Maundy Thursday

 

Typical

Maundy, from Mandatum, mandate, and what a pair of commands or rules we're given tonight. The Eucharistic "do this" and "love one another as I have loved you," given at the conclusion of Our Lord washing the apostles' feet. At first glance it might seem that the two orders are discordant or unrelated, but of course they're not.

Christ clearly makes himself present in the Eucharist under the forms of bread and wine, body and blood. In what aspect is he present? Precisely as crucified, "This is my body given for you;" "This is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you for the remission of sins." Christ's body and blood, given and shed for us on the Cross.

So, when we make our communions, we enter into union with Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, eating his flesh and drinking His blood that we may have eternal life. "Do this," He says, and we do; was ever, per Dom Gregory Dix, a command so obeyed? 

That's the first mandate, the second's like unto it. After His last supper, on the night before He suffered, Christ knelt down and washed his apostles' feet, a prophetic action signifying his crucifixion in which he humbled himself, taking the form of a servant and washed us clean from sin in a supreme act of love. It's this which he commands us to emulate.

When we do, the grace given in the Sacrament of the Altar, the life of Christ sacrificed for us upon the Cross, comes alive in us, as a stream of living water welling up to eternal life.

God bless you all,

LSP

Holy Wednesday

 

In between cleaning all the guns that I don't have and watching scenes from Tombstone on continuous loop, I look forward to Maundy Thursday with it's double mandate, do this and love one another as I have loved you, the former realized in the Eucharist, was ever a command so obeyed?, and the latter signified by Christ washing the feet of his disciples.

The connection is clear and lies in the Cross, from which Jesus washes away our sins in his supreme act of love. And it's precisely this sacrifice that's made present to us in the Sacrament of the Altar. The extent to which we receive the grace offered, think Parable of the Sower, depends on our obedience to the commandment to love. 

Benedict XVI reflects:

In it (Confession), the Lord continually rewashes our dirty feet, and we are able to sit at table with Him.

But in this way, the word takes on yet another meaning, in which the Lord extends the "sacramentum" by making it the "exemplum," a gift, a service for our brother: "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14). We must wash each other's feet in the daily mutual service of love. But we must also wash our feet in the sense of constantly forgiving one another. The debt that the Lord has forgiven us is always infinitely greater than all of the debts that others could owe to us (cf. Mt. 18:21-35). It is to this that Holy Thursday exhorts us: not to allow rancor toward others to become, in its depths, a poisoning of the soul. It exhorts us to constantly purify our memory, forgiving one another from the heart, washing each other's feet, thus being able to join together in the banquet of God.

Holy Thursday is a day of gratitude and of joy for the great gift of love to the end that the Lord has given to us. We want to pray to the Lord at this time, so that gratitude and joy may become in us the power of loving together with his love. Amen.

Amen to that. We must and should hunger and thirst for righteousness, swords about the Cross. But by the same token, there is no place for the poisonous serpent of hatred within our hearts. It is the hallmark of our Adversary, Satan. And remember, though it seems counter-intuitive, the enemy's lost and lost hard.

Be on the side of Light,

LSP