I’ve had a hard time trying to figure out what to blog this week. Monday I sat down to write, but the words that came out were hollow and I took a step back to just be. It’d been an emotional weekend for our family. We adopted a dog, and consequently discovered severe allergies, so we had to return her after only 12 days. It was an emotional roller coaster and I am NOT ready to do that again. Meanwhile, I’m trying to research “exotic” pets. Early forerunners are hedgehogs, aquatic frogs, and possibly guinea pigs, rabbits or other small mammalian critters. Off the list? Madagascar hissing cockroaches and any form of arachnid. No. No. NO! Our list is for the most part pretty open, but i digress. I’m not here today to talk about pets or hunting for the “perfect” pet for our allergy filled family with young kids (but i will totally take suggestions, like Grow-A-Frog similar to what my nephew got several years ago.
I’m not sure how many of you are liturgical junkies out there. This is my absolutely favorite time of year within the church. I love the seasons already, the rhythm and discipline they provide. Spring is my all-time favorite time of the year, the promise of new life, the smell of the flowers, the colors and sights and the warmer weather. It’s a new beginning and I love it. So much. Add to that the fact that without Easter, my faith would be null and void. So much to celebrate. I love Easter, but I also love the season leading up to it, the fasting, preparation of my heart, remembering the sacrifice that Christ gave for us… And the week leading up to Easter, Holy Week, is filled with so much meaning and emotion from the triumphant welcome of Jesus as a hero on Palm Sunday, to the solemnity and mourning of Good Friday, to the ultimate celebration of the defeat of sin and death on Easter Sunday.
Today in the Western Church is Maundy Thursday. When I first heard of this day, years ago, I thought it had to do with laundry. I’m not sure exactly where I got that, but I didn’t associate it with the Latin phrase mandatum novum, or “new commandment.” Traditional services around the world include feet washing which, as weird as it seems, does have something to do with this day. In the John 13, we read the story of the night of Jesus’s betrayal. He washes his disciples’ feet and gives them a “new” command, to love one another as He has loved them.
It got me thinking about what kind of love He meant. I mean, He hung out with these 12 men who were social outcasts (fishermen, tax collectors, religious/political zealots…) and tells them “love others.” Love. A lot of times we are limited by our language to grasp what He meant by this commandment, but in Greek, the language the New Testament was written in, there are four words for love, a word for familial love, a passionate and often sensual love, the love and affection a parent has for their children, and the word for love used here, a love that is supernatural, unconditional, self-sacrificing, and describes perfectly the love God has for us, his children.
So today, as you ponder about this “new commandment,” think of ways you can serve and demonstrate this unconditional love to another person. You may not need to wash their feet, but there may be something you can do to show God’s love to them and share with them the good news of the Resurrection.
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