WAIT AND PRAY (MAUNDY THURSDAY VIGIL)

The Altar of Repose at St. Alopen’s Cathedral 

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

Tonight we knelt at the altar of repose, a profound and humbling experience, trying to faithfully wait on our Master to return, contemplating the mystery, the horror, the majesty and the triumph of what we will witness as the dawn breaks and Good Friday appears. 

We sweat normal drops of perspiration as Christ sheds great drops of blood. We sing with trembling voice as Christ shook with great suffering - “Not my will, but Thine, be done.” 

We partook of the sweet chalice of the Last Supper, as He partook of the Bitter Cup of the World’s Sin, being made a curse for us. 

We hung our heads in shame as Christ prepares to hang, like Moses’ brazen serpent in the wilderness, upon the wood of a tree for all to see, that we might look upon Him and be saved. 

As Christ arose and discovered his Disciples sleeping, so we find ourselves asleep, content, unrepentant, dishonest within ourselves and with one another, in sin, deeply satisfied and satiated with the pleasures of the world and our own false definitions of success. 

As Christ woke up His Disciples, commanding them to try harder and follow Him more resolutely, we hear the echoes of that same exhortation by the power of the Holy Spirit resounding through our hearts. 

“Awake!

Await! 

Pray!” 

We have all, like Peter, betrayed the Lord and sought our own comfort, and we are all called, like Peter, to return in tears and humility, asking the Lord’s forgiveness for being unfaithful, impatient, sleepy servants to our Master, Lord and King. 

And, like the Thief Dimysios pleads today as he suffers with Christ on the Cross, humbly intreat - “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom!” 

May we be faithful to wait in these next hours with Christ!