The Escort

Those who had arrested Jesus took him.
Matthew 26:

Last night, at the end of the Maundy Thursday service, the Blessed Sacrament was processed solemnly out of the church, flanked by torches, to the chapel where it reposed till Good Friday morning. For me, it is the hardest moment of the Triduum. Whatever my eyes are seeing, my spirit feels that Jesus is being escorted away by soldiers. This tugs on the pool of sorrow where all the other losses of life reside. All the goodbyes, all the never-agains, all the if-onlys. The intellectual knowledge that Sunday and Easter will come has no impact on the knowledge of the heart that everyone and everything is escorted from the world. The knowledge faith brings that all will be made new lets us keeping walking on to tomorrow.

--Laura Howell