Experience.

This Maundy Thursday is about experience. These next three days are about experience.

I’ve always loved Maundy Thursday. I love it principally in the way it moves my heart. In the story it tells. A story based in sensory experience.

We stand here wearing white and gold. These liturgical colors denote celebration. The Holy Mass begins and we are confronted by the first profound experience, the playing of the Gloria and the ringing of bells. We can imagine what heaven must be like. Heaven, where the elders and the Apostles who surround the throne of God, praise Him eternally and call out, —Glory to God in the highest.— Revelation tells us:

Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
—You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

Next, in the very conduct of the Holy Mass we recall the sacraments Jesus Christ instituted for our salvation.

We receive penance and absolution during the penitential rite, when Father Andrew, in accordance with the instructions of Christ, washes us clean.

We hear the Word of God proclaimed and listen as it is explained.

Father Andrew, acting as the hands of Christ, and repeating the words of Christ, confects the most holy Sacrament of the Altar.

These sacraments, instituted by Jesus Christ, to give us the graces we need to become more like Him, are experiential. They are the healing touch of Christ in absolution, the hearing of Jesus’ teaching and instruction in the Word, the eating of the flesh of Jesus, and the drinking of His blood in Holy Communion.

God is giving us His grace in a way we can understand, feel, and appreciate.

Not only that, we celebrate this night with Father Andrew and with all who have been called to the Holy Priesthood. Tonight is every priest’s anniversary. Jesus Christ instituted the Holy Priesthood so that we, His followers, may continue to receive His body and blood, so that we may be healed, hear His word, and so that we might be brought into the Church.

What tremendous gifts our Lord has given us. How well he understood our need to be touched and to have our hearts, minds, and bodies filled with His love. How well He understood our condition. He understood, because He lived it.

More experiences await us. After we have received the sacraments He instituted we will prepare to process to the Altar of Repose. Jesus is leaving this magnificent Altar. We walk with Him, down the path to His prison. We walk with Him to the mournful beat of the klekotki, walk with Him after Judas’ kiss, through the garden, down the city streets to the Chief Priests and the Sanhedrin. We walk with Him, past all of you, as He is accused, mocked, slapped in the face, spat upon, and finally as He arrives at the Altar of Repose.

He will be thrown into prison tonight. Not the modern prisons of your imagination, but the dark, cold, damp, rodent infested prison He was thrown into. No food, no water, only pain and the cold loneliness of this night. When father throws the key of the tabernacle, the prison bars are shut. Jesus suffering for you and me.

The beautiful Altar of Repose, donned in white, is our meager way to show Jesus that we know He is God, that we love Him and want to make things beautiful for Him.

Those of you who do not want to let Him sit alone tonight will stay. You will keep watch. You will pray.

Keep watch with our Lord tonight. Let your tears of sadness flow as we walk with Him, down, down, down, into the experience of the next three days. Walk from this Altar to the prison, from the prison to the pillar, from the pillar to the cross, from the cross to the tomb.

After the Body of Christ is placed in the Altar of Repose the experience will continue. Father and I will return to the main Altar. The Altar will be stripped, the tabernacle left open and empty.

From these experiences, from the great pealing of the bells to the stripping of the Altar, from tremendous highs to terrible lows, we walk with Jesus.

What do we take with us? How are these moments and experiences captured in our minds and hearts? How do we put our joys and our tears to good use?

Experience!

We listen to Jesus’ command:

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.

Therefore, we pledge anew to tie our lives to Christ Jesus. We pledge anew to be His servants. We know that the road He calls us to is not an easy road, especially in light of the way the world is going. But remember, Judas went the way of the world and our Lord said that it would have been better if he had never been born.

We must commit to tie our experiences, both the good and bad to the life of Jesus. He must be the center of our lives. He must be the one we go to in celebration and in sadness. He is our life, our being, and our all. He is the center of the Church, our parish, our families, our relationships, and our business dealings. We acknowledge Him as the way, the truth, and the life. We must recommit to this.

Experience —“ is life lived in unity with Jesus Christ. Without Christ there is no resurrection, no new life. Walk with Him tonight and always.