"God is in the Details"

Its a day late, but I was up late last night messing with this blog, so here is my very first post on Holy Thursday.

First things first, as you may know, this is the first Triduum using the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal and I was really excited to see what the changes were. To be completely objective...it was long. The new translation certainly takes alot longer to say and the syntax is definitely much more complicated. However, it was beautiful. Sure, I'm sure alot of us were getting tired and weren't paying as much attention to the words as we should have, but it was beautiful. The language was more spiritual in nature and certainly invoked a feeling of "old" or even "ancient", just like the new translation, which is more faithful to the original Latin, was meant to do. As always, the liturgical team at my home parish did an excellent job for the liturgy. However, being the somewhat more traditional Catholic that I am, I would not have been opposed to more incense! Incense, representing our prayers rising to heaven, should be used for more than just incensing the altar and the people, but I digress.

My parish priest gave an excellent homily, one that truly helped the congregation focus on the details of the Paschal Triduum. He said that "God is in the details". Not the details of the liturgy, such as making sure everyone is where they need to be for the Washing of the Feet or that there is enough hosts or that all the ministers are doing their jobs, although all the things are important and lend to a good liturgy. The true details of these Three Days, the true importance lies in all the little details of the Gospel that we may miss:

"So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist."

Everyone knows Holy Thursday by the Washing of the Feet during the Last Supper. But there is a crucial detail that we might miss when we are trying to look at the big picture. Here our Lord and our God, our Creator and Redeemer, goes down on his hands and knees to wash the feet of his disciples. As Christ later says, we have been "given a model to follow, so that as [He] has done for [us], [we] should also do". If the Saviour of the World could humble himself in service to us, how could we not do the same for others?

The Celebration of the Lord's Supper is an important liturgy. It is here that the institution of the Holy Eucharist happens. It is here when Christ acknowledges his coming death. And we must pay close attention to these lessons. But it is also here where Christ washes the feet of his disciples. But sometimes we overlook that He had to get on his knees to do it. For us as Christians, and as Catholics, being on ours knees is a sign of our  humility and that is where we are strongest, where we pray and give thanks to our God, and where we must serves others.

Final note: last night, I had the opportunity to sit in Adoration for an hour before the Blessed Sacrament was reposed at midnight. It was dark in our chapel, but there was so much light there, light from the people who came to pray and worship even in the dead of night, to spend time with the Lord. I remember seeing this couple walking up to the tabernacle and just kneeling in front of it. I remember the woman crying as I walked into Adoration just a few minutes earlier. I couldn't help but wonder what it was that was troubling them, that they felt they needed to be so close to Him. I stared at them for awhile and just prayed for them. They obviously found amazing comfort in just being in that sacred space and being so close to our Lord. So here is another detail that we overlook, another one that we take for granted: as Catholics, we are beyond lucky, to have the opportunity to be so close to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We all have asked for and wondered God's presence, but He has always been there, in the tabernacle or on the altar, in the form of bread and wine...His Body and Blood.

And we will see Him again today...as a sacrifice for our sins. May the Almighty bless you all with strength today. I know I will need it...watching True Love die.

Dominus vobiscum.