Last night - Holy Thursday

I attended the cathedral here in San Diego for the Mass of the Lord's Supper.  It has always tended to be one of my favorite liturgies over my 25 years of ministry.  It's a ton of work leading up to it, however.  For once it was nice to watch it happen and praying from the pews.  Been a long time since I had done so.

The first thing I noticed was that they began the liturgy with the tabernacle open and empty.  It's not how I have done it, but it does send an interesting message to those who might notice.  Every year when we enter the Triduum, the story of the most holy days unfolds anew.  So having the tabernacle empty from the beginning should remind the people that they are in the upper room with Jesus and the Apostles for the first time and that the Passover meal they eat is new and fresh.  Even the gospel story from St. John narrates something that most people who attend Holy Thursday evening services have seen for many years as we, who are in persona Christi and  successors to the Apostles, wash peoples' feet (usually one foot, but collectively it's proper to use feet in this case😉).  The cathedral may not be as large as Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral, but it is pretty good size.  So the washing took place not only in the front, but up the center aisle with designated people.  Some parishes, including my own when I was pastor, invite whoever would like to have the experience of being washed to come forward.  It takes longer, but it tends to be powerful for the whole community.  It's also taxing on the priest's body to virtually crawl across the floor from person to person, but it's great.

The evening ended as normal with the Eucharist procession -- incense and all.  HOWEVER, the altar of repose was not in the church.  It was in their auditorium, which was not very large at all.  We were indeed invited to follow along.  We went out the main entrance, and continued around the block until coming to the auditorium doorway.  There was practically no light at all.  It's much more ideal than remaining in the church.  It probably doesn't work everywhere, but because San Diego's weather is so consistently 60 degrees or warmer 350 days of the 365 in a year (exaggerating), it is quite doable.

As I listened to the scriptures, as usual, I heard something that I never paid attention to before, and maybe that is because I was talking about another scripture passage with a friend recently.  The reading from Exodus regarding the Passover meal tells us that the lamb must be a one year old male, without blemish, and may be taken from either the sheep or the goats.  Fast forward to Matthew's gospel in chapter 25.  Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats, saying that the sheep on his right would inherit everlasting life, while the goats would receive eternal punishment.  But in Exodus, they are equals - not good or bad.  The fact that they were to be a year old gives us a sort of foreshadowing to the slaughtering of the Holy Innocents who unknowingly gave their lives to save Jesus from Herod's wrath.  Finally, it also goes with the final plague given by pharaoh himself which backfired on him - the killing of the first born children of Israel.

Now how does such thought come from the two words - sheep and goats?