A file photo of Mother Teresa praying at the Missionaries of Charity in East Beirut, Lebanon (Photo AP)
Last night, after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, I returned to strip the altars. In the older usage, the priest stands before the altar and intones verse 19 of Psalm 22: diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea (“They divided my vesture among them”). King David wrote these words a thousand years before a few Roman soldiers stripped Christ of his vestments and tossed lots for them. As the choir chants the rest of the psalm, the priest gets to work. With an assistant, he strips the main altar of its three cloths, and then moves on to the side altars. “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” the choir chants. We will hear these words today at the Passion Service as Christ cries out the first verse of Psalm 22 from the Cross.
The altars are stripped, the tabernacles emptied, the candles removed, the people leave, and the church reverts to silent darkness. The Son of Man is left hanging on a cross between two criminals, abandoned by all but his mother and a few women. Usually we keep the Sacred Eucharist in Holy Thursday’s Altar of Repose only until midnight, but this year some women asked that we leave Christ in the tabernacle all night. At 4:30am I went down to pray. I found five people in the chapel who had apparently kept watch all night. All of them were women.
The three or four women who kept watch at Calvary 2000 years ago have been keeping watch until our own time. They are poor women, abused women, marginalized women. It is rare for a powerful and wealthy woman to spend much time in church, but someday I hope every woman, even the most powerful in America, will bend the knee before the crucified God. It is the Christian hope that every living being will one day grow silent before the mystery of Love Crucified. Ave Crux, spes unica!
The altars are stripped, the tabernacles emptied, the candles removed, the people leave, and the church reverts to silent darkness. The Son of Man is left hanging on a cross between two criminals, abandoned by all but his mother and a few women. Usually we keep the Sacred Eucharist in Holy Thursday’s Altar of Repose only until midnight, but this year some women asked that we leave Christ in the tabernacle all night. At 4:30am I went down to pray. I found five people in the chapel who had apparently kept watch all night. All of them were women.
The three or four women who kept watch at Calvary 2000 years ago have been keeping watch until our own time. They are poor women, abused women, marginalized women. It is rare for a powerful and wealthy woman to spend much time in church, but someday I hope every woman, even the most powerful in America, will bend the knee before the crucified God. It is the Christian hope that every living being will one day grow silent before the mystery of Love Crucified. Ave Crux, spes unica!
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