight - to serve one another. The commandment to serve.  

 

And of course the third commandment is the one we associate mostly with this event and this night: "Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me".

 

The Mass of the Lord's Supper not only takes us to the Upper Room and that night in which he gave us the Eucharist - it also recalls us to the deep meaning of the Eucharist. It is not just a memorial meal - it happens within the Passover.  

 

Although scholars do dispute whether tonight was the Passover or whether it was on Saturday, tonight sets before us the approaching sacrifice of Christ in the setting of the Passover of Israel. This is recalled by the words of Saint Paul which we say at every Mass: "Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast".

 

And tonight's Mass is indeed a feast - a feast of color and splendor and ceremony. The gold vestments and the bells add a note of glory and celebration - and rightly so.

 

But the bells are now silenced until Saturday night - because this note of glory and celebration is overshadowed by Gethsemane and what follows from the Last Supper.   We began with joy and splendor, shortly we move to the foot washing, and then to the Eucharistic Prayer itself, in which we are there with Jesus as he celebrates the Eucharist, and gives it to us as his great gift to the Church.

 

But at the same time as we are there at the Eucharistic Prayer, the absence of the Sanctuary bells adds a note of foreboding. Then after Communion we follow Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane, in the beautiful and moving procession of the Sacrament around the Church. And the Liturgy finishes after we go to the Altar of Repose with the solemn stripping of the altar and sanctuary - and the stark reality that this is the night in which he was betrayed.

 

Tonight is a mixture of crazy themes and emotions as we move from one experience to another - only at the end to finish up without a happy ending.  We like happy endings. Even Good Friday has its note of victory. 

 

But not tonight. It begins bright and glorious, and ends dark and ominous. The luminous quality of this celebration gradually evaporates as the Mass proceeds, until finally the sanctuary is stripped bare and laid waste.  

 

There will still be a pool of light and grace shining in the Chapel. But looked at objectively this is not a happy night.  This is the night prophesied at Epiphany when our Lord Jesus Christ will be "sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying; sealed in a stone-cold tomb". 

 

And yet, I still think of this night as lovely and beautiful. Despite where the procession of the Sacrament ends, it is moving in a triumphant and glorious way. That is because the Eucharist, no matter its context, is always our joy, Holy Communion always a great gift.  

 

Because the Holy Communion is precious to us, tonight we remember the joy rather than the unhappy ending. That is the reality of life surely? We often experience times of joy, and some of it ends badly. But we prefer to remember the joy. So we remember and recall that part of tonight which is glorious. We don't dwell on the horror. That's how it should be. So much happens that is good and wonderful and glorious in life - and it ought not to be compromised or spoilt by unhappy endings.

 

Maundy Thursday does get spoiled - but it is still a joyous gold-robed, bell-ringing, Gloria-singing night. Maundy Thursday tells us that bad endings never overcome the good that proceeds. The previous joy lives on, not the bad that follows.  

 

So here we are gathered at the Last Supper - which was not the last, but the very first supper of the Lord. And we know that the darkness at the end will not overcome, will not overpower, the lights, the bells, the glory.

 

Maundy Thursday challenges us to concentrate on the gift we have been given - not simply on how things were at the end. But to focus on what was real and what lasted.  

 

The agony and pain of this night is not ignored or explained away. It will be endured as in all of life. But the joy, the glory, the holiness, the love - this is what prevails.