Maundy Thursday

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Maundy Thursday - a reverent evening service commemorating the Last Supper, the act of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and his telling them goodbye. The disciples didn't really grasp the significance of the evening but were moved by Jesus' behavior. Still true to their continued lack of understanding Jesus' true nature and ultimate destination, they remained clueless. In all fairness, how could they have known any sooner than those final hours what was coming? Even the most educated and sophisticated of them could not have envisioned what was in store for Jesus and ultimately through his life, what was in store for them.

And I, am I more educated and sophisticated than the disciples were? I live my life trying to imitate Jesus' commandments of "loving God with all my heart and my soul and my neighbor as myself." But am I any brighter than those men gathered at the last meal of Jesus' life on earth? Can I truly fathom what God has in mind for me in this life and beyond? It seems unlikely that I can.

It is interesting to me that I commemorate Jesus' life and his presence in my own life, yet, how do I do that? By studying words, inspired? Yes, but told and written down through the centuries in man's best efforts to illuminate the truth of God's time on earth and his continuing presence with humankind. So inadequate, all the books written, songs sung, all the Holy Scripture scribed through the ages, for how can any of us, how can I pretend to know what God "is?" How can I even begin to think that mankind could have captured the essence of God in anything human, like a book or a song or a story? I believe the best I can do is study and embrace the myriad efforts of love and honor to the most wondrous force in the universe and pray for the grace to be granted the knowledge that my worship is accepted.

Maundy Thursday - sent out into the darkness of the night with only the words of Jesus' plea for God's mercy - Psalm 22.