Tenebrae

During the Tenebrae liturgy on Maundy Thursday, we are asked to meditate on the fact that it was on the Thursday evening before Good Friday that Jesus and his disciples were together for the last time, when he and they stood in the shadow of the cross, when he washed their feet and instituted the Holy Supper.

Tenebrae is the Latin word for dark shadows.  The gradual extinguishing of candles at our services will be symbolic of the advancing darkness that came over Jesus during the night of his arrest, the anguish of Gethsemane, the flight of the disciples, the bitter hate of his enemies, the looming shadow of the cross, the God-forsakenness. The moments of total darkness will recall the time when he was in the tomb.

We consider the immense sorrow that Jesus experienced.

Jesus knew that the judgment of God for all the sins of the world would be upon him! Not because he ever sinned, or disobeyed or transgressed, but because of the sins of the whole world.

But why dwell on this darkness? Why observe Tenebrae? What are we supposed to learn from it? What is the reason that this dark night is so clearly recorded?

In the darkness of Christ’s anguish we truly discover who we really are, without the grace of God and the redeeming work of Jesus, without the cross and the salvation and the forgiveness of God.

And we see the depth of the love and the mercy of Christ for sinners, for me and for you.

It is not without reason that the Bible records that in Gethsemane Jesus asked his closest friends, Peter, James and John, to keep watch with him while he prayed.

Moved by the overwhelming sorrow of Christ on that day and by the reality of what we are saved from, and the cost of it all, we too are called to keep watch and pray to not fall into temptation again.

We are called to keep watch with Christ, for the sake of the salvation of the world. Shall we forget the horror of those who die without forgiveness by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord?

After we saw what Jesus did for us, how can we not remember his commission?

Keep watch with me, and pray.

Go, he said, even to the ends of the earth, and proclaim the good news of salvation, make disciples of al. After we saw his love and saw some of his sorrow and his distress at Tenebrae, how can we not go!