And the Earth Stands Still
An excerpt from my book of essays, Reflections on a Life in Exile.
I found myself in the position, recently, of explaining Holy Week to someone who does not believe. Perhaps a bit too earnestly, I tried to describe what happens: the triumph of Palm Sunday with its awful portent, the congregation taking the part of Christ's accusers, facing -- whether we want to or not -- our own sins; the washing of the feet, and the ritual vigil, kept with Christ throughout the night on Maundy Thursday; on Friday, the awful full-eyed clarity of the torture and agony of the crucifixion and then, at last, the breath of life gone, the Pascal candle extinguished, the altar stripped, and the deep internal stillness of grief hanging over the congregants.
We are all diminished by every death. But this one death is ours and His. The fear of it lingers in our hearts as we wait in hope.
It is Good Friday. And the earth stands still.
In response to a reader enquiry about my essay on Good Friday:
Maundy Thursday is the day commemorating the last supper, when Christ delivered his mandate to the disciples—often called the Eleventh Commandment—“Love one another”. Maundy is an English corruption of the Latin word for command: “Mandatum”. Also related to our English word, mandate.
Incidentally, “good” is an old fashioned term for “holy”. This is why the day of Christ’s crucifiction is known as Good Friday.
The Maundy Thursday liturgy and the washing of the feet is powerful as is the rest of the weekend. I start with the moaning"why am I going to church everyday for 4 days" and then comes Easter. Having sung in an Episcopal choir from the age of 6 to 18 I still remember the glory of the sunrise Easter service and I am close to 80...and why they had to remove the "quick and the dead" still puzzles me..and how correct did we need to be to remove Once to Every Man and Nation from the hymn book...I still want to sing it the Sunday before election day! Happy Easter to you and Charlie and the boys.