top of page
CATECHETICAL CORNER.jpg

HOLY THURSDAY ADORATION (AFTER MASS OF THE LAST SUPPER)

Stay, here, and keep watch with me. The hour has come. Stay, here, and keep watch with me. Watch and Pray. (Taizè)

 

The words of this hymn portrays the tensed words that came moments before Jesus was arrested and began his journey to his final moments of life. Can you imagine, sitting at dinner with your friends, knowing that your “hour will be coming soon”? Can you imagine, praying in the garden, knowing that your “hour has come” and begging God to “take this cup away from me” (Lk 22:42)?

 

Can you imagine being alone in knowing and understanding what is about to happen?

 

Jesus did, though. He broke bread with his friends, his disciples, with the full knowledge of what was about to take place. As He anticipated his coming arrest and death, he begged his friends to stay awake with him, to pray with him, to support him in his last moments. Yet, we see in the gospels that his disciples could not even do that. “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.” (Mt 26:41). This piece of Jesus’ story captures for us the understanding of total dependence on God. There was no one on Earth, who could support, who could understand, or who could strengthen Jesus, other than God.

 

According to Becky Eldredge an Ignatian-trained spiritual director, retreat facilitator and writer; the reality is that many of us will never have moment, where we grasp the full knowledge of what is going to happen, in the way Jesus did. However, we do have moments in our lives that occur daily, where we must surrender our will, our choices, our desires to God. The answer to our prayers may not always be concrete answers that we understand, but often, so often, we do get an answer. It is an answer that Jesus got that night, and it is an answer that we get in our lives…the answer is “We are strengthened by God’s Spirit”.

 

What does Jesus’ experience of the Last Supper and Agony in the Garden say to you? How do you feel you are called to trust God, right now, the way Jesus trusted God?

 

On Holy Thursday, the first night of the Triduum, Our Lord Jesus extends this same invitation and instruction to us, his friends, brothers and sisters - to keep watch with him and pray. Can we do that for at least one hour or are we going to ignore His invitation and go to sleep or fete?

​

bottom of page