Maundy Thursday

Today is the day of betrayal.

Today is the day the bonds of love and loyalty let loose. Today is the day that twists away from truth.

Today is the day that our choices lead inexorably to tragic consequences. Today is the day that the axis of the earth shifts towards violence and anger. Today is the day we betray all that we know to be most beautiful, most holy and most pure.

He shared a meal with his friends, served with love and compassion. But it wasn’t enough. They wanted more, so much more.

He asked them to sit and watch with him through the dark and lonely hours of night.

Today is the day his friends fell asleep.

We all sleep, lapse into unconsciousness, betray the truth and love we know. We cannot watch just one hour. We want what we want and are restless in the waiting.

Today is the day they are scattered. They cannot bear what they see. Today is the day they flee in fear. They erect a wall to protect themselves, to hide from the horror beginning to dawn.

The more we seek to escape the pain, the more pain we create.

Today is the day we refuse to face our own deep loneliness. Today is the day we fail to acknowledge the scars of our lives that wound those we touch.

Today is the day we fail to follow Jesus to the place of surrender. Today is the day we will not bend to love but will be cracked by hatred. Today is the day darkness creeps across the earth and fear stirs like an enemy of the light.

We kneel to pray this day, hoping that this time, we will choose a different path. But too often the choice we make only deepens the cracks in the cosmos. We etch the crooked lines of our suffering into the hard cracked earth upon which our tears will fall.

Today the crack in the world begins to widen.