Easter Sunday is commonly called the Super Bowl for Christians. But there are other quieter, less-attended holy days leading up to Easter.
“A lot of people just do Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, but there’s a whole story in between,” said Kathy Gallaher during an agape meal Thursday evening at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Vancouver.
Gallaher, a parishioner at the church, said attending as many services as she can during Holy Week helps make the week and Easter more special.
According to the Christian tradition, Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, where Jesus dined with his disciples. The holiday is often marked by a simple meal before the service. The fare at St. Luke’s was vegetarian, including nuts, olives and rolls, harkening to the faith’s Middle Eastern roots.
St. Luke’s hosts some bilingual services during Holy Week, or Semana Santa as it’s called in Spanish. On regular Sundays, the church holds two services in English and one in Spanish; the Spanish services have been around since 1998.
On major holidays and other events, however, the Rev. Jaime Case, the church’s rector, likes to bring everyone together through bilingual services. Case grew up speaking English and Ilocano (a language of the Philippines) and later began studying Spanish. While at seminary in Austin, Texas, Case said people experimented with a number of techniques for making bilingual services predictable and comfortable. He brought those ideas to St. Luke’s when he became rector in 2011.
During Thursday’s Maundy Thursday, or Jueves Santo service, some readings were read in English and then repeated in Spanish, or vice versa, while others alternated between the two languages.
The Lord be with you. And also with you. El Señor sea con ustedes. Y con tu espíritu.
Thanks be to God. Demos gracias a Dios.
Case asked his parishioners if they had heard of Emma Gonzalez, an activist and gun-control activist who survived February’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. She’s of Cuban descent.
“She could read this in both languages,” Case said, holding up a copy of the program. “This is the future of our country.”
The word maundy comes from the same Latin roots as command. Maundy Thursday services tend to be more intimate, both because fewer people attend and because of the tradition to wash people’s feet. The Gospel of John talks about Jesus taking off his outer robe and washing the feet of his disciples. In an interview with The Columbian, Case said the act is about serving others.
“It’s a powerful image,” he said.
During Thursday’s service people walked up the aisle — barefoot or with shoes still on — to have their feet washed.
At the end of the service, the altar was stripped of its ornamentation and the cross taken down to prepare for Good Friday. Today is a solemn day of liturgy, prayer and reflection for Christians. Many churches, including St. Luke’s, are showing the Stations of the Cross — that is images depicting Jesus’ final day before his crucifixion.
