Holy Thursday

In the bright, beautiful sunset of a late spring evening, the colors light up the sky.  The rain clouds linger providing a canvas on which the rays of sun paint an array of color.  Orange, Pink and Yellow mixes with the deep blue sky and as the sun disappears behind the horizon, for a brief moment, the rays of sun, like flashlights across the sky, shine beams of effervescent joy.  You can almost feel the joy exuding from the horizon.

It is as if – Heaven and earth were colliding across the horizon. 

This is exactly what happens on Holy Thursday.

On This day, Jesus, fully divine, meets his humanity one last time celebrating a meal with his apostles.  This would be his last supper.

He washes the disciples feet.  He serves them consecrated bread and wine, instituting the divine remembrance of him.

But this day would end.  Like every day ends, in a beautiful collision across the horizon.  However, this collision would paint the sky of this world temporarily in hues of horrific colors.

In a divine collision, Judas, fully human, collided with Jesus, fully divine, in the Garden of Gethsemane with a kiss – God intersected Satan and Heaven met Earth. In this collision, the tears turn to blood and scarlet robes of Roman Soldiers overwhelm the Savior. In one moment, the intersection of God and Satan set a permanent change in motion.

Ha! The Devil thinks he has won, seducing one of His own, Judas, to deny him…He has pierced the saviors vail and won!

This divine collision led to a cross on calvary’s hill where the light of the world, descended into darkness for three days…just as the sunset beckons the end of the day, this death beckons a new way. 

So watch the sunset on Holy Thursday. Watch the collision as the sun touches the horizon and imagine the touch of the kiss where heaven met earth.

Jesus walks from the upper room, to an agonizing garden.  The cross stands vacant, awaiting the savior a blood on Friday.

The sun has set for the last time with Jesus alive. The sun has also set for the last time on the Devil’s un-hindered rule of earth.

By Friday at mid-day, Jesus will be dead. The darkest part of the night is now here.  And all will seem lost.

Reflect on where we are in the Easter Triduum. Visualize the scene and meditate on it. See the hues of the old passing away in this sunset, for the new day is near on which the other side of this darkest night is glorious light evermore.

The Titanic – we are living on it

James Cameron, director of the movie Titanic, describes the Titanic as a ‘metaphor’ of life: ‘We are all living on… [the] Titanic.’

When the Titanic set sail in 1912, it was declared to be ‘unsinkable’ because it was constructed using a new technology. The ship’s hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Up to four of these compartments could be damaged or even flooded, and still the ship would float.

Tragically, the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 at 2.20 am. 1,513 people lost their lives. At the time, it was thought that five of its watertight compartments had been ruptured in a collision with an iceberg.

However, on 1 September 1985, when the wreck of the Titanic was found lying upright on the ocean floor, there was no sign of the long gash previously thought to have been ripped in the ship’s hull. What they discovered was that damage to one compartment affected all the rest.

Many people make the Titanic mistake. They think they can divide their lives into different ‘compartments’ and that what they do in one will not affect the rest. However, as Rick Warren (from whom I have taken this illustration) says, ‘A life of integrity is one that is not divided into compartments.’

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, ‘Our hearts have room for only one all-embracing devotion, and we can only cleave to one Lord.’

My failure to live a life of total integrity, one that is undivided, means that When I have failed, I have sinned and stained my whole self. I would therefore be under God’s curse. But Jesus became a curse for me on the cross. Hanging on the tree he took God’s curse upon himself for you and me so that we can be redeemed, set free and receive the promise of the Spirit to enable us to begin to lead lives of complete integrity. Let’s rememberer this at the start of this Holy Week.