I think it's the most striking liturgical act of the year.  It may be one of the most honest moments of the liturgical year.  The stripping of the altar on Maundy Thursday.  Bare: open to view; exposed.  Seen without any enhancement, any adornment; revealed.

I recently heard writer Mary Karr speaking on NPR's Studio 360 with Alec Baldwin.  She was speaking of why she had faith, why she attended church.  "I was not looking for a church.  It wasn't the splendor or beauty of the church.  It was the little Irish priest, he was incapable of saying anything untrue." 

Maundy Thursday is incapable of saying anything untrue.  To find life will require a stripping down, a revealing of what is true.  In the dim light of this service, we, with Jesus, see life exposed, revealed, unmasked.  We must choose whether we will be present to its rawness, its complete honesty.

Tonight we will watch Jesus refuse to meet violence with violence.  Tonight Jesus' life will not be taken, he will lay it down and offer it up to the darkness.

On this night we gather to wash feet, to share the meal and to see light and life stripped away.

Todd Donatelli