(no subject)
Today as the bells were ringing for our Maundy Thursday service (the only one of the Triduum that I get to participate in as a congregant, rather than a working sacristan), I happened to be by my bedroom window and hear a random guy on 21st yell out "Hallelujah! Hallejuah!"
It was only the self-concious seminary dork inside that kept me from yelling back, "Not until Sunday!"
Maundy Thursday comes from a bastardization, as so much of our sacred nomenclature and imagery seems to (remind me to tell you the story about Moses' horns sometime), originating as Mandatum Novum, or "the new commandment", that seen in Christ's teaching of loving our neighbors as we would ourselves, immortalized in his washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper. Eventually this became Mandatum Thursday and then finally Maundy Thursday, and we still celebrate it by kneeling down before friends and strangers at the altar and bathing their feet. Which means tonight I played out a part in a drama that is over two millenia old, and sat back and smiled and remembered exactly why I came here in the first place.
My favorite part, always, is the stripping of the altar at the end of the service. Everyone is kneeling and the reserved sacrament has been carried from the church, and every candlestick, drapery, and piece of sliver altarware is taken away, leaving a stark blank altar staring out at us all, reminding us that in our calendar Jesus has been betrayed, handed over, to be sentenced and put to death. My old parish in Athens was very Victorian in its architectural style, the altar was one big block of baroquely carved marble anchored firmly against the wall, and so the whole thing was draped in black crepe, and the lights turned off in the sanctuary, leaving us all to creep out, blind, on our own in silence. The starkness brings out the promise of resurrection, like a tablespoon of sugar added to a tomato sauce brings out the acidity, or a piece of dark chocolate lays bare the body of a good red wine.
Now to bed, in preparation for a long day of chapel and fasting tomorrow.