Won’t you sit with me for an hour?

Ask people what their favourite liturgy of the year is and few will answer as I do.  I can understand that it’s hard to go past the joyful carols of the Christmas Masses, or the beauty of a flower filled church for Easter.  For me though, it’s the liturgy of Holy Thursday which is closest to my heart.  From the tolling of bells during the singing of the Gloria after its long absence during Lent, to witnessing the humility of the priest who acts as Jesus did in the service of others, to entering the Garden of Gethsemane to accompany Jesus in his final moments of prayer before his capture.  There’s also the whole church bells flying off to Rome thing as well.  Did you know they do that? 

In France it’s tradition that when the bells are silenced after the singing of the Gloria on Holy Thursday as a sign of mourning, they fly to Rome to receive a Papal blessing.  On their return to their own churches to ring out Christ’s triumph over death on Easter Sunday, they drop gifts of chocolate eggs into the gardens of well-behaved children.  Chocolatiers across France make les cloches volantes (flying bells) to sit in their cabinets aside chocolate mother hens and, of course, chocolate eggs.

What I love most about the liturgies of Holy Thursday though is to spend time after Mass in front of the Altar of Repose.  In this moment we truly enter the five Sorrowful Mysteries as we wait with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane while he prays to the Father.  In the dark of the evening and the silence of the church, we can succeed where his disciples could not and keep watch with him for an hour (Mt.26:40).  Kneeling there, my heart fills with sorrow for all that is to come the following day when the liturgy continues.  I think of nothing but what, and who, is before me and the task at hand, to sit with Our Lord in his hour of need.  Is there any greater privilege than to sit with the Son of God in the moments before he is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Jesus asks his Father to let this fate pass him by but also commits to fulfilling the will of the Father whatever that may be, even if it be to humble himself to death on a cross (the most humiliating and painful death possible).  How much this hour strengthens us in our own resolve to be obedient to the will of God.  We know the outcome of this narrative.  Good triumphs over evil.  It wasn’t an easy path, but Jesus followed it without hesitation out of a loving filial obedience to the God of Truth and Goodness.  Sitting with him in this hour reminds me that I am called to the same obedience because although the path may be difficult, following it will lead to my salvation.