Three Vigils for Maundy Thursday, and a Fourth
Anyone who has worked a night shift knows that you must “keep watch” in at least three directions.
You watch over the workplace (or the house, perimeter, etc.) My wife kept watch many years as a nightshift nurse, because ICU patients tend to need care outside of bankers’ hours. My friend worked as a night watchman at an office complex, and over the years caught several intruders climbing the fence. During war, watchmen keep their eyes open for the enemy so others can sleep. This watch is why you were hired.
You watch over yourself. It is tough to stay awake, particularly when there is little visible action in the early hours of the morning. The mind wanders, the body finds a comfortable chair, the head nods and snaps back. Remind me again: why would we fight sleep? As Christ said on the first Maundy Thursday, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41).
You watch for the morning. Your body tells you that the shift will last forever. It’s not true. The watch will end, as sure as the sun will rise. So we watch the clock, the moon, the horizon, knowing that morning always comes, and there will be rest.
On that first Maundy Thursday, when Christ invited his three closest disciples to “watch and pray” that they might not enter into temptation, all three watches were in play. But he had a fourth type of watch in mind, as well: He said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38).
This kind of watch — watching with a suffering loved one even to the point of sharing their burdens — is what Christ asked of his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. What about us?
You know someone who is suffering alone today. Or at least, you know of them.
Who has recently lost a loved one?
Who is underemployed and unsure how to consistently make rent?
Who has already been displaced from their home (or homeland)?
Who is living with a frightening diagnosis?
Who works with populations who have been degraded on a mass scale?
Who is mourning their sin and its effect on other people, or on the earth?
Who does not want to continue living?
Maundy Thursday is a day to sit with them. And sitting with them is sitting with Christ, who said just two days earlier, “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Your clergy and counselors will tell you that a caring community is a necessary factor in your spiritual, emotional, and mental health. In other words, you need a home team to keep watch with you during your long dark nights. Without one, there may be a low ceiling to the growth and health you can experience.
Watch with someone tonight.
Do not give advice or try to fix them. Just see them, be with them, and join them in making an offering of tears. Call or text them if it’s really all you can do. Eventually, your thoughts will drift and your head will nod and your vigil will end. And that is okay, because yours was a participation in a constant vigil kept by the ever-interceding Spirit of God, to whom we commend our prayers and the other’s need. Because the Spirit never sleeps.
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, An Order for Compline)
